Pwllheli railway station

Pwllheli
265px 158825 arrives at Pwllheli
Location
Place	Pwllheli
Local authority	Gwynedd
Coordinates
Grid reference	SH375350
Operations
Station code	PWL
Managed by	Arriva Trains Wales
Number of platforms	1
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2006/07	62,513
2007/08	60,465
2008/09	69,058
2009/10	71,756
2010/11	68,198
2011/12	62,590
2012/13	44,520
2013/14	30,652
History
Original company	Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway
Pre-grouping	Cambrian Railways
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
1869	Opened
1909	Moved to current site
1977	Signal boxes and 3 of 4 platforms closed
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Pwllheli from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Pwllheli railway station is a railway station serving the small coastal town of Pwllheli on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales. It is the terminus of the Cambrian Coast Railway.

History

The original station was built in 1869 by the Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway, one of the constituent companies of the Cambrian Railways.

Following land reclamation, the railway was extended west, closer to the town centre, and a new station was opened on the current site in 1909. This station had two platforms and a small loading dock, a layout which survived until rationalisation in 1977.[1]

A goods yard was developed on the site of the original station. The site also included a turntable which is now in the possession of the West Somerset Railway.

The Great Western Railway (GWR) doubled the line between Pwllheli station and the goods yard in order to increase capacity, but the signals were removed in 1977 and the double track section now forms a long run-round loop for visiting charter trains.

Prior to the closure of the Afon Wen to Caernarfon Line in 1964, there were two named express services daily during the summer between Pwllheli and London:

• The Cambrian Coast Express ran via Machynlleth, Shrewsbury and Birmingham to London (Paddington).
• The Welshman ran via Caernarfon and Crewe to London (Euston).

On 12 September 1977, both signal boxes at the station were closed. One side of the island platform was abandoned and the track was lifted shortly afterwards. The platform canopy, constructed by the GWR, survived intact until early in 1980, although the concourse remains covered today. By 1987 a supermarket had been developed on the redundant land.

Facilities

The station currently has one platform, a siding and a loop.

Services

Services are operated by Arriva Trains Wales and depart from Pwllheli for Machynlleth, Shrewsbury or Birmingham. Occasional charter services also terminate at the station.

Since November 2013, services from the station were suspended due to structural problems with the 1867 Grade II-listed wooden viaduct at Pont Briwet near Llandecwyn, which is due for replacement by a new structure in 2015. Network Rail had intended to build the new bridge alongside the current one whilst keeping the latter open, but work to drive steel piles into the riverbed to support the new viaduct has caused the old one to shift and made it unsafe. As a result, the train service north of Harlech had to be temporarily withdrawn whilst construction work continued and did not resume until the new bridge was ready. Meanwhile, a replacement bus service ran over the 22 mile (35 km) section to Harlech. The line eventually reopened on 1 September 2014 when construction work on the rail portion of the new bridge was completed.

External links

• Train times and station information for Pwllheli railway station from National Rail

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Abererch		Arriva Trains Wales Cambrian Coast Line		Terminus
	Historical railways
Abererch Line and station open		Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway Cambrian Railways		Terminus