Llandudno railway station

Llandudno
Station Entrance
Location
Place	Llandudno
Local authority	Conwy County Borough
Grid reference	SH783819
Operations
Station code	LLD
Managed by	Arriva Trains Wales
Number of platforms	3
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.235 million
2005/06	0.237 million
2006/07	0.239 million
2007/08	0.266 million
2008/09	0.267 million
2009/10	0.287 million
2010/11	0.198 million
2011/12	0.183 million
2012/13	0.154 million
2013/14	0.315 million
2014/15	0.312 million
History
Key dates	Opened October 1858
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Llandudno from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Llandudno railway station serves the town of Llandudno, Wales, and is the terminus of a branch line from Llandudno Junction on the Crewe to Holyhead North Wales Coast Line. The station is managed by Arriva Trains Wales, who operate all trains serving it.

Llandudno Victoria station, the lower terminus of the Great Orme Tramway, is some 15 minutes walk from the main station.

History

London Midland & Scottish Railway monogram

Llandudno railway station pictured in 1894

The first station and the branch line was constructed by the St. George's Harbour and Railway Company and opened on 1 October 1858.The trains at first ran to and from Conwy station until the completion of Llandudno Junction station. The line was soon absorbed by the London and North Western Railway, which in turn became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. Vaughan Street in Llandudno was also laid out in 1858 as the station approach road.

As the first station had become inadequate to cope with increasing usage, the present Llandudno station buildings and frontage together with five platforms and an extensive glass roof were erected in 1892 and the station still has the Victorian carriage road between the two principal platforms. Platforms 4 & 5 have been disused since 1978 and the tracks have now officially been declared out of use. The southernmost half of the glass roof was removed some decades ago, and the remainder was substantially cut back again in 1990. Half of the station frontage (including the former waiting and refreshment rooms) that had been disused for years was demolished in May 2009.

Facilities

Signal Box

In recent years, plans were unveiled for the transformation of the station into a Transport Interchange, which would involve the demolition of the disused part of the frontage and the introduction of new passenger facilities. Following the provision of funding, reconstruction is now underway (2013). The work includes a 130 space car park, a glazed concourse, a bus interchange, new taxi rank, and a shop/cafe. There are also a new entrance and improvements to the platforms.

Services

• Arriva Trains Wales provides an hourly service to Manchester Piccadilly via Colwyn Bay, Rhyl, Prestatyn, Flint, Chester and Warrington. Two daily services on this route (including the last train each evening) run to Crewe rather than Manchester and certain morning trains are extended through to Manchester Airport.^[1]
• Arriva Trains Wales also operates an hourly shuttle (with some afternoon gaps) to Llandudno Junction which connects with services to Bangor & Holyhead and for services to Birmingham New Street, London and South Wales. They also operate one weekday direct service from Llandudno to Cardiff Central via Wrexham General without any change being required at Llandudno Junction.
• ATW provides four trains per day along the Conwy Valley Line serving Llanrwst, Betws-y-Coed and Blaenau Ffestiniog.^[2]
• On summer Sundays (May to September in the current timetable) ATW operate a (roughly) half-hourly shuttle service to Llandudno Junction until early evening. In addition, two trains a day run down the Conwy Valley Line to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
• Virgin Trains (West Coast) used to run a direct afternoon service to London Euston, but this service was discontinued at the December 2008 timetable change - it instead now terminates at Chester.

Notes

1. GB National Rail timetable May 2016 Edition, Table 81
2. GB NRT 2016 Edition, Table 102

Further reading

• Allen, David (21 October – 3 November 1998). "Seaside signalling in North Wales". RAIL. No. 342. EMAP Apex Publications. pp. 40–42. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699.

External links

• Train times and station information for Llandudno railway station from National Rail
• Llandudno and North Wales Train Services 1947 and 2003
• Virgin Trains restore through London to Llandudno Service

Coordinates: 53°19′16″N 3°49′37″W / 53.321°N 3.827°W