Whitland railway station

Whitland
Welsh: Hendy-gwyn ar Daf
The station as seen from platform one
Location
Place	Whitland
Local authority	Carmarthenshire
Coordinates	51°49′05″N 4°36′50″W / 51.818°N 4.614°WCoordinates: 51°49′05″N 4°36′50″W / 51.818°N 4.614°W
Grid reference	SN198165
Operations
Station code	WTL
Managed by	Arriva Trains Wales
Number of platforms	3
DfT category	F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	38,165
2005/06	39,034
2006/07	43,372
2007/08	48,234
2008/09	50,994
2009/10	51,730
2010/11	52,262
2011/12	53,880
2012/13	55,932
2013/14	54,330
2014/15	54,570
History
Original company	South Wales Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
2 January 1854	SWR station opened
4 September 1866	P&T station opened
August 1869	P&T station 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 Whitland from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Whitland railway station serves the town of Whitland in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is located on the main route of the West Wales Line from Swansea. To the west of the station, a branch line diverges to Pembroke with the main line continuing to Milford Haven and Fishguard. Formerly, the Whitland and Cardigan Railway (closed in 1962) diverged from the Fishguard/Milford Haven line two miles west of Whitland.

Passenger services are operated by Arriva Trains Wales, using a mixture of Diesel Multiple Unit classes (predominantly Class 175, Class 150 and Class 153) and Great Western Railway who run services using Inter City 125 trains on summer Saturdays from London to Pembroke Dock.

History

The station was opened by the South Wales Railway on 2 January 1854^[1] on their route from Cardiff to Haverfordwest, which was extended to Neyland two years later. A branch line to Milford Haven followed in 1863, whilst the Pembroke & Tenby Railway (P&T) arrived from the southwest in 1866 - their route was however built as standard gauge rather than the SWR's broad gauge and so initially the P&T had to terminate at its own station next to the main line one, which by now was owned by the Great Western Railway. The separate P&T station was opened on 4 September 1866, and closed in August 1869.^[1] A single line was converted to dual gauge in 1868 to allow P&T trains to reach Carmarthen, but it wasn't until 1872 that full through running between the two routes was possible with the conversion of the main line to standard gauge. The network in the area was completed when the Cardigan branch was opened in stages between 1873 & 1886.

From 1957 the station was rebuilt. On the up side it had a ticket hall, waiting room with refreshments, ladies waiting room, toilets, stationmaster's office, district inspector's office, parcels office, central heating, and a 320 ft (98 m) steel and aluminium platform canopy. On the down side it had a 270 ft (82 m) canopy, refreshment room and toilets.^[2]

Services

The station has an approximately hourly service (including Sundays) to and from Carmarthen and Swansea eastbound and every two hours westbound to each of Milford Haven and Pembroke Dock. Certain eastbound services continue onwards to Cardiff Central, Hereford and Manchester Piccadilly.^[3]

Whitland station in August 1971 with a train for Carmarthen

The services between Fishguard Harbour and Carmarthen (and stations further afield) also call (4 trains per day Mon-Sat, with 1 on Sundays, plus a 7-days-a-week night time service). Summer Saturday HST services between London Paddington and Pembroke Dock also serve Whitland.

Rail & sea corridor to Ireland

Arriva Trains Wales boat trains to and from Fishguard Harbour serve the station. These connect with the Stena Line ferry to Rosslare Europort in Ireland with a daily morning and evening service in both directions. This route has been in existence since 1906.

Facilities

Despite being a once-major junction, the facilities at Whitland station are very poor. There are no toilets, nor a waiting room for passengers awaiting a service along the other line to use to take shelter from the wind. The main building, located on the eastbound platform, once contained a waiting room and ticket office, but is now boarded up. Most of this platform is covered by a canopy, and west of the building rusting rails remain in one of the former bay platforms. Across the footbridge, scant waiting shelters are provided on the westbound platform. There is in fact a servicable bay platform behind this, accessed from the Pembroke Dock branch, but this is seldom used for passenger trains as services from the branch do not normally terminate at Whitland.

References

1. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 249. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
2. Railway Magazine December 1957 p. 883
3. GB eNRT 2015-6 Edition, Table 128

A map from 1952 of the area around Whitland railway station showing the junction between the three lines

External links

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