Fishguard Harbour railway station

Updated on Jan 28, 2024

Edit

Comment

Place Fishguard Harbour Station code FGH Owned by Stena Line Owner Stena Line Local authority Pembrokeshire		Grid reference SM951389 Managed by Arriva Trains Wales DfT category E Number of platforms 1

Address Goodwick SA64 0BX, United Kingdom Similar Clarbeston Road railway st, Fishguard and Goodwick, Pembrey and Burry Port railw, Clunderwen railway station, Swansea railway station

Fishguard Harbour railway station serves the port of Fishguard Harbour, Wales. It is the terminus of one of the branches of the West Wales Line from Swansea. The area is also now served (since it reopened on 14 May 2012) by Fishguard & Goodwick railway station.

History

The station opened on 30 August 1906 when the Waterford and Cork ferry services were transferred from Neyland to Fishguard Harbour. Three years later, Fishguard Harbour was developed as a port of call for Atlantic liners, and on 30 August 1909 the first Cunard liner to call at Fishguard was the RMS Mauretania.

Facilities

A large area inside the station/port building, which contains seating and toilets, is open to rail passengers. However, there are no railway ticket machines and the station is staffed only by Stena Line personnel, no rail staff are employed there. This means there is no rail ticket office and passengers travelling from Fishguard by train must purchase their tickets in advance by post, at a different station, or onboard their train. The station has step-free access throughout and the station's owners, Stena Line, permit smoking on the platform. The station also has both long and short stay parking. The minimum connection time from Fishguard Harbour is seven minutes, and when bus replacement services are operating, the buses leave from the car park adjacent to the level crossing.

Current ownership

The station is unusual in that it is not owned by Network Rail but privately by Stena Line. Stena Line allows people to smoke on the platform because it is too dangerous to smoke at the only other possible place, where there is a level crossing over a busy road. The public smoking ban only applies to stations owned by Network Rail.

Rail services

Since the station is located in the harbour, its primary purpose has always been providing links with sea going transport. As such, there have always been daily services to and from Fishguard Harbour which coincide with the ferry services to Rosslare in Ireland.

1949

There were two night-time express trains that ran daily to and from London Paddington.

Eight trains operated Monday to Saturday to and from Clarbeston Road stopping at Wolf's Castle Halt, Welsh Hook Halt, Mathry Road, Jordanston Halt and Fishguard and Goodwick.

One of those trains were extended to and from Neyland.

April 1964 to May 2003

All the services serving the other stations on the branch were withdrawn on 6 April 1964, leaving the station served by boat trains only. This was during the Beeching Axe period.

Since that date the only scheduled passenger services have been the boat trains.

In recent years these have been one night service and one day service all year round, despite the summer-only fast ferry. At one stage the night service was formed of an InterCity 125 train running direct to/from London Paddington. The daytime service was the same, although perhaps for only part of the year. British Rail, and later First Great Western and its predecessor Great Western Trains all have operated HST services to Fishguard Harbour.

In 2000, the night service was still operated by First Great Western (using InterCity 125 trains) but the daytime train was operated by Wales & West, meaning there were no longer any daytime through services to Paddington.

Wales & West's services were transferred to Wales & Borders when Wales & West was split up.

May 2003 to September 2003

2003 saw the remaining First Great Western Fishguard services withdrawn, with the Wales & Borders franchise taking over. This meant there were no longer any through trains to or from London Paddington, but through services to and from a wide range of other stations appeared instead.

The night-time train started from London Waterloo every-day, connecting with Eurostar continental services, with the train arriving at 02.38 Tuesday to Saturday mornings, and 01.00 Sunday and Monday mornings. Because of this later arrival on Tuesday to Saturday, this arriving service ran empty to Carmarthen rather than form a return journey.

The night-time train went to Liverpool Lime Street on Monday to Saturdays and Bristol Temple Meads on Sundays, leaving each day at 01.50. On Tuesday to Saturdays, this was formed of empty stock run from Carmarthen, whereas on Sundays and Mondays, it was formed of the incoming train from Waterloo.

On Monday to Fridays, the day-time train started from Cardiff Central between 30 June and 5 September, not stopping Swansea and Carmarthen stations. Before and after these dates, the train started from Swansea and also called at Carmarthen.

On Saturdays, the daytime train went to and from Rhymney

On Sundays, the daytime train started at Newport, and went only as far as Carmarthen although it offered a 5- to 10-minute connection at Carmarthen for the London train.

From September 2003 to September 2011

Arriva Trains Wales took over from Wales & Borders in December 2003

A daytime train operated to and from Cardiff Central, arriving and leaving Fishguard Harbour between 1pm and 2pm, often starting from and/or terminating at stations beyond Cardiff, such as Birmingham New Street in 2003.

In 2010 and 2011 the service started from Cardiff and called only at Llanelli and Whitland en route to Fishguard Harbour, making it the only scheduled passenger service to use the Carmarthen avoider line. On the return, the train called at Carmarthen as well as Whitland and Llanelli before reaching Cardiff Central, the train then continued onwards to Cheltenham Spa.

These daytime services therefore avoided Swansea in both directions. This is normally achieved using the Swansea District Line, but occasionally the service was routed via the "Swansea Avoiding Line" around the back of Landore Train Maintenance Depot instead.

A daily train operated at night, arriving and leaving Fishguard Harbour between 1am and 2am.

The train operated to and from Swansea, but sometimes originated from stations beyond Swansea.

As maintenance of the railways is predominantly done at night, this train was frequently replaced by buses. This was normally known well in advance. When buses replace the trains, the bus usually arrived at Fishguard Harbour at around 02.05 and left after loading/unloading passengers, normally around 02.10.

Current service

All services are currently operated by Arriva Trains Wales. The level of service was greatly enhanced from 12 September 2011 when five extra services per day in each direction commenced running to and from Fishguard Harbour Mondays to Saturdays. The five extra services are as follows:

Outbound

Two trips to Clarbeston Road, with connections to stations further afield

One trip to Manchester Piccadilly

Two trips to Carmarthen

Inbound

One early-morning trip to Fishguard Harbour from Carmarthen (with no connection from further east)

Two arrivals from Cardiff Central

One of these detaches from a train to Pembroke Dock at Whitland

The other was later extended to start from Gloucester

Two trips from Clarbeston Road to Fishguard, one of which forms a connection out of a train from Manchester via Cardiff and Swansea (the other has no connection from further east)

These are provided on a trial basis until September 2014 and are in addition to the two daily 'boat-trains', one at lunch time and one in the dead of night, which provide the traditional ferry connections. The extra services are the first regular timetabled services to Fishguard Harbour that have not been provided solely for connection with ferries since local services were withdrawn in 1964. Since the additional services only run Monday to Saturday, only the two trains connecting with ferry services serve the station on a Sunday.

The decision to introduce additional trains has been credited to two teenagers from Moylegrove who collected a 1,440 signature petition in support of the move. A consultation was held in May/June 2011 on the planned services, but did not result in much adjustment to the times. The additional trains for Fishguard initiative has guaranteed funding until 2014, during which a review will be carried out to identify demand and passenger numbers and future funding. The extra services, with trains to and from Cardiff and Clarbeston Road, are not quite what was expected when the Welsh Assembly Government announced it would be funding up to £1.4m annually to provide extra services between Carmarthen and Fishguard.