Place Whitland Station code WTL DfT category F1 Number of platforms 3 Original company South Wales Railway | Grid reference SN198165 Managed by Arriva Trains Wales 2011/12 53,880 | |
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Address Whitland SA34 0AP, United Kingdom Similar Clunderwen railway station, Kilgetty railway station, Tenby railway station, Saundersfoot railway station, Lamphey railway station | ||
Whitland railway station
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.
Contents
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 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. 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.
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.
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 and 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.