Menai Bridge railway station

Menai Bridge railway station was situated 2 miles (3.6 kilometres) west of Bangor, Gwynedd in Wales. Opened on 1 October 1858^[1] it was a replacement for the earlier Britannia Bridge station,^[2] named after the bridge of the same name which crosses the nearby Menai Strait a couple of hundred metres to the north.

The station was opened by the Chester and Holyhead Railway Company at the point where the main Chestor to Holyhead line met the Bangor and Carnarvon Railway. There were four platforms, two for each line and two which formed an Island platform. The main station building was a large brick built one whilst there was a brick waiting shelter on the island platform.^[3]

The station closed to passenger services on 14 February 1966.^[4] In 1966 the Caernarfon line was switched to single track. On 4 August 1969 it closed to goods services. On 5 January 1970 the line also closed to passenger services. It was brought back into use for container traffic after 23 May 1970 Britannia Bridge fire. The bridge was repaired and re-opened on 30 January 1972.^[5] After that date the Caernarfon line closed for good and was lifted. The North Wales Coast Line runs through the site of the station (and becomes single track there) but no visible remains of it can be seen.

References

1. Treborth Botanic Gardens documents, mentioning the station opening on page 15
2. disused-stations.org.uk page on Britannia Bridge station
3. disused-stations.org.uk page on the station
4. Reference to station closure on a file describing the route from Bangor to Holyhead
5. BBC Blog to mark the 40th anniversary of the fire

Coordinates: 53°13′04″N 4°09′47″W / 53.217681°N 4.162971°W