Merthyr Tydfil railway station

Merthyr Tydfil
Welsh: Merthyr Tudful
Merthyr Tydfil railway station.
Location
Place	Merthyr Tydfil
Local authority	Merthyr Tydfil
Coordinates	51°44′40″N 3°22′38″W / 51.7444°N 3.3773°WCoordinates: 51°44′40″N 3°22′38″W / 51.7444°N 3.3773°W
Grid reference	SO050059
Operations
Station code	MER
Managed by	Arriva Trains Wales
Number of platforms	1
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.300 million
2005/06	0.294 million
2006/07	0.296 million
2007/08	0.302 million
2008/09	0.327 million
2009/10	0.381 million
2010/11	0.437 million
2011/12	0.452 million
2012/13	0.481 million
2013/14	0.547 million
2014/15	0.563 million
History
Key dates	Opened 2 November 1853
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Merthyr Tydfil from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Merthyr Tydfil railway station is a railway station serving the town of Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. It is the terminus of the Merthyr branch of the Merthyr Line. Passenger services are provided by Arriva Trains Wales. The station has one platform, and is situated near to the Tesco Superstore in the town.

The station has a small car park, ticket office, passenger display panels and a taxi rank. Passengers wishing to use buses to other destinations have to walk through the town to the main bus station.

Since the Spring 2009 Timetable change on Monday 18 May, trains are able to arrive/depart from the station every half hour after the commissioning of a passing loop near Merthyr Vale.^[1]

History

Merthyr Tydfil station in January 1968 before its first relocation

The first station in Merthyr was opened by the Taff Vale Railway on 21 April 1841 in Plymouth Street. This was the second stage of the building of the main line from Navigation House (later Abercynon). The station was closed on 1 August 1877 when all Taff Vale passenger traffic was diverted to the Great Western Railway station at Merthyr High Street.

In 1853, Merthyr High Street railway station opened as the terminus of the Vale of Neath Railway on the site. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the two platform station encompassed 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad gauge lines, and was enclosed by an overall roof. The Vale of Neath also encompassed the Swansea and Neath Railway, enabling trains to run to Swansea docks, and after amalgamation with the Great Western Railway on 1 February 1865, also ran through trains to London Paddington.

Although other railways which ran into Merthyr had their own stations, after a third rail was added to the whole of the Vale of Neath system in 1863, the mixed gauge allowed them all to consolidate their services at Merthyr High Street:

• Great Western Railway: trains from Hereford through to Swansea over a connection at Middle Duffryn
• Taff Vale: to Cardiff (transferred from their own Plymouth Street terminus in 1877)
• Brecon & Merthyr: onwards to Brecon
• Rhymney Railway
• London & North Western: to the Midlands (via Brynmawr & Abergavenny) and Swansea
• Cambrian Railways: Cardiff/Treherbert service to Aberystwyth via the Brecon & Merthyr route^[2]

The station in 1986.

After the whole of the Great Western system was converted to standard gauge on 11 May 1872, a thin central platform was later added to the station, adding two additional platforms.

After the end of steam trains, and the closure of all but the Taff Vale lines into the station between 1951 & 1964, the passenger facilities were rebuilt by British Rail on the southwest corner of the original site in 1974 as a single island providing two platforms. A further rebuild in 1996 saw it reduced to its present single platform configuration, with a Tesco superstore and other retail outlets now occupying the rest of the old station site.^[3][4]

Services

As mentioned above, the station now has a half-hourly service to and from Cardiff Central on weekdays and Saturdays. Trains continue onwards to Barry and then alternately to either Barry Island or Bridgend via the Vale of Glamorgan Line.^[5] On Sundays there is a two-hourly service from Barry Island and to Bridgend via the Vale of Glamorgan Line.

References

1. Wales Online news article
2. Hodge, John (2014). Six Railways to Merthyr. Welsh Railways Research Circle. pp. 80–83. ISBN 978-09527267-7-7.
3. Barrie, D.S.M. (1980). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, vol. 12: South Wales. David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7970-4.
4. Hutton, John (2006). The Taff Vale Railway, vol. 1. Silver Link. ISBN 978-1-85794-249-1.
5. GB eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 130 (Network Rail)

External links

• Train times and station information for Merthyr Tydfil railway station from National Rail
• Railways of Merthyr Tydfil - Merthyr Tydfil Central Station. Photos of the station over the years