Porthmadog railway station

This article describes a main line railway station. For the narrow gauge station, see Porthmadog Harbour railway station.

Porthmadog
265px An Arriva Trains Wales train to Birmingham International arrives, 2009.
Location
Place	Porthmadog
Local authority	Gwynedd
Coordinates
Grid reference	SH565391
Operations
Station code	PTM
Managed by	Arriva Trains Wales
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	44,630
2005/06	39,568
2006/07	53,752
2007/08	58,290
2008/09	68,518
2009/10	73,976
2010/11	75,690
2011/12	80,912
2012/13	76,428
2013/14	53,040
History
Original company	Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway
Pre-grouping	Cambrian Railways
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Porthmadog from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Porthmadog railway station serves the town of Porthmadog on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales. This railway station is on the Cambrian Coast Railway with passenger services to Pwllheli, Harlech, Barmouth, Machynlleth, Shrewsbury and Birmingham.

Disambiguation

Considering the size of the town, Porthmadog has, and has had, a number of stations, all containing either "Porthmadog", or the earlier original "Portmadoc" in their name.

• 1) This station, opened by the Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway when built in 1867.
• 2) The Festiniog Railway's Porthmadog Harbour railway station, originally only a shunting yard, but from 1865, offices and station.
• 3) The Welsh Highland Railway Ltd's Porthmadog (WHHR), which although located on High Street, is also known as Tremadog Road. From the 2011 season, there is an additional platform here, accommodating the 7¼" miniature railway.

Additionally there were two interim stations either side of, what is now, the Network Rail / Welsh Highland Railway Cae Pawb crossing. These were referred to as:

• 4) Portmadoc (New) (1923) to the south of the crossing.
• 5) Portmadoc (New) (1929) to the north of the crossing.

with station (2) taking the title Portmadoc Old during the period these existed.

Services

Until the line between Bangor and Afonwen was closed during the 1960s there was a through service in the summer to and from London Euston via Crewe, Chester, Llandudno Junction and Caernarvon; the Pwllheli portion was detached at Afonwen and the forward coaches proceeded to Portmadoc (the spellings are those used at the time). There was also a summer service between London Paddington and Pwllheli, via Birmingham Snow Hill, Shrewsbury and Machynlleth. Nowadays trains call at Porthmadog roughly once every 2 hours Monday - Saturday with there being a solitary train stopping in each direction on Sundays.

From November 2013 until September 2014, main line services were suspended due to structural problems with the Pont Briwet viaduct near Llandecwyn. Network Rail and Gwynedd County Council were carrying out work to build a £20 million replacement for the current bridge a few metres downstream, but in doing so had caused the old one to sink and thus made it unsafe for both rail & road traffic. A replacement bus service operated during the railway's closure.

External links

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

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Minffordd		Arriva Trains Wales Cambrian Coast Line		Criccieth
	Historical railways
Minffordd Line and station open		Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway Cambrian Railways		Black Rock Halt Line open; station closed
	Heritage railways
Connection with Porthmadog (WHHR) on the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway
Connection with Porthmadog Harbour on the Ffestiniog Railway and Welsh Highland Railway