William Dalrymple (historian)

Welshpool Welsh: Y Trallwng
General information
Location	Welshpool, Powys Wales
Coordinates	52°39′27″N 3°08′24″W / 52.657469°N 3.139947°W / 52.657469; -3.139947
Grid reference	SJ229072
Managed by	Transport for Wales
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	WLP
Classification	DfT category F1
Key dates
14 August 1860	opened
18 May 1992[1]	Original station closed and new station opened on track realignment.
Passengers
2019/20	165,724
2020/21	33,782
2021/22	98,128
2022/23	140,554
2023/24	155,906
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Welshpool railway station serves the town of Welshpool (Welsh: Y Trallwng), in Powys, mid-Wales. It is a stop on the Cambrian Line between Shrewsbury and Machynlleth. The station was first opened in August 1860, but was resited a short distance away in May 1992 to allow for track realignment on the same day that the original closed.

Built by the Oswestry & Newtown Railway, the original station opened on 14 August 1860. The line was initially operated by the London & North Western Railway before being absorbed by the Cambrian Railways, which became part of the Great Western Railway at the grouping that came into effect on 1 January 1923.^[1]

Midland Counties Dairy bought and operated the creamery at Cilcewydd. A siding from the station gave access for milk trains to the creamery.

About 100 metres north of the station were exchange sidings with the narrow gauge Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway, which opened for freight traffic in 1903. They closed in 1956, with a separate station serving passenger traffic until 1931. By 2017, the only remains are part of the cattle dock which has mixed gauge track embedded into concrete track bed.

The station building is extant and has been converted into a shop and café; all other remains of this station and the site of the railway were obliterated by the construction of the new A483 road.^[1]

There was some severe rationalisation of services under the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, with the old Cambrian main line to Whitchurch via Oswestry closed to passengers in January 1965; most local stations towards Aberystwyth following suit later that year. Two of the four platforms at the old station were later taken out of use.^[1] Subsequent development of the A483 road Welshpool bypass, which opened in July 1993,^[2] required the railway line to be shifted to the south. To enable this, the original station was closed and a new single island platform was constructed by British Rail north of it, to allow realignment in May 1992.

The replacement station platform is reached by a pedestrian bridge crossing both the railway and the A483, with long uncovered inclines to the north and stepped access from the south. The original station building can still be seen across the road.

There are no facilities beyond a ticket vending machine, small shelter, bench seating, passenger information displays and a customer help point; though the National Rail Enquiries station page does have directions to a local travel agent with National Rail ticketing facilities.^[3]

The passing loop was later extended southwards to 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to allow for an hourly train service and to reduce the impact of delays on the line.

Transport for Wales operates trains westwards to Machynlleth, which then split to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli; eastbound services travel to Shrewsbury and Birmingham International.

There is a basic two-hourly service each way on weekdays and Saturdays, with additional hourly Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth services at peak times. On Sundays, there is a two-hourly service on the Shrewsbury - Aberystwyth axis, but only a limited service along the coast to/from Pwllheli (three per day in summer and one in winter).^[4]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Newtown		Transport for Wales Cambrian Line		Shrewsbury
	Historical railways
Forden Line open, station closed		Cambrian Railways Oswestry & Newtown Railway		Buttington Line open, station closed
Terminus		GWR and LNWR joint Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway
	Heritage railways
Walking connection with Welshpool Raven Square on the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2008). Shrewsbury to Newtown. Middleton Press. pp. 64–77. ISBN 9781906008291. OCLC 228374968.

Media related to Welshpool railway station at Wikimedia Commons

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