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

Porthmadog
General information
Location	Porthmadog, Gwynedd Wales
Coordinates	52.931°N 4.134°W / 52.931; -4.134
Grid reference	SH565391
Managed by	Transport for Wales
Platforms	2[1]
Other information
Station code	PTM
Classification	DfT category F1
History
Original company	Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway
Pre-grouping	Cambrian Railways
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Passengers
2016/17	72,120
2017/18	70,860
2018/19	73,056
2019/20	68,204
2020/21	9,506
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

Porthmadog has had a number of stations using this name, or the now-archaic anglicised form of Portmadoc. The present station was opened by the Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway as Portmadoc on 12 September 1867, and renamed Porthmadog on 5 May 1975.[2] The Festiniog Railway's Porthmadog Harbour railway station was originally only a shunting yard, but was upgraded to a full station on 6 January 1865. It was renamed to Portmadoc Old on 8 June 1923, and then to Portmadoc on 23 July 1955. It was renamed to Porthmadog on 10 March 1973.[2]

The Welsh Highland Railway (WH) run a station known as Porthmadog, which opened on 2 August 1980.[2] Although located on High Street, is also (incorrectly) referred to as Tremadog Road.[3]

Additionally there were two interim stations either side of, what is now, the Network Rail / WH Cae Pawb crossing. These were referred to as Portmadoc New, with the original Festionig Railway station becoming Portmadoc Old. The Festiniog Railway station opened on 8 June 1923 and closed on 16 September 1939, while the WH station opened in May 1929 and closed on 28 September 1936.[2]

In 2014, main line services were suspended due to structural problems with the Pont Briwet viaduct near Llandecwyn.[4] Network Rail and Gwynedd 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.[5][6]

Services

Until the line between Bangor and Afonwen closed in 1964 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 (as it was then known). There was also a summer service between London Paddington and Pwllheli, via Birmingham Snow Hill, Shrewsbury and Machynlleth.[7][8]

Trains currently call at Porthmadog roughly once every two hours Monday - Saturday, with a solitary train stopping in each direction on Sundays during the winter and two additional services each way in the summer (May - mid-September). During the daytime, trains run through to/from Shrewsbury and Birmingham International (joining or splitting from a portion to/from Aberystwyth), but in the evening they start/terminate at Machynlleth.[9]

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Criccieth		Transport for Wales Pwllheli - Machynlleth/Birmingham International		Minffordd
	Historical railways
Black Rock Halt Line open, station closed		Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway Cambrian Railways		Minffordd Line and station open
	Heritage railways
Connection with Porthmadog (WHHR) on the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway
Connection with Porthmadog Harbour on the Ffestiniog Railway and Welsh Highland Railway

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1995). Porthmadog to Blaenau. West Sussex: Middleton Press. figs. 2-11. ISBN 9781873793503. OCLC 877269886.

External links

Media related to Porthmadog railway station at Wikimedia Commons

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