Llandovery railway station serves the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

of Llandovery, Carmarthenshire,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. The station is on the Heart of Wales Line north east of

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the C ...

and is located at Tywi Avenue. All trains serving the station are operated by

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; cy, Trafnidiaeth Cymru; cy, TrC, label=none) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) cons ...

, who also manage it.

History

It was opened by the independent Vale of Towy Railway company in 1858 as the terminus of a branch from Llandeilo, although the VoTR was soon leased by the Llanelly Railway (which had built the route northwards from

Llanelli Llanelli ("St Elli's Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carma ...

in stages between 1833 and 1852.) The Llanelly company in turn soon became part of the GWR. The LNWR's Central Wales Extension Railway arrived from the north a decade later to complete the through route between Craven Arms and

, with the LNWR and GWR taking joint control of the Llandovery to Llandeilo section. The station sits at the bottom of an descent from the line's southern summit at tunnel and until August 1964, a locomotive shed was in operation here to house the engines used for assisting northbound trains (the ruling gradient on this section being 1 in 60). There is a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

and

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...

(of the

A40 road A4 most often refers to: *A4 paper, a paper size defined by the ISO 216 standard, measuring 210 × 297 mm A4 and variants may also refer to: Science and mathematics * British NVC community A4 (''Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Stratiotes aloide ...

) at the station, but the

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...

that formerly operated them was closed in 1986. The

token Token may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Token, a game piece or counter, used in some games * The Tokens, a vocal music group * Tolkien Black, a recurring character on the animated television series ''South Park,'' formerly known a ...

instruments for the single line and crossing barriers are both operated by the train crew under the supervision of the signaller at

Pantyffynnon Pantyffynnon is a small village in Carmarthenshire, Wales, half a mile south-west of Ammanford, and a mile east of Tycroes. It lies between the rivers Loughor and Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌� ...

. The loop had been temporarily decommissioned between 2008 & 2010, but is in use again after the automatic point machines were renewed in June 2010. Refurbished station buildings were opened by

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...

in June 2011, some 19 years after they were closed.

Facilities

The station is unstaffed and has no ticket machine, so all tickets need to be purchased prior to travel or on board the train. There are shelters, CIS screens and customer help points on each platform, whilst a local volunteer group runs a cafe and gallery in the main station building. Step-free access is provided to both platforms.

Services

There are five trains a day northbound to

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

from Monday to Saturday and seven southbound to (two trains start/terminate here, the first of which doesn't run on Saturdays); two services each way call on Sundays. The extra departures were introduced at the winter 2022 timetable change.

Notes

References

*Body, G. (1983), ''PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Western Region'', Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough,

External links