railway station is the

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

serving the town of

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 ...

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

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 ...

. It is located on the West Wales line and the

Heart of Wales line The Heart of Wales line ( cy, Llinell Calon Cymru) is a railway line running from Craven Arms in Shropshire to Llanelli in southwest Wales. It serves a number of rural centres, including the nineteenth-century spa towns Llandrindod Wells, Lla ...

west of by rail. The station and the majority of trains calling 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 ...

. It is located between two

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 ...

s (known as East and West) that were previously upgraded in the 1970s. In 2015,

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's len ...

carried out a further upgrade which saw the control of these level crossings pass from the Grade-II listed West

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' ...

(which worked the two crossings here only since 1973) to Port Talbot Panel

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' ...

using CCTV.

History

railway station was the scene for the

Llanelli Riots of 1911 The Llanelli riots of 1911 were a series of events precipitated by the National Railway Strike of 1911. Mass picketing action at Llanelli railway station was brutally suppressed by the police, resulting in the deaths of two men, shot dead by tr ...

. The Llanelli Riots took place on 19 August 1911. Their immediate cause was the very first railway strike which lasted only two days. The strike started on Thursday evening, and by Saturday evening two young men had been shot dead by the military. One man was killed when a railway truck exploded and, on the following day, three more people died from their injuries. The story of the Riots is set in a period of great industrial unrest, and involves prominent figures on the international scene such as

Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

, and Kaiser Wilhelm of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

Facilities

The station is staffed, with the ticket office on platform 2. A self-service ticket machine is provided for use when the booking office is closed and for collecting advance purchase/pre-paid tickets. The main buildings on this platform also house a newsagents shop, toilets, help point and post box. Platform 1 has canopies, bench seating and a customer help point. Digital CIS displays, timetable posters and automated announcements provide train running information. The platforms are linked by a footbridge with steps, but level access is possible to both platforms using the east level crossing and nearby road.

Services

operate an approximately hourly service in each direction along the West Wales Line, from and via to

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...

, with two-hourly extensions to . There is a separate (roughly two-hourly service) between Swansea and via that calls, along with the twice-daily service to and from that runs to connect with the ferry to/from Rosslare. The daily

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

service between Carmarthen and

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great We ...

also calls here (three each way on Sundays). Great Western Railway also operates a summer Saturday service between London and Pembroke Dock. There are four trains a day in each direction on the

to , plus a fifth morning peak train (Mon-Fri only) to/from . Two trains each way operate on the line on Sundays. As the line from Swansea also enters from the east, these trains must reverse direction here (in platform 2, which is signalled accordingly) to continue their journeys.GB eNRT, Table 129

Rail and sea corridor to Ireland

Transport for Wales'

boat train A boat train is a passenger train operating to a port for the specific purpose of making connection with a passenger ship, such as a ferry, ocean liner, or cruise ship. Through ticketing is normally available. __NOTOC__ Notable named boat tr ...

s to and from serve the station. These connect with the

Stena Line Stena Line is a Swedish shipping line company and one of the largest ferry operators in the world. It services Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden. Stena Line is a major u ...

ferry to

Rosslare Europort Rosslare Europort ( ga, Europort Ros Láir) is a modern seaport located at Rosslare Harbour in County Wexford, Ireland, near the southeasternmost point of the island of Ireland. The port is the premier Irish port serving the European Contin ...

in Ireland with a daily morning and evening service in both directions. Two other services to and from there also call since the branch service was improved in 2011. This route has been in existence since 1906.

References

External links

{{Transport in Carmarthenshire Railway stations in Llanelli DfT Category E stations Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1852 Heart of Wales Line Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail 1852 establishments in Wales