Machynlleth railway station is on the

Cambrian Line The Cambrian Line (), sometimes split into the Cambrian Main Line () and Cambrian Coast Line () for its branches, is a railway line that runs from Shrewsbury in England, westwards to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli in Wales. Passenger train services ...

in mid-

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, serving the town of

Machynlleth Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a po ...

. It was built by the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway (N&MR) and subsequently passed into the ownership of the

Cambrian Railways The Cambrian Railways owned of Railway track, track over a large area of mid Wales. The system was an amalgamation of a number of railways that were incorporated in 1864, 1865 and 1904. The Cambrian connected with two larger railways with c ...

, the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

Western Region of British Railways The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex-Great We ...

and

London Midland Region of British Railways The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irela ...

. It is notable in that there are separating this station and

Caersws Caersws (; ) is a village and community (Wales), community on the River Severn, in the Wales, Welsh county of Powys; it was formerly in Montgomeryshire. It is located west of Newtown, Powys, Newtown, halfway between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury. ...

, the longest distance between two intermediate stations in Wales. The

Corris Railway The Corris Railway () is a narrow gauge railway based in Corris on the border between Merionethshire (now Gwynedd) and Montgomeryshire (now Powys) in Mid-Wales. The line opened in 1859 as a horse tramway, running from quays on the River Dyfi ...

maintained their own Machynlleth station adjacent to the mainline one, with connecting passengers services until 1931 and slate transfer facilities until 1948.

History

The lower yard of the station contained a number of sidings that served transshipment wharves connected to the

. The first wharf was built in 1863 and leased by the

Aberllefenni Aberllefenni is a village in the south of Gwynedd, Wales. It lies in the historic county of Merionethshire, in the valley of the Afon Dulas, and in the community of Corris. History Aberllefenni was built around the Aberllefenni quarries, wh ...

and Ratgoed quarries. The rest of the quarries connected to the Corris Railway leased wharf space there over the next 15 years. The existing main line station dates from the opening of the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway in 1863. The following year, the

Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway The Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway was a standard gauge railway company, running a line along the west coast of Wales. The railway was planned to run between Anglicised place name spellings were used during most of the history of the line ...

opened the line as far as , via ; in 1867, the line was extended from to , via (then ''Portmadoc''). In 1868, the station and lines were absorbed into the

. The Cambrian Railways were absorbed by the

on 1 January 1922, as a result of the

Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 5. c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an act of Parliament enacted by the British government, and was intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grou ...

, and became part of

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways in 1948. In 2016, a new footbridge was completed with a lift at both ends to improve disabled access between the platforms . The previous bridge was donated to

Cambrian Heritage Railways The Cambrian Heritage Railways is a heritage railway company, trust and society based at both Llynclys and Oswestry in its restored Oswestry railway station, Shropshire, England. Formed after the 2009 merger of the Cambrian Railways Society ...

Motive power depot

The railway built a small engine shed at the station in 1863. This was later expanded by Cambrian Railways, but the extensions were demolished after 1966, when the depot ceased to be used for servicing steam locomotives. Only the original building now survives.

Current operations

Machynlleth is the location where the majority of eastbound or 'up' trains from and combine to go forward as one towards and . Similarly, most trains in the opposite direction divide here before continuing west. The service in each direction is approximately two hourly, although trains to Pwllheli are far less frequent on Sundays. The infrastructure along the line was upgraded during 2010/11, with the intention of allowing hourly trains to and from Aberystwyth. In the 2015-16 timetable, some additional Shrewsbury - Aberystwyth services operate to give an hourly interval frequency during the morning and evening peak periods. Cambrian Line signalling has been centrally controlled from Machynlleth since the 1980s conversion of the route from traditional signalling to a radio-controlled '

RETB Radio Electronic Token Block is a system of railway signalling used in the United Kingdom. It is a development of the physical token system for controlling traffic on single lines. The system is slightly similar to North American direct traffic ...

' system. On 26 March 2011, the new

European Rail Traffic Management System The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is the system of standards for management and interoperation of signalling for railways by the European Union (EU). It is conducted by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and is the o ...

signalling system went into operational use across the Cambrian Line controlled from Machynlleth. Two days of driver familiarisation followed, with passenger operation commencing on the morning of 28 March 2011. A new control centre has been built on the down side opposite the earlier

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

which has since been demolished. A past train operator,

Arriva Trains Wales Arriva Trains Wales (ATW; ) was a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains that operated the Wales & Borders franchise. It ran urban and inter-urban passenger services to all railway stations in Wales, including , , , , and , ...

, has also developed Machynlleth into the main

depot Depot may refer to: Places * Depot, Poland, a village * Depot Glacier (disambiguation) * Depot Island (disambiguation) * Depot Nunatak * Depot Peak Brands and enterprises * Maxwell Street Depot, a restaurant in Chicago, United States * Of ...

for its fleet of

Class 158 The British Rail Class 158 '' Express Sprinter'' is a diesel multiple unit (DMU) passenger train. It is a member of the Sprinter series of regional trains, produced as a replacement for British Rail's first generation of DMUs; of the other m ...

trains which provide all passenger services on the Cambrian Lines. Replacing the previous Victorian-era depot and yard, Arriva's depot opened in 2007 and prominently features environmentally friendly technologies such as

rainwater harvesting Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is the collection and storage of rain, rather than allowing it to run off. Rainwater is collected from a roof-like surface and redirected to a Rainwater tank, tank, cistern, deep pit (well, shaft, or borehole), Aquifer s ...

and a

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

. In 2011, The

Bluebell Railway The Bluebell Railway is an heritage line in West Sussex in England. It is managed by the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society. It uses steam trains which operate between and , with intermediate stations at and . It is the first preserv ...

discovered a well-worn totem sign from Machynlleth during the excavating of Imberhorne Cutting as part of the northern extension to

East Grinstead East Grinstead () is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the northeast corner of the county, bord ...

, which was used as a landfill site by the local council in the late 1960s. The extension was opened on 23 March 2013. The sign is now displayed in their new museum.

Facilities

The station has a staffed ticket office in the main building on platform 2. This is open throughout the daytime, however when closed tickets must be bought on the train as no ticket machine is provided. Waiting room in the main building on platform 2 and waiting room and shelter on platform 1.Public toilets. Train running information is provided by customer help points, CIS displays, automated announcements and timetable posters. Step free access is provided to both platforms by means of a footbridge with a lift at both ends. The previous ramp up to platform 1 from street level having closed with the foundations of the new bridge being built across it.

References

External links

*
Corris Railway

Video and history of Machynlleth Station
{{Transport in Powys Railway stations in Powys DfT Category E stations Former Cambrian Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1863 Corris Railway Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail

Railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...