Gilfach Fargoed railway station is a

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 village of

Gilfach Gilfach is the small district that lies between Bargoed and Pengam, situated in the Caerphilly county borough, seven miles north of Caerphilly, within the historic boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. The Bargoed ward had a population of 2,062 at th ...

, in

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; cy, Caerffili, ) is a town and community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley. It is north of Cardiff and northwest of Newport. It is the largest town in Caerphilly County Borough, and lies wi ...

county borough, south

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 a stop on the Rhymney Line of the Valley Lines network. The platforms are short () and can barely accommodate a

British Rail Class 153 The British Rail Class 153 '' Super Sprinters'' are single-coach railcars converted from two-coach Class 155 diesel multiple units in the early 1990s. The class was intended for service on rural branch lines, either where passenger numbers do n ...

train, due to its small size it is affectionately nicknamed "Gilfach International". Passengers can only alight from the front doors of any train calling here, so the conductor on longer trains must give passengers advance notice so that they have time to move towards the front set of doors.

History

Built as a halt by the Rhymney Railway in 1908 for recently introduced steam railmotors, some 50 years after the line first opened. Although very close, the halt did not serve the

Brecon and Merthyr Railway The Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway (B&MR) was a railway company in Wales. It was originally intended to link the towns in its name. Finding its access to Merthyr difficult at first, it acquired the Rumney Railway, an old plateway, an ...

which passed behind, on its way to Bargoed south Junction.

Services

Mondays to Saturdays there is an hourly service between Bargoed and Penarth. Sundays there is a two-hourly service between Rhymney and . Due to the platforms not being long enough to accommodate social distancing measures introduced because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the station was temporarily closed between 6 July 2020 and 21 August 2021.

References

External links

Video coverage and history of Gilfach Fargoed Station
Railway stations in Caerphilly County Borough DfT Category F2 stations Former Rhymney Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1908 Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail 1908 establishments in Wales {{Wales-railstation-stub