Porthmadog railway station serves the town of

Porthmadog Porthmadog (; ), originally Portmadoc until 1974 and locally as "Port", is a Welsh coastal town and community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd and the historic county of Caernarfonshire. It lies east of Criccieth, south-west of Blaenau Ffest ...

on the

Llŷn Peninsula The Llŷn Peninsula ( cy, Penrhyn Llŷn or , ) extends into the Irish Sea from North West Wales, south west of the Isle of Anglesey. It is part of the historic county of Caernarfonshire, and historic region and local authority area of Gwynedd. Mu ...

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...

, Wales. The station is on the Cambrian Coast Railway with passenger services to

Pwllheli Pwllheli () is a market town and community of the Llŷn Peninsula ( cy, Penrhyn Llŷn) in Gwynedd, north-western Wales. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011 of whom a large proportion, 81%, are Welsh language, Welsh speaking. Pwllheli is the pl ...

Harlech Harlech () is a seaside resort and community in Gwynedd, north Wales and formerly in the historic county of Merionethshire. It lies on Tremadog Bay in the Snowdonia National Park. Before 1966, it belonged to the Meirionydd District of the 197 ...

Barmouth Barmouth ( cy, Abermaw (formal); ''Y Bermo'' (colloquial)) is a seaside town and community (Wales), community in the county of Gwynedd, northwestern Wales, lying on the estuary of the Afon Mawddach and Cardigan Bay. Located in the Historic coun ...

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 popul ...

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 ...

and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

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 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 ...

as Portmadoc on 12 September 1867, and renamed Porthmadog on 5 May 1975. The

Festiniog Railway The Ffestiniog Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Ffestiniog) is a heritage railway based on narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park. The railway is roughly long an ...

Porthmadog Harbour railway station Porthmadog Harbour railway station (formerly known as ''Portmadoc'' Harbour railway station) in Porthmadog (formerly ''Portmadoc''), Gwynedd (formerly Merioneth), North Wales. It is the passenger terminus of two narrow gauge railways: the Ff ...

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. The

Welsh Highland Railway The Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) or Rheilffordd Eryri is a long, restored narrow gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, operating from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passing through a number of popular tourist destinations in ...

(WH) run a station known as

, which opened on 2 August 1980. Although located on High Street, is also (incorrectly) referred to as Tremadog Road. Additionally there were two interim stations either side of, what is now, the

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 leng ...

/ WH 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. In 2014, main line services were suspended due to structural problems with the

Pont Briwet Pont Briwet refers to the road and railway bridges that cross the River Dwyryd, near Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd in North Wales. The first bridge was a Victorian road and railway viaduct that was constructed entirely from timber by the Cambrian ...

viaduct near .

and

Gwynedd Council Cyngor Gwynedd ( en, Gwynedd Council) is the governing body for the county of Gwynedd, one of the principal areas of Wales. The council administrates internally using the Welsh language. History The county of Gwynedd was created in 1974 under ...

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.

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. 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 and (joining or splitting from a portion to/from ), but in the evening they start/terminate at .

References

Citations Sources * * * * *

External links

{{Gwynedd railway stations Railway stations in Gwynedd DfT Category F1 stations Former Cambrian Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1867 Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail Porthmadog

History

Services

References

Further reading

External links