Carmarthen railway station

Carmarthen railway station is on the West Wales Line serving the town of Carmarthen, Wales, south of the River Towy, from the zero point at London Paddington, measured via Stroud. The station is operated by Transport for Wales. Great Western Railway also run a limited service between Carmarthen and London Paddington, usually six trains each way daily with an additional return service to Bristol Parkway. The present station is the third to serve the town and dates from 1902, although the South Wales Railway's main line from Swansea to Neyland reached Carmarthen some fifty years earlier. This original station had been built with westward expansion in mind and was situated at the base of the triangular junction, half a mile south of the present station and poorly sited for the town. A second station (Carmarthen Town) was opened by the Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway in 1860 on its route northwards towards Cynwyl Elfed and Pencader which was much better sited for the town (on the opposite side of the river) and this remained in use until its replacement by the current station shortly after the turn of the century. The Town station did however remain in use for goods traffic thereafter beyond the closure of the final portion of the line Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway in September 1973, until the goods yard closed around 1981 - the single track girder bridge over the River Tywi was subsequently removed during 1983. The Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway, in spite of its name, never actually reached Cardigan, as it was constructed only as far as Newcastle Emlyn (which was reached only in 1895). Cardigan was eventually served instead by the winding Whitland and Cardigan Branch Line from Whitland, the primary junction in Pembrokeshire. The C&CR did however link up with the ill-fated Manchester and Milford Railway at Pencader, putting the town on a through route to Aberystwyth by 1867. Another outlet to the north was the Llanelly Railway's branch from Llandeilo, which reached Abergwili Junction in 1864 and whose trains reached the Town station by means of running powers following its takeover by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) in 1873.