Ammanford railway station

For the former Great Western Railway station in the same town, see Ammanford railway station (GWR).

Ammanford railway station in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, Wales, is 12 miles (19 km) north of Swansea on the Heart of Wales Line. The station opened in 1841 as a temporary terminus of the Llanelly Railway's line to Llandeilo, making it one of the country's earlier railway stations.

Ammanford Welsh: Rhydaman
General information
Location	Ammanford, Carmarthenshire Wales
Coordinates	51.7951°N 3.9959°W / 51.7951; -3.9959
Grid reference	SN623126
Managed by	Transport for Wales
Platforms	1
Other information
Station code	AMF
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Original company	Llanelly Railway
Pre-grouping	London and North Western Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
6 May 1841	Opened as Duffryn
1 July 1889	Renamed Tirydail
September 1960	Renamed Ammanford and Tirydail
6 September 1965	Renamed Ammanford and Tirydail Halt
5 May 1969	Renamed Ammanford and Tirydail
7 May 1973	Renamed Ammanford
Passengers
2019/20	18,016
2020/21	556
2021/22	7,348
2022/23	11,010
2023/24	16,062
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Originally called Duffryn,^[1] and then Tirydail, the station underwent a number of name changes before being renamed Ammanford and Tirydail in 1960 following the closure in 1958 of Ammanford station on the Amman Valley branch railway. In 1973, it became Ammanford.

The station stands at street level about 800 m (870 yd) northwest of Ammanford town centre on Station Road. At some point between 1891 and 1906 the passenger platform was moved from the north to the south side of the level crossing.^[2] As with most of the stations on the Heart of Wales Line, the original station buildings and signal box have been demolished and now the only structures are a platform and shelter.

History

From the crossing, 1994

Opened by the Llanelly Railway on 6 May 1841, the station was taken over jointly by the Great Western Railway and London and North Western Railway in 1873. It became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway as a result of the Grouping of 1923. The station then passed, upon nationalisation of the railways in 1948, to the Western Region of British Railways. Under British Rail sectorisation from the 1980s until railway privatisation, Ammanford station was served by Regional Railways.

The station also had a passing loop until 1966, but this was removed when the line's signalling was simplified and many of the intermediate signal boxes (and some stations) closed when the Heart of Wales line was rationalised.

Facilities

Amenities at the station are basic (despite it being one of the largest towns served on the route), with no ticket provision of any kind (these must be bought on the train or prior to travel). As well as the aforementioned shelter and a bicycle rack, there is a customer help point at the station entrance and a digital CIS display to provide real-time train running information.^[3]

Services

All trains serving the station are operated by Transport for Wales. There are five trains a day to Shrewsbury northbound from Monday to Saturday (plus two more to Llandovery) and seven southbound to Llanelli and Swansea (the first train in each direction does not run on Saturdays); two services each way call on Sundays.^[4] Northbound trains must stop here in order for the train crew to activate the controls for the half-barrier level crossing,^[5] but for southbound trains it is a request stop.^[4]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Pantyffynnon		Transport for Wales Heart of Wales Line		Llandybie
	Historical railways
Parcyrhun Halt		London and North Western Railway Shrewsbury to Llanelli Line		Llandybie

References

1. Railway Stations Pantyffynnon to Llandeilo on the Town of Ammanford website
2. Old Maps Archived 30 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
3. Ammanford station facilities National Rail Enquiries
4. GB eNRT December 2022 Edition, Table 130 (Network Rail)
5. Ammanford railway station (2014) Thompson, Nigel Geograph.org.uk; Retrieved 24 July 2017

External links

• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
• Station on navigable O.S. map. Station due north of Pantyffynnon.