History
The first section of the South Wales Railway, that between Chepstow and Swansea, which included the station originally named Port Talbot, opened either on 18 June 1850, or on 19 June 1950. The station was renamed several times: to Port Talbot and Aberavon on 5 June 1897; to Port Talbot General on 1 July 1924 (the suffix distinguishing it from other stations in Port Talbot), later reverting to the original Port Talbot in April 1947, finally becoming Port Talbot Parkway on 3 December 1984.
While it now bears the title Parkway, it is not a Parkway station per se. It was named Parkway in the 1980s when the old goods shed and yard were converted to a large car park, with freight handling moved to Margam Knuckle Yard, to encourage patronage of eastbound commuters from the Neath and Swansea Valley areas. The idea was that overall travel time could be saved by catching the train at Port Talbot instead of Neath or Swansea because of the low line speed west of Port Talbot and the limited parking at the other two stations.
There were originally two stations near to the current site, one of which was Aberafan Town, which was on the old Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway route and the other being the nearby terminus of the Port Talbot Railway named Port Talbot Central.
Read more about this topic: Port Talbot Parkway Railway Station
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