Aberystwyth Railway Station - History

History

The original station was built in the 1860s by the Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway to serve trains arriving on the now-closed route from Carmarthen to Aberystwyth via Lampeter and the route to Machynlleth which remains today. The original railway station was greatly extended in 1925 with the original station building on one side of the platforms being replaced by a grand terminus building. This was built by the Great Western Railway, to show the locals their power and to reassure them that the GWR had a vested interest in maintaining the railway service in West Wales - something that had been called into question at the grouping when the Cambrian Railway which owned the station and all the lines into it had been absorbed by the larger, rather more faceless GWR, that had its headquarters far away in London.

The station at this time had five platforms: Platform 1 at the south end of the station and two island platforms. Platforms 1 and 2 were essentially bay platforms, with the same amount of indent. They were used for the Carmarthen services (though Platform 2 would occasionally be used for main-line purposes). Following the closure of the line to Carmarthen in 1965, the narrow-gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway was rerouted in 1968 into the former standard gauge bay Platforms 1 and 2. As their trains unload at ground level, a new ramp and island platform has been constructed in the space between the two original platforms. The former Platform 3 is on the other side of Platform 2; it is the only platform still in use for mainline rail and has been redesignated as Platform 1 in recent years. The former Platform 4 (closed in 1982) is now taken up by the "Craft" 'freecycling' shop. The running-around line between these two, for locomotive-hauled trains, still exists. Platform 5 (closed in the 1960s) was an emergency platform on the other side of Platform 4, but little trace remains. This area is now an oil storage area and the marshalling yard is the Rheidol Retail Park.

With the decline of railway usage and of tourism within the United Kingdom, the facilities were far too large for its purpose. The railway yard was lifted in the 1980s and the row of shops in front, known as Western Parade, was demolished in the 1990s to allow construction of a new retail park and bus station. The 1925 station building has seen several uses, including as a local museum but was eventually sold off and converted into a Wetherspoons pub. This conversion maintained the architecture and won awards. Other parts of the building have become an Indian restaurant, office space and accommodation for a local furniture-recycling scheme.