History
The line is made up of:
- Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway between Shrewsbury and Buttington
- Oswestry and Newtown Railway between Buttington Junction and Newtown
- Llanidloes and Newtown Railway between Newtown and Moat Lane Junction
- Newtown and Machynlleth Railway between Moat Lane Junction and Machynlleth
- Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway between Machynlleth and Aberystwyth/Pwllheli
These lines were constructed between 1855 and 1869. From Buttington Junction west became part of the Cambrian Railways in 1864.
The Cambrian Railways became part of the Great Western Railway and on nationalisation these lines were operated first by the Western Region of British Railways and later by the London Midland Region. In a later reorganisation, passenger services were operated by the Regional Railways Central sector. Following privatisation in the mid 1990s, passenger services were first operated by Central Trains, then by Wales & Borders Trains from 2001 and, since late 2003, by Arriva Trains Wales.
The last scheduled freight over the line was in 1993. In 2003, freight multiple unit trials were undertaken for a period of five weeks, transporting timber from Aberystwyth, via Wrexham General railway station to the Kronospan woodchip factory in Chirk. The trial used a pair of British Rail MPV units sandwiched around a rake of seven open-sided timber wagons.
Read more about this topic: Cambrian Line
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