Porth railway station explained

Porth
Native Name:Welsh: Y Porth
Symbol Location:gb
Symbol:rail
Borough:Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf
Country:Wales
Coordinates:51.6124°N -3.4075°W
Grid Name:Grid reference
Manager:Transport for Wales
Platforms:2
Code:POR
Classification:DfT category D
Original:Taff Vale Railway
Pregroup:Taff Vale Railway
Postgroup:Great Western Railway
Opened:1876
Years:4 February 1861
Events:First station opened
Years1:1 July 1876
Events1:Station resited
Footnotes:Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road
Mapframe:yes
Mapframe-Zoom:13

Porth railway station is a railway station serving the town of Porth in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It is located on the Rhondda Line.

History

Two stations have served Porth. The first was opened on 4 February 1861 by the Taff Vale Railway;[1] the line had been open since 10 June 1841.[2]

On 1 July 1876, the original station was closed, being replaced by a new one approximately 240yd to the east. The Rhondda Fawr line to Treherbert was singled north of here in 1981 and most of the 1876 station buildings were replaced in 1984–85.[3]

The now defunct Maerdy Branch along the Rhondda Fach valley to Maerdy and the collieries at Mardy and Ferndale used to diverge from the 'main line' to just north of the station at Maerdy Junction. Opened in stages between 1849 and 1856, the passenger service over this route ended in 1964, but mineral traffic to Mardy Colliery continued to run until final closure of the branch in August 1986, when coal from Mardy was then raised from Tower Colliery. The track was subsequently lifted in 1996, but the old formation can still be traced (along with the former up loop platform used by branch trains).

A passenger service between Porth and was introduced by the Barry Railway on 16 March 1896, running via and .,[4] but this ended in 1930 when the service was re-routed via the TVR station at Pontypridd (trains henceforth terminating there, except for summer excursions, until the service down to Barry finally ended in September 1962).

An unusual ground level signal box was installed at the station when the Treherbert line was reduced to single track in 1981, replacing a much more substantial TVR structure.[5] This holds the distinction of the being the last new mechanical box to be built by British Rail,[6] though it had a working life of only 17 years before being abolished in 1998 when the Radyr signalling centre took control of the area.

Services

Monday-Saturday, there is a half-hourly service to via and southbound and to northbound, serving all stations en route except . This drops to hourly in the late evening. There is a two-hourly service in each direction on Sundays, with through trains to .[7] On 20 July 2018, previous franchise operator Arriva Trains Wales announced a trial period of extra Sunday services on the Rhondda Line to Cardiff and Barry Island. This was in response to a survey by Leanne Wood and the success of extra Sunday services on the Merthyr Line and the Rhymney Line.[8]

The service from this station is currently (summer 2023) suspended, due to major route upgrade work being carried out at multiple locations as part of the Valley Lines electrification scheme. A replacement bus service is in operation from here to Pontypridd and to Treherbert, calling at all local stations until February 2024[9]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Butt, R.V.J. . The Directory of Railway Stations . 1995 . Patrick Stephens Ltd . Yeovil . 1-85260-508-1 . R508 . 189 .
  2. Book: James, Leslie . A Chronology of the Construction of Britain's Railways 1778-1855 . November 1983 . . Shepperton . 0-7110-1277-6 . BE/1183 . 35 .
  3. Book: Hutton, John. The Taff Vale Railway, vol. 2. Silver Link. 2006 . 978-1-85794-250-7 .
  4. Book: Barrie, D.S.M. . The Barry Railway . Oakwood Library of Railway History . 1983 . 1962 . Oakwood Press . Salisbury . 0-85361-236-6 . OL57 . 171 .
  5. http://www.signalbox.org/gallery/w/rhonddafachjcnsouth.php Rhondda Fach Junction South
  6. http://www.roscalen.com/signals/SouthWales/index.htm#PorthAdrian The Rock - Signals in South Wales
  7. GB eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 130 (Network Rail)
  8. Web site: Extra Sunday services between Treherbert and Barry Island . 19 July 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180722125917/https://arrivatrainswales-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/extra-sunday-services-between-treherbert-and-barry-island-for-the-summer . 22 July 2018 . dead .
  9. https://tfw.wales/projects/metro/service-changes South Wales Metro - Changes to train services (TfW)