Penarth railway station is the
railway station serving the town of
Penarth in the
Vale of Glamorgan,
Wales. It is the
terminus of the Penarth branch of the
Vale of Glamorgan Line 4ΒΌ miles (7 km) south of
Cardiff Central.
Station history
The busy years
The station opened in 1878 and stands on an extension of the line originally built by the
Taff Vale Railway in 1865 allowing the newly-created docks in Penarth to compete on equal terms with the now famous Cardiff
Bute Docks. The line now terminates at Penarth station but, until 1968 the spur continued on through to Alberta Halt (by the Archer Road bridge), Lower Penarth (Cosmeston) Halt, Lavernock Halt, Swanbridge Halt and Sully Station before connecting back to the
Barry Railway at
Cadoxton.
For over seventy years between 1896 and closure in 1968 most of the summer weekend and school holiday rail traffic from Penarth carried holidaymakers and Penarthians to the busy beach at
Lavernock or the
Barry Island Pleasure Park for the day, with steam trains operating every thirty minutes from 7.15 am until 11.45 pm in both directions.
Effects of the Beeching review
As with most rural branch lines affected by the
Beeching Axe, the stretch of line from the Snocem Cement Works, at Cosmeston, to Cadoxton was removed in 1968 and, when the cement works finally closed in 1970, the track from Penarth Station was also removed. When in full operation the branch line had two, or in part three, tracks and...
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