Penarth railway station

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 4¼ 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...
Read More