Llandudno railway station

Llandudno railway station serves the seaside town of Llandudno in North Wales, and is the terminus of a 3 miles (4.8 km) long branch line from Llandudno Junction on the Crewe to Holyhead North Wales Coast Line. The station is managed by Transport for Wales, who operate all trains serving it.

Llandudno
Station Entrance
Location	Llandudno, Conwy County Borough Wales
Coordinates	53.321°N 3.827°W
Grid reference	SH783819
Managed by	Transport for Wales
Platforms	3
Other information
Station code	LLD
Classification	DfT category E
History
Opened	October 1858
Passengers
2015/16	0.300 million
2016/17	0.297 million
2017/18	0.305 million
2018/19	0.312 million
2019/20	0.279 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Llandudno Victoria station, the lower terminus of the Great Orme Tramway, is a 15-minute walk from the main station.

History

London Midland & Scottish Railway monogram

Llandudno railway station pictured in 1894

The first station and the branch line was constructed by the St. George's Harbour and Railway Company and opened on 1 October 1858. The trains at first ran to and from Conwy station until the completion of Llandudno Junction station. The line was soon absorbed by the London and North Western Railway, which in turn became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. Vaughan Street in Llandudno was also laid out in 1858 as the station approach road.

As the first station had become inadequate to cope with increasing usage, the present Llandudno station buildings and frontage together with five platforms and an extensive glass roof were erected in 1892 and the station still has the Victorian carriage road between the two principal platforms. Platforms 4 & 5 had been disused since 1978 with the tracks to the platforms being disconnected and eventually dismantled in 2012. The southernmost half of the glass roof was removed some decades ago, and the remainder was substantially cut back again in 1990. Half of the station frontage (including the former waiting and refreshment rooms) that had been disused for years was demolished in May 2009. The station retains its semaphore signalling and manual signal box.

Facilities

Signal Box

In recent years, plans were unveiled for the transformation of the station into a Transport Interchange, which would involve the demolition of the disused part of the frontage and the introduction of new passenger facilities. Following the provision of funding, reconstruction began in 2013 and the £5.2 million scheme was completed in the summer of 2014.[1] The work included a 130 space car park (on the site of the former Platforms 4 & 5), a glazed concourse, a bus interchange, new taxi rank, and a shop/cafe. There are also a new entrance and improvements to the platforms.

The ticket office is staffed on a part-time basis. A self-service ticket machine is also provided for use and for collecting advance purchase tickets. There are also toilets and a waiting room on the concourse. Train running information is provided by digital information screens, posters and automated announcements. Step-free access is available to all platforms.[2]

Services

• Transport for Wales provides an hourly service to Manchester Piccadilly via Colwyn Bay, Rhyl, Prestatyn, Flint, Chester and Warrington. Two daily services on this route (including the last train each evening) run to Crewe rather than Manchester and certain trains are extended through to Manchester Airport.[3]
• Transport for Wales also operates an hourly shuttle (with some afternoon gaps) to Llandudno Junction which connects with services to Bangor & Holyhead and for services to Birmingham New Street, London and South Wales. They also operate one weekday direct service from Llandudno to Cardiff Central via Wrexham General without any change being required at Llandudno Junction (and one the other way, plus two more from Birmingham International).
• Transport for Wales provides four trains per day along the Conwy Valley Line serving Llanrwst, Betws-y-Coed and Blaenau Ffestiniog.[4]
• On Sundays, TfW Rail operate a (roughly) half-hourly shuttle service to Llandudno Junction until mid-evening (plus a single later trip) - this formerly operated only in the summer months (May to September) prior to the winter 2019 timetable change, but now runs throughout the year. In addition, three trains a day run down the Conwy Valley Line to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
• Virgin Trains West Coast used to run a direct afternoon service to London Euston, but this service was discontinued at the December 2008 timetable change - it instead now terminates at Chester. However, from December 2022 Avanti West Coast will reintroduce this service but only in the summer months.[5]

Notes

1. "Llandudno's new £5.2m railway station"North Wales Daily Post article 23 July 2014; Retrieved 13 January 2017
2. Llandudno station facilities National Rail Enquiries
3. Table 81 National Rail timetable, December 2019
4. GB NRT December 2019 Edition, Table 102
5. West Coast Partnership franchise improvements map Department for Transport; 14 August 2019.

Further reading

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2010). Bala to Llandudno. West Sussex: Middleton Press. figs. 114-120. ISBN 9781906008871. OCLC 668198724.
• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2012). Rhyl to Bangor. West Sussex: Middleton Press. figs. 64-70. ISBN 9781908174154. OCLC 859594415.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Allen, David (21 October – 3 November 1998). "Seaside signalling in North Wales". RAIL. No. 342. EMAP Apex Publications. pp. 40–42. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699.

External links

• Train times and station information for Llandudno railway station from National Rail
• Llandudno and North Wales Train Services 1947 and 2003
• Virgin Trains restore through London to Llandudno Service