St Clears railway station

St Clears railway station served the small town of St Clears, Carmarthenshire, Wales between 1854 and 1964. It was on the West Wales Line.

St Clears
The station was right of the level crossing
Location	St Clears, Carmarthenshire Wales
Coordinates	51.8283°N 4.4923°W
Grid reference	SN283173
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	South Wales Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Key dates
2 January 1854	Station opened
15 June 1964	Station closed

History

The station opened on 2 January 1854.[1] It was on the section of the South Wales Railway which opened that day between the temporary station near Carmarthen and Haverfordwest,[2] and was situated between Sarnau and Whitland.[3]

The station closed on 15 June 1964.[1] An attempt to reopen the station in 1973 was made by five local authorities and organisations, together with the Department of the Environment, which jointly agreed to fund construction of a new station at a total cost of £5,400 (equivalent to £25,500 in 2019[lower-alpha 1]).[4] The new station would have consisted of concrete platforms adjoining both tracks and timber waiting shelters provided with electric lighting.[4] It had been hoped that works would be swiftly completed so that the first trains could call at St Clears by the end of Summer 1973, but this did not materialise.[4]

New reopening proposals

There has long been a local campaign for the reopening of the station, supported by Angela Burns AM and William Powell AM.[5][6]

Locals started a Facebook campaign to reopen the station in 2010 which drew in thousands of supporters. The St Clears Times ran a community poll from 2010 and 95% of people who voted were in favour of opening the station.

There have been recent proposals to reopen the station as part of the Welsh Governments Rail infrastructure investment.[7] In 2019 it was shortlisted by Welsh Government for further assessment, along with three other stations (from an original longlist of 12) as part of a national strategy to improve transport links.[8] In 2020, funding was secured to reopen the station by 2024.[9]

Routes

Preceding station	Historical railways			Following station
Sarnau Line open, station closed		Great Western Railway South Wales Railway		Whitland Line and station open
	Future services
Carmarthen		Transport for Wales West Wales line		Whitland

See also

• West Wales lines
• Transport for Wales
• Proposed railway stations in Wales

References

1. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 203. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
2. MacDermot, E.T. (1927). History of the Great Western Railway, vol. I: 1833-1863. Paddington: Great Western Railway. pp. 572–3, 865.
3. Conolly, W. Philip (January 1976). British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer (5th ed.). Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 7, section A1. ISBN 0-7110-0320-3. EX/0176.
4. "Topics: St. Clears to reopen". The Railway Magazine. 119 (866): 269. June 1973.
5. "Station campaign picks up steam". BBC News Online. 4 February 2009. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
6. "Fresh support for calls to reopen town's rail station". Carmarthen Journal. 25 January 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
8. Mosalski, Ruth (28 August 2019). "The new railway stations which could be built in Wales". walesonline. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
9. Ruth Davies (3 December 2020). "St Clears' new rail station welcomed by Carmarthenshire County Council". Tivyside Advertiser. Retrieved 7 December 2020.

1. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 February 2020.

External links

• St Clears Station on navigable 1946 O.S. map