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Fishguard and Goodwick railway station

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Fishguard and Goodwick railway station is a railway station sited 1 mile from Fishguard in the neighbouring town of Goodwick, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is owned by Pembrokeshire County Council and just over 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) from the larger Fishguard Harbour station. Following its closure in 1964 (1980 for Motorail), it reopened on 14 May 2012 following investment from Network Rail and Pembrokeshire County Council.

Fishguard and Goodwick

Welsh: Abergwaun ac Wdig
National Rail
Fishguard & Goodwick on its reopening
14 May 2012
The 09:56 Fishguard Harbour to Carmarthen service Class 153 Sprinter unit
General information
LocationGoodwick, Pembrokeshire
Wales
Coordinates52°00′13″N 4°59′41″W / 52.0035°N 4.9948°W / 52.0035; -4.9948
Grid referenceSM945381
Owned byPembrokeshire County Council
Managed byTransport for Wales
Platforms1
Other information
Station codeFGW
History
Original companyGreat Western Railway
Pre-groupingGreat Western Railway
Post-groupingGreat Western Railway
Key dates
1 August 1899 (1899-08-01)Opened as Goodwick
1 May 1904Renamed Fishguard and Goodwick
6 April 1964Regular services ceased
3 August 1964all passenger trains ceased
18 June 1965Reopened for Motorail services only
19 September 1980Closed to Regular Motorail services
16 September 1982Closed Completely
14 May 2012[1]Reopened for passenger services
Passengers
2019/20Decrease 19,452
2020/21Decrease 1,548
2021/22Increase 6,152
2022/23Increase 13,442
2023/24Increase 16,594
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

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Construction of the line

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The station was the planned terminus of the Rosebush and Fishguard Railway. Complications meant that, despite work having begun at Rosebush in 1878, the line was not completed by 1898 when the company (now called the North Pembrokeshire and Fishguard Railway) was purchased by the Great Western Railway Company. It is likely that this takeover was prompted by the North Pembrokeshire & Fishguard Railway's plans for a harbour at Goodwick to attract Irish traffic (the GWR had a major such port at Neyland) and/or their ambitious plan to link this new harbour to Carmarthen with their own line to break the GWR's monopoly of rail lines into west Wales.

Early years

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Goodwick station opened on 1 August 1899 under GWR ownership. The station was called Goodwick until 1 May 1904 when it was renamed Fishguard and Goodwick.[2] It was a terminus until the GWR opened their extension to Fishguard Harbour in 1906 and moved their Irish ferry operation there from Neyland.[3]

Closure and subsequent usage

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The overgrown and derelict state of the station (2007)

The station was closed on 6 April 1964 by British Railways, when local trains between Fishguard and Clarbeston Road were withdrawn. After closure to normal passenger trains the station remained in use for workmen's trains to the RNAD Trecwn, until these services were withdrawn on 1 August 1964.

From 18 June 1965 the station became the terminus of a seasonal motorail service from London, the end loading dock behind the former main (Up side) platform being used for unloading the cars. Early photographs show the station building to be shorter than it is today, with the extension carried out along with refurbishment for motorail traffic. Motorail kept the station in use each summer season until the regular service ended on 19 September 1980[4] and the occasional peak service on 16 September 1982.[5]

The station was used temporarily in June 1982, when the railway lines at Fishguard Harbour were moved and re-laid.[6] InterCity 125 services ran through the site of station until the early 1990s but services ceased in 1994.[7]

Reopening

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The new Fishguard and Goodwick Railway station under construction (2012)

Reopening Fishguard and Goodwick as a rail/bus interchange had been considered by Pembrokeshire County Council for some years. For this reason it purchased the (disused) station site.[citation needed] This was sometime before an increased service frequency on the Fishguard line was secured,[citation needed] and no visible progress was made towards reopening until the announcement of extra trains. In March 2011, it was announced that Welsh Assembly Government subsidy would be provided to allow an increase in train frequency on the Fishguard line from two trains per day to seven from 12 September 2011 for three years.[8] This prompted a search for funding to reopen Fishguard & Goodwick railway station; funding was successfully found and it was announced that the station was to reopen in March 2012.

The reopening work cost £325,000, including realignment of the track by Network Rail by the end of 2011[9] and laying of tarmac over part of the station yard to provide a car park (with further tarmac over the rest of the station yard, to enlarge the car park, a future possibility[10]). Another aspect of the work was demolition and reconstruction of the station building, which took place in August 2011[11] between the announcement of extra services and their launch (on 12 September). Since the station is within the Goodwick Conservation Area, this demolition without approval of such plans would have violated policy 80 of the Joint Unitary Development Plan for Pembrokeshire,[12] but went ahead anyway as the building was in a dangerous condition with very little in a state that could possibly have been salvaged.[citation needed]

The work to reopen the station was a joint operation between Pembrokeshire County Council and Network Rail. In March 2012, Network Rail announced that the station would reopen on 14 May 2012 and would be served by the seven trains each way per day which currently run through the station.[13] The station duly reopened on 14 May 2012.[14] It was adopted under Arriva's adopt-a-station scheme by the local community group POINT.[15]

Services

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2018

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In the 2018 timetable, there were seven daily (Mon-Sat) departures each way on a very irregular schedule (particularly in the afternoon, where there were no departures either way for more than six hours). Six of the services ran to at least Carmarthen, with one through train to Manchester Piccadilly one to Cardiff Central and one to Swansea. The other departure ran to Clarbeston Road, where it connected into a Milford Haven to Manchester Piccadilly train.[16] On Sundays, there were three trains each way, ran primarily to serve the ferry to/from Rosslare. Two of these ran to Swansea and the other to Cardiff Central.

2021

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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, services on the Fishguard branch were reduced. As of August 2021, there were two daily departures from Mondays to Saturdays in each direction – one at midday, and one in the late evening. The two westbound services continued to Fishguard Harbour. The two eastbound services ran to Carmarthen, with the midday service continuing to Cardiff Central.

On Sundays, there was an increased service of three trains per day in each direction. The additional mid-afternoon services ran to Fishguard Harbour and Swansea.[17]

c.2022 onward

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As of 2024, the Fishguard branch has six services from Mondays to Saturdays and three services on Sundays. All westbound services continue to Fishguard Harbour. One eastbound service terminates at Clarbeston Road, connecting with the Milford Haven to Manchester Piccadilly train, and the others continue to Carmarthen, Swansea or Cardiff Central.[18]

Preceding station   National Rail Following station
Clarbeston Road   Transport for Wales
West Wales line
Fishguard branch 		  Fishguard Harbour
  Historical railways  
Jordanston Halt
Line open, station closed 		  Great Western Railway
North Pembrokeshire and Fishguard Railway 		  Fishguard Harbour
Line and station open

References

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  1. ^ Fishguard Trains 3 April 2012
  2. ^ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. pp. 106, 97. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
  3. ^ Parker, Richard; Morris, John (2008) [1981]. The Railways of Pembrokeshire. Corhampton: Noodle Books. ISBN 978-1-906419-07-3.
  4. ^ Parker & Morris 2008, p. 238
  5. ^ Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (January 2010). Western Main Lines: Carmarthen To Fishguard. Midhurst: Middleton Press. figure 73. ISBN 978-1-906008-66-6.
  6. ^ Parker & Morris 2008, p. [page needed]
  7. ^ Intercity Magazine Network Map 1993. Retrieved 5 December 2012
  8. ^ "Pupils' petition for more Fishguard trains pays off". BBC News. 30 March 2011.
  9. ^ "Goodwick railway station near Fishguard to reopen". BBC News. 2 January 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  10. ^ "Boys from the Blackstuff | Fishguard Trains".
  11. ^ "BREAKING NEWS ::: ::: Goodwick Station demolished | Fishguard Trains".
  12. ^ "Policy 80". Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  13. ^ "Fishguard and Goodwick station to reopen after 50 years". Network Rail. 16 March 2012. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
  14. ^ "Fishguard and Goodwick train station officially reopens after 48 years". BBC News. 14 May 2012.
  15. ^ "Pembrokeshire Youngsters Adopt Wales' Newest Station". Arriva UK Trains. 24 October 2012. Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  16. ^ Table 128 National Rail timetable, December 2018
  17. ^ "Train Times | 16 May 2021 – 12 September 2021" (PDF). tfwrail.wales. Transport for Wales. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  18. ^ "Train times West Wales to Swansea and Cardiff From 09 September 2024" (PDF). Transport for Wales. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
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