, 26 May 2007
South Wales Railway The present station is the third to serve the town and dates from 1902, although the
South Wales Railway's main line from
Swansea to
Neyland reached Carmarthen some fifty years earlier with the first train to Carmarthen in 1852. This original station had been built with westward expansion in mind and was situated at the base of the triangular junction, half a mile south of the present station and poorly sited for the town.
Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway A second station,
Carmarthen Town, was opened by the
Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway in 1860 on its route northwards towards
Cynwyl Elfed and
Pencader. It was much better sited for the town, being on the opposite side of the river, and this remained in use until its replacement by the current station shortly after the turn of the century. Town station did however remain in use for goods traffic thereafter beyond the closure of the final portion of the line in September 1973, until the goods yard closed around 1981; the single track girder bridge over the River Tywi was removed subsequently during 1983. The Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway, in spite of its name, never actually reached
Cardigan, as it was constructed only as far as
Newcastle Emlyn which was reached only in 1895. Cardigan was eventually served instead by the winding Whitland and Cardigan Branch Line from
Whitland, the primary junction in Pembrokeshire. The C&CR did however link up with the ill-fated
Manchester and Milford Railway at Pencader, putting the town on a through route to
Aberystwyth by 1867.
Other railways Another outlet to the north was the
Llanelly Railway's branch from
Llandeilo, which reached Abergwili Junction in 1864; its trains reached Town station by means of running powers following its takeover by the
London & North Western Railway (LNWR) in 1873. The final link in the chain of lines to the north was added in 1911, when a branch line from
Lampeter to
Aberaeron was opened by the
Lampeter, Aberayron and New Quay Light Railway. This was worked by the
Great Western Railway from the outset, as the company had by this time absorbed the other lines mentioned (apart from the Llandeilo branch, which remained in LNWR hands until the 1923 Grouping).
Closures None of the lines to the north survive; the first round of closures having begun as early as May 1951, when the Aberaeron line lost its passenger trains. The Newcastle Emlyn line followed suit in September 1952, whilst the Llandeilo branch went in September 1963 and the 'main line' to Aberystwyth in February 1965, although
milk trains continued to operate as far as Pont Llanio (near Tregaron) on the Aberystwyth main line until 1970 and to Newcastle Emlyn and to Felinfach on the Aberaeron branch until September 1973. This left only the original South Wales Railway main line to serve the station and left it as a terminus at the end of short spur from the main line at which all trains have to reverse before continuing their journeys. This was not so much of a problem with
diesel multiple units, but led to the need for a run-round of locomotive-hauled trains which were regularly used until the mid-1980s. Only two of the five original platforms here (the former platforms 2 and 3) are now used, with the majority of trains using the former down main platform (now numbered 1) where the main facilities are located. The other active platform (formerly platform 3, now renumbered 2) is used when two trains are scheduled to call at the same time (also for unit stabling) – it is linked to platform one by a barrow crossing that spans the shunting neck that is used for locos to run around their trains. This is the sole remnant of the former route north.
Gwili Railway Historically, the line to Aberystwyth and Llandeilo continued beyond the station across the River Towy, past the site of the goods yard (now a builders yard). It then ran through a cutting, which has since been buried under the Carmarthen eastern by-pass dual carriageway, as far as the former Abergwili Junction. The Aberystwyth line then turned north out to
Bronwydd Arms. From Abergwili Junction northwards, the railway trackbed resumes and is owned by the preserved
Gwili Railway which runs preserved trains along part of the Aberystwyth line, through the valley of the River Gwili, from Abergwili Junction, through
Bronwydd Arms and
Llwyfan Cerrig, to as far as
Danycoed en route, close to
Cynwyl Elfed. The Gwili Railway aims to restore a further of track, again following the course of the River Gwili, past Cynwyl Elfed and further up the valley to Llanpumpsaint. ==Facilities==