Conwy railway station


Conwy railway station serves the ancient walled town of Conwy, Wales, and is located on the Crewe to Holyhead North Wales Coast Line. There are through services to Chester via Colwyn Bay, Rhyl, Prestatyn and Flint in one direction and to Bangor & Holyhead in the other. After arrival at Chester, most trains go forward to either Crewe, Cardiff or Birmingham International.

History

The station was opened by the Chester and Holyhead Railway on 1 May 1848; it was closed as part of the Beeching cuts on 14 February 1966 but reopened on 29 June 1987 as a request stop. Upon reopening, the Welsh spelling Conwy was adopted, in contrast to the Anglicised form Conway used until closure in 1966.
The original station had substantial decorated mock-Tudor style buildings on both sides, along with canopies and a footbridge - this was however demolished soon after closure and no trace now remains. The modern 1987 replacement has only basic amenities, no ticket office and shorter platforms.
Since 6th July 2020, trains have not called at the station due to the short platform and the inability to maintain social distancing between passengers and the guard when opening the train door.

Facilities

The station platforms can only fully accommodate 2 coaches. Services operated by longer DMUs that call at this station do so under 'local door operation', whereby passengers may only board or alight through one door of the train, usually the leading door of the second coach. This avoids obvious safety risks presented by passengers alighting from doors that are not adjacent to the platform. Each platform has an open sided shelter for waiting passengers, a customer help point, timetable poster boards and digital CIS displays. There is no ticketing provision and the station is unmanned - tickets must be bought on the train or in advance of travel. Step-free access is available to both sides.

Services

There is a basic two-hourly service each way Monday to Saturday, improving to hourly at certain times. Trains run between and and then on southbound via to either or. The Sunday service is infrequent, with large gaps between trains. Services run to Holyhead and one of, Cardiff Central, or Manchester Piccadilly.

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