Wrexham General railway station


Wrexham General railway station is a main line railway station and the main railway station serving Wrexham, north-east Wales. It is currently operated by Transport for Wales, but services are also provided by Avanti West Coast who operate a service to London Euston. Until January 2011 Wrexham & Shropshire also operated from here to London Marylebone.
The station was first opened in 1846, later becoming part of the Great Western Railway network and expanded in 1912. It is one of three railway stations in the central area of the town, one now part of General, named Wrexham Exchange, the other being Wrexham Central. It is the main hub for inter-city services in the area, and as a result 78% of all rail journeys in Wrexham County Borough start or end at the station. It is also a major hub for inter-city services in North Wales.
Until the early 1980s what is now platform 4 of Wrexham General, serving the Wrexham Central – Bidston service, was a separate station: Wrexham Exchange.

History

In 1846 the first steam trains began the Railway Age in Wrexham. The line was originally called The North Wales Mineral Railway and was backed by local businessmen, among whom the developer of the steel works at Brymbo, Henry Robertson, is well known.
There have been two railway station buildings on the site. The first was the original was built by the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway in Jacobean style with Dutch gable pediments. The architect for that station was Mr Thomas Penson of Wrexham, who also designed the Shrewsbury and Gobowen stations. It was built on the edge of Wrexham, a town which at the time was heavily industrialised and had many coal mines and steelworks to attract the railway companies.
The second station building was constructed by the Great Western Railway in 1912. The company decided the increasing rail traffic needed newer and more efficient facilities so the station was rebuilt to a standardised GWR 'French Pavilion' design, including ornate crestings on the roof "towers". The station design was unique in that it used stonework from the original building instead of standard red brick. It survived the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, as a through route for steel produced in Shotton and wood for the Chirk MDF factory.
On 24 April 1997, a wagon on an empty coal train derailed at a nearby level crossing. The train carried on for a mile into Wrexham General where the wagons scraped up the platform, damaging it and the station canopy. That prompted a massive refurbishing, including new canopies, a jetwash of the blackened sandstone buildings, and platform retiling along all main platforms. The out-of-use bay platform saw no improvements and retained its 1970s lighting until 2008, when it was refurbished by the Welsh Assembly.
The suffix "General" was used by the GWR and later the Western Region of British Railways to differentiate their main stations from others in the area, which belonged to other companies. Following the Beeching axe, Wrexham General remains the only "General" station on the National Rail network, and other "General" stations lost the suffix or were re-dubbed as "Central" stations. Because of the continued presence of two stations serving Wrexham, the other being titled Wrexham Central, the "General" suffix was retained.
Until 1967, Wrexham General was served by GWR, latterly BR Western Region, express services between London Paddington and Birkenhead Woodside, which were withdrawn upon the electrification of the West Coast Main Line.

Wrexham Exchange

Wrexham Exchange, which is now platform 4 of Wrexham General, was originally a separate railway station opened in May 1866 for the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway. By the time that WMCQR had been bought by the Great Central Railway, the line was a through station connecting to the Cambrian Railways Wrexham Central Railway Station. The station changed hands again in 1921 during the Grouping, to the London and North Eastern Railway, as one of their few stations in Wales. Wrexham Exchange was named as such from 18 June 1951, with Wrexham General applying to all platforms from 1 June 1981. A platform, which is now used as a staff car park, was put out of use to passengers from August 1973.
passes through Platform One in 1959.

Services

Wrexham General benefits from Inter-City services towards Holyhead, Liverpool Lime Street, Birmingham International via Birmingham New Street, Cardiff Central, London Euston and a Sundays-only service to Manchester Piccadilly.
The station is also situated on the Borderlands Line, providing local services towards Deeside and Merseyside for connections to Liverpool Central.

Transport for Wales

Main weekday services

Transport for Wales - Borderlands Line:
Transport for Wales - North-South services via the Shrewsbury to Chester Line:
Avanti West Coast
In the evenings and Sundays there is a slightly different pattern of service, all operated by Transport for Wales.
Wrexham General comprises four operational platforms with two disused bay platforms at the southern end of Platform 1. These were used for trains to via the Ruabon Barmouth line until the 1960s. Platforms 1 and 2 are on the main to line, platform 3 being on an island platform opposite 2; and platform 4, until the mid-1980s a separate former Great Central Railway station named Wrexham Exchange, was on the ex-Ellesmere to Bidston line, now the Wrexham to Bidston Borderlands Line. Platform 5, once opposite and on the same route as platform 4, became disused when the line was singled, however in 2008 it has been re-surfaced and is now a private parking space.
The station is currently undergoing a renaissance as a number of new services have been introduced. Since 2005 the station has been a stop of the two hourly Cardiff to Holyhead Transport for Wales service. Although the engineering work completed in April 2017, no new developments are anticipated until late 2017 at the earliest.
Transport for Wales have confirmed plans to introduce peak time services to and from Liverpool Lime Street via Chester and Runcorn, along the Halton Curve, from May 2019.

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