Bangor (Gwynedd) railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Bangor
code = BNG

---

caption = Bangor Station looking north, viewed from Bangor Mountain
manager = Arriva Trains Wales
locale = Bangor
borough = Gwynedd
start = May 1 1848
platforms = 2
usage0405 = 0.534
usage0506 = 0.538
usage0607 = 0.547

Bangor railway station in Bangor, Gwynedd is the last mainland station on the London Euston to Holyhead North Wales Coast line. The station is 40 km (24¾ miles) east of Holyhead.

The station occupies a rather exposed site with the wind channeled between high ground on both sides and exposed to the prevailing wet westerly winds. A full platform length canopy on Platform 1 provides protection for travellers heading east and south to Chester and beyond. Travellers heading north towards Holyhead on Platform 2 have only two bays of canopy to shelter under. An enclosed pedestrian bridge links the two platforms. For cyclists there are a row of cycle kennels at the northern end of Platform 1.

History

The station was opened on May 1 1848 by the Chester and Holyhead Railway, built at a cost of £6,960 and lies between two tunnels, each of which has two running lines, an "up" line and a "down" line. Through the station there are also two further lines used for goods traffic, particularly the carriage of nuclear fuel flasks to and from Wylfa nuclear power station on Anglesey.

The station was expanded as branch lines were opened:
*From Menai Bridge railway station to Caernarfon (Carnarvonshire Railway) (1848)
*From Gaerwen to Amlwch (Anglesey Central Railway) (1866)
*From Holland Arms to Red Wharf Bay and Benllech (Red Wharf Bay branch line) (1909)
*To Bethesda (Bethesda Branch) (1884)

The present building on platform 1 was the main building with a forecourt on the site of the present car park. Between 1924 and 1927 an additional loop line and platform was constructed on the site of the forecourt with a new frontage facing Deiniol Road. Ultimately there were four platforms and a small bay to serve the main line and branch lines. [cite book| author=John Cowell| year=1990| title=Bangor: A Portrait in Old Picture Postcards| publisher=S.B. Publications| id=ISBN 1-870708-58-X ] [cite book| author=John Cowell| year=1997| title=Bangor: A Pictorial History (Volume 2)| id=ISBN 0-9518592-3-4 ]

By the 1950s there was an extensive goods yard, a five-road engine shed (on the site of the steel mill), a turntable, three-road goods shed, two signal boxes, an extra footbridge and a subway connecting platforms. There was a total of nine separate through routes from one tunnel to the other.

With the closure of the branch lines in the 1960s and 1970s, the station was reduced to having two operational platforms only, with the track and platform on the pre-1920s forecourt being converted back to something like its original use.

ervices

There is a basic hourly service to Chester via Llandudno Junction, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl, Prestatyn and Flint, as well as across Anglesey to Holyhead. There are also through services to London Euston (four per day Monday-Friday, three on Saturdays, two on Sundays), Cardiff Central (two-hourly), Crewe (two hourly) and Manchester Piccadilly (limited service).

External links

* [http://www.woodvine.com/bangor/pages/027.html Postcard of Bangor railway station in 1909]

Notes

###@@@KEYEND@@@###