railway station serves the town of Llanelli, in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is located on the West Wales line and the Heart of Wales line, from , measured via . The station and the majority of trains calling here are operated by Transport for Wales.
It lies between two level crossings, known as East and West, which were previously upgraded in the 1970s. In 2015, Network Rail carried out a further upgrade which saw the control of these level crossings pass from the Grade II listed West signal box (which worked the two crossings here only since 1973) to Port Talbot Panel signal box using CCTV.
History
railway station was the scene for the Llanelli Riots of 1911, which took place on 19 August; their immediate cause was the very first railway strike which lasted only two days. The strike started on Thursday evening and, by Saturday evening, two young men had been shot dead by the military. One man was killed when a railway truck exploded and, on the following day, three more people died from their injuries. The story of the riots is set in a period of great industrial unrest, and involves prominent figures on the international scene such as Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, King George V and Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany.
Facilities
The station is staffed, with the ticket office on platform 2. A self-service ticket machine is provided for use when the booking office is closed and for collecting advance purchase/pre-paid tickets. The main buildings on this platform also house a newsagents shop, toilets, help point and post box. Platform 1 has canopies, bench seating and a customer help point. Digital CIS displays, timetable posters and automated announcements provide train running information. The platforms are linked by a footbridge with steps, but level access is possible to both platforms using the east level crossing and nearby road.
A fully accessible footbridge was installed in 2024 at a cost of £6.3 million, as part of the Department for Transport's Access for All programme.
Services Routes into Llanelli are operated by two train operating companies, which provide the following service in trains per hour (tph):
Transport for Wales: 1 tp2h to , via 1 tph to , with some services extending to , or ; trains to the latter destination are timed to connect with the ferry to/from Rosslare Europort 1 tph to 1 tp2h to , via Cardiff Central.
Great Western Railway: 1 tp2h to Carmarthen 1 tp2h to . On summer Saturdays, GWR also operates a service between London Paddington and Pembroke Dock.
Future services In December 2022, the Office of Rail and Road approved for Grand Union Trains to commence a new service from Paddington to Carmarthen, in partnership with Spanish rail operator Renfe, for which a fleet of new bi-mode trains will be used. The new service is scheduled to commence in December 2024. The service will call at Bristol Parkway, Severn Tunnel Junction, Newport, Cardiff Central, and Llanelli en-route to Carmarthen.
In December 2024, following FirstGroup's acquisition of Grand Union, it was announced the proposed Paddington to Carmarthen service would be operated by Lumo.
Rail and sea corridor to Ireland Transport for Wales' boat trains to and from Fishguard Harbour serve the station. These connect with the Stena Line ferry to Rosslare Europort in Ireland, with a daily morning and evening service in both directions. Two other services to and from there also call since the branch service was improved in 2011. This route has been in existence since 1906.
References
External links
Video footage and narrated history of Llanelli station