Barry Island railway station
Encyclopedia
Barry Island railway station is a railway station, fifteen kilometres (9¼ miles) south-west of Cardiff Central
Cardiff Central railway station
Cardiff Central railway station is a major railway station on the South Wales Main Line in Cardiff, Wales.It is the largest and busiest station in Wales and one of the major stations of the British rail network, the tenth busiest station in the United Kingdom outside of London , based on 2007/08...

, serving Barry Island
Barry Island (Vale of Glamorgan)
Barry Island is a district, peninsula and seaside resort, forming part of the town of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It is named after the 6th century Saint Baruc...

  in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. The station has been the terminus - and only remaining active station - of the Barry Island branch of the Vale of Glamorgan Line
Vale of Glamorgan Line
The Vale of Glamorgan Line is a commuter railway line in South Wales from Cardiff to Bridgend via Barry, Rhoose and Llantwit Major. There are also branch lines to Penarth and Barry Island. As its names suggests, the line runs through the Vale of Glamorgan....

 since the closure of Barry Pier
Barry Pier railway station
Barry Pier railway station was a railway station in Barry Island, in Wales. It was the terminus of the Barry Island branch line and opened in 1899 when the line was extended from Barry Island railway station. There was a tunnel connecting the two railway stations. Barry Pier station was closed in...

 station in 1976.

Passenger services, operated by Arriva Trains Wales
Arriva Trains Wales
Arriva Trains Wales is a train operating company, owned by Arriva, that operates urban and inter urban passenger services in Wales and the Welsh Marches...

 as part of the Valley Lines
Valley Lines
Valleys & Cardiff Local Routes is the busy network of passenger suburban railway services radiating from Cardiff, Wales. It includes lines within the city itself, the Vale of Glamorgan and the South Wales Valleys....

 network, currently use the first half of platform 1.

Opening

In 1896 the railway line was extended along the newly built raised road causeway from Barry Station onto the Island to provide a service to the newly opened and developing Barry Island Pleasure Park
Barry Island Pleasure Park
Barry Island Pleasure Park is an amusement park situated on the coast at Barry Island in the Vale of Glamorgan, about 10 miles south west of the capital city Cardiff, Wales. The park opens annually at weekends from Easter onwards and daily during the school summer holidays, until the first weekend...

 day tripper leisure facilities. The Barry Island station opened in time for the August Bank holiday 1896. The new rail line also crossed to the island at road level and consequently a level crossing was needed where the line crossed Plymouth Road. When a premises on Station Approach was being renovated in the late 1990s traces of the original track were discovered in the basement.

To give improved passenger access to the Yellow Funnel steamers that plied the Bristol Channel in 1899 the line was continued past Barry Island station to the new Barry Pier railway station
Barry Pier railway station
Barry Pier railway station was a railway station in Barry Island, in Wales. It was the terminus of the Barry Island branch line and opened in 1899 when the line was extended from Barry Island railway station. There was a tunnel connecting the two railway stations. Barry Pier station was closed in...

 through an enclosed box tunnel.

Peak years

The peak years for passenger numbers at Barry Island were in the 1920s and 1930s. From 1924 on most peak-time August Bank Holiday Mondays between 80,000 to 100,000 visitors arrived at the Island and mostly by train.

After the 1926 General Strike, reports in the local and national press described the scenes over the 1927 August Bank Holiday weekend at Barry Island as 'organised chaos' . It was estimated that in excess of 120,000 arrived at the island with packed trains arriving and leaving Barry Island Station at five-minute intervals. In excess of 75 special excursion trains, each carrying an estimated 500-600 passengers arrived from Cardiff's Riverside Station during that morning and early afternoon.

A report in the local press on one Bank Holiday Monday, when an estimated crowd of over 150,000 arrived at the Island, described the scene as follows -
"When it was time for visitors to leave the Island a queue started to form just before 6 pm and by 9.30 pm was still over a quarter of a mile long, it snaked around the fairground with people waiting to board their trains. Excursionists from the Midlands and places other than Cardiff and the Valleys using one entrance and boarding their non-stop return trains and "Locals" having to wait for a space to return to Cardiff."

In 1927 the GWR decided to issue special day return tickets from Cardiff General (Riverside) at one shilling each (5pence) and sold over 82,000 tickets. Demand during the morning was so great that temporary ticket booths had to be set up at the Riverside concourse to cope with the high level of sales. Additional trains and rolling stock were quickly laid on, over and above the planned timetable to transport the additional visitors to Barry Island. By 12 noon the station ticket office totally ran out of tickets and were forced to use hand amended tickets that had been dated for the following day.

Decline

Traffic levels started to fall in the 1950s and 1960s with the spread of greater car ownership in the UK. A further sudden drop occurred between 1968 and 1970 with the removal of the Taff Vale railway branch line from Cardiff via Penarth as a result of the Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...

. The wholesale closure of rural rail links all over the country accelerated the switch to private car use by holidaymakers.

Vale of Glamorgan Railway

The Heritage Vale of Glamorgan Railway
Vale of Glamorgan Railway
The Barry Tourist Railway is a railway developed to attract visitors to Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales...

 moved their operations to Barry Island station in 1997 from Cardiff Butetown railway station when the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation indicated that they had no use for a heritage steam railway in their plans. The heritage railway commenced operating heritage trains from Barry Island's platform 4, running across the causeway alongside Network Rail
Network Rail
Network Rail is the government-created owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure in Great Britain .; it is not responsible for railway infrastructure in Northern Ireland...

, before continuing on to one of their existing branches.

Following financial cutbacks brought about by the global credit crunch the Vale of Glamorgan Council
Vale of Glamorgan Council
The Vale of Glamorgan Council is the governing body for the Vale of Glamorgan, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. It is run by the Conservative Party after the United Kingdom local elections, 2008, taking over the council from no overall control....

 withdrew annual grant support for the heritage railway and placed the facilities up for tender. The heritage railway subsequently failed to secure the new lease and were forced to withdraw from Barry Island station in December 2008.

Current services

From Monday to Saturday, up to three trains per hour leave for Cardiff Central
Cardiff Central railway station
Cardiff Central railway station is a major railway station on the South Wales Main Line in Cardiff, Wales.It is the largest and busiest station in Wales and one of the major stations of the British rail network, the tenth busiest station in the United Kingdom outside of London , based on 2007/08...

; their final destination being Aberdare
Aberdare railway station
Aberdare railway station is a railway station serving the town of Aberdare in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It is the terminus of the Aberdare branch of the Merthyr Line, 36 km north of...

, Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil railway station
Merthyr Tydfil railway station is a railway station serving the town of Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. It is the terminus of the Merthyr branch of the Merthyr Line. Passenger services are provided by Arriva Trains Wales...

 or Pontypridd
Pontypridd railway station
Pontypridd railway station serves the town of Pontypridd in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It is located on the Merthyr and Rhondda lines and is the main line station for the town.Until the 1930s, Pontypridd had another two stations...

.

On Sundays, the service to Cardiff runs twice per hour during peak times

External links

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