Transport for Wales
As part of the Railway 200 celebrations in 2025, HistoryPoints and Transport for Wales have teamed up to provide QR codes at more railway stations, for on-the-spot access to historical information.
Some of the stations are ones which succumbed to the widespread axing of passenger trains in Wales in the 1960s and 1970 but reopened from the 1980s onwards to help residents of former coal and steel communities to find work further afield.
You can discover the stations’ stories by scanning the QR codes at the stations with your smartphone, or by clicking on station names in the list below.
Across Wales, HistoryPoints has featured many other railway-related locations, which are listed on our Railway History in Wales page.
List of stations
Barmouth - a father of three was killed when clearing sand from the railway on New Year’s Day 1916
Haverfordwest - celebrations when the station opened included a banquet for c.1,000 guests
Llandovery - station in historic droving centre featured pens where livestock was put on trains
Neath - a Victorian stationmaster survived being hit by an engine that crushed his pocket knife
Bridgend - still has its original 1850 Brunel-type building, jacked upwards in 1879
Aberdare - reopened 1988 to help regenerate coalfield communities. Electric trains began in 2024
Tondu – where teenager Elizabeth Trevelyan filled a GWR vacancy in WW1, injuring fingers at work
Tonypandy - 150 police constables from London arrived by train in 1910 to quell riots
Merthyr Vale - features in the film 10 Rillington Place, about a Merthyr Vale man's wrongful hanging
Barry Island - opened in 1896, triggering the resort's development
Cardiff Queen Street - had no passenger trains to Central until Merthyr leaders took legal action in 1881
Cathays - Wales' first new station in 41 years. The 1883 National Eisteddfod was in a nearby engine shed
Ebbw Vale Town station - opened in 2015 to support the area's post-steelworks regeneration
Llanhilleth - reopened for second time 2008. Plaque honours ex-railman cabinet minister Ray Gunter
Cwmbrân - opened in 1986 by the new town's out-going development corporation
