#creigiau

Creigiau Railway station was opened in 1896, situated on the old Mainline (Trehafod to Cadoxton branch) of the Barry Railway between Efail Isaf and Wenvoe.

During World War II the station was used to transport American troops injured in the Normandy landings to the nearby Prince of Wales Hospital in Rhydlafar. Following the end of the War and the closure of the hospital in 1953, passenger numbers at the station began to drop. The station was finally closed in 1962 and the existing tracks were removed.

The station was situated to the west of another railway line, the ‘Waterhall Branch’ of the Taff Vale Railway (TVR). Opened in 1886 it was used to transport materials from the nearby Creigiau Quarry down to the Cardiff docks until its closure in 1980. Despite only being 100 yards from each other at their nearest point, these two railway lines were not connected and the TVR line had no station as it was not available for public use.

Present Day

In the years since the closure of the station and dismantling of the railways, large scale housing developments in this part of Cardiff have been limited. As a result it is possible to find both platforms of the station (albeit very overgrown) as well as two humped railway bridges which used to carry the lines under the aptly-named Station Road and between a row of cottages called Station Houses.

In Creigiau the former track beds are popular with dog-walkers and joggers, it is possible to trace the former routes beyond Creigiau using Google Maps. The former Barry Railway line extends as far as Junction 33 of M4, although beyond this a large section was built over in 1985 to form the Capel Llanilltern to Culverhouse Cross section of the A4232 (Cardiff ‘Ring Road’). The TVR line has not suffered the same fate and can be traced almost uninterrupted (see 'Future' section) from Creigiau to where it used to connect to the existing City Line between Llantrisant Road and Pwllmelin Road.

Future

In December 2012 a business lobby group put forward a proposal to Cardiff Council to create a ‘Crossrail’ network linking a new station in St Mellons in the east of Cardiff with a reopened Creigiau Railway Station in the west. The £200m project is deemed “essential” to improve transport links and ease traffic in the capital ahead of a predicted major expansion of the city.

With the former line constructed over, one solution would be to create a new station on the largely intact (albeit overgrown) TVR line. This would give the option of providing additional stations in the Pentrebane area (which is due to expand by over 4,000 houses by the year 2026 under Cardiff Council’s Local Development Plan) and near Rhydlafar. Reopening this route would create a new spur off the existing City Line between Fairwater and Danescourt, although this would probably require the purchase and demolition of a number of houses in Fairwood Close and Kirton Close which were built on or close to the former TVR line.

Local Councillor Neil McEvoy started a campaign in April 2014 to prevent the expansion of the city, including the reopening of the railway line and demolition of the aforementioned houses.

Further reading and references:

Wikipedia, Creigiau Railway Station: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creigiau_railway_station

Cardiffians.co.uk (2010) The history of the suburb of Creigiau: http://www.cardiffians.co.uk/suburbs/creigiau.shtml

Dicmortimer’s Blog (2012) Waterhall and Back: http://dicmortimer.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/waterhall-and-back/