Risca and Pontymister railway station

Risca and Pontymister railway station (Welsh: Rhisga a Phont-y-meistr) is a station on the Ebbw Valley Railway in south-east Wales. It serves the village of Pontymister and the town of Risca. It is located roughly ½ mile south of the original Risca railway station.

Risca and Pontymister Welsh: Rhisga a Phont-y-meistr
General information
Location	Pontymister, Caerphilly Wales
Coordinates	51.60554°N 3.09304°W / 51.60554; -3.09304
Grid reference	ST245902
Owned by	Network Rail
Managed by	Transport for Wales
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	RCA
Classification	DfT category F2
Key dates
23 December 1850	Opened as Risca
30 April 1962	Closed
6 February 2008	Reopened as Risca and Pontymister
Passengers
2018/19	92,144
2019/20	87,082
2020/21	16,906
2021/22	55,560
2022/23	72,414
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

The station is located near Ty Isaf School and Mill Street on a site of former railway sidings. The station has two platforms and a park and ride car park. Vehicular access to the station is off Maryland Road, with passenger access off Mill Street.

Services

On Mondays to Saturdays, there are two trains per hour between Cardiff Central or Newport and Ebbw Vale Town. On Sundays, the Cardiff to Ebbw Vale service runs via Newport every two hours.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Crosskeys		Transport for Wales Cardiff / Newport - Ebbw Vale Town		Rogerstone

History

Main article: Risca railway station

The first steam locomotive passenger train ran on the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company Western Valley line on Monday 23 December 1850, with service running twice in each direction (to Ebbw Vale and to Newport) each weekday.^[1]

The MRCC had been running the canals and horse-drawn carriages on their tram-roads which went through Risca from 1795.^[2]

Passenger services on the original line ended in 1962.^[3]

References

1. "Advertising". Charles Hough. Monmouthshire Merlin. 4 January 1851. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
2. Skillern, WJ (July 1960). "The Railways of Newport". The Railway Magazine. 107 (711).
3. Vay Le, Julian; Benedict Le Vay (1 December 2014). Britain from the Rails: Including the nation's best-kept-secret railways. Bradt Travel Guides. pp. 271–. ISBN 978-1-84162-919-3.

External links

• Train times and station information for Risca and Pontymister railway station from National Rail
• Planning Approval Granted for New Railway Station
• Archive of Ebbw Valley Railway Scheme website (Blaenau Gwent council, 2008)
• grid reference ST244902