Delight as town’s railway station shortlisted for national awards

LLANDOVERY station has been shortlisted for the station of the year award at the 2019 National Rail Awards.

Taking place later this month on September 19, the awards celebrate all aspects of the rail industry from safety innovations and sustainable developments to stations, trains and customer service.

Now in its 20th year, the National Rail Awards are among the most important in the rail industry in Britain.

Nominations have now been confirmed, with Llandovery, on the Heart of Wales line, up for the Best Small Station award.

Though unstaffed, the station is adopted through Transport for Wales’ Station Adoption Scheme by the Friends of Llandovery Station, a group of local volunteers who run the cafe and look after the station garden and floral displays.

Mary Hargreaves and Joan Snaith are two of the station’s longeststanding volunteers.

“It’s very nice to be nominated and we’re really pleased with what’s been achieved so far,” they said.

“We’ve been running the cafe with a small core group of volunteers and it’s been great to be able to get people in for work experience too.”

Originally built in 1858, Llandovery station once employed 57 people and used to boast a shunter’s yard where a spare steam locomotive was kept to help pull services over the steep gradient of Sugar Loaf to Llanwrtyd before coming back to the yard.

The station building closed in 1992 but was brought back to life by the Heart of Wales Line Development Company and reopened as a cafe in 2011, with Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall guests of honour.

The royal couple, who have a residence nearby in Myddfai, returned to the station last year as part of the Heart of Wales line’s 150th anniversary.

Transport for Wales’ Tom Owens, who manages Llandovery station, said: “It’s a real gem on our network and a huge credit to the amazing work of our volunteers.”