Pontypridd Central railway station
Pontypridd 
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A visiting railtour in the station
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| Location | |
| Place | Pontypridd |
| Local authority | Rhondda Cynon Taf |
| Coordinates | 51°35′58″N 3°20′31″W / 51.5994°N 3.3419°WCoordinates: 51°35′58″N 3°20′31″W / 51.5994°N 3.3419°W |
| Grid reference | ST071898 |
| Operations | |
| Station code | PPD |
| Managed by | Arriva Trains Wales |
| Number of platforms | 3 |
| DfT category | C2 |
| Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries |
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| Annual rail passenger usage* | |
| 2011/12 |
 0.873 million |
| 2012/13 |
 0.876 million |
| 2013/14 |
0.861 million |
| 2014/15 |
0.800 million |
| 2015/16 |
0.778 million |
| History | |
| Original company | Taff Vale Railway |
| Pre-grouping | Taff Vale Railway |
| Post-grouping | Great Western Railway |
| 9 October 1840 | Opened as Newbridge Junction |
| March 1866 | Renamed Pontypridd |
| 1924 | Renamed Pontypridd Central |
| 10 July 1930 | Renamed Pontypridd |
| National Rail – UK railway stations | |
| * Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Pontypridd from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year. | |
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Pontypridd railway station serves the town of Pontypridd in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It is located at the junction of the Merthyr line and the Rhondda line and has for many years been the only station serving the town.
Until the 1930s, Pontypridd had two other stations. One, just behind the present station, was known as Pontypridd Graig. It closed in 1930. The other, Pontypridd Tram Road, serving the former Pontypridd to Newport line, closed in 1922. It was located near where this line crossed the 'Broadway' in Treforest.
The station was built by the Taff Vale Railway (TVR) and opened on 9 October 1840. It was known as Newbridge Junction until March 1866 when it was renamed Pontypridd.
It was progressively remodelled during the 19th century, but its present appearance derives largely from reconstruction carried out between 1907 and 1914. Reflecting both the narrow steep sided topography of the valley, and the need to accommodate many converging passenger routes and passing coal trains, it is effectively designed as two back-to-back termini. This gave it the then longest island platform in the world, around which were arranged seven platforms.
The west side of the island platform has two, stepped platform faces (originally platforms 1 & 2) each originally capable of accommodating a full-length train. The east side of the island platform has three stepped platform faces (originally platforms 5, 6 & 7) arranged as a north bay platform, a through platform and a south bay platform. The north end of the island platform accommodated two bay platforms (originally platforms 3 & 4), now filled in. The north end bay platforms were used for services to Aberdare, Nelson and Ynysybwl, and the south bay platform (originally platform 7) for services to Llantrisant and Cowbridge.
The modernisation of 2014/2015 brought former through platform 6 back into use as a bay platform, now numbered platform 1, for southbound services to Cardiff. (Due to loss of railway land to road widening, the southern end of the concourse of new bay platform 1 (old platform 6) has been cut back and re-profiled, and its track has been slewed partly into the adjacent trackbed of former bay platform 7.)
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Wikipedia