Llanhilleth railway station
Llanhilleth lost its railway station for decades in the 19th century and again in the 20th. The present station opened in 2008. A blue plaque honours railwayman and cabinet minister Raymond Jones Gunter (see below).
The railway through Llanhilleth opened in 1850, primarily for freight. Initially there were two daily passenger trains from Blaina to Newport’s Courtybella station and back.
Llanhilleth’s first station opened in 1853. In the first six months it was used by 2,054 passengers, fewer than the line’s other stations. The notice shown here announced the station’s closure in November 1861. Four years later there were complaints that trains still unofficially stopped there for “the favoured few” but not for the poor.
Llanhilleth’s population grew rapidly, and in 1897 local workmen petitioned the Great Western Railway for a station. The new station opened in 1901 with a platform between the tracks, accessed by a footbridge from Commercial Road.
History repeated itself 101 years after the first station’s closure. In 1962 British Railways withdrew Ebbw Vale’s passenger trains to Newport, to prioritise steel and coal trains. The upper photo, taken from Meadow Street bridge in 2006, shows the grass-grown site of Llanhilleth station platform.
A passenger train service for the valley was an early Welsh Government priority after the Welsh Assembly opened in 1999. Freight trains stopped after Ebbw Vale steelworks closed in 2002. New track and stations were installed for the Ebbw Vale to Cardiff service which began in February 2008. The lower photo shows the new Llanhilleth station in 2009.
Another platform and a footbridge with lifts were installed when the second track was reinstated to create capacity for Ebbw Vale to Newport trains, launched by Transport for Wales in January 2024.
In 2013 a plaque was unveiled at the station (by the Commercial Road entrance) for Ray Gunter of Llanhilleth (1909-1977), who started as a GWR booking clerk aged 14. In 1939 he was living with his wife Elsie and son David in Commercial Road.
He served in the Royal Engineers in the Second World War and became Labour MP for South East Essex in 1945. He worked for the Transport and Salaried Staffs’ Association in the 1950s before a second stint in Parliament, 1959-1972. He held several cabinet posts, including Minister of Labour under Harold Wilson.
Postcode: NP13 2HT View Location Map