Port Talbot Parkway railway station

Down Pembroke Coast Express in 1962

The former station building and footbridge in March 2012

The first section of the South Wales Railway, between Chepstow and Swansea, which included the station originally named Port Talbot, opened either on 18 June 1850,[2] or on 19 June 1850.[3] The station was renamed several times: to Port Talbot and Aberavon on 5 June 1897; to Port Talbot General on 1 July 1924[3] (the suffix distinguishing it from other stations in Port Talbot),[4] later reverting to the original Port Talbot in April 1947, finally becoming Port Talbot Parkway on 3 December 1984.[3]

While it now bears the title Parkway, it is not a parkway station per se. It was named Parkway in the 1980s by British Rail when the old goods shed and yard were converted to a large car park, with freight handling moved to Margam Knuckle Yard, to encourage patronage of eastbound commuters from the Neath and Swansea Valley areas. The idea was that overall travel time could be saved by catching the train at Port Talbot instead of Neath or Swansea because of the low line speed west of Port Talbot and the limited parking at the other two stations.

There were originally two stations near to the current site, one of which was Aberavon Town, which was on the old Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway route and the other being the nearby terminus of the Port Talbot Railway named Port Talbot Central.

Aerial view of the new footbridge during construction work (May 2016)

A transport interchange formed part of the redevelopment of the station

Tesco planned to vacate its current store site near the Aberafan Centre and build a new store beside the station featuring a superstore, petrol station and car park. However this was rejected by the local council and the land remains undeveloped.[5]

The resignalling activity in the Port Talbot area during 2006/2007 has provided a new signalled turnback facility in both directions. There are proposals for the present Transport for Wales' Swanline service, which has one train every two hours between Swansea and Cardiff Central service, to be altered to a service which terminates at Port Talbot Parkway and operate on an hourly basis between Swansea and Port Talbot Parkway.[6]

The council announced in early 2011 the plans for a new ticket office and platform bridge at the station, including a lift for disabled access and a 200 space car-park.

Redevelopment work on the station began in May 2014 and was completed in late 2016, at a cost of £11 million.[7]