FISHGUARD has been branded the region’s worst rail performer due to its measly 20 % increase in passengers despite the millions of pounds in renovations and additions which have been invested in the station.

Official statistics from the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) have been analysed by Transport Consultant John Davies, who stated that the 21% increase in rail passengers at Fishguard and Goodwick station is a “major disappointment” due to the Welsh Government’s fight to fund the station’s additional train services.

Despite several Welsh stations seeing passenger growth of more than 200%, Mr Davies also suggested that there should be more improvements along the South Wales main lines due to the relatively small passenger growth in those areas.

He said that the 110 % growth along the Pembroke Dock line reflected the popularity of the twohourly service which was introduced in the station in 1998.

Analysis of the CBT’s recent online map of station usage shows that both the Fishguard Harbour and Fishguard and Goodwick stations have been seen to see-saw between a decrease and a 50-75 % increase in popularity since 1997.

Fishguard and Goodwick station was closed by British Railways when local services between Fishguard and Clarbeston Road were withdrawn on April 6, 1964.

Following the closure of normal passenger trains, the station remained in use for a few more months for workmen’s trains to the Royal Navy Armaments Depot in Trecwn.

Between June 18 1965 and September 18 1980, the station became the terminus of a seasonal motorail service from London. Early photographs of the station show the station building to be considerably shorter than it is today, due to the extension added for the unloading of motorail cars from the train.

The station was also used temporarily in the June of 1982, whilst the railway lines at the Fishguard Harbour station were being moved and re-laid. High speed train services ran through the station until the early 1990s, but services were ceased in 1994.

The reopening of Fishguard and Goodwick station as a railbus interchange was considered by Pembrokeshire County Council for a number of years.

In March 2011, it was announced by Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones of the Welsh Assembly Government that they would provide a subsidy which would allow for an increase in train frequency at the Fishguard and Goodwick station in September 2011 from two trains per day to seven, a service which they wanted to be trialled for three years.

This announcement from the Welsh Assembly prompted a wider governmental search for the railway’s funding which was eventually successfully found, leading to an announcement that the station would then re-open in March 2012.

The re-opening work cost £325,000, which including the lowering and realigning of the old tracks by Network Rail, as well as the clearing of the old derelict timber station building. The Welsh Government spent approximately £1.4m funding five extra trains which run Monday to Saturday.

The North Pembrokeshire Transport Forum (NPTF) campaigned for a number for years for a better stations and improved services. They brought up the fact that the parking at the old station was expensive and would possible deter people from using the rail service.

Hatti Woakes, Secretary of the NPTF, said of Fishguard: “It has the potential to be a hub for so many things – walkers, cyclists, buses – the only thing missing was a decent train service. This is the last piece of the jigsaw, it is wonderful.

“We’re now getting people communing to Carmarthen, which we have never had before. One B&B owners says her business has doubled and the people who stay with her think that the new services are wonderful.

“We feel we’re now linked up with the rest of the world.” The Welsh Government said that the overall positive figures around Wales indicate that its aim of modernising the Welsh rail infrastructure seems to be working well.

A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said: “Our significant investment in this area over a number of years has resulted in growing demand for rail services.”

“We intend to further build on this success when we take over full responsibility for the Wales and Borders rail franchise in 2018. This will give us greater ability to specify services to meet passenger needs across the full franchise area.”

An Arriva Trains Wales spokesperson said: “The healthy growth in passenger figures reflects the continuing popularity of rail travel across our network. Our own records indicate that the growth of overall passenger journeys since the start of the franchise in 2003 has been in excess of 60%.

“However, our franchise was designed for zero passenger growth and a limited fixed fleet for the entirety of its 15-year duration. In partnership with the Welsh Government and the Department for Transport, we have responded to these increases in customer demand.”

Recently, based on figures from the Office of Rail and Road, Arriva Train Wales came thirteenth in a poll of the top twenty significantly late train companies, which could perhaps deter people from using the service.

Between July and September 2015, Arriva had a score of 0.23%, which means that an average of two trains a day are considerably late, arriving between 30 minutes and 119 minutes behind their intended arrival time.

However, Wales’ only train station with falling numbers of passengers was the Conwy Valley line, whose performance had reduced by 40%. Mr Davies indicated that this was due to resulting flood damage and also the introduction of a competing bus service in the area.

The best performer in Wales was Gowerton train station near Swansea, in which there was a 2,100% increase in passengers, perhaps due to the Welsh Government funding a second track and full modernisation of the station back in 2013.