Bow Street marks third anniversary with continued passenger growth

It’s three years since the first brand new station opened under Transport for Wales and since then it has gone from strength to strength, with almost 30,000 using it in 2023/24.

Bow Street Transport Interchange was completed in 2021 as the result of more than a decade of work and campaigning by local groups in Ceredigion.

During 2021/22 it saw 12,563 passenger journeys, which grew to 23,156 the following year, helped of course by the reduction of Covid-19 restrictions.

And in the most recent data, it has been confirmed more than 29,000 used the station in 2023/24, an average of 2,300 per month.

Transport for Wales Station Manager David Crunkhorn said it was “great to see its ongoing success”.

He said: “Customers have been really positive about it and certainly we seem to see a lot of people using it particularly to get into Aberystwyth where parking in the town can be limited.

“We were really proud that the first new station as Transport for Wales was here on the Cambrian line and it is great to see its ongoing success.”

The station comprises a free 70 space car park covered by CCTV as well as cycle parking provision and customers using it can connect onto the T-2 bus route which connects Aberystwyth to Bangor, as well as local bus routes.

Tirymynach ward councillor Paul Hinge was heavily involved in the campaign for the station which eventually culminated in the Welsh Government commissioning a study into the reopening of the station and securing funding from the Department for Transport for its construction.

“People are definitely using it more and more, not just from the village of Bow Street but from communities like Penrhyncoch, Talybont and beyond,” he said.

“A big part of that is the free car park and many people will prefer to travel from here when heading to Birmingham or London because they know they can leave their car safely.

“For me it was a real labour of love as my father-in-law worked on the railway for about 50 years and he asked me to push for this shortly before he died.”

The community has also benefitted from considerable improvements to Active Travel connections within Bow Street as well as between Bow Street and neighbouring community of Penrhyncoch via Aberystwyth University’s Plas Gogerddan campus.

According to Ceredigion County Council, these new shared use pedestrian and cycle routes were completed in 2021/22 and are now very well used.

Usage figures from Bow Street show that 34% of all journeys starting at the station were to Aberystwyth, followed by 13% to Shrewsbury, 8% to either Birmingham New Street or Birmingham International and 7% to London.