St Clears railway station

The station opened on 2 January 1854.^[1] It was on the section of the South Wales Railway which opened that day between the temporary station near Carmarthen and Haverfordwest,^[2] and was situated between Sarnau and Whitland.^[3]

The station closed on 15 June 1964.^[1] An attempt to reopen the station in 1973 was made by five local authorities and organisations, together with the Department of the Environment, which jointly agreed to fund construction of a new station at a total cost of £5,400 (equivalent to £32,000 in 2023^[a]).^[4] The new station would have consisted of concrete platforms adjoining both tracks and timber waiting shelters provided with electric lighting.^[4] It had been hoped that works would be swiftly completed so that the first trains could call at St Clears by the end of Summer 1973, but this did not materialise.^[4]

There has long been a local campaign for the reopening of the station, supported by Angela Burns AM and William Powell AM.^[5][6]

Locals started a Facebook campaign to reopen the station in 2010 which drew in thousands of supporters. The St Clears Times ran a community poll from 2010 and 95% of people who voted were in favour of opening the station.^{[citation needed]}

There have been recent proposals to reopen the station as part of the Welsh Governments Rail infrastructure investment.^[7] In 2019 it was shortlisted by Welsh Government for further assessment, along with three other stations (from an original longlist of 12) as part of a national strategy to improve transport links.^[8] In 2020, funding was secured to reopen the station by 2024.^[9] Some initial activities (groundwork and surveying) were carried out in February and March 2022.^[10] Final design work has not been completed and a timetable for construction of the new station has yet to be announced.^[11]