Pyle railway station is a minor railway station

Train station

A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...

 in Pyle

Pyle

Pyle is a village and community in Bridgend county borough, Wales. Pyle railway station is on the Cardiff - Swansea section of the London - South Wales main line....

 in Bridgend county borough

Bridgend (county borough)

Bridgend is a county borough in the historic county of Glamorgan, south Wales. The county borough has a total population of 130,000 people, and contains the settlements of Bridgend, after which it is named, Maesteg, and the seaside town of Porthcawl...

, South Wales

South Wales

South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...

. The station is located at street level at Beach Road in Pyle. It is a stop on the South Wales Main Line

South Wales Main Line

The South Wales Main Line , originally known as the London, Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway or simply as the Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway, is a branch of the Great Western Main Line in Great Britain...

, served by the Arriva Trains Wales

Arriva Trains Wales

Arriva Trains Wales is a train operating company, owned by Arriva, that operates urban and inter urban passenger services in Wales and the Welsh Marches...

 Swanline Swansea to Cardiff Central

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

 regional train. These services are generally every 2 Hours during the day, with additional trains during the morning and evening peak.

Facilities

The station has 2 platforms:

• Platform 1, for westbound trains towards Swansea
  Swansea railway station
  Swansea railway station is a railway station that serves Swansea, Wales. The station is one of four in the City and County of Swansea and is the fourth busiest in Wales after Cardiff Central, Cardiff Queen Street and Newport.-History:...
  
  
• Platform 2, for eastbound trains towards Cardiff Central
  Cardiff Central railway station
  Cardiff Central railway station is a major railway station on the South Wales Main Line in Cardiff, Wales.It is the largest and busiest station in Wales and one of the major stations of the British rail network, the tenth busiest station in the United Kingdom outside of London , based on 2007/08...
  
  

The station is unmanned - there is no ticket office nor are there any platform entry barriers. Passengers must purchase tickets on board trains.

History

The original station at Pyle was opened by the South Wales Railway

South Wales Railway

The South Wales Railway was a broad gauge railway that linked the Gloucester and Dean Forest Railway with Neyland in Wales.-History:The need for the railway was created by the need to ship coal from the South Wales Valleys to London, and secondly to complete Brunel's vision of linking London with...

 in 1850. It was relocated in 1876 and amalgamated with the former Llynvi and Ogmore Railway

Llynvi and Ogmore Railway

* Ada * Una The railway owned two 0-6-0STs for goods traffic. Built by Slaughter, Grunning and Company, they were similar to the South Devon Railway Dido class built at around the same time....

 station of 1865, which served the branch lines to and Porthcawl

Porthcawl

Porthcawl is a town on the south coast of Wales in the county borough of Bridgend, 25 miles west of the capital city, Cardiff and 19 miles southeast of Swansea...

.
In the days of steam Pyle Junction, together with its extensive sidings, was quite an important strategic point on the South Wales railway system, not only for passengers, commuting from or visiting the resort of Porthcawl, but also for freight and bulk traffic, particularly the limestone from local quarries essential for the iron and steel industries. This is evidenced by the fact that during World War II there were two military 'pill-boxes' overlooking its approaches. This station was closed by the Western Region of British Railways

Western Region of British Railways

The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992...

 in 1964 as part of the notorious Beeching Axe

Beeching Axe

The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...

.

As part of the Swanline initiative, the present station was opened about 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) west in June 1994.