Newport High Street railway station or more commonly Newport (Welsh: Casnewydd) is the 3rd busiest railway station in Wales (after Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street), situated in the heart of the city of Newport. It is operated by Arriva Trains Wales. The main station entrance is located on Queensway, and a small section of road known as Station Approach links this to the High Street.
The station was originally opened in 1850 by the South Wales Railway Company and was greatly expanded in 1928. Although officially named Newport High Street, the suffix High Street became unnecessary on the closure of Mill Street and Dock Street stations to goods traffic in the 1960s. Printed tickets and National rail enquiries use the suffix South Wales to differentiate this station from its namesake in Essex.
Newport is currently served by three train operating companies: Arriva Trains Wales, CrossCountry and First Great Western Arriva Trains Wales operate hourly services between Cardiff Central and Manchester Piccadilly, with some trains extended beyond Cardiff to Swansea, Carmarthen or Milford Haven. There are also hourly services from Cardiff to North Wales. In addition, there are hourly local services between Maesteg and Gloucester, via Cardiff and Newport.
CrossCountry operate an hourly service from Cardiff to Nottingham, via Birmingham New Street. They also run a daily service to Edinburgh Waverley, via Bristol, Birmingham and Newcastle, which departs at 07:15 on Mondays to Fridays and 09:15 on Saturdays. This service does not run on Sundays. There is an hourly service on Saturdays between Plymouth and various stations in the Midlands and north of England which reverses at Newport.
First Great Western operate a half-hourly express service to London Paddington and Cardiff Central, with trains often continuing to Swansea, and also services to Bristol Temple Meads, which often continue to Portsmouth Harbour, Weymouth, Westbury, Frome or Taunton.The current station layout consists of four through-platforms numbered 1 to 4 from the south side. The original broad gauge station had only two 200ft-long through platforms and a bay platform at the east end of the down platform.
On the closure of Dock Street and Mill Street stations to passengers in 1880, High Street station was greatly expanded: The up platform was made into an island the north face 825ft in length, and the south side 814ft. The down platform was extended to 897ft with the west end bay extended to 428ft. Two scissors crossovers were provided on these new platforms, effectively dividing them into two.
The original down platform became Nos. 1 and 2.The bay became No. 3, the south face of the up platform Nos. 4 and 5 and the north face Nos. 6 and 7, The bay platform was mostly used for Monmouthshire western valleys services, but with the quadrupling of the line in 1912 trains from the bay platform (on the south side) now had to cross the entire station to get to the Gaer Tunnel on the north side. To address this the former loading dock on the north side of the station was made into a passenger platform
Platform 1 is generally only used during peak hours and usually for trains heading towards Cardiff Central. Platform 2 is the usual stopping point for all westbound services towards Cardiff Central including First Great Western services continuing to Swansea. Platform 3 is the stopping point for eastbound trains to London Paddington and First services to South England, Bristol Temple Meads, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Manchester, North Wales and the Midlands. Platform 4 is the stopping point for Arriva Trains Wales services to Gloucester and First Great Western services to Weymouth and will also be used by trains to Ebbw Vale following the full re-opening of the Ebbw Valley Line.
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