Cardiff Central railway station

In the early 1840s, the South Wales Railway was trying to find a suitable site for a railway station, but the area that is now Cardiff Central was prone to flooding. It was Isambard Kingdom Brunel's solution to divert the River Taff to the west, creating a larger and safer site for the station. The initial part of the South Wales Railway between and through Cardiff was opened on 18 June 1850, with all trains operated by the Great Western Railway (GWR) under a lease agreement. Through services from Cardiff to London Paddington began on 19 July 1852, when the Chepstow Railway Bridge was opened, completing the connection between the South Wales Railway and the Great Western Railway. The South…

There are two entrances to the station: The railway lines are above the station concourses. Two subways, one each at the eastern and western side of the station, run parallel under the tracks linking the two main entrances, from which the platforms are accessed by stairs and lifts. The exception is platform 0, which is accessed from the main concourse near the Marks and Spencer shop. The station has eight platforms, numbered: 0, 1a/b, 2a/b, 3a/b, 4a/b, 6a/b, 7a/b and 8. There is no longer a platform 5, despite signage; this was a west-facing bay platform situated between 3 and 4, which was removed in the 1960s. Platform 0, a short through platform at the north of the station, was created in…