Aber Student travel- sea change over last few years more and more Welsh students staying at Welsh Unis due to tuition fee policy's etc, given where population centers are in Wales and rail geography unfortunately the two don't mix well. I can drive to Merthyr from Newtown on 2 hrs - its a 4 hr plus rail trip for example.
Also lot of overseas students who probably aren't inclined to go home for a few days as often as English ones!
You'll still see them though maybe not in numbers of yesteryear.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I've just noticed this thread and gone all misty-eyed remembering my train travel to Aberystwyth Univ. between 1973-76 - and I think Gareth Marston is correct, even in those days I suspect that the majority of students using the railway were from England. Of course in those days very few students had cars (I remember noticing something different on my first return to Aber some 15 years later - and then I realised....car parks!!) and not every parent had one either! Even those places relatively near to Aber in railway terms (eg Cambrian Coast and mainline) were just as easy, if not easier with a parental car...and of course there were buses to S. Wales.
However the London bound services were pretty busy at the beginning and end of term, the platform at Wolverhampton HL was always full of students 'looking forward' to a cramped and uncomfortable journey to Aber. The most popular train used to arrive in Aber about 16h45, I think - memory fading but it might have left Euston at 11h40 - I know that I left my home town at 08h15, so I certainly wasn't going to pop home for the weekend.
Incidentally, the train that left Aber at about 10h15 was one of those WR Cross Country units ( I think that is what they were called, not to be confused with....) - it was always a bit more comfortable to sit in the ex-first class compartment..I think I arrived home sometime after 6, carrying suitcase, box of LP's and for the last two years, a cat. Happy days, tho' - remininscence over....
Also have fond student memories of travel by rail to Aber in the mid late 70s. I was in uni in the Midlands but often used to trek over to Aber for a w/e to stay with friends in uni there. Again, from memory, I think all trains were Salop-Aber with the exception of a late afternoon train originating at Wolverhampton which was almost always a 3 car Swindon 120. This then returned first thing in the morning which I tried my best to make on a Monday morning. A remnant of the Cambrian coast express?
Returning to the original thread and short sighted Welsh closures the Porthcawl branch. this was proposed for closure PRIOR to the Beeching and in 1962 the Tucc recomended retaining the line for the summer only. No final decision came from the MoT and services continued through the winter of 62/3 but after publication of the Beeching Report (which listed it for closure) the service was "suspended" from september 1963. Of course it never re-opened, the final Mot decision to close coming in January 1964, 2 years after the TUCC recomendation.
Today, with a population of about 15,000, Porthcawl is one of the largest towns in Wales without a station. It still attracts large numbers of day trippers during the summer (like Barry Island) and there is a steady commuter/leisure flow between the town and Bridgend/ Cardiff. An hourly service to Cardiff, combining with Maesteg trains, a simple shuttle to Bridgend? Nice ideas but the trackbed disappeared immediately after closure. In reality the local authority were quite happy to see the line close as it created the opportunity to build a mile long dual carriageway into the town and got rid of a troublesome level crossing which, even in the early 60s, created traffic problems in the height of summer.
), as there are some muddy patches in the cuttings over the first 1 1/2 miles. Most of that is fine though (I did the first bit once in trainers), and after that it's either grass and/or ballast.
