Llanfairpwll Railway Station
Llanfairpwll Railway Station is a working station on the North Wales Coast Line on the island of Anglesey, serving the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and famous worldwide for its extended name: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. The station was opened in 1848 as the temporary terminus of the line from Holyhead, with passengers crossing the Menai Strait by ferry to continue their journeys from Bangor on the mainland. The opening of Robert Stephenson's Britannia Bridge in 1850 ended the station's importance as a terminus overnight, and a local committee devised the long name in the 1860s as a Victorian publicity stunt to lure rail tourists back to the village, combining the original place name with local topographical details and the dedication of a neighbouring church. The name translates roughly as the church of St Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio near the red cave. The station suffered a catastrophic fire in 1865 and had to be fully rebuilt, and closed and reopened several times in the twentieth century. Today it is an unmanned stop managed by Transport for Wales on services between Holyhead and destinations including Cardiff, Birmingham and Manchester, and draws an estimated 200,000 visitors a year who come to photograph the famous station nameboards.