Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury is the county's public transportation hub and has road and rail links to the rest of the county and country.

Rail

Five railway lines connect the town to most corners of Shropshire, and the town is regarded as the "Gateway to Wales"[citation needed]. Shrewsbury railway station is served by Arriva Trains Wales and London Midland. Trains north to Chester, Manchester, Crewe and Wrexham, south to Hereford and Cardiff, west to Aberystwyth, and east to Birmingham via Telford and Wolverhampton. [106]Heart of Wales Line trains also operate to Swansea. On 28 April 2008 open access service provider Wrexham & Shropshire commenced services to London. This restored the county's direct rail link to London; previously Shropshire was one of only two English counties without a dedicated service to the capital, the other being Rutland. [107]

The main station building includes a clock tower, imitation Tudor chimneys, and carved heads in the frames of every window. There is a small police post located within the building.

More recently, Councillors have raised the idea of a Tram system to serve the town centre and replace the current Park & Ride sites. [108]

Roads

The A5 connects the town northwest to Oswestry, and east towards Telford, where it joins the M54. The A5 once ran through the town centre, until a bypass was built in the 1930s. Subsequently, in 1992, a seventeen mile (27 km) dual carriageway was completed at a cost of 79 million pounds to the south of the town, and was made to form part of the A5 route. This dual carriageway was built further out of the town to act as a substantial link to Telford, as well as a bypass for the town. [109]

The A49 also goes to Shrewsbury, joining the A5 at the south of the town, coming from Ludlow and Leominster. At this point, the road merges with the A5 for three miles (5 km), before separating again to the east of the town. From there it runs north, passing Sundorne, then Battlefield, before heading out towards Whitchurch. At Battlefield, the A53 route begins and heads northeast towards Shawbury and Market Drayton then onwards towards Newcastle-under-Lyme and Stoke-on-Trent.

Major roads within the town include the A5112, A5191 and A5064. The A5191 goes north-south via the town centre, while the A5112 runs north-south to the east of the town centre. The A5064 is a short, one mile (1.6 km) stretch of road to the southeast of the town centre, called "London Road". Additionally, the A5124, the most recent bypass, was completed in 1998, and runs across the northern edge of the town at Battlefield (connecting the A49/A53 to the A528), though it did exist before as Harlescott Lane (which has since become unclassified).

Buses

Bus services in the town are operated by Arriva Midlands and serve most parts of the town, congregating at the town's bus station adjacent to the Darwin Shopping Centre and a short stroll from the railway station. Arriva also operate county services both independent of and on behalf of Shropshire County Council. There are other bus companies operating around the Shrewsbury area, including Boultons of Shropshire, Minsterley Motors and Tanat Valley Coaches with the latter operating services crossing from over the Welsh border from nearby towns including Llanfyllin, Montgomery, Newtown and Welshpool.

Shrewsbury has a Park and Ride bus scheme in operation and three car parks on the edge of town are used by many who want to travel into the town centre. The three car parks are located at Harlescott (to the north, colour-coded orange), Oxon (to the west, colour-coded brown) and Meole Brace (to the south, colour-coded green). It is proposed that a fourth one be built to the east of the town, at either Emstrey or Preston. [110]

Shrewsbury has an excellent network of on-road and traffic-free cycle routes. [111] In 2008 Shrewsbury was awarded Cycling Town status by Cycling England. [112] As a result Shrewsbury will benefit from £1.8 million of grant funding from the Department for Transport between 2008 and 2011. The funding will be used to make improvements to the cycle network in Shrewsbury, and to provide cycle training, information and advice to people to help encourage them to cycle to school and work. [113].

Bridges

The town has many bridges, which cross the River Severn and the Rea Brook. Frankwell footbridge is a modern pedestrian footbridge between Frankwell and the town centre spanning the River Severn. Downstream is the Welsh Bridge, which was built in the 1790s to replace the ancient St George's Bridge. Further along is the Porthill Bridge, a pedestrian suspension bridge running between The Quarry and Porthill, built in 1922. The next bridge along the river is the Kingsland Bridge, a privately owned toll bridge, and the subsequent bridge is the Greyfriars Bridge, a pedestrian bridge between Coleham and the town centre. Following the Greyfriars Bridge is the English Bridge, historically called "Stone Bridge", which was rebuilt in the 1930s, and beyond it is the railway station, which is partly built over the river. After the station is the Castle Walk Footbridge, another modern pedestrian footbridge.