Ellesmere Canal from Hurleston to Llangollen was retained as a water feeder for the Shropshire Union Canal main line and for drinking water. In 1955 an agreement with the Mid & South East Cheshire Water Board secured the canal's future. Despite the formal closure, increasing popularity of the canal with pleasure boats led to its acceptance as an important amenity, and the rebranding as the Llangollen Canal. As the canal was never intended to go to Llangollen, this renaming is an ironic twist symbolic of the canal's convoluted development. The Ellesmere Canal south of Frankton Junction (the Llanymynech Branch) nowadays forms part
Llangollen railway station Ruabon to Barmouth line. The local council granted a lease on the Llangollen railway station building, as well as of track, with the hope that the railway would improve the local economy and bring more tourists to Llangollen. The station reopened on 13 September 1975, with just of track. The station was fully reopened in 1981 by the preserved Llangollen Railway as its eastern terminus, and has been subsequently been extended westwards to reopened in stages, to its present length of . The refurbished station now encloses the Robertson Suite, which is available for hire as a venue for licensed