Originally there was a passing loop, a goods shed, a water tower and a ticket office and a signal box - the latter remained in use until March 2011 as a gate box to supervise the station level crossing (this is now operated from Machynlleth).

The station was threatened with closure in 1964 along with all of the other wayside stops on the former Cambrian main line (as a consequence of the Beeching cuts), but reprieved by the Minister of Transport Tom Fraser in December that year to act as the notional railhead for the town of Llanidloes (following the demise of the Mid-Wales Railway that served it directly).

Train running information is offered via CIS displays, automated announcements, timetable poster boards and a customer help point.

Sundays also run every two hours, though there is only a limited service (one in winter, three in summer) along the Cambrian Coast line to Pwllheli.

The notable Welsh romantic poet John Ceiriog Hughes was employed as a station master and Manager of the Van Railway at Caersws railway station from 1868 until his death in 1887.