Changes to North Wales services from the May 2026 timetable

[tfw756rider]

Two North Wales rail service changes coming this spring - including new direct trains

Liverpool - Chester trains will extend to Llandudno.

But Transport for Wales (TfW) did also say there would be changes in the services from North Wales and Birmingham, including Birmingham International Airport,

Services currently run from the Midlands city to Holyhead on Anglesey.

But from May these will terminate at Llandudno Junction.

 

[gazthomas]

Llandudno to Manchester services will change to Holyhead/Bangor

 

[Snow1964]

Further news story

Also includes pay as you go from 18th May Wrexham - Bidston

Key changes​

North Wales coast and borders

• Trains from Manchester Airport to Llandudno will now serve Holyhead instead, improving links to Northwest England and enhancing ferry connections to Ireland from Manchester.
• The separate Wrexham – Chester and Chester – Crewe hourly services are being combined into one through service.
• The Liverpool – Chester service will be extended to Llandudno, offering new direct travel opportunities.
• The Birmingham – North Wales service (including from Birmingham International Airport) – currently every two hours – will operate to and from Llandudno Junction, not Holyhead.
• A new service pattern will improve commuting options to Holyhead and Bangor, supporting local employment and economic growth.
• Valley station will become a compulsory call on all relevant services, helping to give customers greater confidence in travelling from this stop.

West Wales

There will also be extra trains on busy, holiday routes such as between Carmarthen and Tenby until September, and extra trains on Sundays in August and September.

New timetable to deliver boost to North Wales and summer services in West Wales

Transport for Wales will introduce one of the most significant timetable changes for North Wales in a generation this May (from 17th).

news.tfw.wales

Also a new North Wales route map

North-Wales-Routes-Changes-ENGLISH

News from Transport For Wales

news.tfw.wales

News article also includes some summer enhancements to South West Wales (Tenby etc)

 

[Bletchleyite]

Interesting - I had expected the Manchester to terminate at Bangor, I guess that means 2tph across Anglesey? Quite an improvement!

I would expect Liverpool-Llandudno to be VERY popular particularly in summer - hope they can do better than 2 car!

Any changes to Sundays planned I wonder? These seem to run to a much older timetable and haven't changed alongside Monday-Saturday when things have been recast in recent years, e.g. the Coast mostly runs to Crewe which it doesn't on any other day.

Edit: it's all on Realtime Trains - no, no substantial change to Sunday, still almost all to Crewe. I wonder why? Sunday days out from Liverpool to Llandudno at least in summer seem an omission...

 

[Lewisham2221]

Interesting - I had expected the Manchester to terminate at Bangor, I guess that means 2tph across Anglesey? Quite an improvement!

Not quite, as the Birmingham's will now terminate at Junction, rather than Holyhead. The Cardiff's will still go to Holyhead though, so 3tp2h across the island.

 

[bleeder4]

Bit of a pain about the changes to the Birmingham services. I do Birmingham to Bangor several times a year and the journey will be a more of a hassle if I have to change trains at Llandudno Jn.

 

[nwales58]

Bit of a pain about the changes to the Birmingham services. I do Birmingham to Bangor several times a year and the journey will be a more of a hassle if I have to change trains at Llandudno Jn.

There will still be a couple of through services, 0808 and 2019 from Bangor 0530 and 1720 back, if you need the cheap advance fares.

Only Holyhead-Bangor to Wolverhampton-Birmingham is affected and it's always faster via Crewe so probably many won't notice. On Avanti hours southbound it can take an hour less than the through train with one change at Stafford.

 

[Djgr]

Bit of a pain about the changes to the Birmingham services. I do Birmingham to Bangor several times a year and the journey will be a more of a hassle if I have to change trains at Llandudno Jn.

although to be honest Liverpool to Llandudno will be way more popular than Birmingham to Bangor.

And usually same platform change at Llandudno Junction

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'm kind of surprised they didn't do away with the Llandudno shuttle and just run the Brum through. I guess that would mean less efficient diagrams?

Anyone know why Sunday hasn't been addressed?

 

[Pacef8]

Following the press release it doesn't give any increase in services from llandudno?

 

[Rail Ranger]

The loss of the through service between Manchester and Llandudno is regrettable.

 

[Jez]

TFW have certainly released the information (including a video) in plenty of time before the timetable change which is about 10 weeks away. Usually its a few weeks before. Perhaps its because these changes are so significant.

I can imagine Liverpool to Llandudno will be very popular in the Summer. Then again so is Manchester to Llandudno - at least Manchester still gets an hourly service to the Junction and hopefully connections will be good.

I wonder how many more 197s will be needed in the North and what the allocations will be. Will Manchester to Holyhead be booked for pairs of 197s for example whilst the Liverpool-Llandudno be just one unit (hopefully a 3 car if it is one unit). I see Wrexham-Chester-Crewe will be 1 service. Basically the 3 short services from Chester (Wrexham, Crewe and Liverpool) will be incorporated into longer services.

Sundays often have a very different timetable. It is the same in the South. Its a shame there isnt a significant change on a Sunday.

 

[Llandudno]

Interesting - I had expected the Manchester to terminate at Bangor, I guess that means 2tph across Anglesey? Quite an improvement!

I would expect Liverpool-Llandudno to be VERY popular particularly in summer - hope they can do better than 2 car!

Any changes to Sundays planned I wonder? These seem to run to a much older timetable and haven't changed alongside Monday-Saturday when things have been recast in recent years, e.g. the Coast mostly runs to Crewe which it doesn't on any other day.

Edit: it's all on Realtime Trains - no, no substantial change to Sunday, still almost all to Crewe. I wonder why? Sunday days out from Liverpool to Llandudno at least in summer seem an omission...

I expect Llandudno and north Wales Coast stations TO Liverpool will generate far more custom all year round than in the opposite direction…!

 

[Kite159]

So more 2 coach 197s floating around in North Wales?

As for Crewe - Wrexham, I will give until December before they split it back up due to importing delays across Chester and excessively long dwell times due to the changeover of passengers, especially as where the shuttles at the moment can make use of the bay platforms (1 for Crewe, 2 for Wrexham), the direct service will need to use either P3 or P4 (maybe at a push P7 if there is a gap in Merseyrail).

 

[Jez]

I am going to start a new thread in speculative discussion re how TFW are going to provide these changes to the North Wales services in terms of how many extra diagrams etc as dont want to take this too off topic

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Mar 2026 ==

So more 2 coach 197s floating around in North Wales?

Hopefully not!

 

[BeijingDave]

I expect Llandudno and north Wales Coast stations TO Liverpool will generate far more custom all year round than in the opposite direction…!

Possibly, but there are a LOT of scousers who holiday in Talacre, Prestatyn and Rhyl

 

[VT 390]

Not quite, as the Birmingham's will now terminate at Junction, rather than Holyhead. The Cardiff's will still go to Holyhead though, so 3tp2h across the island.

In some hours there are still the Avanti services between giving 4tp2h, but usually with 3 trains in one hour and only 1 train in the next hour.

 

[Djgr]

Possibly, but there are a LOT of scousers who holiday in Talacre, Prestatyn and Rhyl

Also Llandudno has really developed as an all year round resort.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Mar 2026 ==

Further news story

Also includes pay as you go from 18th May Wrexham - Bidston

New timetable to deliver boost to North Wales and summer services in West Wales

Transport for Wales will introduce one of the most significant timetable changes for North Wales in a generation this May (from 17th).

news.tfw.wales

Also a new North Wales route map

North-Wales-Routes-Changes-ENGLISH

News from Transport For Wales

news.tfw.wales

News article also includes some summer enhancements to South West Wales (Tenby etc)

Pay as you go including Bidston? Has anyone told Merseyrail?!

 

[Watershed]

Pay as you go including Bidston? Has anyone told Merseyrail?!

From the press release:

• Bidston is not a TfW station however a TfW platform validator is available at the station to enable PAYG use

 

[gazthomas]

One day TfW will listen and restore the Holyhead to Llandudno shuttles. This would provide a uniform all stations service for locals while accelerating longer distance trains.

 

[Djgr]

From the press release:

I will have to explore!

 

[ajp999]

Little improvement for customers travelling to Llandudno via Crewe who face a wait of circa 35 minutes at Junction for a connecting service if catching the xx23 Wrexham service from Crewe. Connections are better in the hours where Avanti fill the hour gap in services between Crewe and Chester. Crewe to Chester really needs to go to 2 per hour.

 

[craigybagel]

Little improvement for customers travelling to Llandudno via Crewe who face a wait of circa 35 minutes at Junction for a connecting service if catching the xx23 Wrexham service from Crewe. Connections are better in the hours where Avanti fill the hour gap in services between Crewe and Chester. Crewe to Chester really needs to go to 2 per hour.

Avanti fill the gap for most of the day. They're late getting started in the morning with nothing from 0626 to 0946, but after that it's hourly all the way through to 2149.

In the other direction, it's a better spread with a near hourly service between Chester and Crewe from 0624 to 2134, with just one missing service around 1830.

A second TfW service between Crewe and Chester would give 3tph for the vast majority of the day - the pathing of which at times that provide useful connections might be difficult given the lack of platform space at Chester and the long block section between Crewe Steel Works and Beeston Castle.

 

[ajp999]

Its the morning gap that I notice the most. Pre-Covid there was an Avanti service to Chester that left Crewe circa 0850 which left Euston at around 0710 and filled the gap between 0823 and 0923. This now runs as an ECS from Oxley.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

One day TfW will listen and restore the Holyhead to Llandudno shuttles. This would provide a uniform all stations service for locals while accelerating longer distance trains.

The Plaid leader is MS for Ynys Môn, so maybe a little pressure will be applied after the expected landslide in the May elections...

 

[Caaardiff]

So more 2 coach 197s floating around in North Wales?

Liverpool - Llandudno is a new service, so even if it is a 2 car, it's still a capacity increase.

I wonder how many more 197s will be needed in the North and what the allocations will be.

By turning Birmingham - Holyhead into Llandudno Junction it means a reduction in the diagrams required for Birmingham/North Wales/Cambrian, so should all go back to being just 158's into Birmingham. That will free up the pair of 197's that currently work to Birmingham.

 

[Llandudno]

Standing loads on a couple of Llandudno branch trains today…!

‘Big’ football match, Welsh Cup Semi-Final Flint v Bangor played at a sold out Llandudno FC

Flint won if anyone is interested….!

 

[Krokodil]

I'm kind of surprised they didn't do away with the Llandudno shuttle and just run the Brum through. I guess that would mean less efficient diagrams?

The reason that the Brum was cut back was to free up an ETCS unit. Otherwise the hourly Aberystwyths won't work. Presumably it worked in the original plan, maybe 197 availablity forecasts have fallen to more realistic levels.

Anyone know why Sunday hasn't been addressed?

I would love to know. Many stations have a three hour gap in the middle of the day.

Following the press release it doesn't give any increase in services from llandudno?

I count 26 services in the current timetable, 15 of which run through to Chester.

The new timetable has 33, still with 15 running through. There seems to be a sixteenth which looks like it portion-works onto 1H82 to Manchester. Most of the gains aren't so much an increase in frequency (it's still half-hourly plus Blaenaus), it's more that they're filling the gaps in the weekday timetable.

 

[Jez]

By turning Birmingham - Holyhead into Llandudno Junction it means a reduction in the diagrams required for Birmingham/North Wales/Cambrian, so should all go back to being just 158's into Birmingham. That will free up the pair of 197's that currently work to Birmingham.

Good point. Hopefully that will help things.

i guess this will be the end of 158s going to Holyhead as well unless one happens to cover one of the other services which is rare these days.

 

[AllWork]

Is there a link to the full timetable yet?

Might be wrong here but the extension of the Crewe shuttle to Wrexham could be a massive improvement in terms of travelling to London. Currently many (including myself) choose to drive to Chester to start the journey.