Heart of Wales Diagrams and Timetables during Royal Welsh Show

[Jez]

Its that time of year again when the Heart of Wales is busy for 4 days as the Royal Welsh Show is on at Builth Wells between Monday 20th to Thursday 23rd July.

This year it seems rather than running an extra train between Cardiff Central and Builth Road/Llandrindod Wells they are simply extending one of the existing Heart of Wales Services to/from Cardiff Central. I assume this is because the new timetable introduced last December with 5 trains in each direction from Swansea-Shrewsbury suits the needs and timings of the Royal Welsh Show Train. This means the Swansea District Line will not be used this year and the train will go via Swansea and Llanelli in both directions.

The service will leave Cardiff Central at 0628 and call at Bridgend, Port Talbot and Neath. It will then depart Swansea at the regular time of 0729 and run all the way to Shrewsbury calling at Builth Road at 0953. Likewise the return working will leave Shrewsbury at 1600, call at Builth Road at 1742 and then head to Swansea and Cardiff arriving into Cardiff at 2135.

I hope this will be booked for a pair of 150s or a pair of AT sets making it 4 cars in total as it will need extra capacity. Also hopefully they will put extra carriages onto the other HOWL services.

 

[Woolos 22]

WIll it be a 1 153 unit ?
Or will other passengers on the newport to ebbw vale have a limited servive again.
This week tfw have not been able to runnung a full sevices .

 

[Jez]

I would hope they would prioritise the Heart of Wales after all it is only for 4 days out of an entire year!

 

[70014IronDuke]

I would hope they would prioritise the Heart of Wales after all it is only for 4 days out of an entire year!

Either that, or simply not schedule it in the first place.

In fact, statistically, if it runs each day, each way, to time all the way to/from Cardiff (or within 5 mins), it will be something of a miracle.

Performance on the HoWL this past week has been pretty miserable. I'd say on average that there has been a return cancellation every day on each of the northern and southern sections. Train faults, crew issues, vegetation on the line. Or just nothing.

On Friday, 2V22, the early morning Llandovery - Swansea 'commuter' train just doesn't appear on RTT, no reason given.

Yesterday, the northern section was ok, but two of the five Swansea - Shrewsbury workings failed to reach Llandrindod. (One caped throughout, one just got to Pontarddulais before expiring.)

A 40% failure rate on a 2TPH service is bad enough, on five trains per day, it's catastrophic.

For HoWLophiles (me included) the Royal Show trains are an annual interest-peaker, but with their very patchy record, I do wonder if they do more harm than good in terms of attracting the good folk of South Wales to train travel.

 

[Jez]

Either that, or simply not schedule it in the first place.

In fact, statistically, if it runs each day, each way, to time all the way to/from Cardiff (or within 5 mins), it will be something of a miracle.

Performance on the HoWL this past week has been pretty miserable. I'd say on average that there has been a return cancellation every day on each of the northern and southern sections. Train faults, crew issues, vegetation on the line. Or just nothing.

On Friday, 2V22, the early morning Llandovery - Swansea 'commuter' train just doesn't appear on RTT, no reason given.

Yesterday, the northern section was ok, but two of the five Swansea - Shrewsbury workings failed to reach Llandrindod. (One caped throughout, one just got to Pontarddulais before expiring.)

A 40% failure rate on a 2TPH service is bad enough, on five trains per day, it's catastrophic.

For HoWLophiles (me included) the Royal Show trains are an annual interest-peaker, but with their very patchy record, I do wonder if they do more harm than good in terms of attracting the good folk of South Wales to train travel.

The problem at the moment is TFW have a shortage of trains due to 'more trains than usual needing repairs' so unfortunately it appears the HOWL has seen what many other lines have seen (like Conwy Valley and Ebbw Vale-Newport) and cancellations.

I do think during the next week they should be given priority due to the big event being held.

Hopefully as the Show Special service is an extended version of an existing HOWL service (i.e 0729 from Swansea and 1600 from Shrewsbury) rather than needing a completely extra service with train crew/units it may be more likely to run without problems. Id be surprised if there wasnt some sort of delay or other issue during the 4 days however. As you say it would be a miracle if it ran problem free.

I will be keeping an eye on RTT this week to see if its a 2 car or 4 car (or maybe they will stick a 153 onto a 150 to make a 3 car!).

 

[Woolos 22]

Only 2 car units on the Howl this mornimg. Thr 1600 from shrewbury maybe a 4 car unit

 

[Jez]

Only 2 car units on the Howl this mornimg. Thr 1600 from shrewbury maybe a 4 car unit

I noticed this morning it was just 2 cars. I wonder how busy it was. Looks to have kept to time (within 5 minutes of time anyway) for the most part.

I wonder if a pair of 153s rather than a AT set was deliberately allocated as there are more seats or just a coincidence. Looks like all on the HOWL today are normal 153 pairs (not AT) and 1 x 150. All two cars.

 

[Kite159]

Maybe TfW have noticed that the vast majority of visitors come by car rather than relying on the train, especially with the limited timetable.

Just look at today for example with a part cancellation (spun at Llandrindod) of the 10:39 from Swansea & 11:31 from Shrewsbury as well as some big delays

 

[Jez]

I noticed the delay last night but the half hour wait in Swansea absorbed most of the delay. But that in itself isn't great timetabling. Having to sit in Swansea half an hour! No wonder it's far quicker by car.

I see today we have 4 carriages on the 0628 from Cardiff. An active travel set plus a 'regular' pair of 153s

 

[Harpo]

Meanwhile Barry-Bridgend joins three of the other regular capes today, Cdf -Cheltenham, Wrexham shuttles & Ebbw-Newport. The CAF nightmare continues.

 

[Jez]

Meanwhile Barry-Bridgend joins three of the other regular capes today, Cdf -Cheltenham, Wrexham shuttles & Ebbw-Newport. The CAF nightmare continues.

TFW must be confident the HOWL will be well used this week for them to run a 4 car whilst other routes like Cheltenham have services cancelled.

Its a shame punctuality has been so poor - the service was 20+ minutes late again this morning. The return working also very late. Its almost as if the 30 minute wait in Swansea is needed for recovery time.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Jul 2026 ==

A single AT set on the service today.

 

[Caaardiff]

Apparently a few hundred people have been queuing for some of these services.

 

[Jez]

Apparently a few hundred people have been queuing for some of these services.

Wow any idea which stations ?

 

[Caaardiff]

Builth Road, people going home

 

[Jez]

Looks like a single 150 on the 1600 from Shrewsbury

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Jul 2026 ==

I have updated the title of this thread to discuss allocations etc for the HOWL in general rather than just Royal Welsh.

I took a ride on the HOWL yesterday and I noticed the automated announcements by Elin included something about an event being on (assume it meant the Royal Welsh!) and services would be busy.

At least 1 x 150 still seems to be operating on the route most days even though not booked.