South Wales 'Metro' updates

[Ib5]

The line is run exclusively by 150s so I'd hope they were compatible!

The one time I saw this done (not on the Penarth line) the rescue train was taken out of passenger service at the stop before it reached the detonator protecting the failed train.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jul 2025 ==

Realtimetrains is showing all trains to Penarth and Coryton today as 2 coaches.
So it looks as if the introduction of 756s has been delayed.

There's a test run listed for tomorrow.

Even if the second train was a 150 doesn’t mean it can couple.

Not all is plain to the eye as it may first appear.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jul 2025 ==

I think it's been said elsewhere that there are still issues with the wires on the Coryton branch so the plans have moved.

There was a AC test run two weeks ago, then a battery test run last week.

As far as I’m aware the block to electric traction had been removed, but may well of been reinstated.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jul 2025 ==

I see on P7 at Cardiff Central an electronic sign saying Aberdare P2. Now, anybody not familiar with Cardiff, on seeing this might go over to the mainline P2 for this train. (What it actually means is that the Aberdare train will finish its journey on P2 at Aberdare. Totally confusing for non regulars)!

Definitely, and pointless at Aberdare - two platforms yards from each other.

All well and good playing the “fugue proof” card but there are other locations crying out for a station in the meantime.

 

[AdamWW]

Even if the second train was a 150 doesn’t mean it can couple.

Because it might have a fault?
It seems to be quite common on 153s - I've seen plenty them with "No multi" signs on though I don't recall seeing it on 150s.

If not, what are you suggesting? If TfW (or anyone else) have 150s that aren't mutually compatible that's a surprise to me.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jul 2025 ==

There was a AC test run two weeks ago, then a battery test run last week.

As far as I’m aware the block to electric traction had been removed, but may well of been reinstated.

Very much TfW's communication style to announce a start date then go silent when they miss it.

Someone has asked about it on Twitter and but they appear to have chosen not to answer.

 

[Ib5]

Because it might have a fault?
It seems to be quite common on 153s - I've seen plenty them with "No multi" signs on though I don't recall seeing it on 150s.

If not, what are you suggesting? If TfW (or anyone else) have 150s that aren't mutually compatible that's a surprise to me.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jul 2025 ==



Very much TfW's communication style to announce a start date then go silent when they miss it.

Someone has asked about it on Twitter and but they appear to have chosen not to answer.

Yes the next unit may have a “non multi” restriction of some description.

Lucky 150s even on their last legs usual get you home or at least to a convenient location to be rescued without “drama”.

 

[J663738]

Very much TfW's communication style to announce a start date then go silent when they miss it.

Someone has asked about it on Twitter and but they appear to have chosen not to answer.

TfW will issue a press release saying the Ty-Glas Station was closed 100% on time! *

I wonder when/has the pedestrian crossing closed? they would need to erect some form of barriers and signage on both sides. Which involves real people on the ground working.
* come to think about it, the platform would also need barriers and signage. Even though trains are not stopping they need to prevent people getting in as well, could this be the delay?

 

[AdamWW]

Yes the next unit may have a “non multi” restriction of some description.

OK.

Maybe I'm arguing semantics but I'd call that faulty not incompatible.

 

[J663738]

I see on P7 at Cardiff Central an electronic sign saying Aberdare P2. Now, anybody not familiar with Cardiff, on seeing this might go over to the mainline P2 for this train. (What it actually means is that the Aberdare train will finish its journey on P2 at Aberdare. Totally confusing for non regulars)!

Agreed it does look rather stupid, wasn't it meant to be called Aberdare Arrivals? But having that displayed at Cardiff would be even more confusing!
Could they not call it Aberdare Sobell, as this is where it actually stops, by the Sobell leisure centre. Don't know what you would call the original platform, Aberdare Grand Central?

 

[Cardiff4]

TfW posted this when they announced the temporary closure of Ty Glas station

Transformation of the Coryton and Lower Rhymney lines | Transport for Wales

Transport for Wales | Buy Cheap Train Tickets and Check Train Times

tfw.wales

5 brand-new Class 756 trains will be introduced onto the Coryton and Caerphilly lines, travelling to Penarth. The first of these trains will be introduced on Saturday 19 July, with a phased introduction of the remaining 4 taking place over the summer.

Well today is July 19th and the station has closed as planned, but there is no indication that a 756 is operating on the Coryton/Caerphilly/Penarth diagrams. Hardly comes as a surprise!

 

[Tomos y Tanc]

Agreed it does look rather stupid, wasn't it meant to be called Aberdare Arrivals? But having that displayed at Cardiff would be even more confusing!
Could they not call it Aberdare Sobell, as this is where it actually stops, by the Sobell leisure centre. Don't know what you would call the original platform, Aberdare Grand Central?

Aberdare, Gare Du Nord?

 

[J663738]

Interestingly, just phoned TfW customer services and was told, yes there is definitely one new 756 running on the line today, the other 4 will be introduced in the coming weeks.

I think the problem is they are just reading their own press release!

Surely a Sunday, would have been the day to start it as its only an hourly service with plenty of 150 backups if things go wrong.

 

[AdamWW]

Interestingly, just phoned TfW customer services and was told, yes there is definitely one new 756 running on the line today, the other 4 will be introduced in the coming weeks.

I think the problem is they are just reading their own press release!

Something similar happened when the power didn't go on when it was supposed to.

Leading them to describe the bridge and level crossing closures when it did go live as being due to "tests".

Actually I've just seen that on Twitter they did reply to the person asking where the 756 had gone.

And I like the response: "Hi, I plan on looking into this once I have a minute and my inbox is a bit less full"

 

[Ib5]

OK.

Maybe I'm arguing semantics but I'd call that faulty not incompatible.

You are yes.
Either way it won’t couple.

 

[Daniel Boone]

Once the Metro is complete and the timetable is updated to provide 4tph to most valley terminuses, does anyone know what purpose the bay platforms at Pontypridd and Queen street serve? I would assume some services might terminate/start there in the morning and evenings?

 

[John R]

And also they will be very useful during periods of perturbation.

 

[AdamWW]

Once the Metro is complete and the timetable is updated to provide 4tph to most valley terminuses, does anyone know what purpose the bay platforms at Pontypridd and Queen street serve? I would assume some services might terminate/start there in the morning and evenings?

They're there now - I don't suppose they actually have to have any purpose in the new timetable.

 

[Cardiff4]

Something similar happened when the power didn't go on when it was supposed to.

Leading them to describe the bridge and level crossing closures when it did go live as being due to "tests".

Actually I've just seen that on Twitter they did reply to the person asking where the 756 had gone.

And I like the response: "Hi, I plan on looking into this once I have a minute and my inbox is a bit less full"

TfW are now saying on Twitter that they don't know why a 756 didn't run on Saturday but expect one to enter service later this week.

 

[AdamWW]

TfW are now saying on Twitter that they don't know why a 756 didn't run on Saturday but expect one to enter service later this week.

Fair enough!

 

[BillStampy]

TfW are now saying on Twitter that they don't know why a 756 didn't run on Saturday but expect one to enter service later this week.

I've heard Wednesday, apparently!

 

[positron]

Once the Metro is complete and the timetable is updated to provide 4tph to most valley terminuses, does anyone know what purpose the bay platforms at Pontypridd and Queen street serve? I would assume some services might terminate/start there in the morning and evenings?

I imagine the queen street one will be pretty useless but the pontypridd one could be useful for potential future services. (E.g. the extra 2tph on the city line could run up to it).

Doesn't make sense to close them though so might as well keep them. Bridgend has a bay that's basically never used.

 

[MikePJ]

I imagine the queen street one will be pretty useless but the pontypridd one could be useful for potential future services. (E.g. the extra 2tph on the city line could run up to it).

Doesn't make sense to close them though so might as well keep them. Bridgend has a bay that's basically never used.

If the tramway extension to Splott, Tremorfa and Cardiff East (Newport Rd) ever goes ahead, I can see trams running from the Queen St bay to those destinations, as capacity to send trams to Central might be limited. But for the moment they're likely to be kept for handling disruption.

 

[Anonymous10]

I imagine the queen street one will be pretty useless but the pontypridd one could be useful for potential future services. (E.g. the extra 2tph on the city line could run up to it).

Doesn't make sense to close them though so might as well keep them. Bridgend has a bay that's basically never used.

I suppose the queen st one could be useful in disruption?

 

[WelshBluebird]

Once the Metro is complete and the timetable is updated to provide 4tph to most valley terminuses, does anyone know what purpose the bay platforms at Pontypridd and Queen street serve? I would assume some services might terminate/start there in the morning and evenings?

I can easily see the Pontypridd one being used to turn services back to Cardiff in times of disruption, especially once the frequencies are increased (meaning any late running will need to be heavily managed to avoid knock on effects).

 

[LlanishenBull]

Not sure it was signalling as there were large holes in the schedule, which looked like not enough rolling stock...again.
I did ask the chap in the ticket office at Penarth what today's problem was? "he said: probably due to the rain!"

Seriously, today there have been 30 cancellations so far at Penarth, I ended up walking over the barrage.
I would be happy with a service every 30 minutes that runs rather than a patchy service every 15 minutes.

On a different note, the TfW fare rises for discounted rovers it just astonishing. I was going to buy a Explore Cardiff, which did cost £5.50 a few weeks back, its now been increased to £7.50 (36% rise)
I suspect someone at TfW is checking every type of unregulated fare and increasing the price to force people to use the new PAYG system.
Once most people are using PAYG they will start to increase that too.

I've just noticed that off peak day returns have been ditched between Cardiff and Hereford, a journey i do 20+ times during the football season.

£36.30 seems very expensive to me (even more starting at HHL) and considerably more pricey than comparable journeys to the likes of Bath, Gloucester and Swansea.

I have sort of complained, fat lot of use that will be though. I drove the journey just twice last season, suspect i may be going by car more frequently in future.

 

[positron]

I've just noticed that off peak day returns have been ditched between Cardiff and Hereford, a journey i do 20+ times during the football season.

£36.30 seems very expensive to me (even more starting at HHL) and considerably more pricey than comparable journeys to the likes of Bath, Gloucester and Swansea.

I have sort of complained, fat lot of use that will be though. I drove the journey just twice last season, suspect i may be going by car more frequently in future.

Especially when you can get to Abergavenny for quite cheap using pay as you go...

 

[zwk500]

I see on P7 at Cardiff Central an electronic sign saying Aberdare P2. Now, anybody not familiar with Cardiff, on seeing this might go over to the mainline P2 for this train. (What it actually means is that the Aberdare train will finish its journey on P2 at Aberdare. Totally confusing for non regulars)!

Agreed it does look rather stupid, wasn't it meant to be called Aberdare Arrivals? But having that displayed at Cardiff would be even more confusing!
Could they not call it Aberdare Sobell, as this is where it actually stops, by the Sobell leisure centre. Don't know what you would call the original platform, Aberdare Grand Central?

If it's considered the same station, it's perfectly possible to set up the background stations to 'merge' it, it will just be announced as stopping at Aberdare twice. Possibly there might be an issue with it being shown as being replatformed on the first arrival.

 

[Dai Corner]

Especially when you can get to Abergavenny for quite cheap using pay as you go...

£4.20 each way, plus an Anytime Day Return Abergavenny - Hereford at £17.10 would come to £25.50, saving over a tenner. Only problem might be getting left behind when you jump off to tap in/out, but the tenner would pay for a pint in the adjacent pub in each direction!

More realistically, PAYG Cardiff-Newport at £2.70 each way plus an Off-Peak Day return Newport-Hereford at £26.00 would save about a fiver at the cost of the inconvenience of changing and tapping in/out. Probably not worth it.

 

[J663738]

The TfW PAYG fare system does seems overly generous at the moment for some quiet long journey's in South Wales e.g. Maesteg to Abergavenny (at nearly 2hrs with a change) is only £4.20 single, a real bargain. But for a short hops across the border, like Abergavenny to Hereford at only 21 mins you do seem to get penalised.

I have to wonder how long some of these PAYG fares will last?

 

[Envoy]

I've just noticed that off peak day returns have been ditched between Cardiff and Hereford, a journey i do 20+ times during the football season.

£36.30 seems very expensive to me (even more starting at HHL) and considerably more pricey than comparable journeys to the likes of Bath, Gloucester and Swansea.

I have sort of complained, fat lot of use that will be though. I drove the journey just twice last season, suspect i may be going by car more frequently in future.

So, TFW are back to rip off fares on The Marches - despite the fact that they now have longer trains. I see that an off peak day return from Hereford to Birmingham is about £22 for a journey that is around 30 minutes longer than that from Hereford to Cardiff. I guess that when Herefordians wish to visit a bigger city by train that they will opt for Birmingham rather than Cardiff - thus taking their spending power with them.

Also note that the Swansea and Gloucester routes have competing train companies and that on these routes, TFW undercut them on fares. Funny that. Anyway, any more on this should really be in the fares section of the forum.

 

[J663738]

I checked the TfW live train status this morning and I was amazed nearly every line had a good service!
Just before I headed off, checked my local trains and all were cancelled, TfW metro status another sea of Red Major Delays. This time obstruction on the line somewhere? Is it purely down to a run of back luck or can there really be major disruption every few days due to one thing or another.
I have to delay my journey (not urgent) yet again in the hope the service returns to some normality in an hour or so.
I pity anyone who's job depends on reliable transport.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Jul 2025 ==

I only walked up to the my station when I saw there was a train on its way from Central. There were people getting refunds to catch the bus as they were complaining the info showed on time, then cancelled for multiple trains before. I told people there actually was one on its way. I seemed to have more information than the displays or the ticket office!

 

[AdamWW]

I only walked up to the my station when I saw there was a train on its way from Central. There were people getting refunds to catch the bus as they were complaining the info showed on time, then cancelled for multiple trains before. I told people there actually was one on its way. I seemed to have more information than the displays or the ticket office!

Often the case.

I've sometime had to give people the bad news - yes the train's showing on the screens, but it didn't make it up the line so it ain't coming back the other way...

 

[MikePJ]

TfW are drilling a borehole at Cathays station - presumably this is in connection with plans for a new footbridge.