Hello everyone : )
This Thursday I undertook my long-planned trip to South Wales, to sample some of the delights of the Valley Lines network and Arriva Trains Wales between Manchester and Cardiff, along the Marches line. I’d been all set with my Rcd £9.25 each way Advances for some months now, together with a Valley Lines Day Explorer (bit of a mouthful!) all of which I managed to get for 50p
The second most surprising thing about my tickets was their route – AP FGW/ATW &CONN – which I really don’t think would mean all that much to the general public! I’m struggling to think of any journey in a North West – South Wales flow that might actually require a First Great Western service, so perhaps this has been carried over somewhat inappropriately! By far the most surprising thing was that when I bought the ‘Day Explorer’ the clerk asked for my name! There is always a space for this on Rangers it seems, but I’ve never been asked for it before! He only asked for my first name, and didn’t even put a capital letter! Okay, I was also surprised that tickets say Cardiff Central, and they don’t have a Cardiff STNS going on, but when in Wales…
I had been to Cardiff once before, but my previous visit was quite some years ago now and I’d got no further than Rhymney. I’ll include a few photos where they are illuminating, but my skills are very limited at best and it’s only my phone. Anyway, it began well with the 06:59 from Mauldeth Road to Manchester Pic, a 323 thankfully, not one of the pacers, or worse, cancelled journeys, that have been cropping up lately. I assume this is due to Northern’s shortage of EMUs. The 07:30 to Carmarthen was my booked train, which I saw was booked for platform 11 but it hadn’t yet arrived, which I thought was strange since it was nearly 07:15. The reason soon became clear: a Stoke train was 40 minutes late and a Crewe stopper via Stockport had been cancelled, due to ‘an earlier trespass incident near Stockport’. A few minutes later, there came the platform alteration announcement that we would now be departing from platform 7. A rather full 2 coach 175 turned up, 175010, and was turned around fairly quickly to depart on time. The automatic announcement system had been disabled, which was in some ways a relief, but it was kind of annoying that the guard didn’t say anything on our departure. I was sat in a bay without a table right at the front of the train, which was not ideal, but it was the only forward facing window seat that wasn’t reserved! Bought my advance tickets from the station and still ended up with counted place reservations! Darn it Arriva!
We didn’t get far. The guard managed to check all tickets before we even got to Heaton Chapel. What followed was a 33 minute journey to Stockport – that must be some sort of record! We were on the fast line, and at Levenshulme a Pendolino pulled up next to us and stopped! I suspect the 07:35? Anyway it got away much faster than we did and soon a Buxton stopper, which must have called at Levenshulme and we saw at Heaton Chapel managed to ‘undertake’ us into Stockport. Just to ice the cake, a pair of EMT 158s also passed us and were long gone by the time we finally made it to Stockport. The guard apologised and informed us that it was due to congestion around Stockport caused by the earlier trespass incident. There followed a nice speedy run to Crewe and another very slow stop-start run to Shrewsbury, which was apparently due to being stuck behind a freight train. We were 35 down on arriving at Shrewsbury, which had serious implications for my route plan once we got to Cardiff, but not to worry I thought, we may be able to make up some time. One thing I did notice going down here was the number of people who occupied the seats around me. A vast quantity of people got off at Stockport and Wilmslow and plenty on and off at Shrewsbury, Ludlow and Leominster. The seat opposite me was occupied by at least five different people on the way. Makes you wonder whether this route might not benefit from a commuter layout. Well they say it’s right for TransPennine…
A note on the route itself was that it was very nice indeed and probably somewhat underrated, but the weather was poor and rain intermittent, with surprising amounts of fog on the hilltops. An ‘atmospheric’ one
I certainly liked the look of Hereford station – very nice indeed, much better than Shrewsbury which I think has real potential but has been let down a bit.
Interestingly, the boards at Hereford advertised the train as ‘Cardiff Central’ – which I assumed meant the train had either been ‘restarted’ – or, more likely, cancelled from there to Carmarthen. At this rate the next train couldn’t be far behind anyway. No mention of this from the guard though, who continued to check and sell tickets and make announcements about the large gaps down to the platform ect. The train became uncomfortably full of passengers from Abergavenny and Cwmbran – some of whom sounded like they had planned to get the next train to Cardiff but this one had turned up so late they got on it! Many got off at Newport – perhaps the cleverest ones did, because a pair of XC 170s came through and left for Cardiff while we were sitting in the platform waiting for a new driver! Finally, at 11:22, 43 minutes late, we made it into Cardiff, the guard announcing at the last minute that we would be terminating there. Those 3 coach 158s from FGW are the funny ones that were reformed from 2 car units I see. So that’s where they all went after TPE did that! I remember seeing them on a regular basis.
My original itinerary had envisaged catching the 10:46 to Penarth, so I decided to push the whole thing back by an hour to avoid the need to desperately re-plan on the hoof. Unwittingly, in going off to the Travel Centre to get some timetables and check out the station, it looks like I actually missed a train to Penarth! I had no idea they were so frequent!
I like these lights! Assuming that’s what they are?
Of course, the ranger didn’t work the barrier (It just seems to be my tickets! They never last long!) so I had to be let through using what looked like a white ticket the staff had to let themselves and others through! It actually comes out in the same way normal tickets do, which seems cumbersome, but the staff were very helpful and I got through without a fuss.
Anyway a pair of pacers to Penarth arrived and emptied out; I was one of only two on the whole train I think. I was a little surprised that the guard came checking tickets straight away, but he proceeded to busy himself cleaning once he’d seen it! A guard! Actually picking up litter and putting it in the bin! Whoa! Arriva policy? Pretty good if so!
And look at that for a pacer interior! Wow! No bench seats and brown floor covering here! What’s more, few seemed to be 142s, which I am used to down here and they really are the worst.
Anyway Penarth was an astonishingly quick turnaround, so no time to go looking around:
Despite appearing to be a single platform end-of-the-line affair, I was glad to see two information screens, adequate provision of shelter and a manned ticket office! It wasn’t the first time I would find better facilities than I’d expected. Perhaps it gets quite busy here in the mornings?
I was the solo passenger to alight at Grangetown on the way back, and the guard smiled at me and nodded when I did! I returned the gesture, but I think I’ve been living in Manchester for too long, because if you did that here I suspect the guard would think you were drunk.
It does seem strange, because I always thought it was standard practice to say thank you to the bus driver, even though there’s no real reason to.
My next run was down to Barry Island. Running exactly an hour behind time, a 150 turned up to take me there – and surprisingly a few other people had arrived in the 5 minutes or so it had taken for the train to arrive. I must say there are some noticeable things with stations around here, lots of them seem very rundown and old, but are kept going seemingly by hard work and miracles – and kept going they are! Most seem better than lots of Northern’s smaller stations. Just how ‘inner’ to Cardiff the stations down the line to Barry are I don’t know, but it’s good to see lots of them with ticket machines and decent shelters. Even better the nicely refurbished 150s and guards who will come through and check tickets! Although the information point at Grangetown was very funny! It looked like it might fall over at any minute!
It’s hard to believe that a place like this saw trains from Manchester Piccadilly. I remember riding a Ginster’s Pasty 158 to Barry Island between Manchester and Crewe once.
Look! There are even bins! It seems that there is plenty of old canopy at this station which is going to waste though : (
Interesting place. Tried to capture the view from the bridge but it’s no good. Also noticed the guard selling plenty of tickets too, aided by the apparent abundance of door control panels. Do other 150s have these? I can’t remember seeing any in a Northern one… Oh, and another really good thing about ATWs refurbishment of 150s:
Tables darn it! Oh, the luxury!
I could have stayed on the Aberdare train this became to complete my itinerary, but I’d then be sat on the same unit for far too long, so I jumped off at Queen Street… and straight back onto another train going down to Central! There has to be a little spontaneous moment in every trip! As a result, I lost my chance to look around Queen Street, but I did get to do the really tight curve and steep drop into Central again. It’s surprising just how harsh this is!
And there a dreaded 142 struggling up the other way. The next journey I had planned was the Coryton line. Another luxurious 143 arrived across from me on the Valley Lines section island of Central station within moments, throughput of trains really does seem astonishingly high here, given the constraints of old DMUs and infrastructure. I can only imagine how good this could be with some electrification and newer stock.
Funky seat covers! And nice green walls too. The Coryton line is so short that it almost feels like a local bus service really, and with the stock to match! The line seemed overgrown and surrounded by green at times, brushing the side of the train. I never did know how to pronounce “Rhiwbina” either until the guard said it – it’s sort of satisfying to say isn’t it!?
I noticed that the guard didn’t even leave the rear doors between Ty Glas and Birchgrove the distance between them is just so short! Tactically avoiding him changing ends with the driver, I had a moment to appreciate Coryton, it looks very nice indeed from the platform. And I don’t know about anyone else, but if anyone could love a pacer, it would be one of these, here:
Cute little 143. Worlds apart from the Blackpool South branch (which is admittedly not inner-city, but still has some fair population about it) which I did a few months ago despite highly similar operational constraints. And so much greenery! I also noted the use of ‘City Line’ on the destination blind as well, which is interesting. I asked the guard what it meant and he said the line between Cardiff and Radyr via Fairwater was the City Line – and that was where we were headed.
After dodging the leaves and twigs coming in through the window on the single track section which clearly is encroached upon by the forest, I noted the works at Queen Street for the new platforms, which looks excellent. No evidence of new track just yet though from what I could see, but plenty of notices about re-numbering.
Damn signal got in the way! I also took note of a 153 on the Cardiff Bay shuttle, which apparently is not so usual?
The City Line brought such wonders as the name ‘Waun-Gron Park’ and the rather pleasing 3 platform setup at Radyr, from where I had a choice of trains to take.
I could go to Bridgend via Rhoose on the platform over the footbridge, or an Aberdare train a few minutes later from the other side of the island. A Merthyr Tydfil train was following that one, and this was the one I had originally chosen, but an hour earlier, since I had doubts that I could connect to either. In order to make what must now be my last train of the day before the 18:50 back home I HAD to be on the 16:35 to Ebbw Vale Parkway, so if I got the Merthyr train I could go no further than Quaker’s Yard, and going to Bridgend would probably give me no chance at all at Ebbw Vale in any case. And so it was another 150 I took to Aberdare a few moments later.
I liked this line very much, and I suppose it was the first ‘Valley’ I had actually done! It was exceptionally green though, which meant that, while the mossy green dampness provided a beautiful atmosphere, along with the occasional glimpse of the waterways that had created the valley along which the lines run, the view was rather limited. I wonder if it’s much different in winter. There was plenty of fog up here too, and isn’t ‘Taffs Well’ a nice name to say?
Once we got to Aberdare I was surprised to find the line continued for some way beyond the platform, but a look at the atlas gives this to be ‘Tower – Coal Loading’. Aberdare, like many of the stations around here, was conspicuous in its good facilities despite only having a single platform… or so I thought. You cannot fault Arriva for at least trying to make it easier for people to buy tickets, even if their fake ‘penalty fare’ notices do spout rubbish about how you need less time to buy a ticket now… The notices are oddly prominent, on timetables and posters all over the place, as well as on special leaflets. I think this is at least better than Northern’s approach of trying to charge people £80 without a Penalty Fare Scheme, because it makes it clear you must buy before boarding and offers more chances to do so at the same time. I do wonder how many of these stations have open ticket offices for much of the time though… it will muddy the water about what to do if you can’t use a TVM for any reason. Fortunately, the guard of this train was perfectly willing to sell as many tickets as he was able – which actually goes for all the guards I saw on the day. Something else I think could improve around here…
Anyway, that’s Aberdare with the service back to Barry Island. I simply cannot pronounce ‘Penriwceiber’! On the way back, after we passed through the rather larger than expected, multi-level station at Pontypridd (It even had gates! Wow!) the guard’s ticket machine broke. He spent quite some time trying to fix it, but it was no good. He then proceeded to make an announcement apologising for not being able to sell tickets and said he had informed ‘control’ of the situation. To be honest, I would have thought there would be an opportunity to buy at Queen Street and Central anyway, but it’s good to know there is a solid practice in place.
I got off at Cardiff Central and made my way over to the comical (and newish looking?) platform 0. Interestingly its unbarriered, with access in a rather odd place, and there were plenty who got on without buying a ticket too! Urgh.
The 16:35 was fairly busy but I was one of only two or three standees, I was expecting a few more passengers to be honest. Maybe the 17:35 is really busy? It seemed as though there are many regulars who get this train who only know each other from doing so, which is quite nice in a way. Lots of people were parking at the stations as well, which is good to see on a fairly ‘new’ line. The run along the main line almost all the way to Newport seemed a little fast for the 150, it felt as if it may fall apart at any time! I maintain that it’s far less likely to than a Northern one. And no original passenger door controls here : D (though one of the door control panels was wide open!)
(This was after everyone had gotten off at Ebbw Vale.)
It was nice to ride the line after seeing it on the BBC TV series (what a thought they they’ve generated some rail tourism for the area?) and I’m glad it’s proving popular. It certainly looks nice with all its platforms remaining tidy and the good facilities (shelter, displays, ticket machines etc.) common to the area were no less present here.
I wish them all the best with Newport services and a second train per hour, as well as extension to Ebbw Vale Town. The next train that passed us in the passing loop was a 158 and a 153, which I think I’d seen earlier leaving Canton:
Perhaps they do expect more people on this service then. I noticed a lot more people seemed already to have tickets on the way back to Cardiff than leaving it! How annoying!
Anyhoo, this has been quite a long report now so I’ll skip to the interesting bits that are left and say that overall I was thoroughly impressed by the service offered in this part of the country, even more so in the face of myriad operational constraints. The more I travel around the country, the more I get the feeling that Northern in Manchester just are not trying hard enough. They face fewer constrains and have more opportunity to attract passengers, but their service is worse. Even if they cannot run more trains, their interiors are horrible, their stations are rundown and lacking and although there will be good staff and bad staff in every firm, Arriva seem to have managed to employ far fewer of the latter.
In closing, on the way home we were also rather late. The guard was smiley and cheerful and came checking and selling tickets after almost every station, true to form for the whole day. That said, this could not prevent us getting stuck behind a Shrewsbury – Crewe stopper. I knew I had only a few minutes change at Wilmslow for the 21:55 back to Mauldeth Road and we had been late on arrival at Shrewsbury. My phone was dead by this point though, and I didn’t have any paper timetables, so I began to worry after a 5 minute stop that I was going to get stuck at Wilmslow. Since my phone had run out of battery, I decided that my only reaming course of action would be to seek the guard, something which has been debated quite a few times on here, and I’ve never done before. As a slight workaround, I waited until we were approaching a station (maybe Whitchurch (salop!)) and walked to the rear of the train, opening the door when it was released and said asked if I could talk to her for a moment when we were back on. Amazingly, I have had to try this once since and it worked pretty well both times, they were happy to help once they realised what I wanted, but clearly saw me as a distraction to getting the train away quickly at first “You can’t talk to me, I’m busy.”
It transpired that she thought I was going to miss my booked train, as it was starting from Wilmslow and would be on time there, so she offered to endorse my tickets and printed me a new itinerary from Manchester Pic for a train to Mauldeth Road from there – both of which were new to me! What’s more, I got to stand at the open door to the cab while she consulted her machine! “A good view you have!” “Oh, yes, not bad. It’s a nice office! And a good route as well.” And only 40 minutes late home as well, haha.
Thanks for reading!
This Thursday I undertook my long-planned trip to South Wales, to sample some of the delights of the Valley Lines network and Arriva Trains Wales between Manchester and Cardiff, along the Marches line. I’d been all set with my Rcd £9.25 each way Advances for some months now, together with a Valley Lines Day Explorer (bit of a mouthful!) all of which I managed to get for 50p
The second most surprising thing about my tickets was their route – AP FGW/ATW &CONN – which I really don’t think would mean all that much to the general public! I’m struggling to think of any journey in a North West – South Wales flow that might actually require a First Great Western service, so perhaps this has been carried over somewhat inappropriately! By far the most surprising thing was that when I bought the ‘Day Explorer’ the clerk asked for my name! There is always a space for this on Rangers it seems, but I’ve never been asked for it before! He only asked for my first name, and didn’t even put a capital letter! Okay, I was also surprised that tickets say Cardiff Central, and they don’t have a Cardiff STNS going on, but when in Wales… I had been to Cardiff once before, but my previous visit was quite some years ago now and I’d got no further than Rhymney. I’ll include a few photos where they are illuminating, but my skills are very limited at best and it’s only my phone. Anyway, it began well with the 06:59 from Mauldeth Road to Manchester Pic, a 323 thankfully, not one of the pacers, or worse, cancelled journeys, that have been cropping up lately. I assume this is due to Northern’s shortage of EMUs. The 07:30 to Carmarthen was my booked train, which I saw was booked for platform 11 but it hadn’t yet arrived, which I thought was strange since it was nearly 07:15. The reason soon became clear: a Stoke train was 40 minutes late and a Crewe stopper via Stockport had been cancelled, due to ‘an earlier trespass incident near Stockport’. A few minutes later, there came the platform alteration announcement that we would now be departing from platform 7. A rather full 2 coach 175 turned up, 175010, and was turned around fairly quickly to depart on time. The automatic announcement system had been disabled, which was in some ways a relief, but it was kind of annoying that the guard didn’t say anything on our departure. I was sat in a bay without a table right at the front of the train, which was not ideal, but it was the only forward facing window seat that wasn’t reserved! Bought my advance tickets from the station and still ended up with counted place reservations! Darn it Arriva!
We didn’t get far. The guard managed to check all tickets before we even got to Heaton Chapel. What followed was a 33 minute journey to Stockport – that must be some sort of record! We were on the fast line, and at Levenshulme a Pendolino pulled up next to us and stopped! I suspect the 07:35? Anyway it got away much faster than we did and soon a Buxton stopper, which must have called at Levenshulme and we saw at Heaton Chapel managed to ‘undertake’ us into Stockport. Just to ice the cake, a pair of EMT 158s also passed us and were long gone by the time we finally made it to Stockport. The guard apologised and informed us that it was due to congestion around Stockport caused by the earlier trespass incident. There followed a nice speedy run to Crewe and another very slow stop-start run to Shrewsbury, which was apparently due to being stuck behind a freight train. We were 35 down on arriving at Shrewsbury, which had serious implications for my route plan once we got to Cardiff, but not to worry I thought, we may be able to make up some time. One thing I did notice going down here was the number of people who occupied the seats around me. A vast quantity of people got off at Stockport and Wilmslow and plenty on and off at Shrewsbury, Ludlow and Leominster. The seat opposite me was occupied by at least five different people on the way. Makes you wonder whether this route might not benefit from a commuter layout. Well they say it’s right for TransPennine…
A note on the route itself was that it was very nice indeed and probably somewhat underrated, but the weather was poor and rain intermittent, with surprising amounts of fog on the hilltops. An ‘atmospheric’ one
I certainly liked the look of Hereford station – very nice indeed, much better than Shrewsbury which I think has real potential but has been let down a bit.
Interestingly, the boards at Hereford advertised the train as ‘Cardiff Central’ – which I assumed meant the train had either been ‘restarted’ – or, more likely, cancelled from there to Carmarthen. At this rate the next train couldn’t be far behind anyway. No mention of this from the guard though, who continued to check and sell tickets and make announcements about the large gaps down to the platform ect. The train became uncomfortably full of passengers from Abergavenny and Cwmbran – some of whom sounded like they had planned to get the next train to Cardiff but this one had turned up so late they got on it! Many got off at Newport – perhaps the cleverest ones did, because a pair of XC 170s came through and left for Cardiff while we were sitting in the platform waiting for a new driver! Finally, at 11:22, 43 minutes late, we made it into Cardiff, the guard announcing at the last minute that we would be terminating there. Those 3 coach 158s from FGW are the funny ones that were reformed from 2 car units I see. So that’s where they all went after TPE did that! I remember seeing them on a regular basis.
My original itinerary had envisaged catching the 10:46 to Penarth, so I decided to push the whole thing back by an hour to avoid the need to desperately re-plan on the hoof. Unwittingly, in going off to the Travel Centre to get some timetables and check out the station, it looks like I actually missed a train to Penarth! I had no idea they were so frequent!
I like these lights! Assuming that’s what they are?
Of course, the ranger didn’t work the barrier (It just seems to be my tickets! They never last long!) so I had to be let through using what looked like a white ticket the staff had to let themselves and others through! It actually comes out in the same way normal tickets do, which seems cumbersome, but the staff were very helpful and I got through without a fuss.
Anyway a pair of pacers to Penarth arrived and emptied out; I was one of only two on the whole train I think. I was a little surprised that the guard came checking tickets straight away, but he proceeded to busy himself cleaning once he’d seen it! A guard! Actually picking up litter and putting it in the bin! Whoa! Arriva policy? Pretty good if so!
And look at that for a pacer interior! Wow! No bench seats and brown floor covering here! What’s more, few seemed to be 142s, which I am used to down here and they really are the worst.
Anyway Penarth was an astonishingly quick turnaround, so no time to go looking around:
Despite appearing to be a single platform end-of-the-line affair, I was glad to see two information screens, adequate provision of shelter and a manned ticket office! It wasn’t the first time I would find better facilities than I’d expected. Perhaps it gets quite busy here in the mornings?
I was the solo passenger to alight at Grangetown on the way back, and the guard smiled at me and nodded when I did! I returned the gesture, but I think I’ve been living in Manchester for too long, because if you did that here I suspect the guard would think you were drunk.
It does seem strange, because I always thought it was standard practice to say thank you to the bus driver, even though there’s no real reason to.
My next run was down to Barry Island. Running exactly an hour behind time, a 150 turned up to take me there – and surprisingly a few other people had arrived in the 5 minutes or so it had taken for the train to arrive. I must say there are some noticeable things with stations around here, lots of them seem very rundown and old, but are kept going seemingly by hard work and miracles – and kept going they are! Most seem better than lots of Northern’s smaller stations. Just how ‘inner’ to Cardiff the stations down the line to Barry are I don’t know, but it’s good to see lots of them with ticket machines and decent shelters. Even better the nicely refurbished 150s and guards who will come through and check tickets! Although the information point at Grangetown was very funny! It looked like it might fall over at any minute!
It’s hard to believe that a place like this saw trains from Manchester Piccadilly. I remember riding a Ginster’s Pasty 158 to Barry Island between Manchester and Crewe once.
Look! There are even bins! It seems that there is plenty of old canopy at this station which is going to waste though : (
Interesting place. Tried to capture the view from the bridge but it’s no good. Also noticed the guard selling plenty of tickets too, aided by the apparent abundance of door control panels. Do other 150s have these? I can’t remember seeing any in a Northern one… Oh, and another really good thing about ATWs refurbishment of 150s:
Tables darn it! Oh, the luxury!
I could have stayed on the Aberdare train this became to complete my itinerary, but I’d then be sat on the same unit for far too long, so I jumped off at Queen Street… and straight back onto another train going down to Central! There has to be a little spontaneous moment in every trip! As a result, I lost my chance to look around Queen Street, but I did get to do the really tight curve and steep drop into Central again. It’s surprising just how harsh this is!
And there a dreaded 142 struggling up the other way. The next journey I had planned was the Coryton line. Another luxurious 143 arrived across from me on the Valley Lines section island of Central station within moments, throughput of trains really does seem astonishingly high here, given the constraints of old DMUs and infrastructure. I can only imagine how good this could be with some electrification and newer stock.
Funky seat covers! And nice green walls too. The Coryton line is so short that it almost feels like a local bus service really, and with the stock to match! The line seemed overgrown and surrounded by green at times, brushing the side of the train. I never did know how to pronounce “Rhiwbina” either until the guard said it – it’s sort of satisfying to say isn’t it!?
I noticed that the guard didn’t even leave the rear doors between Ty Glas and Birchgrove the distance between them is just so short! Tactically avoiding him changing ends with the driver, I had a moment to appreciate Coryton, it looks very nice indeed from the platform. And I don’t know about anyone else, but if anyone could love a pacer, it would be one of these, here:
Cute little 143. Worlds apart from the Blackpool South branch (which is admittedly not inner-city, but still has some fair population about it) which I did a few months ago despite highly similar operational constraints. And so much greenery! I also noted the use of ‘City Line’ on the destination blind as well, which is interesting. I asked the guard what it meant and he said the line between Cardiff and Radyr via Fairwater was the City Line – and that was where we were headed.
After dodging the leaves and twigs coming in through the window on the single track section which clearly is encroached upon by the forest, I noted the works at Queen Street for the new platforms, which looks excellent. No evidence of new track just yet though from what I could see, but plenty of notices about re-numbering.
Damn signal got in the way! I also took note of a 153 on the Cardiff Bay shuttle, which apparently is not so usual?
The City Line brought such wonders as the name ‘Waun-Gron Park’ and the rather pleasing 3 platform setup at Radyr, from where I had a choice of trains to take.
I could go to Bridgend via Rhoose on the platform over the footbridge, or an Aberdare train a few minutes later from the other side of the island. A Merthyr Tydfil train was following that one, and this was the one I had originally chosen, but an hour earlier, since I had doubts that I could connect to either. In order to make what must now be my last train of the day before the 18:50 back home I HAD to be on the 16:35 to Ebbw Vale Parkway, so if I got the Merthyr train I could go no further than Quaker’s Yard, and going to Bridgend would probably give me no chance at all at Ebbw Vale in any case. And so it was another 150 I took to Aberdare a few moments later.
I liked this line very much, and I suppose it was the first ‘Valley’ I had actually done! It was exceptionally green though, which meant that, while the mossy green dampness provided a beautiful atmosphere, along with the occasional glimpse of the waterways that had created the valley along which the lines run, the view was rather limited. I wonder if it’s much different in winter. There was plenty of fog up here too, and isn’t ‘Taffs Well’ a nice name to say?
Once we got to Aberdare I was surprised to find the line continued for some way beyond the platform, but a look at the atlas gives this to be ‘Tower – Coal Loading’. Aberdare, like many of the stations around here, was conspicuous in its good facilities despite only having a single platform… or so I thought. You cannot fault Arriva for at least trying to make it easier for people to buy tickets, even if their fake ‘penalty fare’ notices do spout rubbish about how you need less time to buy a ticket now… The notices are oddly prominent, on timetables and posters all over the place, as well as on special leaflets. I think this is at least better than Northern’s approach of trying to charge people £80 without a Penalty Fare Scheme, because it makes it clear you must buy before boarding and offers more chances to do so at the same time. I do wonder how many of these stations have open ticket offices for much of the time though… it will muddy the water about what to do if you can’t use a TVM for any reason. Fortunately, the guard of this train was perfectly willing to sell as many tickets as he was able – which actually goes for all the guards I saw on the day. Something else I think could improve around here…
Anyway, that’s Aberdare with the service back to Barry Island. I simply cannot pronounce ‘Penriwceiber’! On the way back, after we passed through the rather larger than expected, multi-level station at Pontypridd (It even had gates! Wow!) the guard’s ticket machine broke. He spent quite some time trying to fix it, but it was no good. He then proceeded to make an announcement apologising for not being able to sell tickets and said he had informed ‘control’ of the situation. To be honest, I would have thought there would be an opportunity to buy at Queen Street and Central anyway, but it’s good to know there is a solid practice in place.
I got off at Cardiff Central and made my way over to the comical (and newish looking?) platform 0. Interestingly its unbarriered, with access in a rather odd place, and there were plenty who got on without buying a ticket too! Urgh.
The 16:35 was fairly busy but I was one of only two or three standees, I was expecting a few more passengers to be honest. Maybe the 17:35 is really busy? It seemed as though there are many regulars who get this train who only know each other from doing so, which is quite nice in a way. Lots of people were parking at the stations as well, which is good to see on a fairly ‘new’ line. The run along the main line almost all the way to Newport seemed a little fast for the 150, it felt as if it may fall apart at any time! I maintain that it’s far less likely to than a Northern one. And no original passenger door controls here : D (though one of the door control panels was wide open!)
It was nice to ride the line after seeing it on the BBC TV series (what a thought they they’ve generated some rail tourism for the area?) and I’m glad it’s proving popular. It certainly looks nice with all its platforms remaining tidy and the good facilities (shelter, displays, ticket machines etc.) common to the area were no less present here.
I wish them all the best with Newport services and a second train per hour, as well as extension to Ebbw Vale Town. The next train that passed us in the passing loop was a 158 and a 153, which I think I’d seen earlier leaving Canton:
Perhaps they do expect more people on this service then. I noticed a lot more people seemed already to have tickets on the way back to Cardiff than leaving it! How annoying!
Anyhoo, this has been quite a long report now so I’ll skip to the interesting bits that are left and say that overall I was thoroughly impressed by the service offered in this part of the country, even more so in the face of myriad operational constraints. The more I travel around the country, the more I get the feeling that Northern in Manchester just are not trying hard enough. They face fewer constrains and have more opportunity to attract passengers, but their service is worse. Even if they cannot run more trains, their interiors are horrible, their stations are rundown and lacking and although there will be good staff and bad staff in every firm, Arriva seem to have managed to employ far fewer of the latter.
In closing, on the way home we were also rather late. The guard was smiley and cheerful and came checking and selling tickets after almost every station, true to form for the whole day. That said, this could not prevent us getting stuck behind a Shrewsbury – Crewe stopper. I knew I had only a few minutes change at Wilmslow for the 21:55 back to Mauldeth Road and we had been late on arrival at Shrewsbury. My phone was dead by this point though, and I didn’t have any paper timetables, so I began to worry after a 5 minute stop that I was going to get stuck at Wilmslow. Since my phone had run out of battery, I decided that my only reaming course of action would be to seek the guard, something which has been debated quite a few times on here, and I’ve never done before. As a slight workaround, I waited until we were approaching a station (maybe Whitchurch (salop!)) and walked to the rear of the train, opening the door when it was released and said asked if I could talk to her for a moment when we were back on. Amazingly, I have had to try this once since and it worked pretty well both times, they were happy to help once they realised what I wanted, but clearly saw me as a distraction to getting the train away quickly at first “You can’t talk to me, I’m busy.”
It transpired that she thought I was going to miss my booked train, as it was starting from Wilmslow and would be on time there, so she offered to endorse my tickets and printed me a new itinerary from Manchester Pic for a train to Mauldeth Road from there – both of which were new to me! What’s more, I got to stand at the open door to the cab while she consulted her machine! “A good view you have!” “Oh, yes, not bad. It’s a nice office! And a good route as well.” And only 40 minutes late home as well, haha.
Thanks for reading!
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