June 2024 timetable change FAQs

Travelling from Aberdare to Cardiff Central from 02 June will take approximately 64 minutes, the same amount of time as it does currently.

Currently, Aberdare services travel to Cardiff Central via Radyr, Llandaf, Cathays and Cardiff Queen Street.

From 02 June 2024, the train will travel into Cardiff Central via the City Line, stopping at the following stations: Radyr, Danescourt, Fairwater, Waun-Gron Park and Ninian Park.

The train will then continue from Cardiff Central onto Cardiff Queen Street, Cathays and Llandaf and continue to Merthyr Tydfil.

For passengers travelling to Llandaf, Cathays or Cardiff Queen Street, there are two options available:

1. Stay on the train after Cardiff Central, as it will continue onto Cardiff Queen Street, Cathays, and Llandaf.
2. Change at Pontypridd station for a Cardiff-bound service which will arrive approximately 5 minutes later. This service starts at Pontypridd and will travel into Cardiff via Llandaf, Cathays, Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Bay.

The journey times for both options are below:

Currently, Coryton line services travel to Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Central, then continue to travel along the City Line to Radyr.

From 02 June, Coryton line services will travel to Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Central however, will continue to Penarth and will not travel around to the City Line.

The City Line stations will be served by the Aberdare Line trains which will travel in and out of Cardiff via the City Line.

Those needing to travel between the Coryton and City Lines are advised to change at Cardiff Queen Street or Cardiff Central.

Journey times for travelling between the Coryton and City Lines can be found below:

Coryton to Radyr via the City Line:

Radyr to Coryton via the City Line:

 If travelling from a Coryton line station to Radyr station, passengers have the option of changing trains at Cardiff Queen Street station and changing onto a service travelling via Cathays and Llandaf to Radyr. This journey is 32 minutes in total, and the return journey is 39 minutes. Our journey planner will display the quickest journey for you, and can be found here.

Currently, Aberdare services travel to Cardiff Central and then to Barry and Barry Island. Merthyr Tydfil services currently travel to Bridgend, Barry and Barry Island.

From 02 June, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil services will travel to Cardiff Central, but will not travel onwards to Bridgend, Barry or Barry Island.

Instead, Rhymney and Bargoed services will travel to Cardiff Central and then Bridgend and Barry Island.

Those travelling from Merthyr Tydfil or Aberdare to Bridgend, Barry and Barry Island are advised to change at Cardiff Central.

Journey times for those travelling from Merthyr Tydfil/Aberdare to Bridgend/Barry/Barry Island can be found below:

(D) - Direct

(C) - change at Cardiff Central

* Average journey time on weekdays

Currently, Rhymney and Bargoed services travel to Penarth.

From 02 June, Rhymney and Bargoed services will travel to Cardiff Central, and will then continue onto Bridgend, Barry and Barry Island.

Those travelling between Penarth and Rhymney/Bargoed can either change at Caerphilly for a Penarth service or at Cardiff Queen Street station/Cardiff Central station.

Journey times for travelling from Rhymney/ Bargoed to Bridgend/ Barry/ Barry Island can be found below:

(D) - Direct

(C) - change at Cardiff Central

* Average journey time on weekdays

Currently, Rhymney and Bargoed services travel to Penarth.

From 02 June, Rhymney and Bargoed services will travel to Cardiff Central, and then onwards to Bridgend and Barry Island. Instead, Coryton and Caerphilly services will travel to Penarth.

Those travelling between Penarth and Rhymney/Bargoed can change at Caerphilly, Cardiff Queen Street or Cardiff Central station.

Journey times for travelling from Rhymney/Bargoed to Penarth can be found below:

(D) - Direct

(C) - change at Cardiff Central

* Average journey time on weekdays

Currently, Coryton line services travel to Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Central, continuing to Radyr via the City Line. Caerphilly services currently travel to Penarth.

From 02 June, Caerphilly services will continue to travel to Penarth. Coryton services will also travel to Penarth and will no longer travel to Radyr via the City Line.

Passengers travelling from Coryton to City Line stations (Ninian Park, Waun-Gron Park, Fairwater, Danescourt and Radyr) can change at either Cardiff Queen Street or Cardiff Central.

Journey times for travelling from Caerphilly/Coryton to Penarth can be found below:

(D) - Direct

(C) - change at Cardiff Central

* Average journey time on weekdays

Currently, if you want to travel between Pontypridd and Cardiff Bay, you need to change at Cardiff Queen Street onto a Cardiff Queen St to Cardiff Bay rail shuttle service.

From 02 June, we are introducing a new service that will run directly from Pontypridd to Cardiff Bay, stopping at each station along the route. Passengers on this service will not need to change trains at Cardiff Queen Street.

This service will run every half an hour every Monday to Saturday. This is in addition to the Cardiff Queen Street to Cardiff Bay shuttle service.

(D) - Direct

(C) - change at Cardiff Queen Street

* Average journey time on weekdays

We’re changing the timetable now to give you some of the benefits of Metro transformation as early as possible, and to allow us to add more frequent trains onto some routes from June.

The current timetable was designed around our legacy diesel trains and doesn’t allow us to match train capacity to the current demand or to increase the frequency of many of our routes. We can’t add more trains or stops to the timetable, so we need to re-structure the network, allowing us to introduce our electric trains where we’ve already energised the overhead power lines. 

We’ve not taken this decision lightly, and we recognise that timetable changes always impact people’s lives. We try to balance the benefits against the inconvenience to those people who have to change their travel arrangements. Some people will experience change they will not welcome, but many others will find their travel now easier.

One of the problems caused by operating more trains is that they can’t all fit through Cardiff Queen Street. Due to this, some have to go via the City Line.

This does result in some benefits, for example, faster journeys to and from Cardiff Central, but we know that this is less convenient if you travel to/from Llandaf, Cathays or Queen Street.

There are two options if you travel between the Aberdare line and Llandaf, Cathays or Cardiff Queen Street:

1. Remain on the train to travel down the City Line, through Cardiff Central and onwards to Cardiff Queen Street, Cathays and Llandaf.
2. Change at Pontypridd onto the new Pontypridd to Cardiff Bay service, which departs 5 minutes after the service from Aberdare and runs via Llandaf, Cathays and Cardiff Queen Street. Services from Treherbert and Merthyr Tydfil will also travel to Cardiff Central via this route.

Yes. The TfW app and our online journey planners will show both options; the 5-minute change at Pontypridd station and staying on the train to continue to Cardiff Queen Street, Cathays and Llandaf.

Trains towards Merthyr Tydfil will depart from platform 6 (the same as today), and trains towards Treherbert will depart from platform 7 (the same as today).

Trains towards Aberdare will now depart from platform 7.

If travelling to any station between Radyr and Abercynon, you can wait on platforms 6/7 and refer to the departure screens for the earliest service available.

Journeys for students who travel from Coryton Line stations to Fairwater station via the City Line (and back) will look slightly different from June.

From Sunday 02 June, Coryton line services will no longer travel to Radyr via the City Line. Instead, Coryton services will run to Cardiff Central, and onwards to Penarth. They will no longer loop around to Ninian Park, Waun-Gron Park, Fairwater, Danescourt and Radyr via the City Line.

In the morning, students can get on as normal at any of the Coryton line stations. These students will then need to change trains at Cardiff Queen Street or Cardiff Central and wait on the same platform to get on an Aberdare-bound service that will travel via the City Line.

In the afternoons, students can catch the train as normal from Fairwater, changing at Cardiff Central or Cardiff Queen Street and wait on the same platform to get on the Coryton service.

The Coryton line service calls at Heath Low Level, Ty Glas, Birchgrove, Rhiwbina, Whitchurch and Cortyon.

We will also put on buses during the upcoming exam season in June to ensure students get to school on time, as we appreciate it will take time for students to get used to the new timetable changes. This service will be available from Monday 3 June 2024 to Friday 21 June 2024, departing in the mornings at 07:49 from Coryton station (arriving at Fairwater station at 08:05) and in the afternoons at 15:30 from Fairwater station (arriving at Coryton station at 15:45).

This Rail Replacement bus is a temporary measure to support the students during exam season only.

We have produced an FAQ document for Bishop of Llandaff students which outlines the main timetable changes and what this means for their journeys to and from school. Please contact the school to receive a copy.

• Bargoed to Rhymney - Increased to 2 trains per hour (currently hourly) from Mondays to Saturdays. Every other train will run non-stop between Bargoed and Rhymney.
• Cardiff to Caerphilly - trains every 10 minutes between 06:30 and 18:30 Mondays to Saturdays.
• Pontypridd to Cardiff Increased from 6 to 8 trains per hour, a train roughly every 8 minutes between 07:00 and 19:00 Mondays and Saturdays. All 8 trains per hour will call at Treforest Estate, increasing from 2 trains per hour.

Services from Cardiff Queen Street to Cardiff Bay will temporarily reduce from 5 to 4 trains per hour, with trains every 18 and 12 minutes alternating, instead of every 12 minutes currently.

When transformation work on the Cardiff Bay line is completed, the frequency will be increased to 6 trains per hour, with a train every 10 minutes between Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Bay.

As part of the timetable change, we will be able to introduce an hourly Sunday service on the City Line for the first time.

As transformation works continue across the Coryton line as we prepare for electrification, engineering work will continue on Sundays. Due to this, we won’t be able to run Sunday services on the Coryton line from June, however we do plan to introduce Sunday services once the transformation work is complete.

We are continuing to carry out infrastructure works across the Rhymney line, including installing new signalling and electrifying the line, both of which are key to introducing new electric trains onto the line and increasing the frequency of services.

Due to this, we cannot increase the frequency of services travelling between Rhymney, Cardiff and Bridgend/Barry.

From 02 June 2023, Rhymney services will travel to and from Bridgend via Rhoose, with a frequency of 1 train per hour.

Rhymney and Bargoed services will travel to Barry Island, with 1 train per hour from Rhymney and 2 trains per hour from Bargoed.

Barry will continue to see 4 trains per hour in each direction, with 2 trains travelling to/from Rhymney and 2 to/from Bargoed.

Although we are not increasing the frequency of services in this timetable change, passengers will still need to check before they travel as train times will change.

We will introduce brand-new electric trains onto the South-East Wales network later this year. These trains will initially be our Stadler FLIRT tri-mode (Class 756) trains, which will be introduced on the Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil lines, with the majority of services delivered by brand-new trains in 2025.

The Class 398 tram-trains will be introduced in 2025, and will run on the Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil lines, with the Class 756s being moved onto the Rhymney and Coryton lines, travelling to Barry and Bridgend.

Our new Stadler 231 trains will begin to travel to Barry and Barry Island from June 2024. These trains were introduced to the Rhymney line in 2023. They have universal access toilets on board and have 4 carriages. You can find out more about these trains here.

The 231s will work alongside our Class 150 diesel trains, which will continue to be used on the Barry and Barry Island lines until all our new trains have been introduced in 2025.

Following the completion of key infrastructure works on the Rhymney line, the brand-new Stadler FLIRT trains will begin to travel to Bridgend from 2025. Until then, our Class 150 diesel trains will continue to travel on the line.

Our new FLIRT tri-mode trains are equipped with accessible toilets. These will be introduced onto the Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil lines from Summer 2024.

The tram-trains, which will be introduced in 2025, do not have universal access toilets on board.

We are committed to ensuring that passengers can access toilets on the South Wales Metro. We’re increasing the number of universal access toilets at our stations on the Metro network so that passengers will never be more than 20 minutes away from a toilet when the tram-trains are introduced.

For more information, including 3D flythroughs of our new fleet, visit the Transport for Wales website.

Initially, we’ll continue to use our Class 150 diesel trains as we introduce our new trains in a phased approach. This means we can’t speed things up just yet.

When the last of our old trains have been replaced by the new trains, we will change the timetable again to take advantage of the increased acceleration speeds of the new electric trains.

This will result in journey times being slightly reduced in most areas.

As part of Metro, we are electrifying the Core Valley Lines, which consists of the Merthyr Tydfil, Aberdare, Treherbert, City, Coryton, Cardiff Bay and Rhymney lines. We have already fully electrified the Merthyr, Aberdare and Treherbert lines through to Cardiff via the City Line and Llandaf. The remaining lines will be electrified throughout 2025 and 2026.

Other lines in Wales, including the lines South of Cardiff Central leading to Bridgend and Barry, are managed by our partners Network Rail on behalf of the UK Government.

You can find further information about the electrification of the valleys network here.

There are no plans to increase ticket prices as part of the June timetable change.

As we increase the frequency of services across the South-East Wales network from June, in many parts of the network the trains will become much more frequent. For example, there will be trains every 10 minutes between Cardiff and Caerphilly, and every 8 minutes between Pontypridd and Cardiff.

If you miss your connection, in most cases the train you need will only be a few minutes away.

We can’t introduce 4 trains per hour to the top of each valley line (Treherbert, Aberdare, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) until our transformation works are completed. This is because we need to fully install brand-new signalling to allow for the increased frequency of services and electrify all the valley lines. When this work is completed, and the new trains are operating reliably, then we’ll be able to increase the timetable to 4 trains per hour.

There is essential work required at Cardiff Queen Street station to improve its signalling systems which will allow us to increase the frequency of services on the Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr lines to 4 trains per hour. This work is planned to take place over the coming months to enable us to increase the frequency of services that can run through the station.

Currently, engineering works are still taking place across the valleys to complete key infrastructure work that’s vital to improving the railway service. Our teams need to access the lines at night to complete this work when passenger trains aren’t running. This ensures the safety of our teams and allows them full access to the track for their equipment.

Due to this, we cannot run later services, as our infrastructure teams need to access the track. Once the transformation work is completed, we will be able to run later services on the Valley lines.

As part of the June timetable change, the structure of the Core Valley Lines timetable has changed. At the moment, services to and from Penarth generally run as part of Rhymney Line services. These gained new Class 231 trains in early 2023, replacing the older Class 769 trains.

However, as part of the timetable changes, Rhymney services will now run through to Barry Island or Bridgend via Rhoose and Llantwit Major. Class 231s will operate services to and from Barry Island. Penarth services will now run through to Coryton and Caerphilly, and will temporarily be operated by older Sprinter trains.

Once more of the transformation work on the Rhymney Line has been completed, Penarth services will be handed over to brand new Class 756 trains - we currently expect that to take place in 2025.