Support our Nation today - please donate here
News

Transport for Wales says Coryton line services ‘have not been good enough’

12 Mar 2025 4 minute read
A Train on the Coryton line. Image: TfW

Transport for Wales has shared an apology to rail passengers, saying that their services on the Coryton line “haven’t been good enough”.

Writing on their website, Transport for Wales (TfW) shared: “Whether that’s down to trains being delayed, terminated early or cancelled altogether, the service we’ve delivered isn’t what you deserve.

“We know that and we really are sorry.”

According to the news post, a dedicated group has been set up to look at the problems and find ways they can get back to the levels of reliability that passengers “rightly” expect.

While there are lots of reasons a train can be delayed, they shared that in June last year they developed a new timetable to get the best out of brand new trains which are currently being rolled out.

This new timetable links Coryton, Penarth and Caerphilly.

New trains

Because of how many trains run on the Valleys Network, they say that the turnaround time is very tight at both Coryton and Penarth. This means when one train gets delayed, it can very easily have a ripple effect on the trains behind it. It’s not easy to make that time back up, or as we call it ‘recover the timetable’ without causing further disruption.

If the train is running very late it may mean terminating early such as at Ty Glas, or running fast past several stations to the end of the route in order to reset the situation.

They shared: “This works in terms of impacting the fewest people overall but we understand the impact it has on those using the stations we do miss.”

TfW’s new trains for the Coryton/Penarth/Caerphilly route are not quite ready yet, but TfW say that when they are introduced later this summer they aim to offer improved acceleration, greater capacity and more accessibility.

With more carriages and more doors to board and alight from, they say they can save vital seconds and minutes getting trains into and out of stations. Over the course of a journey these small gains make a big difference.

Benefits

TfW added: “We brought the timetable in when we did so customers could get more of the benefits earlier, rather than waiting for all the new trains to be in place.

“It also meant we could get used to the new operating structure and identify any changes that needed to be made.

“While most of the routes have seen improvements, this is one area we need to work on.”

Sharing a number of commitments to passengers, they wrote: “In the short term we will be introducing a new plan from 24 March that will see these services run fast between Caerphilly and Cardiff Queen Street.

“This will create more recovery time in the schedules and creates a fast service into Cardiff for Caerphilly customers. While we will be taking out stops at Lisvane, Llanishen and Heath High Level as these are connected to the Coryton line, these stations still have four trains per hour in each direction. This will be on a trial basis.”

They also commit that if they have to run a train fast in one direction, they will make sure it stops in the other direction. So if a train is running late onto the Coryton Branch they miss the stops on the up journey to Coryton but ensure the service calls at all stops on the down journey from Coryton.

Furthermore, they commit that they will improve our information to customers and provide this in a timely fashion and also plan to protect some key trains at school times and morning/evening commutes.

Finally, they say: “We commit to listen and remain open to specific ideas.”


Support our Nation today

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

2 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Paul Harley
Paul Harley
1 day ago

“While we will be taking out stops at Lisvane, Llanishen and Heath High Level as these are connected to the Coryton line….”
These can only be connected if a train from those stations reverses after leaving Heath High Level.

TfW seemingly have little idea of the network they allegedly operate!

Matthew
Matthew
40 minutes ago
Reply to  Paul Harley

Just a badly worded sentence. Trains that terminate at Caerphilly run to Penarth, as do the Coryton trains. So if one gets delayed it can affect the other. Running the Caerphilly train fast and not stopping at those stations makes it more likely that that service is on time and therefore doesn’t get in the way of the Coryton service. And those stations still get the Bargoed and Rhymney trains.

Our Supporters

All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018.