Urgent Christmas and New Year travel advice issued as key engineering takes place

Rail passengers are being encouraged to plan their journey over the Christmas period, with key engineering taking place over Christmas and January.

No train services or rail replacement buses will be operating on 25 and 26 December. Services will finish earlier than normal on Christmas Eve and on New Year’s Eve and will start later on 27 December.

On New Year’s Day, TfW will be running a full mainline service and a reduced hourly service on local Cardiff and Valleys services (Vale of Glamorgan via Barry, Rhymney, Aberdare and Merthyr).

Planned engineering work:

• Between 24-31 December, Network Rail will be undertaking essential engineering works west of Cardiff Central station. Some services may be retimed and subject to platform changes at Cardiff Central.
• From 29 December to 1 January 2026, engineering work will take place between Whitland / Haverfordwest and Milford Haven.
• From Sunday 4 January to Saturday 24 January 2026, the Aberdare line to Pontypridd will be closed. The closure will allow our maintenance teams to carry out safety critical work to an embankment in Mountain Ash, which is next to the railway line.
• fflecsi and TrawsCymru services will also finish earlier on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve with no services running on Christmas Day, Boxing day and New Year’s Day.
• Passengers are reminded of the £1 fare after 5pm on TrawsCymru routes throughout the whole of December. Find more information here £1 bus tickets after 5pm this December – Transport for Wales

Marie Daly, Chief Operating Officer at Transport for Wales said: “With essential engineering work taking place, planning ahead has never been more important.

“Our dedicated teams will be working throughout the festive season to keep services running across the Wales & Borders network and get passengers safely to their destinations.

“We thank everyone for their patience while we carry out the important work and wish all our passengers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”

For more information, visit: Christmas travel advice | Transport for Wales | Timetables over the festive season – Transport for Wales