The Anonymous Widower

How Green Are The Valley Lines?

This news item from Transport for Wales is entitled 100% Electrification Of The Core Valley Lines Complete.

This is the sub-heading.

Transport for Wales has completed the full electrification of the Core Valley lines, at the heart of the South Wales Metro, delivering one of Wales’ most ambitious rail infrastructure transport projects.

These two paragraphs describe the current status.

Dubbed the ‘Welsh Tube’, the £1bn project brought electric tri-mode trains to the South Wales Valleys for the very first time in 2024. This spring, TfW will introduce the first of its 36 fully electric Class 398 tram-trains. The new fleet will initially operate between Pontypridd and Cardiff Bay, providing greener, more frequent services as part of the South Wales Metro.

Passengers are already benefitting from these improvements with the Core Valley lines being one of the most punctual and reliable networks in Great Britain over the past 6 months.

This OpenRailwayMap shows the electrification in the Cardiff area.

Note.

  1. Red tracks are electrified.
  2. Black tracks are not electrified.
  3. Cardiff station is indicated by the blue arrow.
  4. The black track going West from Cardiff is the South Wales Main Line to Llantrisant, Bridgend, Port Talbot and Swansea.
  5. The red track going East from Cardiff is the South Wales Main Line to Newport, the Severn Tunnel, Bristol Parkway, Reading and London.
  6. The lines going North up the valleys are from the West to Maesteg, Treorchy, Aberdare, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhymney and Ebbw Vale.
  7. The most Easterly line is the Newport and Hereford Line.

I will now look at some of the electrification.

Caerphilly Station

Caerphilly statition is on the Rhymney Line.

In June 2018, I wrote Caerphilly Station and took these pictures of the station.

At the time, I considered it a difficult station to electrify.

 

March 23, 2026 - Posted by | Design, Environment, Transport/Travel | , , , , ,

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