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Tuesday 26 Jul 2022

Network Rail urges passengers in Wales and Borders to plan ahead and only travel by train if necessary on Wednesday 27 July

Region & Route:

Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Rail passengers should plan ahead with national industrial action due to take place on Wednesday (27 July) and Saturday 30 July as train services will be severely disrupted and some routes closed.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) has announced strike action will take place on Wednesday 27 July, and train drivers’ union, ASLEF, has announced its members will strike on Saturday 30 July.

TfW is not involved in either dispute but its services will be affected, particularly on the 27 July, when the majority of services on the Wales and Borders network will be suspended.

Wednesday 27 July

Wales and cross border services

• TfW will be operating a Cardiff to Newport shuttle, with one train per hour in each direction, between 07:30 and 18:30 hours.
• An hourly GWR service will run between Cardiff and London Paddington in each direction up until early evening.

Core Valley Lines (CVL)

• TfW Train services will operate between Cardiff Central and Rhymney, Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil in an hourly service in each direction between 07:30 and 18:30 hours.
• Trains will be able to operate between Radyr and Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil before 07:30 hours and after 18:30 hours (and then up to 20:30 hours due to engineering work). Road transport will enable customers to travel between Cardiff Central and Radyr in each direction outside of these hours.
• However, customers are advised there will be extremely limited road transport capacity available.
• Customers are advised all train and road transport services are expected to be extremely busy due to the reduced service frequency.

Services that will not operate on the CVL include: Cardiff Bay-Cardiff Queen Street, Penarth-Cardiff, Barry Island-Cardiff, City Line services between Coryton and Radyr.

There is also expected to be disruption on the days prior and after the industrial action with services starting up later than usual.

Thursday 28 July

Due to the shift patterns of Network Rail’s signallers and the significant challenges moving trains and crew to operate between strike days there is likely to be disruption.

Customers are urged to check their journey before they travel at nationalrail.co.uk.

Most TfW trains will not run before 07.00am on Thursday 28 July. For timetable information head to TfW.Wales.

Services are likely to be busier than usual - particularly the first services of the day.

Saturday 30 July

During ASLEF strike action, on Saturday 30 July, it will not be possible to run any GWR services in Wales & Borders. Passengers who need to travel between Carmarthen and London Paddington will need to travel with another train operator or travel on an alternative day.

TfW staff are not involved in the ASLEF strike action and plan to run a full timetable on Saturday 30 July but services are likely be impacted by strike action at other train operating companies. This could result in short-notice cancellations and changes and services being very busy. 

Nick Millington, acting route director at Network Rail Wales & Borders said: “I’d like to apologise to passengers for the disruption caused as a result of the industrial action and thank them for their patience and understanding.

“We’re working very closely with our train operating colleagues to ensure we’re able to run as many services as is safely possible with the number of safety critical staff we have available.

“I would like to urge passengers to only travel by train if necessary on Wednesday 27 July and to please check journeys before travelling."

Passengers can get ticket refunds if they are unable to travel on the strike days and can also use their tickets on alternative days. Passengers should check with their train operator for more details.