The Vale of Glamorgan Line ( cy, Llinell Bro Morgannwg) is a commuter railway line in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, running through the

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg ), often referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, and the Bristol C ...

from

Barry Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...

Bridgend Bridgend (; cy, Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge ...

, via

Rhoose Rhoose ( , cy, Y Rhws from "the moor") is a village and community near the sea (the Bristol Channel) in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, near Barry. The wider community includes villages and settlements such as Font-y-Gary, Penmark, East Abertha ...

and Llantwit Major.

Route

The Barry branch starts at Cardiff West and runs to Barry Island with a single line branch from Cogan Junction to

Penarth Penarth (, ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg), Wales, exactly south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay. Penarth is a weal ...

. In June 1964, the Vale of Glamorgan line between Barry and Bridgend was closed to passengers by the Beeching Axe, as set out in the report 'The Reshaping of Britain's Railways', but after 41 years, in June 2005, it was reopened to passengers with two new stations at Llantwit Major and Rhoose, and the disused bay platform (now '1A') at Bridgend was reinstated to act as a terminus for the Vale Line. The line itself had been retained for freight traffic to/from the Ford Factory in Bridgend, and to Aberthaw Power Station, as well as to provide a detour for main line trains when the direct Bridgend to Cardiff line was closed. Network Rail's mileage from Barry Junction zero to Bridgend is 19. Geographically, the Vale of Glamorgan Branch starts at Barry Junction and terminates at Bridgend station. The Barry branch (sic) runs into Vale of Glamorgan territory at the River Ely viaduct 1½ rail miles from the Cardiff West zero. The Penarth branch runs from Cogan Junction to Penarth town, the branch having been closed beyond Penarth to Cadoxton via Biglis Junction in 1968. Following the dramatic rationalisation that was to come about on South Wales railways after the 1960s, a large station board at Barry had announced "Change here for the Vale of Glamorgan Line." No such sign now exists but passengers must be made aware that if they board a Bridgend train at Cardiff, wishing to get to Barry Island, they must change trains at Barry station. Thus if boarding a Barry Island train at Cardiff and wishing to travel to Rhoose (for Cardiff International Airport), Llantwit Major or Bridgend, they must change at Barry station.

History

Originally owned by the Vale of Glamorgan Railway Company and running between Coity Junction, north of Bridgend in the Llynfi valley and to the west of Barry, all traffic over it was operated by the Barry Railway Company, and the line opened from 1885. The whole of the Barry Railway, including

Barry Docks Barry Docks ( cy, Dociau'r Barri) is a port facility in the town of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, a few miles southwest of Cardiff on the north shore of the Bristol Channel. They were opened in 1889 by David Davies and John Cory as an alterna ...

, the Vale of Glamorgan branch, the Cadoxton-Trehafod branch and the Cardiff-Barry Island branch (Currently the Barry branch) became a constituent part of the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

in 1923, after the railway grouping. Local traffic on the Vale of Glamorgan branch included that from the limestone quarries and the cement works at Aberthaw and Rhoose at the eastern end of the line. Wartime traffic was created from Tremains and Brackla Hill at Bridgend and the RAF base at St. Athan. More recent developments were the opening of the

Aberthaw power stations Aberthaw Power Station refers to two decommissioned coal-fired and co-fired biomass power stations on the coast of South Wales, near Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. They were located at Limpert Bay, near the villages of Gileston and West Abertha ...

(Aberthaw "A" in October 1963 (official opening date) and Aberthaw "B" station in 1971) and the

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

engine plant at Bridgend in January 1980. Aberthaw "B" power station was closed in 1995 and demolished by 1998. The Vale of Glamorgan Barry-Bridgend passenger service finished on Saturday 15 June 1964 as part of the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised British Rail, railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Develop ...

, but passenger trains on the eastern part of the Barry Branch from

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

-Barry-Barry Island continued, and the western section continued to be used by through passenger trains between Cardiff and Bridgend when the main line via

Pontyclun Pontyclun (or Pont-y-clun) is a village and community located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Like the surrounding towns, it has seen a sharp increase in its population in the last ten years as people migrate south from the S ...

is closed. This still frequently happens at night or on Sundays and train operators can run freight traffic via this route to retain train crew route knowledge or to avoid delays on the main South Wales line. Due to public demand, the line was successfully reopened to passengers as from 10 June 2005. From the late 1990s, some trains run between Ford’s plants at

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Forest ...

and Bridgend and merry-go-round coal trains run between Onllwyn and Cwmgwrach (to the west),

Tower Colliery Tower Colliery ( Welsh: Glofa'r Tŵr) was the oldest continuously working deep-coal mine in the United Kingdom, and possibly the world, until its closure in 2008. It was the last mine of its kind to remain in the South Wales Valleys. It was loca ...

(Finished February 2017), Ffos-y-Frân (Merthyr Tydfil), Newport Docks and

Avonmouth Avonmouth is a port and outer suburb of Bristol, England, facing two rivers: the reinforced north bank of the final stage of the Avon which rises at sources in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset; and the eastern shore of the Severn Es ...

(to the east), to Aberthaw "B" power station, averaging some 10 trains a day.(These workings were considerably modified by 2016 and the Vale of Neath line to Cwmgwrach was in mothball from N&B Junction, Neath). However, in August 2019, the last merry-go-round coal delivery had been run to Aberthaw "B" power station and the station is to be closed in the spring of 2020. It had also been announced that Ford's Waterton plant is to close in 2020. Rhoose cement works closed by 1987 and has been demolished but a connection is retained to CRH Tarmac's (LaFarge) Aberthaw cement works where wagons had been stored occasionally but after sporadic use, three cement trains per week were started to Westbury and Moorswater from December 2016. Cement tank rail traffic continues in November 2019. There remains a mainline station connection with the heritage operation of the

Barry Tourist Railway The Barry Tourist Railway (formerly the Barry Island Railway) is a railway developed to attract visitors to Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It is a key element of the Barry Rail Centre which also includes engineering and training ...

Barry Island railway station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = 2019 at Barry Island station - exterior.JPG , borough = Barry Island, Vale of Glamorgan , country = Wales , coordinates = , g ...

Reopening to passengers

A pressure group called

Railfuture Railfuture (formerly the Railway Development Society) is a UK advocacy group which promotes better rail services for passengers and freight across a bigger rail network. The group's national policies are determined by its national board of dir ...

produced a booklet "Rails to the Vale" in 1997 in which it was stated that they believe: ''that a new daily passenger service through the vale could cover its costs – and even generate profits given time'' With traffic increasing to

Cardiff International Airport Cardiff Airport ( cy, Maes Awyr Caerdydd) is the only airport offering commercial passenger services in Wales. It has been under the ownership of the Welsh Government since March 2013, operating at an arm's length as a commercial business. Pa ...

, the Local Government transport consortium SWIFT also identified the potential for reopening the Vale of Glamorgan line. The scheme was promoted by the Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend Borough Councils to the Welsh Assembly Government in August 1999. After agreeing funding, track upgrading and signalling works commenced in June 2004 with: of new track laid; of track upgraded; 15000 tonnes of ballast used; three new section signals (2 on the up and 1 on the down) were installed together with three distant signals and one repeater signal required by the curved approach to Llantwit Major Station. Final planning permission for the new stations and interchanges at Rhoose, Cardiff International Airport and Llantwit Major was granted in 2004 and from October 2004 the line was closed daily between Bridgend and Aberthaw or Barry for the station construction, with goods traffic passing at night. At Bridgend, the Barry bay was relaid and a new platform face built.

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

used three contractors:

Mowlem Mowlem was one of the largest construction and civil engineering companies in the United Kingdom. Carillion bought the firm in 2006. History The firm was founded by John Mowlem in 1822, and was continued as a partnership by successive generati ...

for the permanent way;

Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...

for signals and telephones; and

Galliford Try Galliford Try plc is a British construction company based in Leicester, England. It was created through a merger in 2000 of two businesses: Try Group, founded in 1908 in London, and Galliford, founded in 1916. Formerly involved in house-build ...

for civil engineering, including the platforms. The Vale of Glamorgan Council was responsible for the construction of the interchanges at Rhoose, Cardiff International Airport and Llantwit Major. Network Rail spent £15m and the Vale of Glamorgan Council £2m making a grand total of £17m for the whole project. The daytime closures were shortened from April to enable crew training to commence. The official opening was performed by Andrew Davies AM, Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Economic Development and Transport, on 10 June 2005. The section of line between Barry and Bridgend reopened for passenger services on 12 June, the first day of that year's Summer timetable, with a pair of Class 143s (143606 and 143624) working 0841 Cardiff-Bridgend via Llantwit Major and 0942 return Bridgend-Cardiff via Llantwit Major. Arriva Trains Wales then ran a number of loco-hauled special services in conjunction with the Barry (waterfront) transport festival.

Operations

The Barry (BRY), Penarth (PTH) and Vale of Glamorgan (VOG) branches are currently operated by

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; cy, Trafnidiaeth Cymru; cy, TrC, label=none) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) consi ...

(TfW) as part of the

Valley Lines Valleys & Cardiff Local Routes ( cy, Llwybrau Lleol y Cymoedd a Chaerdydd) (formerly Valley Lines) is the network of passenger suburban railway services radiating from Cardiff, Wales. It includes lines within the city itself, the Vale of Glam ...

network. TfW replaced the previous franchise, Arriva Trains Wales, in October 2018. The city, towns and villages served by the stations on the line are listed below. *

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

**Connections with

South Wales Main Line The South Wales Main Line ( cy, Prif Linell De Cymru), originally known as the London, Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway or simply as the Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway, is a branch of the Great Western Main Line in Great Britain. ...

and

* Grangetown **Branch line diverges as a single line from Cogan Junction to

Cogan Cogan is a surname of Gaelic origin (not to be confused with the surname Kogan of Russian-Jewish origin). Notable people with the surname include: *Alma Cogan (1932–1966), English singer *Andrew Cogan, 17th-century agent of the English East India ...

* Eastbrook *

Dinas Powys Dinas Powys (; also spelt "Dinas Powis" in English) is a small town and community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. Its name means "fort of the provincial place" and refers to the Dinas Powys hillfort, Iron Age hillfort wh ...

* Cadoxton *

**Barry Branch line diverges as a single line to

Barry Island Barry Island ( cy, Ynys y Barri) is a district, peninsula and seaside resort, forming part of the town of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It is named after the 6th century Saint Baruc. Barry's stretch of coast, on the Bristol Chan ...

for

* Llantwit Major *

**Connections with

(London to Swansea) and

Maesteg Line The Maesteg Line is a commuter rail line in South Wales from Bridgend to Maesteg. Services usually operate from Maesteg to via the South Wales Main Line and Gloucester to Newport Line. Electrification by 2019 was announced in the Departme ...

Electrification of the Line

On 16 July 2012 plans to electrify the line were announced by the Government as part of a £9.4bn package of investment of the railways in England and Wales. The announcement was made as an extension of the electrification of the

from Cardiff to Swansea and the electrification of the south Wales

at a total cost of £350 million. The investment will require new trains and should result in reduced journeys times and a cheaper to maintain network. Work was expected to start between 2014 and 2019, but was then pushed back to between 2019 and 2024. As part of Welsh Government's

South Wales Metro The South Wales Metro () is an integrated heavy rail, light rail and bus-based public transport services and systems network in South East Wales around the hub of . The first phase was approved for development in October 2013. Works are current ...

, this line will see new Class 756 rolling stock.

References