Ystrad Rhondda railway station is a railway station serving

Ystrad Ystrad (also known as Ystrad Rhondda or Ystrad-Rhondda) is a village and community (and electoral ward) in the Rhondda Fawr valley, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Description As a community and ward Ystrad contains the neighbouring district of Gelli ...

Rhondda Cynon Taf Rhondda Cynon Taf (; RCT; also spelt as Rhondda Cynon Taff) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It consists of five valleys: the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach, Cynon, Taff (Welsh: ''Taf'') and Ely valleys, plus a number of towns and vil ...

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 ...

. It is located on the Rhondda Line. Alphabetically, it is the last station in the UK with the first being

Abbey Wood station Abbey Wood is a National Rail station in Abbey Wood in southeast London, England. It is between and stations on the North Kent Line. It is measured from , with services to central London routed via Greenwich or Lewisham, and Elizabeth line ...

in southeast

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

History

Ystrad Rhondda Valley view from a DMU geograph-3003100-by-Ben-Brooksbank

It was first opened on this site by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

on the former

Taff Vale Railway The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in stag ...

in 1986 and is the location of the only

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

on the section of route north of , which had previously been singled by

in stages between 1972 and 1981. The loop points though work automatically, with the token machines for the two single line sections operated by the train crew under the remote supervision of the signalling centre at .

Services

Monday-Saturday, there is a half-hourly service to & southbound and to northbound. There is a two hourly service in each direction on Sundays, with through trains southbound to . On 20 July 2018, previous franchise operator

Arriva Trains Wales Arriva Trains Wales (ATW; cy, Trenau Arriva Cymru) was a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains that operated the Wales & Borders franchise. It ran urban and inter-urban passenger services to all railway stations in Wales, ...

announced a trial period of extra Sunday services on the Rhondda Line to Cardiff and Barry Island. This was in response to a survey by

Leanne Wood Leanne Wood (born 13 December 1971) is a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from March 2012 to September 2018, and served as a Member of the Senedd (MS) from 2003 to 2021. Born in the Rhondda, she was elected as to the ...

and the success of extra Sunday services on the Merthyr Line and the Rhymney Line.

References

External links

Railway stations in Rhondda Cynon Taf DfT Category F1 stations Railway stations opened by British Rail Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1986 Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail {{Wales-railstation-stub