Aber railway station is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

serving the town of

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; cy, Caerffili, ) is a town and community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley. It is north of Cardiff and northwest of Newport. It is the largest town in Caerphilly County Borough, and lies wit ...

, south

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 a stop on the Rhymney Line north of Cardiff Central on 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. The station is located in the Bondfield Park and

Trecenydd Trecenydd is a residential area in Caerphilly, Wales, United Kingdom. It is near the centre of Caerphilly and is relatively small compared to other areas of Caerphilly. Trecenydd has several schools in its vicinity: Hendre Infant School, Hendre ...

areas of

History

Opened in April 1908 by the

Rhymney Railway The Rhymney Railway was a railway company in South Wales, founded to transport minerals and materials to and from collieries and ironworks in the Rhymney Valley of South Wales, and to docks in Cardiff. It opened a main line in 1858, and a limite ...

as Beddau Halt, it became 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 ...

during the

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923, and renamed Aber Junction Halt on 17 September 1926. The line then passed] on

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in 1948. It was renamed Aber Halt on 6 May 1968, then Aber on 5 May 1969. When Sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by

Regional Railways Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982 that existed until 1997, two years after privatisation. The sector was originally called ''Provincial''. Regional Railways was the most subsidised (per pas ...

until the

Privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the industr ...

ways. Another station also called Beddau Halt existed on the

Llantrisant and Taff Vale Junction Railway The Llantrisant and Taff Vale Junction Railway was a railway company that constructed a standard gauge line in South Wales, connecting Llantrisant and the Taff Vale Railway near Treforest. It ran through thinly populated country, and linked to a ...

and should not be confused with this station. The 'Junction' suffix refers to the fact that until the early 1980s, there were two junctions near here – one to the south between the current line via Caerphilly (which opened in 1871) and the original route down the ''Big Hill'' via Penrhos Junction to Walnut Tree Junction near on the

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 ...

route from Cardiff to and another to the north for the branch line to

Senghenydd Senghenydd ( cy, Senghennydd, ) is a former mining town in the community of Aber Valley in South Wales, approximately four miles northwest of the town of Caerphilly. Historically within the county of Glamorgan, it is now situated in the count ...

. The former opened in 1858 and provided the Rhymney company with its original access to Cardiff General and the docks. It was freight-only for most of its life, but was heavily used in post-grouping and BR days by coal trains originating from the various collieries on the Rhymney line heading to the marshalling yard at . This avoided the need for such trains to use the busy section through , even though the 3½ mile line was steeply graded (hence the nickname – the 1 in 48 ruling gradient was however favourable for loaded trains). The latter opened in 1894 and was used for both freight (to

Windsor Colliery Windsor Colliery was a coal mine in the village of Abertridwr, Caerphilly. Opened in 1895, it amalgamated with the Nantgarw Colliery in 1974, and closed in 1986. Ty'n y Parc (Welsh for "house on the park") housing estate now occupies the site. Dev ...

near the terminus) and passenger services. The Senghenydd branch passenger service ended in June 1964 as a result of the

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

, but it remained in use for colliery traffic until 1977 whilst the Taffs Well route closed in June 1982 – both have since been dismantled.

Services

Spring 2016

During Spring 2016 Aber railway station is served by 4 trains per hour each way, off peak, Monday to Friday: * 3 per hour from

Bargoed Bargoed ( cy, Bargod) is a town and community in the Rhymney Valley, Wales, one of the South Wales Valleys. It lies on the Rhymney River in the county borough of Caerphilly. It straddles the ancient boundary of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, with ...

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 ...

* 1 per hour from

Rhymney Rhymney (; cy, Rhymni ) is a town and a community in the county borough of Caerphilly, South Wales. It is within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. With the villages of Pontlottyn, Fochriw, Abertysswg, Deri and New Tredegar, Rhymney is ...

to Penarth * 3 per hour from Penarth to Bargoed * 1 per hour from Penarth to Rhymney Apart from Gilfach Fargoed, the station before Bargoed, which is served just once an hour, there is a train every 15 minutes calling at all stations between Bargoed and Penarth.GB eNRT 2015-16 Edition, Table 130 (Network Rail) In the evenings, the service drops to hourly and on Sundays to two-hourly (with southbound trains running to ).

History

Services

Spring 2016

References

Further reading