Mystery Shopper RAIL review: South Wales

Our Mystery Shopper is in South Wales, visiting revitalised lines on a network that has new trains coming and a new Metro system on the horizon. In the meantime, many of its trains are still 30 to 40 years old…

In this article:

• Significant network upgrades in South Wales include electrification, new trains, and reimagined passenger services on former freight lines.
• Mystery shopper found train punctuality and staff interactions commendable, but new train ride quality and information systems need improvement.
• Overall facilities at stations and older rolling stock remain underwhelming despite ongoing investment, showing room for progress.

For the latest of RAIL’s Mystery Shopper trips to see how the railway performs on a day-to-day basis, we’re in the Welsh Valleys and on the commuter routes emanating from Cardiff.

This area of the network has been undergoing huge change in recent years, with more to come. Electrification of the main line to Paddington was completed in 2020, and wires are now being put up on various branch lines, with the new Metro system really beginning to take shape.

New trains are also being introduced. The Class 197 and ‘231’ diesel units are in traffic, the first of the Class 756 bi-mode units have arrived (several of them stored in sidings at Barry on the day of RAIL’s visit), and Class 398 tram-trains are being delivered to a new purpose-built depot at Taffs Well.

The local conurbations have also undergone great change since the 1980s, with the decline of heavy industry (especially in coal mining and steel production), which in turn led to a workforce in need of retraining for new jobs.

Freight-only lines that served pits and furnaces have been closed, while others were retained and returned to passenger use.

This has been key - if a community loses local work and is ‘forced’ to head to the city for jobs, people need transport. Cardiff has undergone massive regeneration in the same period, with new opportunities created as a result.

Our day’s travel starts on one of those retained freight lines now turned over to passenger use - at Ebbw Vale Town, where we arrive in good time to board the 0804 to Cardiff.

The station has free parking. Your tester didn’t actually find any signs explaining that, although equally there were none warning of any penalties were you not to pay. A check with locals confirmed it was free.

Rail travel is far more appealing if you’re not being charged heavily just to leave your car at the station (although unless that is made clear, much of the benefit can be lost).

Ebbw Vale Town station is a single-track dead-end. The line is like a long siding, and so just one platform is all that’s needed. There’s a basic waiting shelter (useful in this area, which is not immune from heavy rain), and there are bins and a defibrillator.

Next, buying a ticket… but the machine is limited in what it sells. For example, we couldn’t purchase the Valley Lines Day Rover, at £14.60. This contrasts with the ticket machines on Northern, for example, which do sell Rover and Ranger tickets.

However, when our two-car Class 158 diesel unit arrives, the guard is more than happy to sell one. He’s helpful and soon checking tickets along the train, which had arrived four minutes late and duly leaves four minutes late.

But while the guard may himself be helpful, there are no announcements. And the Passenger Information System (PIS) is just scrolling “Transport for Wales” in Welsh and English, so one hopes passengers know where they are going and don’t miss their stop.

These Class 158s date from 1990. Transport for Wales has 24 of them, all based at Machynlleth on the Cambrian network, as they are the only TfW trains that can currently work west of Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli. However, not all are needed for those turns, and spare units are used across the TfW ‘patch’.

Other units on the Ebbw Vale route for the trip to Cardiff are a Class 150 and a pair of Class 153s, so in terms of comfort, we’ve dropped lucky. The ‘158’ is a comfortable enough train, fit for purpose and featuring things many passengers now take for granted - sockets, USBs and WiFi, all of which work.

We call at all stations, each of which is functional but uninspiring. The train fills up as we continue through a mix of scenery, and by Cardiff it’s well-loaded, arriving a couple of minutes after the booked time of 0901 - just in time for the shops to open.

Cardiff Central is a busy and major station, with Great Western Railway trains heading west to Swansea and Carmarthen, and east to Paddington and Bristol.

CrossCountry Class 170s run hourly north to Birmingham and Nottingham, and there are masses of TfW trains to the Valleys, Barry, Crewe, Chester, Holyhead and Manchester, as well as South Wales.

Cardiff now has nine platforms (0-8), and it retains much of its old (original) GWR charm.

Just over ten minutes elapse before our next train - the 0915 to Penarth. This is worked by one of the new Stadler Class 231 diesel-electric multiple units (231003), of which 11 are now in traffic with TfW.

These offer a step change in quality over (say) a Class 150 or a ‘153’. There’s plenty of room inside, and good visual and audible announcements. However, the WiFi didn't seem to work on this unit. And while the train had a guard, there was no ticket check on this service.

Penarth is at the end of a short one-mile branch from Cogan Junction. Only 15 minutes from Cardiff, it has a quarter-hourly service. Helpfully, the station retains a manned ticket office and has a waiting room and bike rack.

RAIL next opts to take 231003 to Cardiff Queen Street - one stop north of Cardiff Central and a smaller station, but also the junction for the Cardiff Bay line and closer to some of the city’s shops.

From Cardiff QS there follows a trip over the Coryton branch, on which passengers are currently ‘treated’ to a single-car unit (153323).

In fairness, the Class 153 is perfect for the job, albeit a little tired now. And despite its age, it also has plug sockets and USBs. It’s a fine chariot for the 15-minute journey, calling at six stations on the way, other than being somewhat noisy as it makes its numerous restarts from station stops.

At Coryton, it’s clear that the line used to continue further (to Treforest, but this closed in 1952). Things should change around here soon, as stanchions for the impending electrification are already standing - and a Class 398 should be perfect for this line.

After visiting Coryton for all of four minutes, we head back with 153323 to Cardiff, where we wait for six minutes before joining 150267 on the 0938 Merthyr Tydfil-Barry.

Again, the unit is clean and does the job. But this 1980s-vintage design is old, and a Class 231 or ‘756’ will be better. One hopes that a Class 398 tram-train (without toilets) will also be an improvement on a Sprinter.

At Barry, where the previous rain has given way to sunshine, the sidings on the left are full of new Stadler Class 756 bi-mode units awaiting their entry into traffic.

Barry has a station cafe, and the 15 minutes here provides enough time to grab a bacon roll and a coffee. This is a private enterprise, with superb service and quality of food, and helpful staff.

Heading back over the footbridge, RAIL joins 150282 on the 0951 Aberdare-Barry Island, which takes us the mile or so ‘around the corner’ to the end of the shortest of branch lines.

Sadly, the station is not in great condition. It still has some of its old GWR magnificence, but much of it is now disused.

A wander to the beach offers distant views of some of the places used for filming the hit TV comedy Gavin and Stacey.

The 1008 from Merthyr Tydfil arrives with 150283, which then forms the 1141 to Aberdare.

That’s a journey of 95 minutes, which many might argue is too long to be sitting on a Class 150.

However, in the eyes of TfW and most of its passengers, this is effectively two services - the 1141 to Cardiff and the 1211 from Cardiff to Aberdare. You can’t imagine many people other than the likes of a mystery shopper (or perhaps Michael Portillo) undertaking the entire journey.

We are held up at Barry while trespassers on the line are dealt with. This costs us around 11 minutes, so TfW makes the decision that after Cardiff Queen Street the train will run fast to Treforest and drop the planned intermediate stops.

This might inconvenience some passengers, but only slightly - such is the frequency of service that they won’t have to wait too long for an onward connection.

In contrast, running late on the single-track branch from Abercynon to Aberdare could have a snowball effect for the rest of the day. It’s the right decision, and the information is well relayed. No one complains.

On our way we pass Taffs Well. This offers another sign of the investment in the area, as the new tram-train depot is on the right, with several Class 398s waiting for more electrification to go live so that they can enter traffic.

Pontypridd is a fascinating station (more on that later), but for now we continue north under newly erected wires. At Abercynon Junction, our train diverges left to take the 7¾-mile branch to Aberdare.

The Aberdare line previously extended to the collieries at Tower and Quarry at Penderyn, and at one time even to Resolven. It was freight-only until the section from Abercynon to Aberdare was reinstated as a commuter route in 1988.

Tower, although closed in 2008, actually received rail traffic until February 2017. There is a buffer stop there now, even though the track northwards remains.

Just outside Aberdare is a new loop, and a new station is being built. When we arrive at the end of the line, the helpful driver explains why - this new station will be used to set down Aberdare passengers, but trains will then continue maybe 100 yards to the existing station to pick them up!

We rejoin the unit and head back to Pontypridd. Changing trains here gives us ten minutes to look around what was obviously once a magnificent facility. It’s a bit of a strange set-up - Platform 3 is new-build and effectively divorced from the main part of the station.

The staff say that “millions” were spent on refurbishing the buildings about ten years ago, but most of the station seems unused. There is a waiting room, which bizarrely houses stored desks and bins.

However, it’s a big room - and warm (just as well, as it’s blowing a gale outside). The signal box just north of the station still stands, but it has long been out of use and is boarded up.

Our next train arrives. It’s another Class 150/2, but this time ex-Anglia Railways 150245 on the 1338 Merthyr Tydfil-Bridgend.

We plan to take this through to its destination, running via Barry and Aberthaw.

This route, the Vale of Glamorgan line, was freight-only for years. It regained its passenger service in June 2005, with new stations at Roose Cardiff International Airport and Llantwit Major.

Not long after leaving Barry, the line runs close to the sea. Aberthaw Power Station on the left is now decommissioned, although track still leads into it, while on the right is the still-operational cement works.

The latter is technically still rail-connected, but barriers are in place across the track to prevent trains entering. Surely it would be good to run bulk trainloads of cement from here?

On the approach to Bridgend, a branch trails off to the right. This formerly served the Ford plant, which closed in 2020.

Bridgend is reached a minute early after this 90-minute Sprinter journey. Your tester tries to use the station toilet, but the automatic door won’t lock and instead reopens. User error, perhaps? Or baffling signage?

Our next trip is to Maesteg, using a new CAF Class 197. It is one of 51 two-car sets, most of which are now in traffic and steadily increasing their spheres of operation. A delay to the train’s arrival holds us up by five minutes, although fortunately not by the 15 minutes the guard had initially announced.

It’s easy to quite like these ‘197s’, but the downsides are that they are noisy inside and the ride - especially over the bogies - is somewhat rough.

Maesteg is another revitalised line - it used to be a freight-only branch, but reopened as a passenger line in 1992.

There aren’t many announcements and the information screens are blank, so passengers are potentially in the dark about the train’s location. We can’t help thinking that for a brand-new train, 197021 is not covering CAF and TfW in glory.

The railway at Maesteg is surrounded by wasteland, and there are some rather dour-looking houses.

Our train out is shown on the screens as cancelled, but the guard reassures everyone and sure enough we leave only a couple of minutes late.

One does wonder, however, if anyone turning up at Maesteg before the train had arrived might have made other plans on seeing it was ‘cancelled’…?

Might the mix-up have happened because the incoming train didn’t start at Cheltenham as booked, but at Gloucester (because it was late on its earlier journey to Cheltenham)?

The train’s information screens and announcements crank back into life midway through the journey, but you almost wish they hadn’t. They are overly loud, overly long, and of course they are relayed in Welsh then English, which makes them even longer (the passengers RAIL talks to say they wish they’d just be in English).

The ride on 197021 is still pretty rough. It worsens once back on the main line at Bridgend, but we stick with it to Newport.

This train is ultimately heading to Cheltenham Spa, a journey of 2hrs 12mins.

That’s a long time to endure this noise from all angles, and the hard ride. Fortunately, we are only onboard for the first 72 minutes of that journey.

On the plus side there are decent tables, with plug sockets and WiFi.

The guard checks tickets regularly and the train fills up, with many people boarding at Pontyclun.

In a perfect world, we’d have changed to an Ebbw Vale train at Cardiff. And while the 1702 to Ebbw Vale is still at Platform 0 when the ‘197’ arrives as booked at 1704, ‘trying for it’ seems like it might not pay off.

As things transpire, it’s another three or four minutes before the Ebbw Vale service departs. However, playing it safe, we head to Newport as planned and catch an Ebbw Vale service from there. This will mean our journey along the branch takes place half an hour later.

It’s subjective, but in the view of this correspondent, Newport has been aesthetically ruined by the construction of an over-engineered footbridge.

In a more practical sense, don’t try to make a quick change from Platforms 3 to 4 unless you are ultra-fit - it’s a fair hike. The waiting room on Platform 4 smells like that at the doctor’s, which at least probably means it was clean!

Having ridden in a Class 158 south at the start of the day, it’s a ‘150’ back to Ebbw Vale, and 150262 appears. Its arrival is nearly 20 minutes late, but the crew turn it round ‘double-quick’, and it leaves just a minute after its booked time.

This section is mostly single-line, and it quickly becomes clear that earlier delays with other trains will affect this final leg of the journey. The train is held at the recently ‘de-semaphored’ Park Junction (where the signal box still stands), and it gets away seven minutes late. The end of the day comes at 1839, back at Ebbw Vale Town.

So, here are the ‘stats’: total mileage travelled was 210, with six destinations visited, on a mix of old trains (ex-BR Classes 150, ‘153’, and ‘158’) and new (‘197’ and ‘231’). All were TfW units.

Overall, punctuality was actually pretty decent. Our services were a few minutes late here and there, but nothing that scuppered the planned itinerary.

As for the verdict: punctuality, staff and value for money were all good. However, the older trains are getting tired, the new trains need improving, and facilities are pretty average across the board.

Announcements and information were patchy - sometimes good, sometimes less so, and sometimes or non-existent (such as the lack of parking information at Ebbw Vale Town).

Despite the big investment taking place in South Wales, there is still room for improvement.

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