Most of the Transport for Wales' services across Wales and the Borders will be suspended during 2 days of strike action
Ongoing industrial action by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers will see strikes taking place on Saturday the 1st and Saturday the 8th of October and will impact 15 rail operators and Network Rail.
ASLEF has also revealed that it will take strike action on Saturday the 1st of October and Wednesday the 5th of October which will affect 12 rail operators. TSSA has also announced strike action for the 1st of October which will see Network Rail and 11 rail operators affected.
Transport for Wales is not a part of the ongoing industrial action however, due to the unions calling for strike action for Network Rail the rail operator cannot run a large number of services which use Network Rail infrastructure on the 1st and the 8th of October. Strike action on the 5th of October will also see Transport for Wales services a lot busier than normal.
Saturdays the 1st and 8th of October will see an extremely limited rail service with advice being given to customers not to travel by train.
The only Transport for Wales services that will operate will be Core Valley Lines in South Wales alongside a Cardiff to Newport shuttle which will see just one train operating each hour in both directions from 07.30 to 18.30. No other Transport for Wales services for Wales and the Borders will be able to operate.
Cardiff Central and Rhymney, Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil will see train services operating on an hourly service in both directions from 07.30 to 18.30
Advice is also being given to customers regarding extremely limited road transport capacity between Radyr and Cardiff prior to 07.30 and after 18.30 whilst Transport for Wales is not able to run trains via Llandaf and Cathays.
Altered timetables for Saturday the 1st of October will be available in online journey planners from the 27th of September.
Days before the strike action (Friday 30th Sept and Friday 7th Oct) will also see disruption impact the railway and customers will find services much busier than normal.
Transport for Wales is advising customers to only travel if completely necessary on Friday the 30th of September and Friday the 7th of October and to check with online journey planners for short notice late night service changes which could occur due to the following day's industrial action.
Saturdays the 1st and 8th on the Core Valley Lines will see the first services of the day leave Treherbery, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil timed to arrive at Radyr after 07.00. No trains will operate before 07.00 on any lines except Treherbert, Aberdare, Merthyr Tydfil to Radyr.
No organised road transport service will operate before 18.30 on Core Valley Lines.
Services are expected to be busier than normal, especially for the first services of the day.
Sundays the 2nd and 9th of October will see no trains run before 07.00. Trains that do operate on these days are expected to be busier than usual, especially for the first services of the day. Further Disruption is also expected as trains will be displaced from the strike action the day before.
Services to Cardiff are anticipated to be much busier than normal for the morning of the 2nd of October because of the Cardiff Half-Marathon.
Customers are strongly advised to check travel plans ahead using the Transport for Wales website, app or social media before setting off, especially when travelling on the first services of the day.
Services on any of the days mentioned above will be extremely busy and Transport for Wales wishes to encourage customers to travel on alternative dates such as Monday the 3rd or Monday the 10th of October.
Wednesday the 5th of October will see Transport for Wales services much busier than usual as a result of extremely reduced timetables being implemented by other rail operators including:
- Services between Carmarthen and Newport
- Services between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton
- Services between Cardiff and Cheltenham
- Services between Chester and Holyhead
- Services between Chester and Manchester Airport
- Services between Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly
- Due to the closure of Birmingham New Street station, services between North Wales and Birmingham International will end at Wolverhampton.
Transport for Wales is strongly advising customers to only travel if absolutely necessary and to travel using alternative dates such as Tuesday the 4th or Thursday the 6th of October.
Altered timetables for Wednesday the 5th of October can be found in online journey planners from Thursday the 29th of September.
Information for customers holding existing tickets:
Those with Advance tickets will be entitled to alter their journey via ‘Book with Confidence' where the change of journey fees will be waived as long as carried out prior to 18.00 on the day before travel. Advance ticket holders are also able to change tickets after this time and up to departure however, a change of journey fee will be incurred for each ticket altered.
Those with Anytime Off-Peak, Advance tickets or Ranger/Rover tickets for a TOC on strike and dated for the 1st, 5th and 8th of October are allowed to travel either on the day before the date of the ticket or up to the 11th of October.
Those with a return ticket who cannot make the outward journey due to strike action will be allowed a refund on the ticket even if the latter is not impacted by striking. This also applies if the return journey is impacted by strike action but the outward was not.
Customers are also able to claim a full refund with no administration fees. Season ticket holders can use Delay Repay to apply for compensation.
For further information regarding industrial action, please visit: https://tfw.wales/industrial-action
