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Rhymney Valley Line to be one of the last electrified as part of Transport for Wales’ new South Wales Metro.

The South Wales Metro was due to be completed in 2023 but has now been delayed by at least a year. 

The £800 million plan announced by Transport for Wales (TfW) will see 170km (105 miles) of track laid down, as well as the “upgrading” of stations. 

Described as a “complex project” by TfW, the first signs of the South Wales Metro in action will appear in the early months of 2023, when a new fleet of trains will be used by the public. 

Although TfW haven’t announced when each of the Valley Lines will be electrified, they have said that the Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr lines are due to be electrified first, followed by the Rhymney, Coryton and Cardiff Bay lines.

According to TfW, the benefits of the metro system will include:

• Quicker journeys, with reduced journey times
• Better connections between different types of transport
• Greater capacity
• More frequent services
• More reliable services 
• More accessible services
• Cheaper tickets and more affordable train travel
• Greener services

As of now, TfW claims to have “renewed” 25,000 metres of track but says the “phases” of the plan have been impacted by the pandemic and cost of material.