Barry Island Railway Station served the traditional seaside resort of Barry Island. It's well…read morelocated for the amusement park and the beach at Whitmore Bay. The station was opened in 1896 at the end of a 3/4 mile branch from the Barry Railway, from Barry Town. In 1899 it was extended through a tunnel to serve Barry Pier station, for ship excursion traffic. Since the closure of Barry Pier, the station has been a terminus. In its heyday up to 150,000 passengers might arrive on Bank Holiday specials, and the station had 4 long platforms to cope with the traffic. Declining traffic has seen the station rationalised to half of just one platform. The building is now a museum, and platform 4 is used by the Barry heritage railway. The facilities are now fairly basic: the remaining platform has a small shelter (though the original awning also covers part of the platform) and a ticket machine. There is level access to the platform from the street. The station has 3 trains an hour from Cardiff during weekdays, usually travelling to/from Aberdare or Merthyr Tydfil. In evenings and Sundays the frequency drops to half hourly.

Not to be confused with Fail Of Glamorgan Railway, which is an epic fail of a station…read more This is a little line that basically is here to serve all of the people living in the Vale of Glamorgan, so it goes from Barrie to Cardiff and all the towns in between. It's definitely very useful for the people that live around here, and makes it a lot more livable in some ways, but also some people are not too thrilled about it. I guess my one complaint is: It could probably be used more if it were a little bit more convenient and frequent and modern. Not to mention cheaper. I guess that's another complaint then.

Update: September 2014…read more The local authority (which owns the track and facilities) has awarded a tender for its operation to another company, Cambrian Transport, which has long term plans for the site, and after some delays has finally re-opened the site and ran some specials (mostly heritage diesel trains) over the summer. The former operator, Vale of Glamorgan Railway Company, has dispersed much of its stock to other railways in the UK, but will be establishing a new base at Pontycymmer on the Garw Valley Railway, north of Bridgend. ---------------- The Barry Island Railway is a heritage railway, operated by the Vale of Glamorgan Railway Company. Unlike many heritage railways, however, this is not a preserved line as such: indeed, the route runs parallel to the existing suburban line from Cardiff to Barry Island. Instead, the route is on land which was once part of the huge dock complex which made Barry one of the greatest coal exporting ports in the world until the Second World War. In fact, the town of Barry was almost purely the creation of the railway: until the 1880s, it was a series of sleepy villages, and rabbits roamed over Barry Island. However, the coal mine owners were becoming increasingly concerned at the monopoly of the Taff Vale Railway and Cardiff docks on shipping the coal from their mines for export, so the Barry Railway was created to provide an alternative, and an entirely new series of export docks was built between Barry and Barry Island, and opened in 1884. Thereafter, Barry Island also became a seaside resort, with pleasure steamers calling regularly. The history of Barry in recent times has mirrored that of the industrial history of South Wales more generally: as coal mining declined, most of the docks at Barry were closed udring the 1960s and 1970s, and the vast expanse of railway sidings ripped up. At one time, some of the sidings were, famously, owned by Woodhams Brothers' scrapyard, and became a graveyard for hundreds of steam locomotives. Many of these were subsequently saved and are now running on preserved railways. The Barry Island Railway is a more recent invention: it is the marketing name for the heritage line operated by the Vale of Glamorgan Railway Company Ltd. Mainly volunteer run, the line has been steadily extended since its arrival at Barry Island in 1996. Formerly the Butetown Historic Railway Society, based at Bute Road station in Cardiff Bay, the move to Barry saw a change in name and the beginning of train operation. The new base at Plymouth Road station, Barry Island, was opened on June 1st 1997, with the first operations commencing in 1998. The line now runs from Plymouth Road, via Barry Island station and Woodham Halt to Gladstone Halt (recently opened next to Morrisons Supermarket). A short branch also runs down to the Waterfront Station at Hood Road, and trains tend to alternate between the two lines. A quaint feature is that trains stop at the junction for the points to be changed manually. The other feature is that line has a remarkable number of stations in such a short distance. They operate both steam locomotives and heritage diesel trains, and special events such as Santa Specials and Thomas the Tank Engine days. There is also a small shop, museum and small refreshment facility housed in the former main building of Barry Island station. Unfortunately, a number of the facilities are in need of some serious tlc, as there are quite a lot of weeds along parts of the route. However, none of this seems to spoil the fun of the younger visitors! Staff (all volunteers) are very friendly and keen to help. Access for wheelchair users is available at some stations - see the website for details - but not all trains are suitable, so it is advisable to telephone ahead.

For anyone planning to drive into Cardiff centre this is a valuable service to make use of as…read moreCardiff's streets can get so busy at certain times of the day and parking is a huge nightmare. Especially with Cardiff Council's new responsibility to parking fines. Parking in Cardiff can be very costly if you do not adhere to road markings etc and even if you do, the car parks can charge quite a pretty penny depending when and where you are parking. For this reason, why not simply park here and ride the bus. It's only £3.00 to park at this facility which has ample spaces free throughout the day and then you can ride the bus into town for free. It doesn't really take that much longer and there is a bus every 15 minutes so you never have to wait too long before the next bus. The busses are all very new looking and this service is in operation 5 days a week. Monday to Friday the services start at 7:30am and the last services from the city centre is at 7:00pm except for match days when this changes to 5:30pm.

I like to do comedy routines on the platform here, I'm known as Cathays Clown…read more This station is only one mile north of Cardiff Central and it's a cute little Suburban Station in the middle of the North part of the city. For a long time you had to kind of fend for yourself here, but now at rush hour they actually have people helping out and employees and what not. It's literally right in the middle of a development of housing, and surrounded by businesses and whatnot which is pretty cool. In fact when you pull up here you will notice that a little shopping center is right next to it - although you have to kind of cross a bridge and walk back down to it. But it's good for your cheap shopping if you need it. They've also made some colourful admissions to some of the buildings here. I meant additions, but maybe they've admitted stuff to the buildings too?

Cathays Railway Station basically has no facilities except a ticket office (manned part time) and a…read moreself-service ticket machine, but the good thing about it is that it's in a safe, residential area where you won't feel threatened hanging around waiting for a train. It only gets busy on the platforms during peak travel times when people are using this line to get to and from the Valleys in one direction, and to and from the city centre in the other direction. It's very convenient for anyone working or studying at the University, which surrounds the station, or for those living in Cathays, as it offers a good alternative to a taxi if you want to get into town quickly without the walk - particularly if you have heavy bags to carry.

If you're in the Klan then you're a racist backwards inbred little ***** and you're also a twit as…read morea Brit would say... so you're a Klan-Twit. Which is exactly how you pronounce this town, honestly. I hope you don't have a "Major" problem with that joke. I'm not sure where the minor station is, but this is a little station with a cute white bridge going over the platforms. It's 18 miles from Cardiff in the direction of Swansea. It was one of the five oldest stations along this line, and dates back to a distant time. It's cute and kind of in the middle of nowhere, but good for the people in this town.

I love that quaint villages even boast their own railway station, making it easy to access for…read morethose without a car. Managed by Arriva Trains Wales, the Llantwit Major railway station is located on the Vale of Glamorgan line and is definitely more modest compared to hubs like Cardiff Central, with only two platforms and no ticket office (which means no penalty if this where your journey originated). The station in its present form was opened in 2005 following restoration on the section of line between Barry and Bridgend, and offers connections to stations in Bridgend, Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil. My only criticism is the lack of disabled access - the bridge connecting the platforms would no doubt be difficult for those in a wheelchair or juggling a pram and a small child. It's worth checking the website, as east and westbound services only run once an hour, Monday to Saturday, with services only running once every two hours on Sunday.

For anyone planning to drive into Cardiff this is a valuable service to make use of. Cardiff's…read morestreets can get so busy at certain times of the day and parking is a huge nightmare. Especially with Cardiff Council's new responsibility to parking fines. Parking in Cardiff can be very costly if you do not adhere to road markings etc and even if you do, the car parks can charge quite a pretty penny depending when and where you are parking. For this reason, why not simply park here and ride the bus. It's only £3.00 to park at this facility which has ample spaces free throughout the day and then you can ride the bus into town for free. It doesn't really take that much longer and there is a bus every 15 minutes so you never have to wait too long before the next bus. The busses are all very new looking and this service is in operation 7 days a week. Monday to Friday the services start at 7am and on weekends the first bus is at 9am. The last services from the city centre are at 8:30am Monday to Friday, 7pm on Saturdays and 5:30pm on Sundays. If this ties in with your plans to visit Cardiff then it really makes more sense to use the park and ride as you would probably spend more than £3.00 in petrol whilst sitting in traffic and if you consider that, along with the parking fees, it makes it excellent value for money for the sake of a 20 minute bus ride.

Well - what a refreshing change! Went to watch the rugby in Cardiff and parked at the park and…read moreride. Coming home after the match, the sensible people laid on 2 buses to transport the huge crowd back to Pentwyn and then instead of there being a massive queue at the exit barriers they manually took the tickets off everyone, speeding up the exit. WELL DONE to the thoughtful management team.

Get your buses to everywhere around Cardiff; for the day just £3 day to go, for the week £14 week…read moreto go ticket, for a month £45. No more need of bus change then! I usually get the day to go ticket if I'm out and about for just a day, around Cardiff. If you just want a single ticket then it is £1. 50p for a few zones. The Pontprennau busses are the most popular and busiest of busses, which I use to get from town and Albany road to Penylan and back. They have a ticket office where you can buy such monthly and weekly tickets and other tickets for things. From the bus station the Pontprennau busses do not travel from any more as they go by John Lewis, near to the NatWest bank in town centre, by the Capital building. It is right by the train station and near to the VUE Cinema, and plenty of shops and cafes. The Taxi's tend to wait around outside the train station. I recommend to all, disabled and well chair access.

Irregular services, app shows services that aren't actually running. Regularly late or a no show…read more Completely unreliable

I thought that Aber Station (the next one up the line from Cardiff Central) was slow, but…read moreCaerphilly is almost as bad. Monday to Saturday, the train to/from Cardiff runs every 15 minutes or so. On Sundays, the train runs every two hours. Be prepared. There is a staffed ticket booth during some hours but the rest of the time there is just the automated ticket vending machine. There are no ticket barricades and there is step free access. There is a confectionery/soda vending machine. The bus station/depot is attached and there is a taxi stand just opposite.

Perfectly located station, just on the edge of the central part of town. Small station with exits…read moreon both sides (so you don't have to labour over an annoying footbridge).

What I don't understand is, why does it take the same amount of time for the bus to drive to the…read morestation as it does for me to walk? Also, why do empty buses rattle past my window all day (when in service) but they never drive past the bus stop when I'm waiting for one? No joke, I just looked out my window again and there was yet another, with not a sole on board!! A city like this needs a good public transport system, what with the hilliness making it harder to walk and cycle and the traffic diabolical due to tiny windy roads. We need a solution and fast!

Today, 9th of september, i've waited for the bus for over a whole hour. Never thought it was…read morepossible to skip exacly 10 busses in a row (6x for number 76 and 4x for number 2). I've been at the bus stop from 13:48 and finaly caught a number 2 bus at 15:04. When I told the driver I've been waiting for the bus for a whole hour he just shrugged and said "it is very busy in town". I get that its not his fault, and I'm used to 2 or even 3 busses not arriving, its beyond me as to what has to happen to skip 10 busses in a row. I was also suppossed to start my shift at 3pm. In seriously reconsidering my decision to get around by bus. (Might as well had walked to city center today). Sincerely, Vito.

Some states of the US don't have any docks. But Cali is quite the opposite. In other words... CA…read moredox? Ton! This is a tiny little windswept station with some blue station houses, located close to Barry and about seven miles from the center of Cardiff heading into the valleys. It's out in the Vale of Glamorgan, and it's pretty helpful for people that live near here to get in and out of Cardiff. It doesn't have a permanent car park, so you can't really leave your car here, which is kind of annoying, and why I'd avoid using it really. I like the way the Towers look on the bridge, which gives it a unique look and differentiates it from all the other stations. The ticket office bizarrely closes at 9:45 in the morning and 12 in the afternoon on weekends. That makes it a little difficult but I guess it works for locals. I added a star for the two towers so to speak. Not that I'm a Tolkein fan.