The South Wales Metro has made further progress as its first brand new tram-train arrived at Transport for Wales' brand new Taff's Well depot. Arriving by road, the Class 398 tram train travelled through the night on Tuesday the 21st of March.
The tram-trains which will operate on the South Wales Metro have been manufactured by Stadler at its factory in Valencia and over the past several months have been undergoing rigorous testing at Network Rail's Rail Innovation and Development Centre in Leicestershire.
A total of 36 Class 398s will operate on the South Wales Metro bringing greater capacity and more frequent services alongside a major plus of offering greater accessibility for customers whilst being more environmentally friendly. The tram trains will begin service in 2024 on the following lines:
- Treherbert
- Aberdare
- Merthyr
- City lines
Operations will commence after transformation work on the Core Valley Lines completes which also includes the Treherbert Line transformation project which was announced on the 21st of March.
Transport for Wales has worked alongside train manufacturers Stadler and CAF and has seen an investment of over £800 million made on the new tram-trains for the Wales and Borders network. The first of the new tram-trains started in service on the network during the latter part of 2022.
Dan Tipper, Transport for Wales' Chief Infrastructure Officer, said: “The delivery of the first tram-train to our new Taff's Well depot is a major milestone in the development of the South Wales Metro and the culmination of a significant effort from TfW colleagues and our industry partners over the last few months.
“We're on a transformational journey at TfW and these new trains are a key part of improving the customer experience so that we can encourage more people to travel sustainably on public transport. These are modern trains, with high-quality features that will offer our customers more accessible, reliable and greener transport.”
The transformational Core Valley Lines Project for South Wales Metro has been partially funded via the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government and will create faster and more frequent services between Cardiff and the heads of the valleys. The innovative project will see connectivity substantially improved allowing greater access to employment, leisure and education for the people of Wales thanks to bringing together rail, bus and active travel routes.
The Class 398 Citylink Tram-train will provide much better rail service for not just Cardiff but also for Newport and South Wales. Perhaps Network Rail should consider continuing on with the electrification to Swansea so that Class 756 Tri-Mode trains can operate on as well TfW inheriting Class 379 Electrostar or Class 350/2 Desiro EMUs.
In the meantime people living in what used to be a lovely quiet avenue are now living in an ugly noisy mess with trees chopped down and orange men’s vehicles etc taking over our parking, our peace, our views from our houses, also the wildlife are left with no trees! It’s like living in a tip! No compensation at all, no tidying up of mess disgusting!!
I agree.