Transport for Wales has advised that concert-goers travelling from the South Wales valleys to attend the Beyonce concert at Cardiff‘s Principality Stadium next Wednesday, 17th May, that there will be no trains north of Pontypridd on the Treherbert and Merthyr Tydfil lines, or Mountain Ash on the Aberdare line.

The closure will be in place all day next Wednesday because of over-running engineering works in connection with the South Wales Metro transformation.

Journey planners on the Transport for Wales and other websites will be updated from today, Saturday, 13th May to reflect the latest changes and can be found online at www.journeycheck.com/tfwrail.

Rail-replacement buses will be in operation on these routes, and there will be changes for rail services at Pontypridd and Mountain Ash.

Agreement has been reached with Stagecoach that rail tickets will be accepted on the following bus services:

• T4 – Merthyr to Pontypridd;
• 60/61 – Aberdare to Pontypridd;
• 120-130 – Treherbert to Pontypridd;
• 132 – Pontypridd to Porth.

On the Merthyr Tydfil line, engineering work will continue until Sunday, 21st May, from Merthyr Tydfil to Pontypridd, then from Sunday, 21st May it will close completely between Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff Central until 0800 on Sunday, 4th June.

On the Aberdare line, the line north of Mountain Ash will be closed until Sunday, 21st May, then from Sunday, 21st May it will close completely between Aberdare and Cardiff Central until 0800 on Sunday, 4th June.

The Treherbert line is currently closed until February next year for major transformation work.

A spokesperson for Transport for Wales said: “Unfortunately our planned engineering work is over-running while we complete all the necessary checks to allow the infrastructure to be reopened safely.

“We understand the extension of rail replacement buses that are currently in place will be frustrating for passengers, especially with a major event taking place in Cardiff on Wednesday.

“It is important customers familiarise themselves with the rail replacement timetables to get to the event and home safely afterwards. We also have ticket acceptance in place with bus operators and customers are advised to make use of these where possible.”