The South Wales Metro EXPLAINED 

Great work! Delighted to hear you're really interested in our plans for the Metro :)

Transport for Wales' trains are not run by Keolis Amey anymore. They're only going to help with infrastructure improvements. The Welsh government stripped Keolis Amey of the franchise and took it over with an Operator of Last Resort. The standard heavy rail routes will be Bridgend/Barry Island to Rhymney/Coryton, Maesteg to Abergavenny and Cardiff Central to Ebbw Vale while the tram-train routes will be Cardiff Bay to Merthyr, Aberdare and Treherbert. Cardiff to Swansea isn't part of the South Wales Metro. This route will be served by the Swanline local trains, inter-regional TfW trains and GWR's high-speed trains.

This is a fantastic project! This is the level of investment we need to be seeing across the whole UK!

Thank you for making this video Ashley. One thing you didn't mention is that Transport for Wales, awarded contracts for the railway vehicles for the Metro network to Stadler. The Light rail vehicles are going to be Tram-Trains to a similar design as the Four Class 399 Stadler vehicles used on the Sheffield Super Tram network. Stadler has started construction the the Class 398 tram trains which are to be based at a new £100 million pound depot at Garth Wells Industrial Estate, Taff's Well, between Cardiff & Pontypridd.

As a Welsh speaker, your pronunciation was pretty good! Da iawn! The Welsh Government has already done other changes to the Welsh railway lines outside this project, for example, on the Cambrian Line which runs from Shrewsbury to Pwllheli and Aberystwyth (it has two branches), they have rebuilt a station in the village of Bow Street, and are consulting if to open one in the village of Carno (which I hope they do, as it's my hometown haha)

This video is super informing, I had never seen your channel or heard about Cardiff metro before this! I just have to say in particular that your graphics and video layout are brilliant!! Top tier production. Subscribed!

Great video sir, you and Jago Hazzard need to do a joint video.

Seriously I don't want Stagecoach, First, Arriva or any other companies like that getting any where NEAR this project and great video and I'm glad that they are planning to improve Wales train networks :)

Yay! I always wanted more details about this. Good job.

Recently the Welsh government have taken direct control of TFW Rail from Keolis Amey due to the losses incurred from the pandemic. Keolis Amey will however continue to be involved with the engineering side.

So this is basically a train/tram/bus network which goes everywhere in the Cardiff Capital Region (except Penarth)

The should be the named The South East Wales Metro as it only covers the Cardiff Capital Region as it only covers half of south wales

Wow, that sound exciting. And I'm not even from the UK... also, very nice video! I loved the illustrations. Your style of explaning is very calm and understandable, I enjoyed that a lot.

Hi Ashley, love your videos! Keep up the good work! 😊

I’m moving to Cardiff from Guildford in July. Really excited to see the evolution of South Wales Metro over the next few years with new trains and increased frequency.

The biggest rail change its history??? Are you kidding. Lord Beeching gives off evil laugh in your general direction.

It looks a lot like the Rodalies de Catalunya system that fans out from the Barcelona metropolitan area.

Your Welsh pronunciations aren't too bad - I've heard worse! Rhymney is something close to Rum - knee, by the way; Hirwaun is like Here - wine; Maesteg is like My's steg the last part of which rhymes with egg; and Pontypridd follows the Welsh language pronunciation of dd, which is like the -th ending of breathe, hence Pon - tee - preathe, with a p instead if a b at the eginning of the final syllable... Names beginning with Tre- are pronounced Tray followed by the rest of the name, hence Tray - Loo - iss for Trelewis; and Tray - Herbert, for Treherbert! I is pronounced ee as in see; f is pronounced as v in English; ff is produced as the English f; y is usually also ee if in thee Middle of a word and possibly hyphenated; and w is usually a short oo or ih. W and Y canbe vowels or consonants, incidentally. The emphasis is usually on the penultimate syllable, irrespective of which language is spoken by native Welsh people.

Excellent video. This coincides with Swansea projects. I've now subscribed.

hope we get a Glasgow metro in the next few decades as well

I thought the Welsh Government took over operation of TFW?

Would you be able to do a similar breakdown of the plans put forward for a massive overhaul and expansion of mass transit planned for West Yorkshire?.

Great video.☺️

a metro video, and a very tidy original yellow metro in the background. coincidence?

My local station now has contactless pads and there are some new class 170s running

Could you do a video on the Glasgow Connectivity Comission plan?

Very well informed gentleman. I shall subscribe. The houses in the background look like London houses, so I imagine the film wasn't made in wales.

As a Welsh man the pronunciations were a bit off however I've heard other Welsh people say these names incorrect to

I live in trethomas village near caerphilly

I hope all goes through as planned but so many projects fall before even being started in S. Wales that a pattern has formed, millions spent on planning then cancelled after years of stalling.

Well as we all know that Transport for Wales is replacing the older units with new rolling stocks including the Class 230, Class 231, Class 398, Class 756 and Class 769. And the Class 170 that was cascaded from Greater Anglia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_230 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_231 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_398 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_756 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_769 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_for_Wales_Rail_(2021)

Is this a through running rail line where they use it to add extra regional trains on surrounding rail lines by running the extra trains via this South Wales metro line?

this video was a month out of date about the Operator On 7 February 2021, Transport for Wales Rail Limited, the Welsh Government's operator of last resort, succeeded KeolisAmey Wales as operator of the Wales & Borders franchise. KeolisAmey and Transport for Wales will continue a partnership on further improvements on the network, with Amey Infrastructure Wales (AIW) continuing to have an involvement in the delivering of some key projects such as the Core Valley Lines

If they decide to build a newer metro later, will it be called “New South Wales Metro”, potentially making one to think it’s the Australian New South Wales metro?

Keolis doesn't have a great "track" record. They've cut commuter rail service substantially in Boston over their 7 years with the contract and not saved money in doing it. Hopefully things work out different with this, but if it's the same style of management don't expect even the absolute bare minimum service level put in the contract.

Nice video 👍

Great video! Greetings from Germany

WHEN TF ARE THEY GOING TO DEVELOP SWANSEA ?!?!?! 4 stations for a city of over 300000 people. Cardiff has more than 20 for 100000 more people

I live in this region and there's not a chance of this happening, the line between Newport and ebbw vale should be about 19 miles but you have do a 11 mile detour into Cardiff first. The 4 South Wales valley lines are always standing room only as the rolling stock are always breaking down. The last two winters part of the railway lines have be flooded or washed away because of poor investment in maintenance, the bus route using the A470 will be slow as there always accidents on this road rush hours are a nightmare if there's an accident you know your going to be late. This will be the Welsh government's Great white elephant project.

So rail to downtown the main lines and BRT for crosstown?

they had a brt type thing in swansea and it failed within 5 years

It's about time for them to have more services ! Lol. I am currently planning our trip to Wales and England & so surprised to know that their transportation service / systems aren't that great !! In countrysides & rural areas !! And illogical somewhat ...very frustrating !! Especially as a tourist ...some places which are closer on the map ,but no train goes there from Wales ,I have to go back to England to get there ,or no more than 4 services ( buses & trains ) a day available !! Those make it harder for us ,tourists to do a day trip !! So ,a great news!! But, it'll be after we'll go there ! Lol. 👍👍💜🥁🐉🎵🎤🎶💞

Well done on saying the area names. Just want to point out that 'f' is pronounced as a 'v'. ['ff' is pronounced as 'f'.] So Rondda Cynnon Taf is Ron-tha cy-non Tav. 🙂 Arriva Trains was a disaster when they were running the show!

I need to subscribe

I kept reading the title as "NEW South Wales" :P :P :P I live in Sydney, btw, and we're getting Metro trains everywhere now. Largely, I think, so that the incumbent government can give money to their business buddies.

Correction *210.7km

You forgot to mention that some of the Valley lines are also being electrified

Nice stuff Nice stuff

2:46 By local train from Cardiff to Rimini? Really? :p

Your pronunciations were just fine 👍

If you would like to contact me. I can give you all the correct pronunciations of the names you found difficult. Easily done nowadays

Where's the overground goblin line history I dying to see it

Do what the tyne and wear metro will look like in 2029

With the BRT Stagecoach and First shouldn't get their share as itis what TFW want to do therefore TFW should own it

Should be renamed TFSW (Transport for South Wales).

Men of culture recognise the background music.

Are you Welsh??

EU still contributing when Wales voted Leave 🤯🤦🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

I'm sure you will get the welsh names right one day! start with Celtic is like the nations not the Football Team you have to brake up the others names like Tre-her-ber-et

We've been screwed

Wales, United Kingdom 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧✌️

You do realise that TFW is now a non-profit publicly owned company

Aberdare is pronounced Abba-Dare. Rum - Knee

south wales? yeah lets forget swansea and such

Rhondda = Ron th a

When will the UK wake up to the fact that practically all our train operators are foreign concerns. In fact most are foreign governments/state owned rail companies. Keolis is another example. Are you happy to pay 70% of your ever-rising fares to French State Railways (SNCF)? The other 30% hoes to Canada! Beeching regarded railways as the ‘cinderella’ mode if transport. Successive governments had and still have the same attitude. Which is not confined railways. Water and electricty are two other examples where foreign ownership and foreign governments have the power to turn off the switch and tap! Get someone else to do the work is the laid back attitude of all the political parties whilst those handpicked at the top, including the unions by the way, live a life of luxury. I wish the South Wales Metro the best of luck but the EU is hardly likely to be contributing now!

EU?

Liberate Hong Kong

sts.

No new rail lines just going to be for Cardiff and suburbs, the rest is just a rebadging and smoke and mirrors.

Did I hear you say we were still in the EU? If so, have you been living under a rock?

You 're speaking English-no need to apologize.

Turn up and go service is departures every few minutes not 15mins apart That is most definitely not turn up and go

Ah, ah, ah...not EU funding... UK funding. This was always being given our own money, back. That is not a 3rd party funder.

The EU didnt contribite any, lets get it straight. We were net contributors so that money was actually UK taxpayer money, ie me and you. We all used to pay £166 a year for the EU so they could give a scheme like this 140 million (or whatever it was) and you give them credit for it !!! It was the Uk taxpayer that gave the money not the EU