After years of construction, a new £100 million train depot in Taff’s Well has been completed, marking a major milestone for the South Wales Metro project. The site will house 36 tram-trains, which are expected to be introduced to the railway network next year.
Transport for Wales (TfW) CEO James Price attended the grand opening of the depot on Friday, 14 November, alongside First Minister Eluned Morgan.
The South Wales Metro, one of Wales’ largest infrastructure projects, brought electrified rail services to the region for the first time last year, upgrading 170km of railway. The first electric trains began running on the Merthyr, Aberdare, and Rhymney Lines into Cardiff in 2024.
Nicknamed “the Welsh tube”, the Metro aims to transform travel across the South Wales Valleys, providing faster, more frequent journeys on new trains and tram-trains. The project has involved electrifying existing lines and upgrading most stations, with work ongoing since 2020 across the Treherbert, Aberdare, Merthyr Tydfil, Coryton, Rhymney, City, and Cardiff Bay lines. The goal is a service that is more reliable, greener, accessible, and quicker.
TfW has also become the first heavy rail operator outside London to introduce a pay-as-you-go ticketing system. The tap-on, tap-off technology has already been used for more than two million journeys across 95 stations in South Wales and is set to expand to North Wales next year.
The new depot sits on the 12-acre Forgemasters site in Taff’s Well. Demolition work began in July 2019, followed by the removal of contaminated soil, with construction of the depot and Metro Integrated Control Centre (ICC) beginning in January 2020. Foundations were completed by spring 2022.
Significant infrastructure changes accompanied the depot’s construction. The Ffordd Bleddyn road bridge was closed, demolished, and rebuilt from 2022 to create a new rail entrance at the depot’s southern end. A near 180-degree light rail curve now allows tram-trains to enter and exit the site, connecting seamlessly to the existing railway line.
Taff’s Well station has also undergone extensive improvements. Since 2021, platforms have been extended to accommodate longer trains and provide level boarding. In 2024, the original footbridge, which had served the station since 1879, was carefully removed and donated to a heritage railway. It was replaced with a modern step-free footbridge, ensuring full accessibility to both platforms.
The ICC, completed in 2023 at the north end of the site, manages signalling across the Core Valley Lines. Responsibility for signalling was transferred from Network Rail’s Cardiff control centre. More than 50 staff work around the clock at the ICC to keep the network moving.
The new depot represents a major leap forward for public transport in South Wales, promising faster, greener, and more reliable journeys for passengers across the region.
