Aberdare railway station
In the mid-1980s Aberdare was unusual in having trains on Saturdays only. Daily trains to Cardiff began in October 1988 as part of the effort to regenerate former coalmining communities.
The first Aberdare station (where the bus station is now) was opened in 1846 by the Aberdare Railway Company, backed by ironmasters Crawshay Bailey and John Guest. Trains connected at Abercynon with the Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff line of the Taff Vale Railway (TVR), which soon leased and operated the Aberdare branch. The TVR took over the Aberdare Railway in 1902.
Aberdare’s second railway station opened in 1851 on the Vale of Neath line, from Neath via Hirwaun. This line was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and originally “broad gauge” (2,140mm between the rails instead of the usual 1,435mm). It continued via Quaker’s Yard to Pontypool.
The Great Western Railway owned both railways by the mid-1920s and renamed the stations Aberdare Low Level (ex-TVR) and High Level. You can see the latter’s station building across the track from the present station, a little further towards Hirwaun.
Many local people worked on the railways, including in the goods yards alongside both stations. In 1894, 40 to 50 engine cleaners at Aberdare locomotive depot went on strike. The 1942 aerial photo, courtesy of the Welsh Government, shows both stations and the depot – see the footnotes for details.
Passengers for Cardiff continued to change trains at Abercynon until Aberdare lost its passenger trains in 1964. Coal trains from Tower Colliery, near Hirwaun, used the Vale of Neath line via Cwmbach as far as Mountain Ash, allowing the ex-TVR line to become the A4059 road.
In 1984 British Rail (BR) began ad hoc trains to Cardiff, mainly shoppers’ trains on Saturdays, from disused platforms at Aberdare (High Level) and Mountain Ash, using commuter trains borrowed from London or Birmingham. Some trains went to Barry Island in summer. The December 1984 photo, by Peter Clark, shows a shoppers’ train and the old station building.
Mid Glamorgan County Council and the European Regional Development Fund provided £2m for five new stations for daily services to Cardiff. In November 2024, Transport for Wales introduced electric trains on the Aberdare line, as part of a £1bn modernisation which included additional track to enable four trains per hour from Aberdare to Cardiff.
Postcode: CF44 0PU View Location Map
Footnotes: What you can see in the 1942 aerial photo
Aberdare High Level (today’s station) is in the centre, on the line from Neath to Quaker’s Yard and Pontypool. The former Taff Vale Railway station is near the bottom, on what was then the line to Abercynon and Cardiff. Near the top is the locomotive depot with its engine sheds. The line curving off to the left led to Bwllfa Dare colliery, where Dare Valley Country Park is now.