Merthyr Vale railway station
Merthyr Vale was still rural when the Taff Vale Railway from Merthyr to Cardiff opened in 1841. Although coal mining drew in many more people, the TVR resisted calls for a station at Merthyr Vale until the early 1880s, when the Rhymney Railway applied for powers to build a parallel railway through the valley. The station opened in 1883 and is shown in the 1951 aerial photo below courtesy of the Welsh Government – see the footnotes for details.
In March 1890 the TVR laid on special trains to Merthyr Vale for the unveiling of a memorial at Aberfan cemetery to the seven young soldiers who died in the 1888 Lavernock boating tragedy. A crowd of thousands watched the entire 3rd Volunteer Battalion of the Welsh Regiment, more than 1,100 men, assemble outside the station and parade to the cemetery.
Irish MP Patrick O’Brien was arrested at Merthyr Vale station in September 1890. His party campaigned for Irish home rule. He was taken to Cardiff, before being sent to Tipperary for trial alongside several other MPs in connection with protests by Irish tenant farmers against their landlords.
Merthyr Vale station features in the 1971 film 10 Rillington Place, which tells the true story of the wrongful execution of Timothy Evans. Timothy, who grew up in Merthyr Vale, had been convicted of killing his wife Beryl and their baby daughter Geraldine at their flat in Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London. He was hanged in 1950. Three years later John Christie, who had lived in a flat below, confessed to murdering Beryl and Geraldine. He had killed at least eight people.
The 1971 film shows the station’s appearance before British Rail removed one of the tracks, closed one platform and replaced the buildings with the concrete-block shelter seen in the April 1992 photo above. The single track limited Merthyr Tydfil to hourly trains, but in 2008 the Welsh Government funded a 3km loop line through Merthyr Vale to boost the service to two trains per hour. The project included reopening the second platform.
In the 2020s, Transport for Wales electrified the line and installed extra tracks for four trains per hour per direction. Electric trains began to serve Merthyr Vale in November 2024.
Postcode: CF48 4TE View Location Map
Footnotes: What the 1951 aerial photo shows
Merthyr Vale station is in the bottom right corner. To its left is the railway into Merthyr Vale colliery, visible at the top of the photo. In the top left corner is Aberfan station, on the former Rhymney Railway line from Merthyr Tydfil (opened in 1886). Southbound passenger trains from Aberfan went to Quaker’s Yard High Level, Treharris, Nelson, Ystrad Mynach and Cardiff Queen Street.
The former Glamorganshire Canal – filled in by 1951 – runs from near Aberfan station down the left side of the photo.