Great Western Railway and Transport For Wales Trains at Swansea on August 12th 2023

2nd visit to Swansea (Abertawe) being the terminus of the South Wales Main Line and well as the interchange for the West Wales Line
Featuring services from Great Western Railway and Transport For Wales as well featuring two 5 car Class 800/0 IETs coupling together to form a 10 car set for the rest of it's Journey to London Paddington.
Being the 4th busiest station in Wales Swansea first opened as Swansea High Street on June 19th 1850 by the South Wales Railway which was merged with the Great Western Railway 13 years later in 1863.
Swansea High Street became Swansea in 1963
All 4 platforms are used for terminating services or reversing services with most Great Western Railway services terminating from London Paddington with a few services a day being extended to Carmarthen or Pembroke Dock.
Platform 4 was recently extended in 2021 having originally being too short to accommodate a 10 car IET set which work was carried out despite the Coronavirus Pandemic between October 2020 and June 2021 which also included refurbishing station facilities and rebranding to reflect the Transport For Wales branding since February 2021 been managed by the Welsh Government.
North of the station is Swansea Maliphant Depot which was expanded in 2014 for use for stabling IETs although Overhead Gantries have been fitted however in July 2017 controversially the electrification was cut back to Cardiff Central although as of the time of filming it remains to be seen whether electric trains will ever reach Swansea
Transport For Wales which provide the services along the West Wales Line to Carmarthen, Pembroke Dock as well as Fishguard Harbour which was served by Great Western Railway when at the time was branded as First Great Western until 2003.
Other services via the South Wales Main Line or the Swanline for local stopping services to Cardiff Central.
At the time of filming Transport For Wales were undergoing a major fleet overhaul with all Class 150s, 153s, 158s and 175s being replaced with Class 197s built by CAF and Class 756s with the latter being built by Stadler which will be similar designed to the Class 231 Flirts being used on the Cardiff Valley Lines.
In the future London to Carmarthen Services are due to be operated by Grand Union Trains which will be an open access operator which was approved by ORR (Office for Rail Regulation) in December 2021
The plan is to introduce 5 direct services a day which will serve only Bristol Parkway, Severn Tunnel Junction, Newport, Cardiff Central, Gowerton, Llanelli as well as provision a future Parkway station North of Swansea called Parc Felindre situated near Junction 44 of the M4 Motorway however at the time of filming little progress has been made about the station.
As for Grand Union Trains will operate 9 car Biomode Sets however due to late submission for Rolling Stock the original date for enter in December 2025 is likely to be pushed back until December 2027.
The station itself through traffic can even on a wet summers day be very busy and whilst electric trains may not reach Swansea anytime soon however whether that changes in the long term only time will tell.
Featuring
Alfie's Videos
Music used:
JJD - Adventure
Music provided by NCS
Video link:
NoCopyrightSounds
• JJD - Adventure | Glit...
Filmed on Saturday August 12th 2023 on iPhone 14 Pro and edited on iMovie
#swansea #greatwesternrailway #transportforwales #class150 #class153 #class158 #class175 #class800 #southwales #wale

[@explorewithlorenzo9940]

Nice video!

[@UltrazThomas]

Gotta Love Some Gwr action