Ebbw Vale Parkway railway station

Ebbw Vale Parkway Add→{{rail-interchange}}
General information
Other names	Welsh: Parcffordd Glyn Ebwy
Location	Blaenau Gwent
Owned by	Network Rail
Managed by	Arriva Trains Wales
Platforms	1
Other information
Station code	EBV
History
Opened	6 February 2008
Original company	Network Rail

Ebbw Vale Parkway railway station (Welsh: Parcffordd Glyn Ebwy) is a station on the Ebbw Valley Railway in Wales. The station opened on 6 February 2008 when services to and from Cardiff Central commenced after 46 years of being a freight-only line. An northwards extension of the line to a new terminus at Ebbw Vale Town opened on 17 May 2015. A direct service to Newport is expected to commence in 2018 following double-tracking and re-signalling works between Aberbeeg and Crosskeys.

The station has been built on the site of the former Victoria station in the Victoria area of the Ebbw Vale conurbation. It consists of a single platform adjacent to Glan Ebbw Terrace, close to the A4046 Station Road.

Today, the current service is one train per hour to Cardiff Central calling at Llanhilleth, Newbridge, Crosskeys, Risca, Rogerstone, Pye Corner and Cardiff Central, departing at 40 minutes past each hour. The journey times to Cardiff is approximately fifty minutes. Occasional services continue beyond Cardiff to Swansea, Bridgend or Maesteg.

Services are usually operated by Class 150 Sprinter units, although Class 142 & Class 143 Pacer units, Class 158 Super Sprinter and Class 175 Coradia units have been cleared to work the line.

There are bus stops adjacent to the station on the A4046. There are bus connections from here to nearby communities such as Cwm, the Garden Festival Shopping site, Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan and Ebbw Vale Town itself.

Demand for travel to and from the station was seriously under-estimated by the promoters of the line's reopening, even though the service provided was to Cardiff only and not to Newport as well, as originally assumed. For example, in 2008/09, usage at the station was forecast to be 50,000, for journeys on the lines to Cardiff and to Newport, but was actually about 250,000, for journeys on the line to Cardiff only. Part of the reason for the demand underforecast was the requirement that no demand from regeneration of the former steelworks area should be assumed.

External links

• Train times and station information for Ebbw Vale Parkway railway station from National Rail
• Details of proposals for station, with pictures
• Archive of Ebbw Valley Railway Scheme website (Blaenau Gwent council, 2008)

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Ebbw Vale Town		Arriva Trains Wales Ebbw Vale Town - Cardiff Central		Llanhilleth