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Cowbridge Railway

Former rail line in Wales

The Llantrisant–Aberthaw line was a railway line built in two parts. The Cowbridge Railway was a locally promoted railway line in South Wales, intended to connect the town to the nearby mainline network at Llantrisant. The company was desperately short of money to construct the line, and a subscription of £10,000 from the Taff Vale Railway towards the construction costs ensured alignment to that company's system, so that Pontypridd, and not Cardiff, was the destination of through passenger trains.2 It ceased to exist in 1889.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Jul 29, 1862Founded1

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The Llantrisant–Aberthaw line was a railway line built in two parts.2

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The passenger service on the Cowbridge to Aberthaw section had declined over a long period. The motor car platforms at Aberthin, St. Hilary and Llanbethêry were closed to passengers on 12 July 1920, so that only Trerhyngyll and Maendy remained open of the 1905 "platforms".

A census of passenger business on the line disclosed that in 1923, 66,140 tickets were sold at Cowbridge station; the branch as a whole excluding Llantrisant sold 87,800. Just over 3,000 tickets were sold at the three stations south of Cowbridge in 1923.

The first daily bus service to Cowbridge was inaugurated in 1920, and proved much more convenient than the trains. A long standing complaint had been the poor connections with the GWR at Llantrisant, so that the dominant flow from Cowbridge to Cardiff was inconvenient by train: it was much better served by the new bus service.

In 1926, a review showed that in 1925, expenses incurred on the branch amounted to £18,423. Most of the income was from the iron ore mine at Llanharry, and the remainder of the line generated little: earnings for the three stations amounted to £133 for the whole of 1925.

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This report resulted in suspension of the passenger service between Cowbridge and Aberthaw from 4 May 1926, but the service was reinstated on 11 July 1927. Ticket sales at Aberthaw in 1928 amounted to only 229 compared with 1,187 in 1923; at St Athan Road the figures were 451 against 1,232 for the same years. Passenger receipts from all three stations on the branch amounted to £60 for the whole of 1928, and the GWR announced its intention to withdraw the service between Cowbridge and Aberthaw from 5 May 1930.

The general goods business on the Aberthaw section declined too, as did the small private siding traffic, and the Aberthaw cement works increasingly used the Vale of Glamorgan line as its route for traffic forwarded. By 1932 the Cowbridge to Aberthaw line had become little used by the residual goods service, apart from a small amount of agricultural traffic. The service south of Beaupre siding was withdrawn, and the goods stations were closed on 1 November 1932. The last goods train was handled at Beaupre Quarry siding in 1947, after which the remaining 1 mile 3 chains of line south of Cowbridge was lifted.

From Wikipedia’s article on Cowbridge Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. Aug 26, 1889Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. Jul 29, 1862Founded Founded1

Sources

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