Wales & Western region
The Wales & Western region includes more than 2,700 miles of railway with a 5,500-strong workforce.
We serve communities and businesses of Wales, the Thames Valley, West of England and the South West Peninsula.
We transport commuters to key employment hubs including London, Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. We directly serve London Heathrow, Europe’s busiest international airport and provide connections to Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, and London Gatwick airports.
We support leisure and tourism in all of these areas and support critical freight services, notably aggregates, moving millions of tonnes of freight every year.
We’re focussed on providing a safe, reliable and high performing railway every day. The modernisation of our region over the last decade culminated in the biggest timetable change since 1976 – meaning there are more seats, more services and quicker journeys than ever before.
We’re also supporting the delivery of Transport for Wales’ (TfW) ambitious vision to transform the railway in Wales and Borders. We are working hard with Transport for London to prepare for the Elizabeth line which will bring a ‘metro frequency’ service from Reading through London Paddington to Heathrow, Central London, Essex and Kent. Working through our alliance with Great Western Railway (GWR) and through our close working relationship with TfW, we’re delivering a number of projects to create more capacity on the network, reduce journey times and improve facilities for passengers.
Rob Cairns
Interim Managing director, Wales & Western region
Wales & Western region in numbers
- 122.5 million passengers travel through Wales & Western each year (pre-COVID-19)
- 5,500 employees work across the Wales & Western routes
- A total of 453 stations serving passengers to Wales, the Borders & Western
- 2,700+ miles of track
- Over 3,540 passenger and freight services every day
- We manage and maintain 5,841 bridges, 1,750 level crossings and over 4,500 signals
- Directly serve Europe’s busiest airport, London Heathrow and provide access to Bristol City, Cardiff, Birmingham International, Manchester International and London Gatwick airports
- Wales & Western moves over 500,000 tonnes of freight per week using nearly 800 freight train movements each week.