Cardiff Bay railway station , formerly Cardiff Bute Road, is a station serving the Cardiff Bay

Cardiff Bay

Cardiff Bay is the area created by the Cardiff Barrage in South Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The regeneration of Cardiff Bay is now widely regarded as one of the most successful regeneration projects in the United Kingdom. The Bay is supplied by two rivers to form a freshwater lake round the...

 and Butetown

Butetown

Butetown is a community in the south of the city of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early nineteenth century by John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, for whose title the area was named...

 areas of Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

. It is the southern terminus

Terminal Station

Terminal Station is a 1953 film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of the love affair between an Italian man and an American woman. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.-Production:...

 of the Butetown Branch Line

Butetown Branch Line

The Butetown Branch Line, also known as the Cardiff Bay Line, is a commuter railway line in Cardiff, Wales from Cardiff Bay and Cardiff Queen Street...

 1 mile (1.5 km) south of .

Only one platform is now in use, with the station building itself effectively abandoned. The station building lies on Bute Street

Bute Street (Cardiff)

Bute Street is a street in Cardiff, Wales. It links Cardiff Bay and Butetown with Cardiff city centre. It now has no road number...

, although the rest of the station remains visible from the nearby Lloyd George Avenue

Lloyd George Avenue

Lloyd George Avenue is an avenue in Cardiff, Wales. Roughly one mile long, the road links the Inner Harbour of Cardiff Bay to Cardiff city centre and forms part of the A470 road. It runs parallel to Bute Street and the Butetown Branch Line...

. For various reasons, including it being the origin of the first steam-powered passenger train service in Wales, the station is a Grade II* listed building.

The station is within walking distance of the National Assembly for Wales

National Assembly for Wales

The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...

 and the Wales Millennium Centre

Wales Millennium Centre

Wales Millennium Centre is an arts centre located in the Cardiff Bay area of Cardiff, Wales. The site covers a total area of . Phase 1 of the building was opened during the weekend of the 26–28 November 2004 and phase 2 opened on 22 January 2009 with an inaugural concert...

Passenger services are provided by Arriva Trains Wales

Arriva Trains Wales

Arriva Trains Wales is a train operating company, owned by Arriva, that operates urban and inter urban passenger services in Wales and the Welsh Marches...

.

History

The station was built as "Cardiff Docks" in 1840 by the Taff Vale Railway

Taff Vale Railway

The Taff Vale Railway is a railway in Glamorgan, South Wales, and is one of the oldest in Wales. It operated as an independent company from 1836 until 1922, when it became a constituent company of the Great Western Railway...

 (engineer: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

). It was renamed "Bute Road" by the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 in 1924 and given its present name in 1994. The building was restored in the 1980s and served for a time as a railway museum under the auspices of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales

National Museum Wales

Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, formerly the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, comprises eight museums in Wales:* National Museum Cardiff* St Fagans: National History Museum, Cardiff* Big Pit National Coal Museum, Blaenavon...

 and the Butetown Historical Railway Society (which in 1997 relocated its activities to the Vale of Glamorgan Railway

Vale of Glamorgan Railway

The Barry Tourist Railway is a railway developed to attract visitors to Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales...

).

Services

There is a shuttle service between Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Bay every 12 minutes Monday to Saturdays (between 0630 and 2330) and every 12 minutes on Sundays (between 1100 and 1630). It is operated by a Class 121

British Rail Class 121

Sixteen Class 121 single-car driving motor vehicles were built from 1960, numbered 55020–55035. These were supplemented by ten trailer vehicles, numbered 56280–56289 . They had a top speed of 70 mph, with slam-doors, and vacuum brakes...

 "bubble car", built in 1960.

External links