Cardiff Central train station
Cardiff Central is a major interchange: 268 stations can be reached from here without changing on a weekday, more than almost anywhere else on the network. The most frequent is Cardiff Queen Street, with 375 trains a day.
See Cardiff Central on the map
Address: Cardiff, CF10 1EP
Cardiff Central is the nearest station for postcodes in CF10. Check your own postcode.
- 268 direct destinations
- 37th busiest in Britain
- Staffed full time
- Step-free throughout
- 681 parking spaces
- 21 bus stops nearby
Direct trains from Cardiff Central
Trains a day to each station you can reach without changing, by day of the week.
| Destination | Weekday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardiff Queen Street | 375 | 379 | 138 |
| Newport | 264 | 204 | 140 |
| Grangetown | 248 | 188 | 103 |
| Pontypridd | 202 | 203 | 82 |
| Radyr | 202 | 203 | 82 |
| Taffs Well | 202 | 203 | 82 |
| Treforest Estate | 202 | 203 | 82 |
| Trefforest | 202 | 203 | 82 |
| Caerphilly | 173 | 172 | 54 |
| Heath High Level | 173 | 172 | 54 |
| Llanishen | 173 | 172 | 54 |
| Lisvane and Thornhill | 173 | 172 | 54 |
| Bridgend | 169 | 99 | 93 |
| Cathays | 136 | 136 | 56 |
| Llandaf | 136 | 136 | 56 |
| Abercynon | 132 | 133 | 52 |
| Barry | 126 | 93 | 75 |
| Barry Docks | 126 | 69 | 75 |
| Cadoxton | 126 | 69 | 75 |
| Cogan | 126 | 69 | 75 |
| Dinas Powys | 126 | 69 | 75 |
| Eastbrook | 126 | 69 | 75 |
| Dingle Road | 122 | 120 | 28 |
| Penarth | 122 | 120 | 28 |
| Aber | 119 | 119 | 27 |
| Llanbradach | 119 | 119 | 27 |
| Ystrad Mynach | 119 | 119 | 27 |
| Bargoed | 118 | 118 | 27 |
| Hengoed | 118 | 118 | 27 |
| Pengam | 118 | 118 | 27 |
| Port Talbot Parkway | 99 | 79 | 61 |
| Neath | 98 | 79 | 61 |
| Swansea | 97 | 79 | 61 |
| Severn Tunnel Junction | 93 | 79 | 46 |
| Barry Island | 90 | 66 | 59 |
| Bristol Temple Meads | 71 | 64 | 52 |
| Filton Abbey Wood | 70 | 62 | 50 |
| Ninian Park | 67 | 67 | 26 |
| Aberdare | 66 | 67 | 25 |
| Birchgrove | 66 | 68 | 26 |
and 228 more stations, each served less often.
Lines serving Cardiff Central
Cardiff Central is on the South Wales Main Line. That page has the whole route, every station on it and how busy each one is.
Freight through Cardiff Central station, hour by hour
Freight is booked through or alongside Cardiff Central station on 498 paths in the week beginning 12 October 2026: 89 paths on the Wednesday, 53 paths on the Saturday and 26 paths on the Sunday. 104 of them run whatever the traffic; the rest are held in the timetable and used only when there is something to move. The busiest hour is 09:00 to 10:00 on the Tuesday, with 7 paths booked.
The grid counts the goods trains booked to pass in each hour of the week beginning 12 October 2026: the darker the hour, the more paths, and a dot marks an hour with at least one path that runs regardless. Engineering trains, empty stock and light engines are not counted. Across Britain only about a fifth of booked freight paths run on a given day, so a booked path is a possibility rather than a promise; the freight statistics page explains how that is measured.
| 00 | 03 | 06 | 09 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 21 | |||||||||||||||||
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Paths booked in the hournone12 to 34 to 78 to 1516 or moreone runs regardless
How busy Cardiff Central station is
12,513,720 passenger entries and exits in 2024-25, making it the 37th busiest station in Great Britain.
A further 1,779,150 passengers changed trains here without entering or leaving the station.
More journeys run between Cardiff Central and Newport (South Wales) than any other pair: 1,065,106 a year. That is where passengers go, which is not always where the most trains go.
Source: Office of Rail and Road, Estimates of station usage, 2024-25. Estimated from ticket sales.
Sundays
Sunday is a different railway here: 185 stations instead of 268, a drop of about 31%. Saturday runs to 189.
Changing from 14 April 2027
From 14 April 2027, Cardiff Central gains 2 destinations including Cardiff Bay, Glasgow Central and loses 3 including Milford Haven, Johnston, Exton.
Nearest other stations
- Cardiff Queen Street 0.6 miles
- Grangetown 0.7 miles
- Cardiff Bay 0.8 miles
- Cathays 0.9 miles
- Ninian Park 0.9 miles
Closed stations nearby
Former stations within 8 km of Cardiff Central, from Wikidata. They are on the map under Closed & former stations.
- Cardiff Riverside Branch · 0.8 miles
- Clarence Road · 0.8 miles
- Roath · 1.3 miles
- Crwys Road · 1.3 miles
- Llandough Platform · 1.8 miles
- Gabalfa · 2.0 miles
Show closed stations on the map
Facilities at Cardiff Central station
Cardiff Central is staffed full time, with step-free access to the whole station.
Ticket office: Monday: 05:40 to 21:30 · Sunday: 07:30 to 21:30
Toilets · WiFi
Parking at Cardiff Central station
- Quay Multi-Storey 681 spaces, 28 accessible
Cycle parking: 102 spaces (sheltered, stands).
From National Rail's station record, last updated 10 September 2026.
Getting to Cardiff Central station
Cardiff Central station is in Cardiff - Caerdydd, Wales, and is run by TfW Rail.
The nearest motorway junction is M4 J32 (Coryton), 4.4 miles north-west.
21 bus stops are within a short walk, the nearest being Cardiff Bus Interchange Bay 1.
Sources: Office of Rail and Road (Table 6329), OpenStreetMap and NaPTAN.
Cardiff Central station elsewhere
- National Rail facilities, opening hours and live departures
- Realtime Trains every train calling today, to the minute
- Wikipedia the station's history
- OpenStreetMap the map data this page is built from
From the Train Map UK shop See everything
