South Wales Metro: New £100m train depot for Taff's Well

A new £100m train depot is to open in Taff's Well as part of plans for the South Wales Metro, the Welsh Government has announced.

The investment is part of the £5bn rail deal announced last week.

The Transport for Wales depot will house 36 of the new metro vehicles operating on the Taff Vale lines.

The depot will also become the base for 400 train crew, 35 metro vehicle maintenance staff and a metro control centre employing 52 staff.

The existing depot in Canton will receive £5m investment to modernise maintenance facilities so it can support the new "tri-mode" rolling stock being introduced as part of the new rail service. These are trains that can run on diesel, electric and battery-powered lines.

There will also be investment in facilities for parking trains in Treherbert and Rhymney, and an upgrade of the station at Rhymney to accommodate more of the tri-mode rolling stock.

Economy Secretary Ken Skates said: "The construction of the Taff's Well depot presents one of the first opportunities for Welsh suppliers to directly benefit from our £738m investment in the South Wales Metro which will see us creating a sustainable and connected transport infrastructure."

Clearance and construction work for the new depot is expected to start in 2019 and be completed by mid-2022.

Transport for Wales will put out the tender for the new depot to construction companies through Sell2Wales.

The Welsh Government is investing £194m station improvements across Wales. This will include the modernisation of the station at Taff's Well, with a park and ride facility to improve commuter access to the South Wales Metro.

Last month the rail franchise was won by French-Spanish joint venture KeolisAmey. It has promised to spend £800m on new trains and to increase capacity by two-thirds.

The French-Spanish joint venture will take over operations from Arriva Trains Wales for the next 15 years from October.