  valleys & cardiff local routes () (formerly valley lines) is the busy network of passenger suburban railway services radiating from cardiff, wales. it includes lines within the city itself, the vale of glamorgan and the south wales valleys.http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/strategicbusinessplan/routeplans/2008/route%2015%20-%20south%20wales%20valleys.pdf the services are currently operated by arriva trains wales. in total, it serves 81 stations in six unitary authority areas: 20 in the city of cardiff, 11 in the vale of glamorgan, 25 in rhondda cynon taff, 15 in caerphilly, 8 in bridgend and 5 in merthyr tydfil.http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/workarea/showcontent.aspx?id=4776 services on these routes are provided by class 142, 143 and 150 dmus, and are typically end-to-end, in that they run from one branch terminus, through cardiff queen street station, to another branch terminus, e.g. from pontypridd to barry island. the major hubs of the network are  and . other hubs are ,  and .cardiff central and queen street are where all services pass through and are interchanges to the national network. pontypridd and barry are the two stations with the largest passenger numbers outside of cardiff and they are only served by this network. see respective wikipedia pages. on 16 july 2012 the uk government announced plans to extend the electrification of the network at a cost of Â£350 million. this was at the same time of the announcement of electrification of the south wales main line from cardiff to swansea. this would also see investment in new trains and continued improvements to stations. it is thought to start between 2014 and 2019. ==reopening of the vale of glamorgan line== a stretch of the vale of glamorgan line, on which passenger services were closed under the beeching axe, re-opened for passenger service, with services from  to , via , rhoose cardiff intl. airport and llantwit major. these services were originally advertised to start in april
Rail_transport_in_Cardiff Railway_lines_in_Wales Standard_gauge_railways_in_Wales