page_title: Rhondda
section_title: Transport
hierarchical_section_title: Rhondda / Transport
caption_attribution_description: English: Cwmparc: zigzag on the A4061 The A4061 zigzags its way down to Cwmparc and Treorchy, viewed from the Abergwynfi road.
context_page_description: Rhondda, or the Rhondda Valley, is a former coal mining area in South Wales, previously in Glamorgan, and now a local government district, of 16 communities around the River Rhondda. The Rhondda is actually two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley and the smaller Rhondda Fach valley – so that the singular "Rhondda Valley" and the plural are both commonly used. In 2001, the Rhondda constituency of the National Assembly for Wales had a population of 72,443; while the National Office of Statistics counted the population as 59,602. Rhondda forms part of Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough and of the South Wales Valleys. It is most noted for its historical coal-mining industry, which peaked between 1840 and 1925. The valleys produced a strong early Nonconformist Christian movement manifest in the Baptist chapels that moulded Rhondda values in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is also famous for strong masculine cultural ties exemplified in its male voice choirs, sport and politics.
context_section_description: The geological layout of the Rhondda Valley has led to restrictive transport links. The original road layout followed the valleys, with few links between them. In the 1920s, a major unemployment relief programme for out-of-work miners was created to build mountain roads connecting them. These had a lasting effect and transformed the valleys from being dead-end communities. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, new road projects such as the Rhondda by-pass were created out of former railway lines.
  Two main roads service the area. The A4058 runs through the Rhondda Fawr and the A4233 services the Rhondda Fach. The A4058 starts at Pontypridd runs through Porth before ending at Treorchy, where it joins the A4061 to Hirwaun. The A4233 begins outside Rhondda at Tonyrefail, heading north through Porth and through the Rhondda Fach to Maerdy, where the road links up with the A4059 at Aberdare. Two other A roads service the area; the A4119 is a relief road known as the Tonypandy Bypass; the other is the A4061, which links Treorchy to the Ogmore Vale before reaching Bridgend.
  There is a single rail link to the Rhondda, the Rhondda Line, based around the old Taff Vale Railway, which serviced both the Rhondda Fach and Rhondda Fawr. The Rhondda Line runs through the Rhondda Fawr, linking Rhondda to Cardiff Central. The railway stations that once populated the Rhondda Fach were all closed under the Beeching Axe. The railway line serves ten Rhondda stations with the villages not directly linked connected through bus services.
  British Rail reopened some of the closed stations such as Ystrad Rhondda railway station in 1986.
caption: The A4061 Bwlch-y-Clawdd road was built in 1928. It connected the Rhondda to Nantymoel and Abergwynfi and made a lasting impression on the landscape to be featured in National Geographic.[130]
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