South West & Wales to Midlands
Last updated 25 May 2026
Port Talbot to Birmingham via Cardiff, Severn Tunnel, Bristol Parkway, Gloucester, and Worcester — steel, aggregates, and intermodal traffic from the South Wales ports to the West Midlands.
| NR route | Wales & Western / Western |
| Route chain | Port Talbot – Cardiff – Severn Tunnel Junction – Bristol Parkway – Gloucester – Worcester – Birmingham |
| Key constraints | Severn Tunnel; Cardiff; Gloucester area |
| Trailing 12-period A2F | Fewer than 12 closed periods of clean data on record — available once the pipeline reaches 12 complete periods. |
Latest period summary
South West & Wales to Midlands recorded 69% A2F punctuality in Period 2 2026-27 (26 April – 23 May 2026) on 671 freight services, up 1 percentage point from 68% in Period 1 2026-27 on a smaller denominator. The intervals overlap with the prior period. PRELIMINARY at T+2; FINAL re-publication at T+35 after Network Rail's batch correction.
Reports
Operators active
Methodology & sources
All figures derive from Network Rail's NROD TRUST feed, processed via the Gauge Intelligence ingest pipeline. Period definitions, A2F (Arrival to Fifteen), the Wilson 90% interval, daily anomaly rules, cross-view reconciliation, and delay attribution are documented at:
Data window — period boundaries and the data-as-of cutoff
League tables — cross-view reconciliation across the four analytical views
Anomaly detection — daily A2F SPC rules
Delay attribution — DAPR cause-code breakdown
Forecasting — prediction intervals and possession-exposure estimates
The corridor carries steel from the Port Talbot integrated works, aggregates from the Mendip and South Wales quarries, and intermodal services from the South Wales container terminals. It also carries the bulk flows between South Wales and the West Midlands. It is the principal cross-country complement to the Great Western Main Line, which carries the same origins toward London.
The single-bore Severn Tunnel and the approaches to Cardiff and Gloucester are the principal constraints on the route.