If you’ve been following our updates on the daylight testing of the new Citylink tram-trains in South Wales you’ll likely have noticed that the variety of vehicles being used has been rather limited – in fact up until recently only 398 028 had been seen! But that has now changed with 398 013 also seeing use.
398 013 made its debut on the test diagram (which continues to have two planned trips in the morning and two in the afternoon) on Friday 10th October 2025 as preparations for some of the Stadler built vehicles to enter service continue.
In total 36 of the Citylink vehicles are being built for Transport for Wales and eventually they will be used on the planned Cardiff Crossrail service which will include a proper tramway linking Cardiff Central and Cardiff Bay, scheduled for opening in 2028. Before then they will just be used as conventional trains and are due to be used on the Rhondda, Merthyr and Cardiff City lines, and the Cardiff Bay branch.
Meanwhile, the new Metro station at the Bay has now been opened and is in use. This will eventually have a link to the street running section, although that is very much for the future.
398 013 at Pontypridd during a test run.
Another shot of 398 013 as it continues its testing.
This is Cardiff Bay station looking towards where from 2028 we should see tram tracks as Cardiff gets its first trams in over 80 years. (All Photographs by David Mee, 10th October 2025)