Relocating to South West Wales

[DaxieMama]

Hello, first time poster here 😊
My partner and I and our three dogs are planning to move from York to Wales in the next 12 months. Both of us work from home, however he needs to travel to London every two weeks for a couple of days. The idea originally was to move somewhere around Cardigan as we've been there many times and love it, however with the travel to London it's doesn't seem feasible. It looks like the best way is to get the train from Port Talbot. So we would need to be within a 45min driving distance of the station, and ideally be within 15min drive of nice beaches. We are looking at areas like Kidwelly, Laugharne, Llanelli. What are these areas like and are there any others that we should consider? We will be staying around Pendine next weekend and are planning to drive around and see these areas. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

The trains are dire, not reliable and they reduce the number of carriages on a whim but especially on rugby weekends, heaven knows why. This was even before the strikes.

My dh and dd go by car, they work in London. The M4 is a nightmare (holdups/lane closures/closed carriageways) they do it weekly/fortnightly not day to day though.

For the areas you've listed Swansea is your main station not Port Talbot. Never caught a train from Llanelli to London but you'd probably change at Swansea anyway.

@Hedgesgalore Thanks for your insight, thats really good to know and something to think about. With regards to the trains, it's Port Talbot Parkway station I was talking about; trains to London Paddington take about 2.5 hrs and my partner would drive there and get the train, so we're looking at areas that are within a 45min drive.

We always park in neath station when going to London, huge car park you can stay for several days if needed and I've always found the trains to be reliable.

That is 2.5 hours on the train according to the timetable. Not the lived reality. So it depends on how frequently you will need to do the journey as to whether you think it is worth the move. If you want Wales and need to commute more than once a month I would look at between Cardiff and Newport. I say this as someone who lived there for over 10 years and travelled for work. We ended up moving to the Bristol side of the bridge to reduce the commuting time. It is exhausting and frustrating in equal measure. And slow. York to London is very very fast by comparison.

My god, no way! It's enough of a journey cardiff to cardigan.

I'd look at the beaches south of Bridgend personally especially Southerndown. That area of coast has nice villages between Bridgend and Cowbridge e.g St brides major, Wick.

Leaving York to go to one of the most depressed parts of the UK?
Why?
My ex husband was from near Port Talbot.
Never been to such a depressing place.

Burry Port is lovely and the train to London is fairly easy from there.

@MrsKeats We've lived here for 7 years and prior to that in London, now we really want to be near the sea, and after spending a lot of time in Wales (summer and winter) we have decided that this is the place for us. Granted, we want to be in Pembrokeshire but travel from there is impossible so need to look at other options, and Carmarthenshire, logistically, seems to be the next best thing.

@TheGreatPotato thank you, we will check it out.

Thank you, that's good to know.

I’d vote Neath station too. Which opens up Neath Valley and Swansea/Gower area.

You can catch a train from Carmarthen station for London too (I think you may need to change in Cardiff but it’s years since I did that commute). You may want to consider Ferryside/Llansteffan area if you are considering Kidwelly.

I think local/valley lines aren’t brilliant but trains to London (subject to the usual “leaves on the line” are ok. At the moment network rail are doing a lot of work on the lines, so weekends in particular are often replacement bus services. I assume you’d be wise enough not to be commuting during 6 Nation match days - when the trains are very overcrowded.

I used to do a roughly once a week travel to London from Neath; whilst it was a long day it was doable.

I second Burry Port as being lovely along with the beaches around Llanelli area - especially Pembrey country park.

@Witchbitch20 Thanks so much. Any particular reason to travel from Neath rather than Port Talbot Parkway? I've just checked the train times and the length of journey and it's at least an hour longer and some trains 1.5 he longer. We had considered Gower too, we'll go down there and have a look around next weekend.

For me it saves the faff of getting to a station via the M4 (obviously this will depend on your actual settled location). Also as PP mentioned the car park at the back of the station is easy to access and to extend timings for if needed (other than if the fair’s in town! Then avoid). I’m not sure why it’s showing a journey time of longer - it’s the same track - Swansea, Neath, PT, Bridged, Cardiff is the station running order.

I’ve used Port Talbot once and it didn’t really save anything train travel wise (Neath’s the station before and its minutes difference). For me the bit on the M4 to the station was a bind - driving through that stretch the speed limit is restricted to 50mph and quite congested, it also meant I’d get caught up in motorway congestion around Swansea etc.

I second previous posters. Neath to Port Talbot on the train is 7 minutes and parking is much better at Neath.
Also the Bridgend recommendation of villages St Brides and Southerndown or Ogmore.
Llanelli has some seriously deprived areas, drugs etc.

Echoing others saying about unreliability and getting 3 carriages instead of 6 etc last minute.

Not a week has gone by when I wasn't held up between Cardiff and Paddington. Always fixing the lines, always things broken down in the tunnel.

This next two weeks the Severn rail tunnel is closed.

Hugely hoping they are doing this to make improvements that will greatly improve the vast problems.

There's not even a good regular rail replacement bus like normal between Newport and Bristol.

I had to go to Gloucester to get to Bristol.

Fun

I would advise you to spend some time in the towns around Carmarthenshire - lovely to spend a weekend in the countryside but not sure I'd want to live there. Another vote for Ogmore/Southerdown/Llantwit Major and train from Cardiff. Or Gower and train from Swansea. South Wales can be is quite insular outside the big cities so I would think about this carefully and spend time in the specific location before committing.