Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth | Let Transport for Wales take you from England to the Welsh coast

On this scenic little run we go from the beautiful Shrewsbury station to Aberystwyth. We run along the River Severn for much of the way before joining the River Dovey for a stunning ride through the Dovey Estuary to our final destination at Aberystwyth.
Departure: Shrewsbury, England, UK
Destination: Aberystwyth, Wales, UK
Distance: 131 km / 81.5 miles
Duration: 1 hr 51 mins
Cost: Standard class advance single, with 1/3 railcard discount: £6.25 / €7,10
Date of Travel: March 2023
Operator: Transport for Wales
Motive power: Class 158 DMU. Built: British Rail Engineering Ltd, Derby, UK (1989-1992)
Thank you to everyone that supports the channel by subscribing, liking, commenting or just watching these videos. I really appreciate it!

[@DAVID-bv2gv]

Great video Thank you for sharing your train journey, I live near Shrewsbury and we had a holiday house in Both I’d love to do this train journey 👍🏻🇬🇧💯

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

You are very welcome. It is a lovely run, so do try it out! Another interesting thing to do from Shrewsbury is the Ffestiniog Round Robin. Worth checking out this two-parter. kzbin.info/www/bejne/n568oqWjh6qUZposi=LVvi5DMUOAU6OR5A Thanks for watching 👍

[@nuinmarnuinmar5321]

Lovely video as always, thanks for sharing!

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

No problem. I loved making it. Might be a bonus on Monday... 🚂

[@cryzcryz2345]

Thank you very much for this brilliant video!

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

And thank you for watching and for your kind words 👍 ...you can find out what happened next tomorrow (Monday) 🚂

[@markwivell1817]

Thanks for the upload. Excellent viewing with my morning coffee!

[@markwivell1817]

Interesting that the prison had its own platform 🤔

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

@@markwivell1817 yes I did wonder about platform 8 when I was there and a bit of Wikipedia confirmed it. Thanks so much for watching and commenting 👍

[@walterfillingham]

What a wonder video yet again! This is a whole part of our country I have no knowledge at all coming from the Scottish Highlands, despite the weather you had you can clearly see the scenery is superb and just begging for me to go down and explore.. thanks for opening my eyes to this part of the world :)

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

Yes it is lovely. I have a few more trips in the area to edit and release which also show how lovely it is round there. Bonus coming on Monday that goes "chuff chuff" 😉

[@LetsMakeaTrip]

Nice one mate! Despite living in Shrews, I haven’t been on the Aber line for ages. His makes me want to give it another go sometime soon (hopefully in better weather though!). Interesting learning about some of the buildings too. Keep it up 😊👍

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

Thanks! I leave you the task of asking around if those heads at the station have a deeper story 😉 Yes, I had a certain week to be there and had to get whatever weather was delivered but you have the luxury of picking a sunny day. Shrewsbury is a lovely station. More shots of it in upcoming vids. Thank you for the support and encouragement 👍

[@VVellieMan]

Nice trip report, as ever. Glad to see you had a pint at the end. Been wondering for a few weeks now whether you'd gone tee-total....! 😉

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

Hahaha! There I was thinking I was doing train trip reports - I need to swap to pub reviews! It was excellent beer at the station. I didn't have just one... Thanks for the watch and comment. Look out for a "what happened next" on Monday! 🚂

[@colinriley123]

A well earned pint. My kind of video!

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

I'm picturing a future bit of camera chat like "you can support the channel through my Patreon. Be assured that every penny you give will be used to buy beer" 🤣 Thanks for watching 👍

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

Oh. And steam trains on Monday bonus...

[@colinriley123]

@@JohnnyHooverTravels Brilliant!

[@RoddyJenkins]

Another brilliant video, Johnny 👏 Even though the weather clearly wasn’t playing ball, you still gave me a wonderful glimpse of a journey I’ve been meaning to take for a while now! Not sure if it was an accidental omission, but i noticed you didn’t give us the price of your ticket - an aspect of your videos that I greatly appreciate. Looking forward to the “bonus video”!

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

Y'know i did watch the video a couple of days ago and realised but it was too late. Return cost me £12.50, made up of two adv singles. Apologies for the omission and thank you for watching 👍 The bonus is out on Monday...

[@davidsheriff8989]

Never done this trip by rail but know the whole of Wales & England as this was my area for 15 years as a Sales Manager...

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

Wales and England was a big patch to cover! It's a good trip, I'd def recommend it. Thanks for watching 👍

[@davidsheriff8989]

@@JohnnyHooverTravels Yep, I covered the whole of Wales, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Oxfordshire & Bedfordshire over 2002-2008,

[@Battismore-Blue]

Went To Shrewsbury for my Stag Night , been back loads since , Its a proper English town , The Butter Market was a nightclub if my memory serves me right

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

Yeah it is lovely with the river running through. Thanks for watching 👍

[@AndrewG1989]

As Wrexham AFC have now been promoted to League 2. I would imagine that TfW will have to lay on extra trains for next season in League 2. For the Welsh derby between Wrexham and Newport County and possibly Cardiff City and Swansea City in the Carabao Cup and/or FA Cup.

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

Don't the Wrexham fans all fly in from America? 😉

[@kevinellis8869]

@@JohnnyHooverTravels We're all over the place, although I can say I lived in Wrexham until I was 13 :)

[@AndrewG1989]

The Class 197 Transport for Wales is also in service. Very strange that Shrewsbury railway station doesn’t have platforms 1 & 2 but Shrewsbury is only 8-10 miles from the Welsh border.

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

Well if you take 1 and 2 out of service, it is very expensive and probably pointless to go through the hassle of renumbering the ones that are left! I've yet to ride the 197s but I will get round to it soon. 👍 for watching

[@AndrewG1989]

@@JohnnyHooverTravels So true. Unless the platforms could be renumbered in correct order.

[@telemachus53]

Maybe one day they'll build a line from Aberystwyth down to Camarthen or Milford or thereabouts. Or even just to Cardigan. There's a huge area in Wales with no trains!

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

I think the problem, apart from the geography of Wales, is that there's huge areas of Wales with no people! I don't think a line would be viable at the moment. Thanks for watching another! 👍

[@Kulla1berg]

It seem Dovey J is acting like Berner ferries, east of Norwich, only accessible via foot and not by car

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

Ah thanks. I was wondering if there was another station like it. Best wishes 👍

[@Kulla1berg]

@@JohnnyHooverTravels I do really linke your small adventures around UK

[@MervynPartin]

I think that you mean Berney Arms, named after the now closed pub.

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

@@MervynPartin yes indeed.

[@Kulla1berg]

@@MervynPartin Yes it was I passed the station when I visited England 1996, remember the lovely isolated place

[@MervynPartin]

I've never done that trip, so that was an enjoyable glimpse of the journey. Interesting architecture at Shrewsbury Station. I know that English placenames are very confusing to non-locals (visit Norfolk- even worse) but I've always known it to sound Shroosbury, not Shrowsbury which grates on the ears.

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

I am think the "ew" is an archiac way of getting the "oh" sound. Not that long ago "shown" would have been spelled "shewn" even though the sound was "oh". So I agree that we have moved towards the more obvious "shrew" pronunciation and in another generation the "shrow" may have gone. ...but there's still a bucketful of place names left to trap the unwary travel video maker! Thanks for watching 👍

[@grahvis]

@@JohnnyHooverTravels . "Not that long ago "shown" would have been spelled "shewn" " A bit late, but I remember when the ticket barriers at Waterloo used to do just that. "All tickets must be shewn".

[@jasonlawson2302]

My girlfriend lives on the Pwllheli line in tywyn

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

That's a lovely place! Thank for watching 👍

[@brianmorrison9168]

Great Video Are you able to book specific seats on Transport for Wales trains ? My wife and I are thinking about taking a short break in Cardiff, from Newcastle early in 2024 but prefer trains with proper seat allocations, like LNER .. you see a plan of the train and actually pick from the empty seats at the time of booking. Our trip will probably involve a change at Manchester, then TFW down to Cardiff We have actually just returned from a break in Manchester and Liverpool and on both journeys with TransPennine Express, there were problems with seat bookings. It was our first time with TPE and to be fair, we weren’t too impressed.

[@JohnnyHooverTravels]

Now you mention it I don't recall ever getting a seat reservation on a TfW ride. If you are doing Manchester to Cardiff then I'd strongly recommend a first class ride on their push/pull trains with Mk4 coaches. You can check how nice there are on this video... Enjoy a First Class breakfast, going from Shrewsbury to Cardiff! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXmwh2BubL2qoJo

[@brianmorrison9168]

@@JohnnyHooverTravels Many thanks for your reply. I've just had a look online for imaginary dates in November just to see prices and was pleasantly surpirsed. For the two of us, with a railcard, the Manchester to Cardiff journey would be about £118 return (standard) but only £20 more, at £138 for first class, which would seem quite a bargain. I'll have to investigate further. Regards from Whitley Bay