TFW Fibre Extends Railway Full Fibre Network into Central Cardiff, Wales

Network operator TfW Ffeibr (TFW Fibre), which is an arm’s-length initiative setup by Transport for Wales (TfW) and thus the Welsh Government, has today announced that their railway based full fibre broadband and Ethernet network has been extended off the Core Valley Lines train-tracks and into the heart of Cardiff’s city centre – all the way down to Cardiff Bay.

Just to recap. Toward the end of 2024 TfW Ffeibr announced that they had built a new full fibre broadband network alongside several local railways and were offering access to help serve local communities (here). This occurred along the South Wales Metro and while carrying out huge infrastructure changes to electrify the railway line in the South Wales Valleys.

In short, the new operator was established to offer internet service providers (ISP) and other network operators access to the new infrastructure via wholesale. A number of companies have since reached an agreement to harness this network (e.g. colocation and server hosting provider Cloud Centres Networks) and the latest development could give that a further boost.

According to TfW Ffeibr, extending the network into Cardiff strengthens their “core purpose” by improving digital connectivity for the Valleys – creating stronger spine routes into the capital, businesses and communities across the Valleys (i.e. Cardiff regions gain faster, more reliable connectivity). In fairness Cardiff already had access to a lot of this via Openreach, Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre), Hyperoptic, Ogi, Netomnia and others.

Guy Reiffer, Managing Director at ffeibr, said:

“Extending our full-fibre network into the heart of Cardiff is a major step forward for digital infrastructure in Wales. This is more than just connectivity – it’s about creating the foundations for innovation, economic growth, and opportunity across the region.

Thanks to the dedication of our teams and our Welsh build-partners Gforce Telecoms, businesses and public services can now benefit from high capacity, future ready fibre built with Wales’ long-term success in mind.”

One other thing that does make this development meaningful is ffeibr’s “purpose-driven model … with every pound of profit being reinvested back into the Welsh public sector through Transport for Wales,” said the announcement.