Lisvane & Thornhill

If you’re around the Lisvane or Thornhill area and in dire need of some kind of train operating service, then you are in such luck! This is a two-​track station, where the platform closest to the main car-​park offers train services up towards Rhymney, and the platform closest to the bewilderingly large set of stairs offers services into the centre of Cardiff town and beyond to Penarth.
This train station is very much no-​frills. Although it does now have an electronic ticker to let you know the arrival time of the next train and where it’s heading (just in case my instructions of which side is which weren’t clear enough).
Trains into the centre of Cardiff leave at 14 minutes past, 29 minutes past, 44 minutes past, and 59 minutes past the hour most of the time and you’ll be in the centre within 15 minutes.
There’s no ticket barrier here, so you can hop on the train without paying, though it is probably best to catch eye-​contact with the conductor at some point during the trip into town because there are barriers in both Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street which you won’t be able to get through without a ticket. The train conductor has a fancy box that produces the tickets that accepts cards nowadays so he’s unlikely to accept any form of excuse for not being able to purchase one.