17 August 2012 Last updated at 02:12 ET

Cardiff rail services back to normal after wall collapse

Services were affected after a retaining wall collapsed

Train services in Cardiff are back to normal from Friday following last week's wall collapse, say rail operators.

The collapse and landslip, between Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street stations, affected thousands of commuters.

Services to Treherbert, Merthyr Tydfil, Aberdare, and Rhymney were among those affected.

Network Rail apologised to customers and thanked them for their patience.

In an open letter to passengers Alex Sharkey, the route infrastructure and maintenance director for Network Rail acknowledged that "significant distruption" had been caused to rail services in the Cardiff and Valleys area over the past week.

"Network Rail has worked hard over the past eight days to fully repair the retaining wall that partially collapsed, causing the landslip between Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street station," he said.

Mr Sharkey said he wanted to assure customers that both Network Rail and Arrive Trains Wales had done "everything in our power" to return scheduled services to normal as soon as possible.

He confirmed that rail services would be running according to the "normal published timetable" from Friday.

"We do fully appreciate that the landslip has caused widespread inconvenience and delay to rail passengers, particularly those using the Valley line service.

"Once again many thanks for all the patience you have shown on your journeys over this period," Mr Sharkey added.