Treforest was the southern terminus of the tram system. The system was officially opened on March 5th 1905 with public service commencing in the afternoon. Trams ran from Treforest to Cilfynydd.
The trolleybus service to Treforest was officially opened on 18th September 1930 and for a short while to maintain capacity the trams remained and even motorbuses giving a very unusual instance of a route being operated by all three forms of traction at the same time. As with the trams the trolleybuses ran through to Cilfynydd.
The last tram ran about February 1931 but supplementary motorbus operation remained a feature of the trolleybus service. The tram track on the Treforest route had to remain anyway until the Porth tram service ceased as it was used to get trams to and from the depot.
Trolleybus operation continued until 31st January 1957. Shortly after this date the Cilfynydd service was linked with that to Rhydyfelin and a new service was introduced to serve the John Street area of Treforest. This ran from Craig-yr-Hesg (Berw Road) to Treforest and provided additional capacity down Broadway.
It was soon found that capacity was greatly in excess of demand and the service was reduced on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12th December 1957. It was withdrawn completely from 2nd January 1963, John Street then being served by a diversion of the previous Llantwit Road service (q.v.).
© David Beilby
