Fastest€45.44
- Arriva Cross Country AC250306:372h 32m09:09Bradford InterchangeCardiff Central
Door to door 3h 16mCO2 10.4 kgChanges 0Refundable
Bradford to Cardiff train
Trains from Bradford to Cardiff start at €42.69 and take 3h 16m at their fastest.
Check dates and fares
Fares and seats move by the day. Price Bradford to Cardiff on the date you actually want, rather than on the date this page was built.
The Trains from Bradford to Cardiff starts at €42.69 and takes 3h 16m door to door, run by 1 operator over 316 km, with around 5 departures a day. Fares bottom out about 30 days before departure.
- 3h 16mDoor to door
- 2h 32mMoving
- €42.69 to €86.69From
- 06:37 to 07:30First and last departure
- 5Per day
- 10.4 kgCO2
First and last are taken from the services we sell on 28 September 2026. The return direction keeps its own timetable and is not these times reversed.
€42.69 to €86.69 for one passenger across the 14 departure dates priced here. The low end is one day, not every day. Worked out from this corridor rather than held for anybody. The operator sets the price on the day.
Fares by date
What this journey usually costs, by departure date. It shows which days run dearer.
Typical fares
- about €86.69Mon14
- about €60.84Tue15
- about €83.94Wed16
- about €74.04Thu17
- about €68.54Fri18
- about €67.44Sat19
- about €61.94Sun20
- about €51.49Mon21
- about €42.69Tue22
- about €47.63Wed23
- about €63.59Thu24
- about €61.39Fri25
- about €67.99Sat26
- about €55.33Sun27
Based on what this route has cost recently. The operator sets the price on the day, and the live fare is confirmed when you book.
The cheapest and the fastest on 28 September 2026
Train operators
| Operator | From | Fastest | Typical speed | Flexibility | On board |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arriva Cross Country | €38.84 | 2h 57m | 140 km/h | Refundable | Power sockets, Wi-Fi |
The train gets you into Cardiff. It does not get you a bed, and neither do we.
A room in Cardiff for the night the train gets in
Sort by distance from Cardiff Central and you can see which places are ten minutes on foot and which are not.
Search Cardiff on Booking.comOr compare on Expedia
Partner links. We do not sell accommodation. We earn a commission when a booking completes, and it never changes what you pay.
When to book Bradford to Cardiff
The same search run across the whole booking window, so the shape of the curve is visible rather than described.
- €26.0390 days
- €17.2360 days
- €18.3345 days
- €14.4830 days
- €18.8821 days
- €27.1314 days
- €35.937 days
- €38.683 days
- €41.981 days
- Cheapest lead time
- Fares bottom out around 30 days ahead, at €14.48.
- How much it moves
- The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time is 190 percent. The dearest point is €41.98, 1 days out.
- What that means
- Today sits inside the cheap window, which closes about 30 days before departure. Waiting from here has usually cost money on this corridor rather than saved it.
Which departure day costs least
Median cheapest fare for each weekday, taken across the next three weeks of real prices.
- €27.13Sun
- €18.88Mon
- €22.73Tue
- €24.93Wed
- €24.38Thu
- €28.23Fri
- €31.53Sat
Where you leave from and where you arrive
Bradford
Rail
- Bradford Interchange
- Bradford Exchange railway station
- Bradford St James railway station
Cardiff
Rail
- Cardiff Central
- Cardiff Riverside Branch
- Cardiff Bay railway station
What the journey actually looks like
- Direct or connecting
- 33% of the services we sell on this corridor run through without a change. The remaining 67% involve one connection.
- How far it really runs
- The route covers 316 km against 275 km in a straight line, a detour of 15 percent. Track and road geometry account for the difference.
- Where the change is
- Connections are made at Derby, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield. The gap between arriving and leaving is 51 minutes, of which about 5 is walking.
- If the connection is missed
- The tightest connection we sell here has a 18 percent chance of not being made on the timetable alone. Both legs are sold on one booking, so a missed connection is ours to fix and you are rebooked at no charge.
- First and last departure
- The first service of the day leaves Bradford at 06:37 and the last at 07:30, across 5 departures The return direction keeps its own timetable, so the times back are not these times reversed.
Trains against the other ways to make this journey
| Mode | Door to door | Moving | At the ends | From | CO2 | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Train | 3h 16m | 2h 32m | 44m | €42.69 | 10.4 kg | 5 |
| Coach | 5h 10m | 4h 26m | 44m | €18.88 | 8.5 kg | 1 |
Questions about Bradford to Cardiff
The questions people actually ask about this journey, answered from the same prices and times the page above is built on rather than written once and left to go stale.
How long does the Train from Bradford to Cardiff take?
The Train from Bradford to Cardiff takes 3h 16m door to door, of which 2h 32m is spent moving. The route runs 316 km. The difference between the two times is reaching the terminal and leaving it at the far end, which every time on this page includes.
How much does the Train from Bradford to Cardiff cost?
The Train from Bradford to Cardiff starts at €42.69 for one passenger, as of 13 September 2026. A typical fare is €49.84. Both are the total including taxes, supplier fees and our service fee, so the price here is the price at checkout.
Who runs the Train from Bradford to Cardiff?
1 operators run the Train from Bradford to Cardiff: Arriva Cross Country. Between them they file around 5 departures a day. The operator table on this page compares them on fare, journey time, cruising speed, fare conditions and what is provided on board.
Which terminal does the Train from Bradford to Cardiff use?
The Train from Bradford to Cardiff leaves from Bradford Interchange and arrives at Cardiff Central. Allow about 44m for reaching the departure terminal and leaving the arrival one. That time is already inside every door to door figure quoted on this page.
Is the Train the best way from Bradford to Cardiff?
Travelling from Bradford to Cardiff by Coach costs €18.88 and takes 5h 10m door to door, against 3h 16m by Train. Which is better depends on whether the money or the hours matter more on this trip. The comparison table on this page shows every mode side by side.
When should I book the Train from Bradford to Cardiff?
Fares for the Train from Bradford to Cardiff bottom out around 30 days ahead, at €14.48. The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time across the window is 190 percent, measured on 13 September 2026. Booking inside the final week has consistently cost more.
How much CO2 does the Train from Bradford to Cardiff produce?
The Train from Bradford to Cardiff produces about 10.4 kg of CO2 per passenger over 316 km, which works out at roughly 33 grams per passenger kilometre. That figure is for the whole journey and for one traveller, not for the vehicle.
What is provided on board the Train from Bradford to Cardiff?
Operators on the Train from Bradford to Cardiff publish Power sockets, Wi-Fi. That is what 1 carriers on this corridor state about their own fleets, across a journey of 3h 16m door to door. Where a carrier publishes nothing, this page lists nothing for it.
Where these numbers come from
Places, coordinates, operators, which operator serves which pair, and every distance on this page are real and come from open data. Where a corridor has a filed timetable the departure times are real too, and ferry fares are the prices the operators publish themselves.
Derived from service area No carrier record names this exact pair. The operators listed publish a service area covering both places at a distance their mode plausibly carries people, which is evidence that the corridor is served and not evidence of a specific service. Pages state which, because presenting the two as the same thing would be dishonest.
Where no operator publishes a fare for a corridor, the price here is our own estimate, worked out from the real distance and the real operator through a fare curve that follows lead time, day of the week and season. It tells you roughly what the journey costs. It is not a seat anyone has agreed to sell, and the payment step will not take it.
Defined in full at Door to door, Fares, The booking window, Carbon
- On this page
- Every figure above was computed for Bradford to Cardiff on 13 September 2026: 316 km of route against 275 km in a straight line, 5 services a day, 1 operator a cheapest fare of €42.69, and 3h 16m door to door on the fastest mode. The return direction is computed separately and its numbers are not these numbers.
Related journeys
Cardiff to Bradford trainCompare every mode from Bradford to CardiffBradford to Cardiff busArchway to Cardiff trainBasingstoke to Cardiff trainBath to Cardiff trainBebington to Cardiff trainBirkenhead to Cardiff trainBirmingham to Cardiff trainBournemouth to Cardiff trainBrent to Cardiff trainBrighton to Cardiff trainBristol to Cardiff trainBuckley to Cardiff trainArchway to Cardiff train
Being on the water gives Cardiff a set of days out that do not start at a station. We do not sell those either.
Day trips out of Cardiff and across United Kingdom
Day trips that leave Cardiff in the morning and cover a good part of United Kingdom by evening.
See Cardiff on GetYourGuideOr browse Viator
Partner links. We do not sell tours or tickets. We earn a commission on a booking, and it never changes the price.