Great Western Railway is to launch The Welshman today, one of 59 daily train services between Cardiff and London Paddington, to mark the re-opening of the Severn Tunnel.

Taking the number of direct daily services from Cardiff to London Paddington back to 29 a day, the 07:28 service from Swansea will be named Y Cymro – The Welshman.

It joins three other named week day services between London Paddington and South Wales: The Red Dragon; St David and The Capitals United.

Helping to provide over 30,000 seats a day between south Wales and London Paddington, the service will take two hours and seven minutes from Cardiff – just seven minutes more than the minimum check-in time advised by airports.

The service calls at Cardiff at 08:25 before making its way towards London for arrival into Paddington at 10:32.

The tunnel reopened over the weekend, after its six-week closure for Network Rail electrification works.

GWR managing director Mark Hopwood said: “With a large number of passengers travelling by train between Cardiff and London Paddington, it is clear that rail remains the most convenient way to travel.

During the work Network Rail installed overhead lines to power GWR’s new Intercity Express Trains.

The new IETs will begin to enter service on selected routes from next summer, with Network Rail expected to complete electrification of the line between London Paddington to Cardiff by 2019.