Great Western Coffee Shop

I know this isnt really a South Wales local journey although the last part of this is in South Wales - but how reliable is the 20.30 Manchester-Cardiff service on a Saturday? Im planning on catching this back from Manchester one Saturday in November and as its the last train of the day id be stuffed if it was cancelled and wouldnt be able to get back home....

I would imagine that as its the last service and that you have a valid ticket, if it was cancelled it would be up to ATW to get you home or put you up in a hotel.

Correct - it's in the conditions of carriage. As long as you're at the station in good time and you have a ticket, the TOC is obliged to get you to your destination or put you up in a hotel until they can. There's a modest "get out" clause in that theoretically they may not have to if the delay is deemed to be "outside the control of the rail industry" but in practice that's exceedingly unlikely to happen.

For this reason train companies will tend to be fairly careful to ensure that last trains do run as advertised, because if they don't they have to incur the hassle and expense of organizing replacement transport of some kind (most likely buses or taxis depending on numbers) to get affected passengers to their destinations.

So in short, I'd have no worries at all about planning to use that 2030 service. I've used plenty of other "last trains" before now and never had a problem.

Also would via Bristol be an option as a back up?

Thanks. Ive used the 18.30 and 19.30 services before now but as I knew there was a later service I was never that worried I wouldnt get back if either of them were cancelled.  

Yes could go via Bristol but when I put the info into the website the next train after 20.30 from Manchester to Cardiff was 22.32 with a 7 hour wait in Shrewsbury. Is there a train from Manchester to Bristol later than 20.30 and if so a connection to Cardiff from Bristol?