The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway was a Welsh railway company formed to connect the upper end of the Rhondda Fawr with Swansea, with the chief objective of transporting coal and other minerals to Swansea docks. It was incorporated in 1882, but at first the connection to Swansea from Briton Ferry was refused.
The construction required the formation of the Rhondda Tunnel, nearly two miles (3.2 km) long through difficult geological conditions, but the line opened from Treherbert through the tunnel to Port Talbot and Aberavon in 1890. Authorisation to extend to Swansea, and also Neath, was secured and those lines opened in 1894 (goods) and 1895.
The line suffered operational challenges and was never greatly profitable, but it arranged for the Great Western Railway to operate the line and guarantee good dividends from 1906. The GWR incorporated the line's infrastructure in widening its own lines at Court Sart and at Swansea docks. As it was heavily dependent on coal mining activity, the line declined sharply after 1945, and it was progressively truncated. The Rhondda Tunnel suffered a collapse in 1968 and the upper part of the line closed. A short section of the original route is in use near Briton Ferry and in the Swansea docks complex.
and 28 Related for: Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway information
The RhonddaandSwanseaBayRailway was a Welsh railway company formed to connect the upper end of the Rhondda Fawr with Swansea, with the chief objective...
The Swanseaand Mumbles Railway was the venue for the world's first passenger horsecar railway service, located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Originally...
longest railway tunnel in Wales, and the seventeenth longest in the United Kingdom. The tunnel, constructed by the RhonddaandSwanseaBayRailway, was engineered...
1933 on the Rhondda and SwanseaBayRailway. The station was opened as Swansea on 7 May 1899 by the RhonddaandSwanseaBayRailway, although there is evidence...
The Rhondda line, also known as the Treherbert line, is a commuter railway line in South Wales from Cardiff to Treherbert. The line follows the Merthyr...
Glam railway station served the village of Cwmafan, in the historical county of Glamorganshire, Wales, from 1885 to 1964 on the RhonddaandSwanseaBay Railway...
Blaengwynfi railway station served the village of Blaengwynfi, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, from 1890 to 1968 on the RhonddaandSwanseaBayRailway. The station...
Jersey Marine railway station was a railway station on the RhonddaandSwanseaBay line (R&SBR) which ran from the Rhondda Valley to Swansea on the Welsh...
Aberavon (Seaside) railway station was a railway station on the RhonddaandSwanseaBay line which ran from the Rhondda Valley to Swansea on the Welsh coast...
Glamorgan's Lost Railways, Stenlake Publishing Ltd, 2014, ISBN 978 184 0336 740 Alfred W Arthurton, The RhonddaandSwanseaBayRailway, in the Railway Magazine...
railway station served the town of Briton Ferry, in the historical county of Glamorganshire, Wales, from 1895 to 1935 on the RhonddaandSwanseaBay Railway...
included the opening of the RhonddaandSwanseaBayRailway between 1885 and 1895, which linked Blaenrhondda at the head of the Rhondda Fawr to the Prince of...
Baglan Sands Halt railway station was a railway station on the RhonddaandSwanseaBay line which ran from the Rhondda Valley to Swansea on the Welsh coast...
railway station served the area of Crymlyn Burrows, in the historical county of Glamorganshire, Wales, from 1924 to 1933 on the RhonddaandSwansea Bay...
expenditure, and continued in that attitude to most proposals. The RhonddaandSwanseaBayRailway was building its line, destined to connect the Rhondda Fawr...
Afan railway station served the village of Cymmer, in the historical county of Glamorganshire, Wales, from 1885 to 1970 on the RhonddaandSwanseaBay Railway...
Global Information