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 main 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 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.
Before the railway Although coal and iron had been extracted for some centuries, the first industrialisation of mining in the Afan Valley was in 1811 when Samuel Lettston obtained a lease of land at Cwmavon and in 1819 established a blast furnace there in 1819. Part of the output was conveyed to Aberavon on the Mynydd Bychan tramroad, a horse-operated wooden waggonway that had been in existence since about 1750.M J T Lewis, Early Wooden Railways, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1970, 0 7100 7818 8Bertram Baxter, Stone Blocks and Iron Rails, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1966 In 1824 transport efficiency was improved by the opening of what became known as the Cwmavon Tramroad, in length and again horse-operated. The iron company expanded and became known as Vigurs and Co.
It was reported in 1830 that a new railway was under construction, from Oakwood (near Pontrhydyfen) to Aberavon, for the purpose of transporting coal from coalfields above Pontrhydyfen. This became known as the Oakwood Railway, but the colliery business was unsuccessful and the railway fell into disuse.Clive Smith, Railways of the Llynfi Valley, Alun Books, Port Talbot, 1985, Afan Valley Then and Now
The South Wales Railway opened as far as Swansea on 2 June 1850. This was the first trunk railway in South Wales and provided a huge boost to trade there; from that time development of the dock facilities and of industry proceeded rapidly. The North Dock was opened in 1852, and the Swansea Harbour Trust was established in 1857, soon followed by the opening of the South Dock in 1859. Both docks were west of the River Tawe but the expansion of dock facilities resulted in much larger facilities east of the river.
The Prince of Wales Dock was opened by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, in October 1881. It was capable of accommodating the largest vessels of the day, and the commercial interest of the dock was, among other things, to participate in the coal traffic that was at the time handled through Cardiff Docks. The Cardiff system had long suffered from extreme congestion of the railways serving the docks there, and of the berthing accommodation itself, with the result that there were constant complaints from shippers of the delay.D S M Barrie, revised Peter Baughan, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 12: South Wales, David St John Thomas, Nairn, 1994, John Newman, The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1995 reprinted 2001,
Proposals If a proportion of the Rhondda coal traffic could be brought to Swansea instead, that would be hugely to the advantage of the Swansea Dock interest, but it would be dependent on a direct railway from the Rhondda to Swansea. On 12 November 1880, as the Prince of Wales Dock was nearing completion, a public meeting was held in Swansea at which it was proposed to build a railway connecting the upper end of the Rhondda Fawr to Swansea, by making use of the South Wales Mineral Railway between Glyncorrwg and Neath. A tunnel would be needed at the upper end, and a rope-worked incline on the SWMR would have to be by-passed by means of a deviation. Nonetheless use of the Mineral Railway would still pose considerable operational difficulties.Alfred W Arthurton, The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway, in the Railway Magazine, March 1914
A rival scheme, which was to become the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway, was promoted, running independently from Treherbert, through a long tunnel to the valley of the River Afan, and then following the valley down to Pontrhydyfen. From there it was to cross to Baglan Bay at Briton Ferry, then following the coast and crossing the River Neath near the sea by a tidal bridge. From Treherbert the line would descend almost all the way, giving an advantage to the loaded trains descending, although much of the colliery output in the Rhondda Valley would have to be hauled uphill to Treherbert to join the line there.
The bills went to the parliamentary session of 1882 and the R&SBR scheme found preference, but there was stiff opposition from interests in Neath. They wished to develop their own wharf facilities, and a combination of resentment of the competition from Swansea and discomfort that the swing bridge crossing would impede their own river traffic, resulted in objection to their river being crossed near its mouth,Brunel had intended to bring the South Wales Railway across the river at this point, but he too had been refused.E T MacDermot, The Great Western Railway, volume II, 1863 - 1921, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1931 and the promoters of the R&SBR shortened the scheme to end at Briton Ferry. Accordingly, the (45 & 46 Vict. c. cci) was passed on 10 August 1882;E F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959James Page, Forgotten Railways: South Wales, David & Charles (Publishers) Limited, Newton Abbot, 1979, as well as the main line, it authorised branches from Pontrhydyfen to Aberavon and Port Talbot. The Cwmavon Tramway was to be acquired by the new company.
The access to Swansea was of course important both to the railway and to the dock complex there, and in 1883 a further Bill was promoted, to reach Swansea by tunnelling under the River Neath. Against technical opposition, this was passed. The tunnel would have cost £72,000 and in fact an agreement was reached with the Great Western Railway by which the GWR would carry the R&SBR traffic between Port Talbot and the R&SBR lines at Swansea. (The existing GWR main line largely paralleled the proposed R&SBR line.) This enabled the abandonment of the plans to reach Briton Ferry and to make the tunnel, and the company's capital was reduced accordingly, by the (49 & 50 Vict. c. xliv).
Opening of the line The engineer for the construction was S. W. Yockney. The first section of line, between Aberavon and Cymmer, was opened for traffic on 2 November 1885, giving improved access to the exceptionally rich coalfields in the Avon Valley. This section of the route followed the course of the old Cwmavon Tramway, realigned and regarded for locomotive operation.H Morgan, South Wales Branch Lines, Ian Allan Ltd, Shepperton, 1984, and made a junction with the GWR at Aberavon (Port Talbot GWR).Col M H Cobb, The Railways of Great Britain -- A Historical Atlas, Ian Allan Publishing Limited, Shepperton, 2003,
Land acquisition had been difficult; even now access for the tunnel construction had not been possible, as the Cardiff Times reported:
The difficulties in the way of obtaining possession of the land for the construction of the Rhondda tunnel having been to some extent removed, the directors hope they will shortly obtain possession so as to enable them to proceed with the work, which the engineers are confident can now be completed in two years.Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway, report in Cardiff Times, 21 February 1885, accessed at British Newspaper Archive (subscription required).
Moreover, it was not until the passing of the (51 & 52 Vict. c. cv) that the essential junction with the Taff Vale Railway at Treherbert was authorised in Parliament. In 1890 some short extension lines were authorised by the (53 & 54 Vict. c. cxlv), at Swansea Docks, in Aberavon and Port Talbot, including the formation of a quay or wharf at Aberavon.
Further construction involved the long tunnel, and inevitably the progress was slow. The rock was extremely hard and the height of the surface above the tunnel prevented the sinking of shafts, so that tunnelling could only proceed from the two ends. 1,100 men were engaged on the work, and compressed air drills, then something of a novelty, and blasting, were employed. The tunnel was finally ready in 1890, the open air section from Cymmer to Blaengwynfi opening on 2 June 1890, followed by opening through the tunnel to Blaencwm on 2 July 1890; the short connection from there to the junction with the Taff Vale Railway followed on 14 July 1890.Clive Smith, Bygone Railways of the Afan, Alun Books, Port Talbot, 1982, The Rhondda Tunnel was the longest wholly in Wales, at . The Taff Vale station at Treherbert was used as the terminal station, and from there of Taff Vale track was used to reach Blaenrhondda Junction (later R&SB Junction), where the R&SBR itself started. A stiff climb followed to the mouth of the Rhondda Tunnel, and the climb continued in the tunnel, to the summit at the south-western end at Blaengwynfi. From there the line descended steeply.
The line was extended southwards from Aberavon to a dock in Port Talbot and a passenger station named Aberavon Dock was established there; this section opened in 1891. The GWR main line was crossed on the level by this extension.
Extending to Swansea
The relationship with the GWR for onward conveyance of mineral traffic from the R&SBR line proved disadvantageous to the R&SBR, and in 1891 it was decided to cancel the agreement with them regarding the conveyance of R&SBR traffic, and on 27 June 1892 powers were obtained in the (55 & 56 Vict. c. clxxix) to extend the R&SBR line from Briton Ferry to Swansea, including a swing bridge near Neath, which by now was accepted by the community there. Finally in June 1893 a further act of Parliament, the (56 & 57 Vict. c. lxiv) sanctioned the construction of the line between Aberavon and Briton Ferry in place of the 1891 authorisation.
A branch connection was made from Aberavon (Burrows Junction) to Briton Ferry Dock on 30 December 1893; the line swept to the west of the GWR main line. The line towards Swansea opened on 14 December 1894 to goods; it left the Briton Ferry Dock line (at Briton Ferry Junction) and crossed under the GWR main line, then running northwards, following close on its east side through Briton Ferry village. It was difficult to make a route through this section, as the GWR line, housing and industrial works were all close together; in fact the route picked its way at the back of houses, and the station was on an embankment between two rows of houses.
At Court Sart the line turned west, again crossing under the GWR line and crossing the Neath Canal and both parts of the River Neath, then turning south and then west to Danygraig. Danygraig was within the Swansea Harbour complex, giving access to mineral trains to the Swansea Harbour Trust lines there. The main part of the Neath River was crossed by the large Neath swing bridge. The bridge is in length and the structure contains 1,400 tons of iron.