Rhondda Railways
The completion of the Taff Vale Railway
throughout the whole length of the Rhondda Fawr Valleys
in 1856 brought a new period in Rhondda's history.
By March 1849 a new branch line between Eirw and Ynyshir
was completed and by May of the same year it had reached
Dinas. By this date the Taff Vale Railway had the necessary
permission and land to construct a double line throughout
the length of both Valleys. However, they delayed these
costly extensions until the true nature of the mineral
wealth was known.
Steam coal was proven in the Upper Rhondda Fawr in 1853
and the Taff Vale Railway Company was extended as far
as Gelligaled by December 1855 and reached the Bute
Merthyr Colliery in Treherbert on 7th. August
1856.
Coal traffic for the start was considerable and it was
estimated that 390,000 tons were transported along this
single track of mineral line by June 1857. As a result,
in October 1858 the Taff Vale Railway Company resolved
to construct a seven-arch viaduct over the River Rhondda
at Pontypridd to double the track from Pontypridd to
Ystrad and
to extend the Rhondda Fach Branch Railway from Ynyshir
to Blaenllechau in the hope that Steam coal would be
found.
By 1862 the Taff Vale Railway extended to Treherbert
in the Rhondda Fawr and Ferndale in the Rhondda Fach.
It is unquestionable that these extensions were an important
factor in attracting coal speculators to both valleys
in the third quarter of the C19th. Originally both these
lines were used exclusively for mineral traffic, however,
with the rapid increase in population came a demand
for passenger services.
In 1858 stations were built at Porth and Ystrad and
on 4th.February 1861 the line was opened
for passenger services as far as Ystrad. On 7th. January
the service was extended as far as Treherbert and in
the Rhondda Fach during the summer of 1876. At first
only 3 trains a day were run, but by 1914 this extended
to 20 trains a day running over four tracks.
It was the Taff Vale Railway and the Bute West Dock
at Cardiff [opened in 1839] that enabled the Rhondda
Valleys to become an important coal exporting area.
In 1846 the Taff Vale Railway and the Marquis of Bute
entered into a contract for the protection of their
several interests, but in the course of time, this began
to exercise a very harmful influence upon the economic
development of the Valleys.
The arrangement, briefly, gave the Taff Vale Railway
a monopoly in the carriage of minerals to the Bute West
Dock. In 1849 this arrangement was made formal by the
leasing of the dock to the T.V.R. Co. for a period of
999 years.
Two attempts were made to break the Taff Vale Railway
stranglehold. On 5th.. July 1857 the Ely
Valley Railway Company was incorporated and was to be
an extension of the South Wales Railway at Llantrisant
to Penygraig. The line was completed in 1860 and in
1877 the line was extended to the Cambrian Collieries
at Clydach Vale.
The Rhondda Valley and Hirwaun Junction Railway Company
was incorporated in August 1867. The line projected
was one from Treherbert to the Vale of Neath Railway
near Hirwaun. However, the scheme was opposed and the
Taff Vale Railway retained a monopoly in the carriage
of minerals.
In the 1870 the demand for the 'matchless' steam coal
of the Rhondda Valleys increased at an astonishing rate
and the railway and docks were caught unprepared. As
early as 1873 David Davies [chief proprietor of the
Ocean Collieries] pointed out the need for increased
capacity.
As time went on the situation became progressively worse
until 1880 when things came to a head. Output of steam
coal depended upon two things, export demand and the
transport facilities of the railways, the docks and
shipping. Demand seemed to be insatiable but if transportation
were not improved, it would only be able to expand as
a slow rate.
In 1882, in an attempt to appease the freighters, the
Bute Trustees presented a Bill to Parliament for a new
dock together with a proposal that the Marquis of Bute
should get an extra penny for all coal shipped from
his docks.
Rhondda coal owners replied that if this Bill were passed
then they would have to find an alternative port. They
stated that in 1874 the total coal and coke exported
from Cardiff and Penarth was 2,886,000 tons and this
had risen to 7,774,828 tons in 1882. As there had been
no extra dock accommodation, except the Roath Basin,
there was frequently congestion at the dock. This resulted
in 'short days' at Rhondda pits as no more coal could
be sent to the ships. It was estimated that the Ocean
Collieries at Cwmparc and Gelli stopped 68 times during
this period. This was an average of 27 hours over a
period of l0 weeks.
It was further calculated that based on an average output
of 370 tons of coal an hour, it meant the loss of 9,990
tons or 40,000 tons in the period of a year.
It was not only at the docks that there was severe congestion.
The railways also had their problems. It was not an
infrequent occurrence for a coal train to take 23 hours
to travel from the Ocean Collieries to Cardiff dock,
a journey which should take about 3.5 hours. Also it
could take something like 27 hours to get the empty
wagons back to the collieries and this obviously had
a knock-on effect.
It was not surprising that Rhondda Coal owners adopted
a militant attitude and sought dock and railway accommodation
elsewhere. By 1914 a number of new railways had been
constructed connecting the Rhondda to Barry, Port Talbot,
Swansea and Newport and the construction of this network
of railways allowed for the complete industrialisation
of the Rhondda Valleys.
The most important of these was the Barry Railway and
Docks, built by Rhondda freighters at a cost of nearly
£2,000,000. The project envisaged a new dock at Barry
and a railway to connect it directly to the Rhondda
without having to pass through the narrow gorge at Tongwynlais.
On 18th.. July 1889 the first load of Rhondda
steam coal was loaded onto a ship at Barry Dock. The
following table shows the importance of the new venture
at Barry.
As a result a second dock was opened in 1898 and a third
in 1914. On 16th.March 1896 the main line
between Porth and Barry was opened for passenger traffic.
On 2nd. July 1890 the Rhondda Tunnel, a distance
of 3,300 yards and the seventh longest in the U.K.,
was completed. After the completion of the Britton Ferry
to Swansea link on 14th. December 1894 Treherbert was
connected to the docks at Swansea.
However, Cardiff and Penarth expanded at a far greater
rate than Swansea. Part of the reason for this was that
Cardiff, Barry and Newport meant that a full trainload
of coal would travel on a down gradient with the empty
journey being on the up gradient. Swansea on the other
hand meant that for at least part of the journey was
on an up gradient. As a result Swansea only served those
collieries at the top of the Rhondda Fawr.
By 1914 the Rhondda Valleys became the centre of a network
of railways. Some have said that perhaps the Valleys
were too well provided for in that being served by five
independent railway companies there was the obvious
duplication of track.
However, it did help cut-throat competition. For example,
the announcement of the Barry Dock and Railway Bill
in 1882 caused the Taff Vale Railway Co. to lower their
charges from 0.875 d to 0.77d a ton per mile and to
be further reduced in 1889 to 0.74d a ton per mile.
When the new Barry Railway stated that it price would
be 0.5d per ton per mile, the other companies had to
follow suit.
Railways of the Rhondda Coalfield
(1841-1914)
|
Date Authorised
|
Date Opened
|
Railway
|
District Served
|
Port
|
|
1840
|
1841
|
Taff Vale Railway
|
Pontypridd-Eirw
|
Cardiff
|
|
1846
|
1849
|
Taff Vale Railway
|
Eirw-Dinas-Ynyshir
|
Cardiff
|
| 1846 |
1856
|
Taff Vale Railway
|
Dinas-Treherbert
|
Cardiff
|
| 1846 |
1859
|
Taff Vale Railway
|
Ynyshir-Ferndale
|
Cardiff
|
|
1857
|
1864
|
Ely Valley Railway
|
Llantrisant-Penygraig
|
Cardiff & Penarth
|
| 1857 |
1877
|
Ely Valley Railway
|
Penygraig-Blaenclydach
|
Cardiff & Penarth
|
| 1857 |
1877
|
Privately Owned (Mordecai Jones)
|
Ferndale-Maerdy
|
Cardiff
|
|
1878
|
1887
|
Pontypridd & Caerphilly Railway
|
Rhondda-Pontypridd-Newport
|
Newport
|
|
1884
|
1889
|
Barry Railway
|
Hafod-Barry
|
Barry
|
|
1882
|
1894
|
Rhondda & Swansea Bay Railway
|
Treherbert-Briton Ferry
|
Port Talbot
|
|
1882
|
1894
|
Rhondda & Swansea Bay Railway
|
Port Talbot-Swansea
|
Swansea
|
|
1898
|
1910
|
Cardiff Railway
|
Treforest-Cardiff (passenger only)
|
- -
|
|
|