Railway Roundabout 1959 'The Closing Of The Wye Valley Lines'

Right then, onto the second year of Railway Roundabout - 1959, starting with the closing of the Wye Valley lines.

The Wye Valley Railway opened on the 1st November 1876, linking the south-east Welsh towns of Chepstow and Monmouth (then both in England) via stations serving the villages of Tidenham, Tintern, St Briavels and Redbrook. The line was 14¾ miles long. At Monmouth Troy station passengers could change for trains serving the towns of Pontypool (15 miles south-west), Ross-on-Wye (10 miles further north) and, from 1883, the town of Coleford, 5 miles to the east in the Forest of Dean.

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• 1959
• 'The
• Closing
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• Wye
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• Lines'

[SteffanLlwyd]

@mrspivvy There was an economist who called what you are talking about 'private wealth and public squalour' (J K Galbraith). I wonder how many have been killed or injured on the Heads of the Valleys road, since the railway was closed.... and how many children they would have had, who are also now missing from the World.... and the mising grand children too? It could be thousands. Who counted them before shutting the lines and describing railways as 'uneconomical'. The dead can't talk.

[mrspivvy]

@SteffanLlwyd I agree. where I live in the welsh valleys, going back 50 years you could have caught a train to ANYWHERE. now its one single track going to Cardiff only while the A470 is almost gridlocked at peak times. they call it progress.

[SteffanLlwyd]

@mrspivvy How many thousands of lives has the switch to road transport cost, year after year? Rail out-performs road by huge amounts that should have been part of the cost benefit analysis. It wasn't. If they had done the sums properly, we'd still have a full natinal network.

[mrspivvy]

The mass closures in the 50's/60's still makes me angry today. I know the wye valley line was never in profit but many branch lines were the same- they acted as feeder lines for the main line so contributed a lot more to the central coffers than beeching et al realised. the speed with which the line and the bridge at Tintern were ripped up was obscene and this attitude was apparent everywhere.

with our booming population today who is to know just how short sighted these closures were?