Ebbw Valley Railway

Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company
to Brynmawr Nantyglo Coalbrookvale Iron Works Blaina Beaufort Iron Works Bournville (Mon) Halt Ebbw Vale (Low Level) Abertillery Ebbw Vale Town Cwmtillery Colliery Tyllwyn Halt Six Bells Halt Ebbw Vale Steelworks Blaenavon Low Level Ebbw Vale Parkway Cwmavon (Mon) Halt Waunllwyd Colliery Cwmffrwd Halt Cwm Abersychan Low Level Snatchwood Halt Aberbeeg Pontnewynydd Llanhilleth Brynmawr & Blaenavon Rly to Brynmawr Llanhilleth Middle Jn Pontypool Crane Street to Aberdare and Neath Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway to Pontypool Road Crumlin Low Level Blaendare Road Halt Celynen North Halt Panteg and Griffithstown Newbridge Sebastopol Celynen South Halt Pontrhydyrun Abercarn Pontrhydyrun Halt Abercarn Colliery Upper Pontnewydd Chapel Bridge Pontypool, Caerleon and Newport Railway Cwmcarn Cwmbran Cwmcarn Colliery Llantarnam Crosskeys Marshes Turnpike Gate Sirhowy Railway Newport Mill Street Risca South Wales Main Line to Gloucester and Bristol Tynycwm Halt Newport High Street Rogerstone Newport Dock Street Pye Corner Newport Docks Bassaleg Junction Newport Courtybella Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Newport Railway to Machen    South Wales Main Line to Cardiff Central

The line has its origins in the tramways and waggonways constructed to serve the various iron works in the upper Ebbw Valley to enable them to receive raw materials and dispatch products. Developments included:

• Rassa Railroad: a tramway built in 1794 to connect the Sirhowy Ironworks to the Beaufort Ironworks, and connected them to several limestone quarries at Trevil.[16][17]
• Llanhiledd Tramroad: from Crumlin (low level) north to Ebbw Vale.[18]
• Sirhowy Tramroad: a 4-foot-2-inch (1.27 m) plateway which opened in 1805 and ran from ironworks at Tredegar and Sirhowy to the Monmouthshire Canal.[19] By 1805, a 24-mile (39 km) stretch of tramline had been laid to transport coal and iron ore to Newport Docks, laid jointly by Tredegar Iron and Coal Company and the Monmouthshire Canal Company. Initially the trains were pulled by teams of horses; however, in 1829 Chief Engineer Thomas Ellis was authorised to purchase a steam locomotive from the Stephenson Company. Built at Tredegar Works, it made its maiden trip on 17 December 1829. Due to its success, conversion to standard gauge was delayed until 1860 but, after reopening in 1865, it found that the traffic had been lost to its competitors.[19] The line was worked by the London and North Western Railway from 1 July 1875 and taken over by the railway company the following year.[19][20]
• Blaenavon Tramroad: a 3-foot-4-inch (1.02 m) edge-railway opened in 1795-6 which linked the Blaenavon Ironworks with the Monmouthshire Canal at Pontnewydd.[21] It was rebuilt in 1829 as a 4-foot-2-inch (1.27 m) gauge plateway.[21]

The Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company was incorporated on 31 July 1845 and, having acquired the Blaenavon Tramroad in the same year, it rebuilt and extended the line, which re-opened from Pontypool to Blaenavon (North) on 2 October 1854.[22] Two short and steep branches to Cwmfrwdoer and Cwmnantddu were opened in 1870, with a third to Abersychan and Talywain in 1879.[22] A 99-year lease of the line was granted to the Great Western Railway from 1 August 1875 and the railway company acquired the line on 1 August 1880.[22]

The first passenger service on the line began on 21 December 1850, between Newport Courtybella and Blaina. The line was extended south to Newport Dock Street on 4 April 1852, and the northern extension from Aberbeeg to Ebbw Vale opened on 19 April 1852. Journeys between Ebbw Vale and Newport normally required passengers to change at Aberbeeg, although some services were direct.[23] It was a branch line of the Great Western Railway (GWR), until the nationalisation of the railways under the Transport Act 1947, when the line became part of the Western Region of British Railways on 1 January 1948. The line closed to passenger traffic on 30 April 1962, prior to the Beeching Axe, with the mineral branches following on 7 April 1969 and the Talywain branch on 3 May 1980.[22]

Freight services to and from the steelworks at Ebbw Vale continued until the site closed on 5 July 2002. The final freight service to run from the Corus steelworks in Ebbw Vale in 2003 removed scrap metal from site.[24][25][26][27]

Peter Law, the former Assembly Member (AM) for Blaenau Gwent, had been calling for passenger services between Ebbw Vale and Newport to resume on the line since the 1980s, while he was still a councillor.[28] An initial feasibility study of the proposal was carried out for Blaenau Gwent council by infrastructure project management company Capita Symonds in 1998.[29] Stations at Ebbw Vale, Cwm, Aberbeeg, Abercarn, Risca and Maesglas were suggested,[30] and the plans included running some trains to Cardiff Central via a new station at Celtic Lakes on the South Wales Main Line.[31] Law made fighting for the line's re-opening one of his major election promises during the National Assembly for Wales election campaign in 1999.[28] A plaque at Ebbw Vale Parkway commemorates Law, who died in 2006, and his work to re-open the line. It was unveiled by Jocelyn Davies AM on 10 December 2007, four days before the Ebbw Valley Railway's planned official re-opening.[32]

Ebbw Vale Parkway railway station

In February 2001 the Rail Development Society Wales, a passengers' campaign group now campaigning as Railfuture Cymru/Wales, called for the rail link between Ebbw Vale and Newport to be reopened to help with the regeneration of what it called "already a socially deprived area". The plea followed Corus Group's announcement that it would close its Ebbw Vale steelworks operation. British Steel Corporation had employed 14,500 people at their main steel mills in Ebbw Vale in the 1960s. The mills closed completely during the 1980s. Only a finishing plant employing 780 people remained on the site in 2001.[25] First Minister Rhodri Morgan announced to the Welsh Assembly on 30 January 2002 that the rail link between Ebbw Vale and Cardiff would be reopened. Morgan said it would be part of a "package of measures to offset hundreds of steel job losses at the Corus plant". At the time, the Assembly Government's financial commitment was estimated at £7 million over two years, the project cost was estimated at £15 million and the line forecast to open in 2004.[33]

Proposals for the Ebbw Valley line, forecast to cost £27.2 million, were unveiled to the public in January 2003. The scheme was to provide an hourly service to Cardiff beginning in 2005, followed by an hourly service to Newport beginning in 2009. The display included artists' impressions of the six new stations, envisaged to be built at Ebbw Vale Parkway Victoria, Llanhilleth, Newbridge, Crosskeys, Risca and Rogerstone.[34] Proposed stations at Crumlin and Ebbw Vale Centre were shown in the Rail Atlas Great Britain and Ireland 11th edition, published 2007.[35] The project was forecast to cost £28,583,544 in October 2003.

Electrification by 2019 was announced in the Department for Transport's High Level Output Specification of 2012.[36]

Ebbw Valley Line
Later Stages
Ebbw Vale Town Ebbw Vale Parkway Cwm to Marine Freight Terminal Abertillery Aberbeeg Llanhilleth Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway Crumlin High Level │ Low Level Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway Newbridge Abercarn Cwmcarn Crosskeys Penar branch line Sirhowy Valley Line Risca Risca and Pontymister Tynycwm Halt Rogerstone Machen Quarry Pye Corner South Wales Main Line to Swansea Cardiff Central Park Junction Newport Dock Street Newport South Wales Main Line to Swindon

Work to restore the passenger service to the line took place between 2006 and 2008. The scheme was part of the response to the closure of Corus' Ebbw Vale steelworks in 2002, and the resulting economic downturn in one of Wales' most deprived areas.[37] The project was led by Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council and supported by Caerphilly County Borough Council, Newport City Council, the Welsh Assembly Government and Network Rail.[38] Capita Symonds project managed the scheme and the project contractor was Amey Rail, a subsidiary of Amey plc.

A start of main works event was held in Crumlin on 28 September 2006 and was attended by Welsh Assembly Members Andrew Davies (then Welsh Assembly Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks), Irene James and Trish Law, the leaders of Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly County Borough Councils, local councillors, officers and project stakeholders. The event marked the start of major works on the scheme with a demonstration of a new rail ballast cleaner.[24] The works upgraded the existing track to passenger standard, and included new colour light signalling, level crossing renewal and the reinstatement of 3 miles (5 km) of double track, providing a point where trains could pass each other. Six new stations and eight new 97 metres (318 ft) long platforms were constructed.[12] Services were originally expected to begin in the summer of 2007.[37]

A report to Blaenau Gwent council in March 2008 showed that on completion, the project was more than £8.4 million over the original budget.[39] Funding came from three sources. The European Regional Development Fund's Objective One structural funds provided £7.5 million through the Welsh European Funding Office, Corus Steelworks Regeneration Fund £7 million and the Welsh Assembly Government provided the balance.[40][41] By January 2010, the total project cost, including the line extension to Ebbw Vale Town, had risen to an estimated £32.6 million.[42]

The restoration scheme was named Welsh Project of the Year by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in 2009.[38] The railway had been shortlisted in the community benefit category, along with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' Newport Wetlands Reserve and Swansea's Canolfan Gorseinon Centre.[43]

Arriva Trains Wales Class 150 DMU
at Ebbw Vale Parkway

Passenger train services, using Class 150 diesel multiple units,[44] were restored to the line after a gap of 46 years, on 6 February 2008; between a new station at Ebbw Vale Parkway (close to the site of the original Victoria station) and Cardiff Central.[45][46] The first train of the restored service left Cardiff Central for Ebbw Vale Parkway at 06:35 on Wednesday 6 February 2008. The first train to run in the opposite direction left five minutes later, packed with dignitaries for the official opening. Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones opened the line along with Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council's former Labour leader Hedley McCarthy. The first train from Ebbw Vale Parkway was waved off by local residents, who welcomed the link as a positive contribution to the valley's long term regeneration.[45]

Celebrations had been due to take place on 14 December 2007 to mark the line's official opening. Arrangements included school choirs, brass bands, and plaques unveiled at each station by officials and dignitaries travelling the route between Rogerstone to Ebbw Vale. The ceremonies were cancelled two days before the scheduled reopening, as the project had not been finished on time due to "safety and engineering issues". Network Rail had confirmed in November that the new track had been tested successfully.[47][48] After a final inspection on 16 December 2007 confirmed outstanding issues had been resolved, the track was handed over to Network Rail by Blaenau Gwent council. Network Rail and Arriva Trains Wales then arranged route familiarisation training for train drivers before the new service could be introduced. Driver training began on 18 December 2007.[49][50]

Environmental issues delayed construction of two of the line's new stations. Colonies of slowworms, which have protected species status in the United Kingdom, were discovered near the tracks at the sites of Llanhilleth and Crosskeys stations. The lizards had to be moved to a safer place.[51] Llanhilleth and Crosskeys stations opened on 27 April 2008 and 7 June 2008 respectively. Built at a cost of £3.5m, Pye Corner station opened on 14 December 2014.[52]

A feasibility study and further design work for a new station at Ebbw Vale Town was commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government. The station on the former Corus steelworks site, which closed in 2002, is a mile north of the line's initial terminus, Ebbw Vale Parkway, and was forecast to cost £6.5 million.[42] It was opened on 17 May 2015.[53]

From 12 December 2019, a small number of services on the line started to be operated by TfW Rail's newly acquired Class 170 DMUs, and the units replaced the 150s as the line's primary traction and rolling stock from 16 December 2019.

Regular passenger services between Newport and Park Junction were restored from 13 December 2021, though services currently run only between Newport and Crosskeys, and not to and from Ebbw Vale.[54] This is set to be extended in December 2023.[55]

• Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0049-7. OCLC 19514063. CN 8983.
• Bevan, Alan, ed. (1998). A–Z of Rail Reopenings. Railway Development Society. Warwick: Warwick Printing Company. ISBN 0-901283-13-4.
• Daniels, Gerald David; Dench, Leslie Alan (May 1973) [1964]. Passengers No More (2nd ed.). Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0438-2. OCLC 2554248. 1513 CEC 573.