Great Western Coffee Shop

Sideshoots - associated subjects => Campaigns for new and improved services => Topic started by: grahame on April 28, 2025, 12:16:50



Title: Shipping services across the Severn
Post by: grahame on April 28, 2025, 12:16:50
There's an old postcard being shared here on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2161440737457371/posts/3951553865112707/) of Barry Railway cruises across the Severn Estuary and the question being asked as to whether a service could / should resume.  One commentator suggested that bus and rail links are needed.

At the Barry end, the line that terminates at Barry Island station used to continue on through a tunnel to Barry Pier station; last steamer called there in 1971 and the station officially closed in 1976.  Like so many seaside and other branch lines, cut back.

Notable on the advertising postcard - just how many of the locations served across the channe in England no longer have a rail link - Clevedon, Burnham, Lynmouth.  Two more have a rail link that's disconnected for all but occasional used from the national network - Minehead and Watchet.  And the final destination - Weston-super-mare does still have a station. Looking at old maps, railway tracks used to run closer to the town, but was that a goods yard or terminal platforms?

(https://www.wellho.info/pix/barrysteamers.jpg)

Is there any scope for a cross-Severn service again, and if so for what traffic and serving where?



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