There's an old postcard being shared here on Facebook 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?



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

As a commercial service to get from "A" to "B", I would wish to see traffic figures / projections; as a leisure trip perhaps via Lundy ...

Time savings would be so hard to demonstrate at the sort of frequency involved as the wait for the scheduled service unless frequent would, I suspect, outweigh any gain in the actual transit time.  And Ilfracombe is not exactly motorway connected.

Ilfracombe isn't all that easy to get to, though.  I know the town and surroundings are a majour tourist area, but it's not well populated for around 35 weeks a year

If only there was a railway there