Shipping services across the Severn Posted by grahame at 12:16, 28th April 2025 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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?
Re: Shipping services across the Severn Posted by johnneyw at 23:12, 28th April 2025 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
I'm pretty certain that I've heard talk of a service to and from Swansea over the years.... perhaps from Ilfracombe? Whether there would be sufficient customers for the service.....well, there's been nothing happening so far.
I would venture that any service further east would find it difficult to demonstrate cost or time savings over existing road and rail options.
Re: Shipping services across the Severn Posted by grahame at 06:41, 29th April 2025 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
I'm pretty certain that I've heard talk of a service to and from Swansea over the years.... perhaps from Ilfracombe? Whether there would be sufficient customers for the service.....well, there's been nothing happening so far.
I would venture that any service further east would find it difficult to demonstrate cost or time savings over existing road and rail options.
I would venture that any service further east would find it difficult to demonstrate cost or time savings over existing road and rail options.
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.
Re: Shipping services across the Severn Posted by rogerpatenall at 07:54, 29th April 2025 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
I suspect that the terminal platforms at WSM were the old Locking Road station