Taff Vale Railway (and related lines)
Important Dates
The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was an important railway line in Glamorganshire built primarily to serve the expanding exploitation of the South Wales Coalfield in the 19th Century. The Company's headquarters and workshops were in Butetown, in the heart of Cardiff Docks. The TVR mainline was 24 miles long, but there were no fewer than 23 branchlines taking the total length of the network to 124 miles 42 chains.|
10 February 1804
|
Richard Trevithick drives world's first
steam locomotive along the Penydarren Tramroad in the Taff Valley |
|
|
1835
|
Ironmaster Anthony Hill asks IK Brunel
to
estimate cost of building a railway from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff |
|
|
21 June 1836
|
Royal Assent given to the Taff Vale
Railway Company Act |
|
|
1836
|
Construction starts |
|
|
9 October 1840
|
Formal opening Cardiff to Navigation House (later Abercynon)
for freight and passengers |
|
| 12 April 1841 |
Formal opening Abercynon to
Merthyr Tydfil for freight and passengers |
|
| 1841 |
Branchlines from Pontypridd -
Dinas (Rhondda) and Pontypridd - Llancaiach opened |
|
| 1849 |
Rhondda branch extended into
Rhondda fach |
|
| 1856 |
Rhondda branchlines extended
to Ferndale, Maerdy and Treherbert |
|
| 1857 |
Main line doubled throughout |
|
| 7 January 1863 |
Passenger services to Treherbert
begin |
|
| 1887 |
Roath Branch to Cardiff Docks
opened for freight only |
|
| 1889 |
Passenger services to Maerdy
begin |
|
|
1964
|
Ferndale Branch Closed to passengers | |
|
1968
|
Roath Branch Closed to freight |
|
| 1986 |
Ferndale Branch closed to Freight |