Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway - Expansion

Expansion

In May 2010 the railway was extended a distance of roughly a mile and a quarter southwards to the site of the former Blaenavon High Level station (once the London and North Western Railway's station in the town).

The Pontypool Blaenavon Railway Company was granted an Order under the Transport and Works Act to extend and operate the line.

Work, which started in December 2004, was initially complicated by difficulty in determining who built the railway. The order allowing most of the initial construction was the Brynmawr and Blaenavon Act of 1866, but a short section in the south was built under the LNWR (Wales &c) Act of 1875. Once the two months spent on this research was complete matters progressed rapidly so that a formal application to the Welsh Assembly was made on 3 May 2005. By the end of June 2005 the application became public with a two-month subsequent period allowed for formal objection.

By 28 November 2005, the inspector appointed by the National Assembly for Wales, Stuart B Wild, MRTPI, MCMI made his report to Parliament. Subsequently, a full meeting of the planning Decision Committee of the National Assembly for Wales, chaired by Carwyn Jones, Minister for Environment, Planning and Countryside, approved the application on 24 January 2006. The minister in turn wrote to Winckworth Sherwood on 31 January. The Order, called the Pontypool and Blaenavon (Phase 1) Order 2006 was finally made on 20 June 2006 and came into force on 21 June 2006.

The route southwards was made difficult by the need to refurbish a number of bridges en-route. A substantial report issued by the Company to Torfaen County Borough Council, the successor to the Welsh Development Agency, and other interested parties, estimated the lowest cost for the extension and the provision of a minimal station at High Level at between £235K and £395K, with cost of the bridges lying between £162K and £323K—by far the dominant item in the total cost. The Company eventually achieved funding from the Welsh Assembly Government's Heads of the Valleys programme to meet much of the refurbishment costs. Blaenavon (High Level) station is close to the centre of Blaenavon town, and, as a result, a substantial increase in passenger numbers is confidently expected. Blaenavon is the centre of the World Heritage Site of the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, a landscape which includes Big Pit National Coal Museum and the famous Blaenavon Ironworks. The presence of the railway there is expected to significantly add to the visitor experience and tourist potential of the town.

With Phase 1 achieved, the railway constructed a branch line into the National Mining Museum in 2011 before turning towards extending the line northwards, under a small road bridge and along the still intact track bed to Waunafon, the summit of the line which at 1,400 ft above sea level was the highest standard-gauge station in England and Wales. There is also growing political interest for the line to extend further again to Brynmawr which interestingly takes the railway over the local authority boundary from Torfaen into Blaenau Gwent and also the historic county boundary from Monmouthshire into Brecknockshire. However the emphasis with the local authority is that this phase will serve as a community link, rather than a tourist attraction.