| Ross and Monmouth Railway | |
|---|---|
 The bridge in the background is the iron bridge which was opened in 1874 to allow the line to reach Monmouth Troy | |
| Overview | |
| Locale | Monmouthshire-Herefordshire |
| Termini | |
| Stations | Seven |
| Service | |
| Operator(s) | Great Western Railway |
| History | |
| Opened | 4 August 1873 |
| Closed | 1959 |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 13 mi (21 km) |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge |
The Ross and Monmouth Railway was a standard gauge railway of 13 miles (21 km) which ran between Ross-on-Wye, in Herefordshire, England and Monmouth, Wales.
It was authorised in 1865 and opened in 1873, with a final extension at Monmouth delayed until 1874. It ran through picturesque terrain in the Upper Wye Valley, but construction costs considerably overran early estimates. The promoters hoped their line would form part of a trunk route for goods and mineral traffic between South Wales and the English Midlands, but this never developed. In fact although Monmouth was a junction for several local railways, it too never became the busy traffic centre that had been forecast.
The line was worked by the Great Western Railway from the outset, and the Ross and Monmouth Railway Company was simply a financial concern, receiving lease payments from the GWR, until absorption in 1922.
The decline in the use of local railways rendered the line heavily loss-making and in 1959 passenger services were withdrawn. Some residual goods services were retained, but in 1965 all commercial railway activity on the line ceased.[1]
- ^ Stanley C Jenkins, The Ross, Monmouth and Pontypool Road Line, Oakwood Press, Usk, second edition, 2009, ISBN 978-0-85361-692-4