The Vale of Neath line connected Pontypool Road to Neath and Swansea and included a branch to Merthyr. Promoted by two different companies using originally two different track gauges, it was built primarily to transport the abundant supplies of coal in the districts it served. The line featured severe gradients and perhaps the most magnificent structure built in Wales during the railway age, the Crumlin viaduct, which carried its tracks 200 feet above the Ebbw Valley.
