Swansea and Neath Railway

Since 1852, the Vale of Neath Railway had shipped coal from a wharf at Briton Ferry, but this entailed moving trains over the South Wales Railway. The alternative was for the South Wales Railway to haul coal trains up the steep incline to Swansea.

In 1861 an Act of Parliament was passed for a new Swansea and Neath Railway which, by the time it opened on 15 June 1863, was owned by the Vale of Neath Railway