Volume Ten - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Even more aspects - 1911 - The Penarth Dock of the Taff Vale Railway - Railway News Article . . .

The Taff Vale Railway runs through what is probably the most important steam coal district in the world, the output of which, in the year 1908, was about 30,000,000 tons, of which 18,000,000 tons were carried over the Taff Vale Railway, which was the first communication with every colliery in the Rhondda, Ferndale, Aberdare, and Merthyr Valleys, and runs trains direct from the collieries to the ship's side at Cardiff and Penarth.

The dock is also in direct railway communication with the Monmouthshire, Llynfi and Ogmore, and Ely Valley coalfields, from which districts coal is conveyed at through rates, and transferred to the Taff Vale Company's system at Penarth Curve, within a mile of the dock. the collieries on the Rhymney Railway are in direct communication with Penarth Dock via Penarth Junction.

Penarth Dock, being under the shelter of Penarth Head, vessels are exceptionally secure against risks and may be moved in safety from side to side, and from berth to berth, in almost any weather. The dock is approached directly from the Bristol Channel, and under ordinary circumstances, the gates can all be thrown open from sea to dock, thereby enabling vessels to proceed direct to tip or crane berths without the delay of locking from basin to dock, and to commence loading or discharging forthwith.

Through railway rates for ship's stores, machinery, and general merchandise, are in operation between Penarth Dock and all parts of the United Kingdom, which rates are, in all cases, the same as from the docks at Cardiff. Railway wagons are loaded and discharged on sidings alongside the ships, so that there is no break of bulk between the ship's side and the stations of origin or destination.

The dock has direct railway connection, for passenger traffic, with every part of the kingdom. Penarth Dock Station is close to the dock itself, and is served by numerous well-appointed trains running to and from Cardiff in about ten minutes, and calling at the Great Western Company's station there, from which fast trains run direct without change of carriage, to Bristol, London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Swansea, and all principal places on and beyond that Company's lines. The Taff Vale Company's main line trains (some of which start and terminate their journey at Penarth), run in connection with the London and North-Western Company's trains to and from Merthyr. By means of the Riverside branch at Cardiff trains run direct between Penarth and Cardiff Docks and Exchange, performing the journey in about a quarter of an hour. Penarth Dock may also be reached from Cardiff by foot passengers by means of the Ely River Subway.