There's an old postcard being shared here on Facebook of Barry Railway cruises across the Severn Estuary and the question being asked as to whether a service could / should resume.  One commentator suggested that bus and rail links are needed.

At the Barry end, the line that terminates at Barry Island station used to continue on through a tunnel to Barry Pier station; last steamer called there in 1971 and the station officially closed in 1976.  Like so many seaside and other branch lines, cut back.

Notable on the advertising postcard - just how many of the locations served across the channe in England no longer have a rail link - Clevedon, Burnham, Lynmouth.  Two more have a rail link that's disconnected for all but occasional used from the national network - Minehead and Watchet.  And the final destination - Weston-super-mare does still have a station. Looking at old maps, railway tracks used to run closer to the town, but was that a goods yard or terminal platforms?



Is there any scope for a cross-Severn service again, and if so for what traffic and serving where?

 
I'm pretty certain that I've heard talk of a service to and from Swansea over the years.... perhaps from Ilfracombe?  Whether there would be sufficient customers for the service.....well, there's been nothing happening so far.
I would venture that any service further east would find it difficult to demonstrate cost or time savings over existing road and rail options.

 

As a commercial service to get from "A" to "B", I would wish to see traffic figures / projections; as a leisure trip perhaps via Lundy ...

Time savings would be so hard to demonstrate at the sort of frequency involved as the wait for the scheduled service unless frequent would, I suspect, outweigh any gain in the actual transit time.  And Ilfracombe is not exactly motorway connected.

 
I suspect that the terminal platforms at WSM were the old Locking Road station

 

Ilfracombe isn't all that easy to get to, though.  I know the town and surroundings are a majour tourist area, but it's not well populated for around 35 weeks a year

If only there was a railway there

 
As others say, amongst other things, I suppose the trouble is that there's not really a suitable rail/road connected port on the English side.

So whilst on one hand a commuters/shoppers ferry from Cardiff Bay to Weston would be a reasonably short trip, getting to the pier on the English side would be a PITA, so you might as well do it on a 1h22 train or 1h10 car journey which won't leave you feeling seasick.

Similarly, whilst there might be enough Cornwall to South Wales freight to fill a ferry, I doubt the numbers stack up even time-wise - by the time you've driven your artic to Ilfracombe (or wherever), loaded it, offloaded it etc, you might as well have just left the truck on the Motorway. In modern logistics, predictability is critical.

 
In years gone by, there was a regular shipping service between Minehead and South Wales, this conveyed coal to the Minehead gas works, and bagged coal for household use.
Gas production ceased decades ago, but the gas holders remained until recent years. Almost no trace remains today, but the location is still known as "gas works beach" by anglers. It was on the edge of town, past the lifeboat station.

Seagoing sailing barges were used, and later small steamers. Passengers and livestock were carried in return for a suitable gratuity. The vessels used were not licensed to carry passengers.

 
https://gosouthwestengland.co.uk/wales-devon-ferry/

 
How do readers feel about the phrase ‘hydrogen-powered’? Does that give you more, or less confidence that this project is likely to happen?

Hydrogen buses seem to be enjoying limited success: https://www.route-one.net/bus/fuel-supply-brings-challenges-for-more-hydrogen-bus-deployment/

 

Sounds like grant-fodder to me.

"Yeah, we know it won't make money but the important things is to prove the technology for the good of the planet"

 

Hmm.

Hydrogen and transport have a somewhat tainted reputation: see https://www.airships.net/hydrogen-airship-accidents/ 

 
This discussion is about ferries across the Bristol channel and not across the Severn, which finishes at around the bridges.  Should the title be updated?

 

I'll leave it to my esteemed moderator colleagues to decide - I'm a northerner displaced soon after birth to Kent and only in later life have I come west, so they will know better.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Estuary

 
Hmm. 

Wikipedia acknowledges that the distinction between the 'Severn Estuary' and the 'Bristol Channel' is somewhat vague.

I'm therefore going to include both in this now renamed topic. 

 

Thanks