Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - A History of Penarth Dock by Roy Thorne . . .

During the 1939 - 45 war the subway was often used as an air raid shelter.

In September 1963 the entrances were boarded up by Hr. Gill Thomas witnessed by Mr. Alban Thomas who retired at that time from his post as pier master at Penarth Dock and Mr. Joshua Richards who had been a dock policeman.

A special access was made for fire officers and electricity board men so that they could inspect the cables and water pipes, but another trace of Penarth Dock's prosperity had gone.

Attempts were made to unite the docks in the Taff and Ely estuaries to fight the growing competition of Barry. By 1896 Cardiff's share of the three ports coal exports was 48.71%, Penarth's 17.84%, but significantly Barry's share had risen from 9.26% to 35.45% in six years.

The Bute Company had changed its name to the Cardiff Railway Company, partially to make it more attractive to investors, in 1897 when that company obtained an act authorising a railway to Treforest to link their docks with the coalfield. Although the T.V.R. still had shipping facilities at Cardiff, the Bute Company wanted to "bring the Taff and Rhymney into line with the object of forming a combination of interests to fight the Barry Company, who are now coming to be regarded as the avowed enemies of Cardiff." [1161]

The railway was completed in 1911 after overcoming great geographical difficulties, but its coal traffic was only the little T.V.R. diverted to it. It also had passenger traffic from the northern part of the city. The Butes were unsuccessful in bringing the Taff and Rhymney into line!

Then in 1900 the T.V.R. tried to amalgamate the docks in the estuaries of the two rivers and the supplying railways when that company made an offer to buy the Cardiff and Rhymney Railway Companies and to create a "gigantic corporation with a capital of £20 million." Although shipping and commercial interests in Cardiff supported the amalgamation Parliament refused to sanction it. [1161]