On 6 February 2008 scheduled passenger trains returned to the Ebbw Valley after a gap of 46 years. The 09.40 Ebbw Vale to Cardiff passing through Cwm on the opening day of the service, 6 February 2008, with a 4-car dmu set, 150230 leading. The line had been busy in the 1960s and 1970s feeding the Ebbw Vale steelworks and several coal mines along the route but as the mines closed and the steelworks was reduced to a tinplating plant so the rail traffic dwindled. Complete closure of the steel plant came in July 2002 and a passenger rail tour became the last train on the branch on 6 July 2002. Two days later construction started on the Cwm bypass road, one mile south of the rail head. A new track formation was built to the west of the old alignment at the north end of Cwm and the line slewed over to accommodate the new road.
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