1000 tonnes of coal per day. The main traffic was coal, but between 1887 and 1902 stations along the Garw were constructed at Llangeinor, Pontyrhyl, Pontycymer and Blaengarw. However, the only intense passenger service on the entire Tondu Valley Lines system were from Cardiff to Bridgend and Porthcawl. Passenger trains from Bridgend consisted of four portions: Abergwynfi (detached at Tondu); Garw (detached at Brynmenyn); and Gilfach Goch (detached at Blackmill); with the residual train continuing to Nantymoel. However, even pre-World War II, with the relative distances so short, motor bus services took large numbers of passenger away from the railway, resulting in cessation of most passenger services outside the dedicated coal miner trains from 1953. Closure The entire Tondu Valley Lines Division was closed from the mid-1980s, after the ending of the UK miners' strike (1984–85). The subsequent closure of the Ocean Colliery in December 1985, the Garw Valley’s last working mine, resulted in the last coal train running on the Garw in 1986. The three lines were initially kept in place, but eventually the Ogmore line was lifted. The Llynfi Valley branch to was reopened to passengers in 1992. The Garw was reopened in 1995, to allow a land reclamation system to operate economically. This effectively removed the track and associated earthworks for the last mile of the Garw Valley line into Blaengarw, hence now terminating the line at Pontycymer. The last train from the reclamation site ran on 6 March 1997, and a special charter passenger train, the "Garw Guru", ran on 7 April 1997. Network Rail severed the connection to Tondu at Brynmenyn Level Crossing, just south of Bryngarw Country Park, in 2007. Preservation Bridgend Valleys Railway Society (BVRS) was formed in 1988, to create a UK national level operational museum project, with a vision of offering a Welsh National Railway Centre at the Brynmenyn Industrial Estate, and an operational railway north to Pontycymer. Groundwork Neath Port Talbot (the government body responsible to Bridgend County Borough Council for the regeneration of the Garw Valley) leased the trackbed from Network Rail for 125 years on the understanding that it found a companion railway company to oversee the 4 miles 56 chains of track from Pontycymer to Brynmenyn. The BVRS sought to establishment a single-track heritage railway. On 23 March 2001, the Welsh Assembly made its first Transport Works Act order in favour of the BVRS, and six days