the Monmouthshire Canal responded to the need, but it was the Taff Vale Railway that brought railway technology (as opposed to plateways) to the fore. The Taff Vale Railway working with the Cardiff Docks, and later the Rhymney Railway, also to Cardiff Docks, proved immensely successful. However, volumes of traffic, most especially coal for export, increased hugely as more collieries, and more efficient methods of winning coal, were operative. Cardiff Docks were seen as a near-monopoly, and as such were thought to be unresponsive to customers' wishes. Coal ships intending to load at Cardiff were often obliged to stand off for days waiting for a berth, and loaded coal trains heading for the docks frequently were obliged to wait in loops and on goods lines on the approach, waiting for clearance to enter. In fact extensions to the docks took place, and in 1865 a new harbour at Penarth was opened together with a new access railway from what is now Radyr. First attempts In fact in 1865 a Barry Railway was incorporated by Act of Parliament. It was to make a branch railway from Peterston on the broad gauge South Wales Railway to Barry, with powers to lay a third rail for mixed gauge operation on the SWR main line between Llantrisant and Newport. In 1867 an Act was obtained to make a harbour at Barry. Both of these proposals foundered, chiefly because the Taff Vale Railway practically monopolised the transport of coal from the Taff and Rhondda Valleys to Cardiff, and was hostile to diversion of that traffic from its new harbour at Penarth. In addition, the financial crisis following the failure of the banking firm of Overend Gurney and Company meant that for a while finance was impossible to get. The Barry Dock and Railway Dissatisfaction with the available railway and dock facilities was however unabated, and there was a considerable desire for an alternative to break the monopoly. In 1882 promoters allied to the Taff Vale Railway and the Bute Trustees (who controlled the Cardiff Docks) proposed new docks at Roath, east of the city, and a new approach railway from the Taff Vale line. It was made public that mineral haulage rates would be increased by a penny a ton to pay for this line, both on traffic to Roath and to the existing Bute Docks. This deepened the hostility and further inflamed the feelings