The Alexandra (Newport and South Wales) Docks and Railway (ADR) was a company formed in 1882 from the former Newport Dock Company of 1865. There was considerable demand for dock accommodation in Newport, South Wales, chiefly for the export or coastal transport of iron ore and coal. The Newport Dock Company had built an earlier dock that was now outgrown. Changing demand, particularly for blending coal, created a need to bring coal to Newport from the Taff and Cynon valleys, and the Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Newport Railway was formed to build the line; nominally independent, it shared many directors and major shareholders. It opened in 1884, and was absorbed by the ADR in 1897. Prior to 1914 the Alexandra Docks were superlative in the world in terms of water area within the docks and ability to handle large vessels. The decline of the mineral extractive industries of South Wales resulted in a corresponding decline of activity by the ADR and its successor owners. However it is now active and successful as a general dock facility as part of Associated British Ports. Monmouthshire Railway and Canal The mineral wealth of the area north and north-west of Newport was considerable, but until the latter part of the eighteenth century, available means of transport for the production was extremely limited; there were few roads, and those that did exist were very poor, so that even conveyance on the backs of pack animals was costly and difficult. This resulted in the promotion of a canal, to connect both Pontnewynydd (north-west of Pontypool) and Crumlin, to a location close to wharves on the River Usk at Newport. This project became the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation, authorised by Act of Parliament in 1792. It was opened in stages from 1796; the authorising Act permitted the building of tramroad connection from mines and ironworks within seven miles of the canal to connect to the canal itself, and many such connections were made. The Canal Navigation company was later authorised to construct wharves on the River Usk at Newport, and in time a large number of riverside wharves, nearly all on the west bank, were made. In fact a plateway was built in 1802 to relieve the canal, which further enhanced the volume of trade. Newport Town Dock The tidal range at Newport is large, and the transshipment from canal barges to sea-going ships was laborious, and in time