Ammon News - On this day in 1807, the first fee-paying passenger railway began operating in Wales. It was eventually known as Mumbles Railway, and it became the longest-running locomotive line in the world. Passengers, however, were an afterthought; the train was designed with industry in mind. By 1823 a 16-person horse-drawn carriage made a trip twice a day along the railway line. After electricity arrived in 1928, double-decker trams began running, and millions of passengers were riding the line annually by the 1940s. After World War II, however, plunging passenger demand could no longer justify costs of operating the line. A funeral (featuring an empty coffin) was held for the line on January 4, 1960.

Britannica