Option 1: Re-open to Tidenham only
This option has various advantages over any other. Apart from the cost (virtually nothing) it provides a green transport link to the leisure facilities (the National Diving and Activity Centre and the proposed Sustrans cycleway) at Tidenham station. There is also the side note that the railway between Wye Valley Junction and Tidenham station is not currently featured in any grand master plan and so can be taken as free to use. It could serve as a glorified headshunt for any commuter services which would otherwise terminate in Chepstow and do so for minimal running costs. It would also give the village of Tidenham a rail link (of sorts).
The line to the north, as far as Brockweir, would then be surrendered to Sustrans, providing a cycle link to Tintern with a rail connection. This would give the cycleway green credentials which its middle-of-nowhere termini currently lack. Although the number of bikes which can be accomodated in a cheap and cheerful 1980s Sprinter unit is debatable, so are the numbers of cyclists who would use the route outside peak periods. Meanwhile, cycle hire facilities could be provided in a station building and electrification and new trains are not too far away - more space could then be provided.
Tidenham is currently overgrown but the existence of an access road, platform, track and room for car parking - the station entrance opens onto the A48, which is the main road between Gloucester, Chepstow and Newport - makes it the most suited station for re-opening. It could be argued that it would actually make a very good railhead for Tutishill and Woodcroft, as it would save trying to get down into Chepstow. Reaching Tidenham station would involve turning left out of Tutishill, going in the opposite direction to motorway-bound traffic and then turning left into the station car park (easily recognised due to the massive hole in the hedge - hardly a concealed entrance). There are also a number of villages between here and Lydney and a station at Tidenham - on the main bus route - would make journey times to Newport and Cardiff as favourable as those to Gloucester and Cheltenham.
This photograph shows Tidenham from the northern end of the station, looking south while standing on what was once the loop line.
Option 2: Re-open to Netherhope only
Back in 1980, this was as far as the last passenger train north of Tidenham ran. Terminating the railway here would take full advantage of all available track while leaving Tidenham Tunnel for someone else to deal with. Netherhope Halt is also a useful railhead, sited near a small settlement and the Northern end of Tidenham (It also has good access to the main road from St Briavels, but not good enough to shout about it).
Costs would not be much above those for re-opening to Tidenham and the route from here south can easily be adapted to have a cycleway running alongside if that is essential. This would create the curious situation of the railway and the cycleway sharing the trackbed where it is wide enough, but the railway being forced to give up, go home and surrender its trackbed as soon as there is insufficient room for more than one track. The only issue en-route would be the need to re-build Bishton Bridge. Netherhope would also need a new station platform, which would be built so that the northern ramp swings across the trackbed, pointing the cycleway into the tunnel. There would naturally be a request that if cyclists took to cycling along the platform then the railway should be re-instated to Tintern, on the basis that this would offer the higher speed which they evidently needed.
This view shows Netherhope from the northern end of the halt, looking south from a ledge under the road bridge immediately to the north of the former platform.
Option 3: Re-open to Tintern Junction
Returning trains to Tintern has always been a wish of many people and Tintern Junction is as far as the railway can get without rebuilding the Wireworks branch or rebuilding a bridge across the Wye to Tintern station. A terminus here would link into Sustrans's Connect2 scheme for Tintern, allowing cyclists to proceed from Brockweir Bridge through the Old Station at Tintern to catch a train south to Tidenham, Chepstow and beyond from here. Limited space would restrict the line to a single track and platform (only Tidenham offers room for a run-around loop).
This terminus would reclaim as much of the trackbed for rail use as is currently possible without major expenditure on bridges across tidal rivers and leave open the opportunity for an extension onwards towards Monmouth at a later date. The site would be largely cleared of trees, with the railway coming as close to the portal of Tintern Tunnel as reasonably possible with the platform in the triangle between the former railway lines.
This picture shows the former Wireworks Junction from the north, with the tunnel portal behind the camera and the Wireworks Branch merging in from the right.