This article is primarily interested with tourist attractions of all sizes in the Wye Valley and how they will benefit.

1) Tintern Abbey

The railway signed its death warrant when it built the station as far away from Tintern as it is possible to really get, since it meant that tourists were always going to find access to the famous abbey extremely difficult. A station at the southern end of Tintern Tunnel is as close as the route can get without abandoning the original formation altogether. However, a good-quality path from here to the Abbey via the Wireworks branch could easily be marketed as being part of the experience and the Monks Path over the tunnel to Brockweir would provide a mixture of ways of getting back to the train. No longer would visitor numbers be limited by the size of the car park. Furthermore, as the footpath would not cross the river on the Abbey's doorstep but a few hundred yards up the valley, the various shops and pubs along the route would benefit from the railway too - whereas currently they gain nothing from those who arrive by car, walk around, get back in their car and go home.

Coach parties could be persuaded to do the last leg from Tidenham by train (possibly in peak times a steam trains could be laid on from Tidenham to Tintern between service ones to make this more appealing) and the passengers would then get to see more of the Wye Valley in the process.

2) National Diving and Activity Centre

Located adjacent to Tidenham station, it would be a most remarkable failure on the part of all concerned if this location failed to benefit from the return of rail services. The former quarry, which kept the stub of the line open until 1990, is now a tourist attraction. Half-filled with water, its drowned "exhibits" include a Boeing 747, two former Cardiff buses and army trucks. Running along the south boundary is the A48 from Gloucester.

3) Canoeing

The River Wye's rapids make canoeing a popular activity on the river. A train with decent luggage space could easily accommodate a few canoes for people to catch the train up the valley and canoe down. A bridge at Tintern with no supports would ensure that there would be no additional inconveniences to these people.

4) Vineyards

There is a vineyard just outside Tintern Old Station and the provision of a railway station would allow those visiting to get slightly tipsy without having to worry about the A466. Instead they could walk down to the station and catch the train back to wherever.

5) Walking

Most of the proposed station sites are already linked by footpaths of various forms and so there will be plenty of opportunities for people to go for long walks between them. A walks booklet would be produced advertising some of them. A walk between Tintern and Redbrook would be much easier to carry out if it was then possible to catch the train back rather than having to wait for a bus or find a way of persuading the car to come to Redbrook and provide transport home. Car-based walks have to be circular - train-based walks don't. You can get off at one station and amble along the valley for a bit, getting back on the train at another station. You don't have to worry about parking your car in a strange place.

A train fitted out with enough room for canoes would also be able to carry bikes, so cyclists would be able to use the train easily should the weather turn foul or if they fancy avoiding a particularly steep or dangerous stretch (for example, getting on the train at Tintern Junction and then alighting at Netherhope would provide time to recover, avoid the A466 and offer a variety of alternative routes into Chepstow).

6) Pub Crawls

Often seemingly out of fashion, pub crawls are very popular with certain people and are part of the advertising for many lines in Devon and Cornwall. The Wye Valley is home to many pubs, some of which are convenient for stations and some of which would require an actual crawl. Monmouth and Chepstow also have good stocks of these hostelries. No doubt some arrangement could be made to provide tickets which covered two days to make such trips easier. The pub crawlers would not have to worry about infringing drink-driving (or drink-cycling laws), although the railway would naturally refuse admission to those who were too drunk for their own good (mostly defined by those who look likely to drunkenly argue when the guard asks them to pay up).

The Wye glistens in the Easter sun a mile north of the village of Whitebrook. The sweeping curves and wooded banks make it a picturesque scene

Tintern Abbey's ancient columns are shown to good effect in on a warm day in August 2009, 476 years after the Abbey was dissolved.