[1] However, the sponsorship by the Dukes of Beaufort of the Aust route, with faster boats and a pier, meant that by 1830 mail coaches were diverted there, and the New Passage declined.

[2] Construction of the new railway started in 1858 and the single-track 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad gauge line opened from South Wales Junction, half a mile east of Bristol Temple Meads, as far as the landward end of New Passage Pier on 8 September 1863, a distance of 11 miles (18 km).

[3] The Bristol and South Wales Union Railway built new piers for the ferry, with the one at New Passage being 546 yards (499 m) long.

[4][5] A steam ferry, the Saint Pierre had been built by Pride and Williams for the New Passage crossing in 1825 and it worked there until 1831.

The next vessel purchased was the Dragon Fly, this had been used by the contractors to build the piers but was too small to work as the ferry.