Newport-on-Tay East railway station Survey map remained practically unchanged till it closed. There were two accidents in the station. In one case, a train hit one of the level crossing gates, and it had to be replaced. The other accident was more serious. A workman was killed during an accident while shunting coal waggons. The railway was mainly used by people who lived in Newport and worked in Dundee. Until the opening of the Tay Road Bridge in 1966 the Tay Ferry provided the only alternative means of getting there. The opening of the Road Bridge allowed direct bus services from Newport to Dundee,
Tay Rail Bridge opened nineteen months earlier and having been passed as safe by the Board of Trade, has a long term impact on wider society. According to some commenters, it is still regarded as having been the most notorious bridge disaster to have ever occurred in the British Isles. Within 10 days of the disaster, German poet Theodor Fontane wrote his famous poem . The disaster was commemorated in "The Tay Bridge Disaster", one of the best-known verse efforts of William McGonagall. In the present day, the stumps of the original bridge piers are still visible above the surface of the Tay