The poor approach to Porthcawl Dock, together with its inadequate facilities, once more made it impossible for the site to compete economically with other South Wales ports, especially as larger steamships were coming into use. Hence at the turn of the century the dock virtually ceased to function as a port, and it was closed by the GWR in 1906. Porthcawl town developed as a seaside resort with a new railway station built on the site of the old dock lines in March 1916, and during the years of the Second World War the dock was filled in.