Transport for Wales (TfW) have dealt a blow to passengers travelling from Abergavenny to Cardiff with their announcement of new fare deals from January 2020.

A day return from Abergavenny at £15.20 is already over 80% higher than journeys of a similar distance and time on the Cardiff and Valleys routes. Only 10 minutes down the line from Abergavenny, the fare from Pontypool is £9.40 - more than 60% cheaper.

The new fare deals from 2020 include a rise of 2.8% on fares from Abergavenny taking it to £15.63 for a day return and a whopping £27.45 if you stay overnight after an event and return the next day. This leaves Abergavenny to Cardiff commuters smarting about the use of the term ’deal’ especially as cheaper Advance ticket deals aren’t available either for journeys under 50 miles.

Adding even more salt to the wound, 33 stations in the Cardiff and Valleys network will have fares "significantly reduced (some by more than 10%) to encourage travel to/from areas most distant from Cardiff."

This means that the fare from Abergavenny to Cardiff will be almost double that of journeys from the Heads of the Valleys towns to the capital - journeys of a similar time or distance.

A group of Abergavenny residents have been lobbying TfW to reduce the fare in line with other stations in Wales at a commutable distance from the capital. Anna Roberts first contacted them in April this year asking why return fares from Ebbw Vale, Merthyr, Aberdare and Maesteg were only £8.40 by comparison.

Hugh Evans, now Head of Community Rail at Keolis Amey, which operates the Wales, network for Transport for Wales, agreed to meet with Roberts and two other rail users in July.

"We were really pleased that they responded in this way and we heard a lot about plans for improving Abergavenny station and the network in general which was encouraging," she said. "But he said that the price difference between fares from Abergavenny and other commuter towns is largely historic and is something they’ve inherited."

"This makes us all the more determined to keep lobbying Transport for Wales to get some parity - and fairness. The price differential between Hereford, the next station up from us, and Cardiff will seem even greater if they reduce the Abergavenny fare but TfW should be interested in getting the residents of Wales out of their cars an on to public transport, in my view," said Roberts.

Season tickets aimed at daily commuters and Multiflex tickets for those working part-time offer little to comfort to Abergavenny commuters as they are available to travellers on most routes in Wales.

At hustings in the town before the recent elections, Hugh Kocan, Plaid Cymru’s candidate for Monmouthshire talked about the impact of the cost of travel to Cardiff on him personally. After the event, he said: "As part of my day job as a campaign organiser, I frequently need to travel into Cardiff. Even with a railcard, the journey per week can cost me £60, or £240 a month."

At 22 years of age, Hugh is one of many young people who need to travel to Cardiff for work. "I am spending roughly a fifth of my monthly income on transport alone. A season ticket would save me only a fraction because I don’t travel in every day. At a time when we are encouraging more people to get out of cars, Transport for Wales is effectively punishing travellers from Abergavenny who are making this conscious choice," he added.

Last week, Transport for Wales confirmed the 2.8% rise for Abergavenny rail travellers and the reduction in fares from the Heads of the Valleys towns.

"It’s disappointing because we felt quite optimistic after that meeting," said Anna Roberts. "Hugh Evans made the effort to travel to Abergavenny to meet with us and admitted that they had a lot of work to do since taking over the contract. He was also aware of a gap in the schedules with no trains leaving Cardiff for Abergavenny between 21:55 and half past midnight making it impossible for people to go to events and gigs in Cardiff by train. This, he said, was on their To Do list but that everything would take time," said Roberts.

Other issues raised were the shortage of parking, the lack of lockable bicycle storage, no bus connection to and from the station and poor accessibility. Disabled rail users and those with mobility issues have to make arrangements ahead to cross the track with a TfW employee.

"We were assured they were addressing all of these issues and that they were keen to work with the community on making improvements but that it would take time," added Roberts. That we understand. But reducing our fare in line with other stations is something that’s within their power to do with immediate effect."