Local organisers have launched a petition pressing the government to install disabled access to Abergavenny Train Station.

Activists from Abergavenny Rail Access Campaign are pushing for a new bridge with passenger lifts to be built, giving full access to disabled passengers who have to request assistance from train staff 24 hours before they plan to travel.

Petitioners also complain that reaching the platform is near impossible out of office hours, as no train staff are available to help disabled travellers, who have to rely on train guards to hop them across the bridge.

Back in August, this newspaper reported that disabled travellers were being advised to head over 20 miles in the opposite direction to Hereford before heading south again, a detour adding fifty minutes to their journey.

The petition, which has garnered nearly 500 signatures at the time of print, said, “We want a bridge, with passenger lifts to give full access to disabled passengers, older people and those with heavy luggage – 30 per cent of the population in Monmouthshire is over-60.”

Local campaigner Phillip Bowyer, 70, said, “This was a response to the construction work going on at the station. They are renewing the passenger bridge.

“We were told in 2006 of a plan to install a new bridge with lifts. The need for that is obvious. First of all for people who suffer with disabilities, and those who arrive with heavy luggage, kids, prams, and so on.

“It’s not just for people of Abergavenny. We have the eisteddfod and food festival here, with thousands of visitors, so it is not just for the locals It’s a question of tourism, and the money that brings into coming Abergavenny

“We have been promised equal access in the past, but that isn’t in their current plans. They’re just restoring to bridge as it was. What’s the point in that? It’s ridiculous.

“It would be a lot easier if there were more staff, but we all know there have been cutbacks. Everybody should be able to get on a train without much bother. It’s not fair. We are telling Network Rail: We want a lift.”