THE facilities at Abergavenny Railway Station could be upgraded if a recent report gets the go ahead reports ANDY SHERWILL.

Consultants Capita Symonds, working for The South East Transport Alliance were asked to highlight the potential for any potential improvements that could be made along the Newport to Abergavenny railway corridor .

The Abergavenny Station complex has already received funding under the Access for All Programme to provide a new footbridge with lifts, but the significant issue affecting users of the station is the lack of car parking spaces and the absence of any facilities for buses to use the site to help towards help creating a connected integrated public transport system.

The study acknowledges that the existing park and ride facilities frequently operate at capacity and it has been identified that this situation should be improved.

The report also noted that there is a lack of CCTV cameras provided throughout the complex and that the lighting was inadequate in places.

The report indicate that measures will be taken to resolve both these issues.

The report's findings were debated at last week's Abergavenny Town Council meeting.

Councillor John Prosser said, "I am pleased that Abergavenny railway station has been identified as a hub town, but I am not sure if it's detailed enough to spot changes in future trends.

"I welcome the outcome of the report as it is quite an in-depth examination and intrinsic study and outlines provisions for a drop off point, something which I have been saying was needed at the railway station for years and I was delighted that this has been included in the scheme."

The report proposes that a new dedicated drop off point should be positioned opposite the station building which should allow for up to three vehicles to wait for a limited time.

At present there are no facilities for buses to access the station so in a bid to integrate public transport in the town the report suggests that a bus turning area should be constructed.

There are also plans to replace the existing cycle lockers with ten new covered cycle stands and for them to be potentially located near to the northern park and ride facility.

Abergavenny Railway Station is currently served by the Cardiff to Holyhead service which has a two-hourly service and the Milford Haven/ Carmarthen to Manchester service which is approximately hourly, both of which are operated by Arriva Trains Wales.

The latest statistics available reveals that during 2008-09 Abergavenny had almost 316,000 passengers, 72 percent of whom travelled southbound, and 28 percent travelled northbound with Cardiff, Newport and Hereford being the top destinations.

A spokesman for Capita Symonds said, "Improvements like the ones illustrated will help build demand on the route, which will ultimately strengthen the business case for further frequency improvements as a longer term objective.

" We will open the proposals to enable a wider participation iso as to obtain the views of the public and other interest groups, including integrating public transport connections and timetable options.

"We also intend investigating the industrial unit land availability in order to obtain an early consensus and commitment to the parking and bus turning circle proposals."