Abergavenny railway station

Abergavenny Welsh: Y Fenni
Abergavenny station (April 2023)
General information
Location	Abergavenny, Monmouthshire Wales
Coordinates	51.81745°N 3.00902°W / 51.81745; -3.00902
Grid reference	SO305136
Managed by	Transport for Wales
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	AGV
Classification	DfT category D
Key dates
2 January 1854	Station opens
19 July 1950	Renamed Abergavenny Monmouth Road
6 May 1968	Renamed Abergavenny
Passengers
2019/20	0.415 million
2020/21	0.102 million
2021/22	0.284 million
2022/23	0.360 million
2023/24	0.402 million
Listed Building – Grade II
Feature	Abergavenny Railway Station, including down platform building and footbridge
Designated	1 November 1974
Reference no.	2472[1]
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Abergavenny railway station (Welsh: Y Fenni) is situated south-east of the town centre of Abergavenny, Wales. It is part of the British railway system owned by Network Rail and is operated by Transport for Wales. It lies on the Welsh Marches Line between Newport and Hereford.

Abergavenny lies at the eastern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park and provides an access point to local services and public transport into the park. The station is Grade II listed^[1] and was designed by Charles Liddell, in an Italianate architectural style when he was Chief Engineer of the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway.

History

The station, designed by Charles Liddell, Chief Engineer of the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway (NA&HR), is in an Italianate architecture style^[2] in a local pink semi-ashlar sandstone^[3] with natural slate roofs and stone stacks. The down platform building is stone with a timber-framed front and a natural slate roof.^[1] The footbridge comprises cast iron columns of typical GWR design which support the stairways and the two spans. The span over the now removed by-pass freight lines is the wrought iron lattice girder original but the main span over the running tracks was replaced by a steel plate-girder in the late 20th century.

The NA&HR amalgamated with other railways in 1860 to form the West Midland Railway, which itself amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1863.^[4] The line then passed on to the Western Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. In 1950, the station was renamed Abergavenny Monmouth Road, but reverted to its simple name in 1968. When sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by Regional Railways until the privatisation of British Railways.

Railway town

A branch line to Brynmawr was opened in 1862 starting at Abergavenny Junction station north of the current station, constructed by the Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway (MT&AR). The line also had a station in the town called Abergavenny Brecon Road, making three stations in all. This company was acquired by the London and North Western Railway in 1866. In 1958 the MT&AR passenger trains ceased and Abergavenny Junction was closed.

GWR Locomotive 'Abergavenny Castle'

A GWR Castle-class locomotive, number 5013, was named after Abergavenny Castle.

Facilities

The station is staffed in the daytime, with the ticket office open seven days per week. It has disabled access to platforms, a cafeteria and toilets, plus large waiting rooms on both platforms. Train running information is provided via automated announcements, digital CIS displays and timetable posters, along with a customer help point on platform 1. Step-free access is available on the northbound platform at all times, but to the southbound one only when the ticket office is staffed (as this requires the use of a barrow crossing with locked gates). There is also a footbridge linking the two platforms.^[5]

Proposals for an accessible footbridge at the station were put forward in 2010 but cancelled as Network Rail failed to obtain listed building consent.^[6]

The footbridge was temporarily replaced whilst Network Rail took down and restored the original footbridge between December 2018 and July 2019. The bridge was restored at a specialist company in Cardiff. Works involved adding anti-slip material to the deck and refurbishing the trestle support columns and staircases. Future works include providing the station with step-free access throughout as part of the Department of Transport Access for All fund, which will be match-funded by Transport for Wales.^[7] The work is currently underway and is due to be completed by early 2025.^[8]

Passenger volume

Passenger Volume at Abergavenny^[9]

	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Entries and exits	415,250	102,016	283944	359,524

Services

With a few exceptions, the weekday daytime service pattern typically sees one train per hour in each direction between Manchester Piccadilly and Cardiff Central, with most trains continuing beyond Cardiff to Swansea and West Wales. There is also a two-hourly service between Cardiff and the North Wales Coast Line to Holyhead via Wrexham General. These services are all operated by Transport for Wales.^[10] The northbound Premier service from Cardiff to Holyhead calls here on Monday to Fridays but the southbound service does not call here.

Two trains per day in the early morning on weekdays to London Paddington, via Hereford and the Cotswold Line, commenced operation in December 2007. However, they were short lived, being withdrawn and cut back to Hereford in December 2008; due to low passenger usage, and travelling south to Newport and using trains via the Severn Tunnel and Swindon being quicker. These services were operated by First Great Western (now known as Great Western Railway)

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Pontypool and New Inn or Cwmbran		Transport for Wales Welsh Marches Line		Hereford
Cwmbran		Transport for Wales North-South "Premier" service		Hereford
	Historical railways
Penpergwm Line open, station closed		Great Western Railway Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway		Abergavenny Junction Line open, station closed

References

1. Cadw. "Abergavenny Railway Station, including down platform building and footbridge (2472)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
2. "Abergavenny railway station". transportheritage.com. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
3. Pevsner, Nikolaus; Newman, John (2000). The Buildings of Wales. Gwent/Monmouthshire. Yale University Press. p. 105. ISBN 0300096305.
4. MacDermot, E.T. (1927). History of the Great Western Railway, vol. I: 1833–1863. Paddington: Great Western Railway. pp. 543, 553.
5. Abergavenny station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 10 April 2017
6. "LOOK: New design for long-awaited railway station footbridge revealed". South Wales Argus. 21 March 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
7. "Abergavenny station footbridge refurbishment completed: Residents and passengers thanked". Network Rail Media Centre. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
8. Butler, Ben (21 March 2024). "Construction work underway at stations". www.insidermedia.com. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
9. "Estimates of station usage | ORR Data Portal". dataportal.orr.gov.uk. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
10. GB eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 131

External links

• Train times and station information for Abergavenny railway station from National Rail
• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.