Reduced fares in Cardiff and the Valleys. Disquiet elsewhere in Wales

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Wales Online

In January 2020 Transport for Wales will introduce a fare reduction for 33 stations within the Cardiff and the Valleys network.

It means those travelling from those areas will see prices "significantly reduced" - in some cases more than 10%.

If you travel from Cardiff to Abergavenny it will cost you £15.20 for a day return.

That's for a journey between 37 and 44 minutes in length.

It's also almost double what it would cost you to go to Ebbw Vale, Rhymney or Maesteg - even though those services will take you more time to get there.

Now, a campaign group is calling on Transport for Wales to bring their Abergavenny prices in line with the rest of south Wales.

Abergavenny resident Anna Roberts, who is leading the campaign, said: "It's such a massive difference I'm amazed that no-one has made a fuss before.

"It just goes to show people don't consider taking the train an option.

"I remember speaking to someone years ago who said they drive to Ebbw Vale and get the train from there.

"I tell people they are paying 50% more from Abergavenny and they are absolutely horrified.

"A family I spoke to wanted to go Christmas shopping on the train. Looking at the costs as a family it's prohibitively expensive so they decided to drive."

And with fare prices from Abergavenny to Cardiff increasing to £15.60 in the new year, campaigners are worried the difference in price will become even more stark.

Anna, a freelance career coach, said: "The fares from Hereford are quite expensive as well so if they brought Abergavenny prices down in line with other services that jump to Hereford would be massive.

"But they are Transport for Wales so they have to consider what they should do for Wales.

[Celestial]

Seems rather odd that the story concentrates on journey time rather than distance. In round numbers it takes 40 mins to do 30 miles to Abergavenny, (so an average speed of 45mph), or one hour to do a journey of 20mph to the top of the valleys (so the average speed is less than half that to Abergavenny).

You could argue then that the faster journey time means that the cost should be greater per mile all things being equal.  If you add 50% to the cost to the valleys you get to around £12, and then a 25% premium for a service twice as fast gets you to around £15.  So maybe it's not so unreasonable after all?

[Robin Summerhill]

Seems rather odd that the story concentrates on journey time rather than distance.

Not really - its a typical example of a journalist inventing a story.

I haven't checked your mileage figures, but if they are correct:

Return journeys
Cardiff to Abergavenny 60 miles for £15.60 = 26 pence per mile
Cardiff to Ebbw Vale (now) 40 miles for £8.40 = 21 pence per mile
Cardiff to Ebbw Vale (future) 40 miles for £7.60 = 19 pence per mile

How would the headline read if they focused on that? "It costs more to go om a fast train than a slow train Shock Horror!"

[grahame]

The people of Abergavenny want to be very careful not to compare on either distance or time per £ with Swindon to Didcot - £51.00 for an anytime day return.  It's about the same distance as Cardiff to Abergavenny (so about 85p per mile) and much quicker.

[Celestial]

Seems rather odd that the story concentrates on journey time rather than distance.

Not really - its a typical example of a journalist inventing a story.

I haven't checked your mileage figures, but if they are correct:

Return journeys
Cardiff to Abergavenny 60 miles for £15.60 = 26 pence per mile
Cardiff to Ebbw Vale (now) 40 miles for £8.40 = 21 pence per mile
Cardiff to Ebbw Vale (future) 40 miles for £7.60 = 19 pence per mile

How would the headline read if they focused on that? "It costs more to go om a fast train than a slow train Shock Horror!"

Actually Ebbw Vale is an anomaly. It is priced the same as the other valley termini (eg Rhymney, Merthyr), yet by rail is further away from Cardiff as you have to travel most of the way to Newport (from Cardiff) before getting on the branch line.  But geographically it isn't really much further, so the pricing makes sense, but only goes to prove how so many factors/distortions can result in what seem like unfair fares.  Just ask anyone going from Pye Corner to Newport - £12.10 return by rail, for a journey of 2.3 miles by road. 

[grahame]

From The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Train fares across Wales are being reduced, bucking trends across the rest of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

Transport for Wales (TfW) said overall, average prices on services would drop by just over 1% in 2020.

However, some services will see a rise of 2.8% in line with retail price inflation, similar to rises on other UK services.

TfW's fares will fall an average of 1.1%. But there will be rises on Avanti West Coast and Great Western Railway.

TfW said there would be a 10% cut in all fares it sets in north Wales, while 33 stations in the Cardiff and Valleys network will have fares "significantly reduced" - some by more than 10%.

TfW said: "Where ticket prices increase, this will be consistent with changes being made by the UK Government in other parts of the country.

"By reducing many key fares we want to encourage more people to use our services, particularly at times of the day and in parts of our network where we know there is plenty of space on board for everyone to travel.
"It's all part of our 15-year programme to transform rail travel."