Wales fans are facing travel chaos and huge queues on their journey to follow Warren Gatland’s side in Sunday’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final with France at Oita Stadium.Fans, who have forked out thousands of pounds to be in Japan, have been let down at the final hurdle.
Crowds approaching 40,000 were expected for the quarter-finals this weekend and the best, most affordable way to get to Oita Stadium is on board free shuttle buses from Oita Train Station to the ground. The journey of just five miles each way is advertised by tournament organisers as taking 40 minutes but fans WalesOnline spoke to said queues were so large it took them 90 minutes to get to the stadium, and then another 90 minutes to get back to the station.
Those staying outside Oita then faced a further staggering queue, hundreds of metres long, to get their train back to where they are staying. Those going to nearby Beppu did not face too much hassle as they could catch the local train that runs more frequently and were not made to wait. However, due to a lack of hotels in Oita and Beppu, many supporters have had to stay as far north as Kokura, 90 minutes away on a train.
Those fans have to catch the express train, which runs every 30 minutes, but were queuing around the block with station staff advising that the wait would be a further hour and a half just to board. One group of Welsh fans we met were having to stay in Fukuoka, which is more than two hours on a train from Oita. They say they are crammed in like sardines for the journey, with many forced to find a seat on the floor in between carriages.
According to Wikipedia, the usual average number of daily passengers at Oita Station is 19,165, which has a total of 12 platforms, including bays. From the report though, no evidence of rugby crowd buster additional services.
