Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the South Wales Evening Post:

If you're desperate to see Wales continue their Six Nations campaign but you're worried about getting there, then there's some good news for you.

Extra train capacity will be made available for the Wales v Scotland match.

It will take place at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday, with kick-off at 3pm.

With approximately 75,000 fans expected at the stadium, the train services are expected to be extremely busy.

Passengers are asked to arrive in plenty of time for their journey as services are allocated on a first come, first served basis.

A queuing system will be in place at Cardiff Central station after the match, with Queen Street station closing as usual after 4.45pm. Passengers are also being advised to heed the weather forecast and dress warmly as they prepare for the electric atmosphere in the stadium.

[John R]

Er, doesn't say anything helpful like what the extra capacity is, though presumably it's beefing up the usual very sparse Sunday service on the Valley Lines.

Tickets still available somewhat remarkably. 

[anthony215]

There has been a couple of complaints made about this on some other forums.

ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former Train Operating Company)) could do more to advertise these extra services. Take the Rugexx service from Holyhead - Cardiff back in 2011 this was empty most of the time as people didnt know about it  and by the time they did most of them had already bought their tickets

[Chris from Nailsea]

A good result for Wales this afternoon: Wales 27-13 Scotland

See the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) for details of the action.

As to the travel arrangements on match day: do any of our forum members have comments? 

[John R]

Nothing of note really, though I'm not sure how many extra services Arriva put on judging by the big screen departure information, and it was impossible to find any mention of service changes on Arriva's website yesterday (to emphasise anthony215's post).

Though my FGW^▸ (First Great Western) service was 5 cars both ways, and I did see a 6 car unit coming down from the valleys in the morning, so both operators appear to have strenghtened formations.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks, John R. 

[anthony215]

I did see 1 or 2 services with an extra carriage or 2 although ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former Train Operating Company)) do seem to be struggling a bit due to the loss of the 175 that was damaged at Whitland.

My only bad point with ATW is that they could have done more to promote these additional extra services.

[John R]

I've since been told by a colleague that he caught a relief HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) to London that ran just in front of the scheduled 1715 path, and which hoovered up a large volume of pax^▸ (passengers). So FGW^▸ (First Great Western) do appear to have made appropriate arrangements.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Another good result for you, John R. 

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page): England 12-19 Wales

Chris. 

[Rhydgaled]

ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former Train Operating Company)) = ATL = Always Telling Lies.

Arriva's Millennium Stadium events page claims

For each major event at the Stadium we use all the trains we have available to us. We also suspend routine train maintenance to ensure the maximum availability of rolling stock. Where possible we will also reallocate trains from parts of the area unaffected by the event to Cardiff to provide additional capacity.

I very much doubt the 16-odd stored mark 2 carriges that ATW OWN have been used to provide extra capacity for the rugby match today (and this sort of thing is what the mark 2s were bought for isn't it?) Since they own the stock, it should be available to them. So unless nobody will lend them a locomotive (don't they have a lease on four 57s anyway, of which only 1 is generally in use at any one time) they are lying about using all the trains they have available. Come on Arriva, get those mark 2s out of storage and use them to provide extra capacity whenever and wherever there is an unusally large passenger flow.

[John R]

Rhydgaled -given today's match was at Twickenham I don't think you can accuse ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former Train Operating Company)) of misleading customers on their web page that refers to Millennium Stadium events.

Chris from Nailsea - well since you ask, yes, though mindful that I am probably in a minority on this forum, I will point out that the game was much closer than most pundits predicted, as my nails (or what's left of them) will evidence. Anyway, certainly looking forward to the last two games in Caaardiff.  Off to see the round ball game at Wembley tomorrow, when I suspect the welsh side will comfortably come off worst.   

[Rhydgaled]

Rhydgaled -given today's match was at Twickenham I don't think you can accuse ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former Train Operating Company)) of misleading customers on their web page that refers to Millennium Stadium events.

Opps, rather silly of me, I forgot today's match wasn't in Cardiff.

Still, my point still stands, there is some rolling stock of theirs which they don't ever use, even when there is an event.

[Chris from Nailsea]

For information here, to explain some of our apparent banter: John R on this forum is a stalwart Wales supporter; I'm an England fan.

I've already congratulated him privately, but - another good result for you today, John R!

Chris 

[John R]

Indeed, Thank you Chris. The atmosphere in Cardiff both inside and outside the stadium was electric, and with 250,000 reported to have descended on the centre today, most things were put under much more strain than usual, including the train services.

Though from my very limited observation, things on the trains seemed to go ok, with longer spent queuing to get into a bar after the match than getting back on a train.