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Title: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: Chris from Nailsea on February 10, 2012, 22:04:33 From the South Wales Evening Post (http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Rail-service-boost-rugby-fans/story-15188087-detail/story.html):
Quote 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. Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: John R on February 10, 2012, 23:44:42 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. Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: anthony215 on February 11, 2012, 12:17:47 There has been a couple of complaints made about this on some other forums.
ATW 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 Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: Chris from Nailsea on February 12, 2012, 16:55:36 A good result for Wales this afternoon: Wales 27-13 Scotland
See the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17003385) for details of the action. As to the travel arrangements on match day: do any of our forum members have comments? :P Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: John R on February 12, 2012, 19:38:36 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 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. Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: Chris from Nailsea on February 13, 2012, 02:55:49 Thanks, John R. :)
Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: anthony215 on February 13, 2012, 13:06:35 I did see 1 or 2 services with an extra carriage or 2 although ATW 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. Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: John R on February 13, 2012, 16:44:56 I've since been told by a colleague that he caught a relief HST to London that ran just in front of the scheduled 1715 path, and which hoovered up a large volume of pax. So FGW do appear to have made appropriate arrangements.
Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: Chris from Nailsea on February 25, 2012, 20:09:00 Another good result for you, John R. ::)
From the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17141687): England 12-19 Wales Chris. :-[ Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: Rhydgaled on February 25, 2012, 21:25:34 ATW = ATL = Always Telling Lies.
Arriva's Millennium Stadium events page (http://arrivatrainswales.co.uk/MillenniumStadium/) claims Quote 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. Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: John R on February 25, 2012, 22:19:57 Rhydgaled -given today's match was at Twickenham I don't think you can accuse ATW 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. Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: Rhydgaled on February 25, 2012, 23:30:56 Rhydgaled -given today's match was at Twickenham I don't think you can accuse ATW 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. Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: Chris from Nailsea on March 17, 2012, 23:29:08 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 ;) Title: Re: Rail service boost for rugby fans - Sunday 12 Feb 2012 Post by: John R on March 17, 2012, 23:43:59 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. This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net |