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Title: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: IanC on May 13, 2010, 22:47:36 Next Saturday (22nd May) the greatest Team in Football will take part in the Champonship Play off Finals against Blackpool, so I ask, as Cardiff -> Paddington has 2tph is there any possibility for FGW to lay on extra Carriages?
Does anyone know what the situation was for when Cardiff got to the FA Cup final in 2008? Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: willc on May 13, 2010, 23:32:13 Chiltern and East Coast show what can be done if the will is there. Oxford United and York City are playing at Wembley on Sunday in the Blue Square Premier play-off final, with a place back in the Football League for the winner.
Chiltern are running two extra trains from Banbury to London at 2pm and 3pm (kick-off is at 5pm) plus extra coaches on most other trains from Oxfordshire into London during the afternoon and on early evening services back, with lots of extra stops at Wembley Stadium - and they will need every seat, 30,000 tickets and counting sold to Oxford fans. York's following will be more modest, sales heading towards 8,000 last I saw, but East Coast are operating an 11.25 extra from York to Kings Cross and a 20.25 return extra, both running non-stop. Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: matt473 on May 14, 2010, 01:17:44 Non-stop Cardiff to London hst's were teh rumour of the day on the hst I was on earlier. Although I cannot repeat just how glad they are that it is not a Swansea v Cardiff match in Wembley as the rolling stock plus fans would no doubt be trashed
Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: devon_metro on May 14, 2010, 16:22:46 Cardiff - Paddington is 1tph on Saturdays usually!!
Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: John R on May 14, 2010, 16:53:58 One of the two Bristol to London services is sometimes started back/extended to Cardiff on match days in Cardiff, so that's a possibility.
Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: willc on May 14, 2010, 20:26:47 Chiltern have sold so many tickets from Bicester to Wembley for Sunday that they are advising people to go elsewhere if they are driving to a station as they think the car park - just shy of 600 spaces - will be full on Sunday afternoon.
Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: IndustryInsider on May 15, 2010, 12:04:01 Chiltern have sold so many tickets from Bicester to Wembley for Sunday that they are advising people to go elsewhere if they are driving to a station as they think the car park - just shy of 600 spaces - will be full on Sunday afternoon. It is the obvious choice, though Haddenham & Thame Parkway and High Wycombe should see a large increase as well I should imagine. FGW are running two specials on Sunday to London around lunchtime, but I can't see them advertised on the FGW website (do a search for 'football' on there and you get all sorts of links to events dating back to 2005, but no sign of Sunday's game!), and I don't think there's any additional trains on the way back. Given the high number of passengers who travel on a regular Sunday, there could be carnage unless the regular services are significantly strengthened! There's also a distinct lack of any mention of them on the Oxford United website, indeed you have to do a fair bit of digging to find details of Chiltern Railway's additional offerings. Given that a large number of people who are very occasional supporters - or even less regular than that ::) - will be going to the match it's not exactly making the most of an excellent revenue opportunity when plenty of spare stock is sitting in the sidings! Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: willc on May 16, 2010, 11:40:26 To be frank, no surprise that FGW hasn't bothered to tell anyone what they're doing today. The last 'news' on the website they have posted up is about the late-night extras once flights resumed after the volcanic ash crisis. I know for a fact that information wasn't online until some point well into the evening, when other operators had got details of their overnight services up hours earlier. Had FGW provided any information about OXF-PAD extras today, the likes of me would have made sure people knew about them.
A certain local media outlet has given copious publicity to Chiltern's services today (both extras and alterations) in print and online - because they bothered to tell us (and anyone looking at their website) about them. They will definitely be quids in, with pretty much everything that can run pressed into service this afternoon and evening (eg 2+3+2 Turbo formations in use). Hopefully FGW will be putting some HSTs into service on Oxford runs instead of Turbos, but your guess is as good as mine. As for extra services on Saturday between Cardiff and London, who knows? No sign of anything in the journey planner yet. Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: IanC on May 17, 2010, 13:20:10 There's an advert on the front page of Today's South Wales Echo saying a Travel company will be doing a charter train to Wembley Stadium for ^60 return, leaving CDF at 10.30am
Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: IndustryInsider on May 18, 2010, 16:29:30 Two additional trains in each direction.
http://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10335~2054843,00.html (http://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10335~2054843,00.html) Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: IanC on May 18, 2010, 22:14:47 Two additional trains in each direction. http://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10335~2054843,00.html (http://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10335~2054843,00.html) Good to know something has been planned. It was cheaper the day I booked to go by the first train leaving Newport -> Paddington, and come back via Megabus. Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: Oxman on May 18, 2010, 22:22:32 FGW ran two 6-car turbo relief trains to Padd on Sunday for the Oxford game and strengthened a number of other services. These returned in the evening, along with an additional special formed of an HST, which was arranged during the day. Several hundred fans travelled from Didcot and Maidenhead, so the HST stopped at these stations en route. I understand the services were well used, with a few thousand supporters travelling from Oxford, but why they were not advertised beforehand is a mystery.
Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: johoare on May 18, 2010, 22:37:07 A mystery but not a surprise...
Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: willc on May 18, 2010, 23:58:55 So finally, we get the answer to Ian's question - though needless to say, not from the website of the train company that doesn't seem to want to let anyone know what it's up to, although they have "kindly advised" Cardiff City about it.
You would think that passengers travelling to South Wales on Saturday evening who are not Cardiff City fans might like to know about a queuing system being in force at Paddington and between what times, so they could avoid it, should they want to. Nor are these extra trains in the journey planners' database yet. And they don't seem to have told the Cardiff newspapers yet either, going by Wales Online. Would Andrew Haines have tolerated this shambolic approach to customer service? Why does Mark Hopwood? One can only contrast the nature of the FGW arrangements described by Oxman for Sunday's game with the slick - and well publicised - operation that Chiltern provides for big Wembley events. Okay, Wembley's a peripheral issue for FGW, but it was pretty clear from the moment that Oxford United got through to the play-off that 30,000 people would be heading from the county to London on Sunday, yet here we are with FGW rustling up an extra train on the day of the game, which rather suggests a lack of proper forward planning. At least it wasn't this weekend, when the Oxford-Didcot line is closed for two days for engineering work and even Chiltern might have struggled to handle any more passengers. Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: JayMac on May 19, 2010, 01:10:02 Would Andrew Haines have tolerated this shambolic approach to customer service? Why does Mark Hopwood? My theory is because the current Customer Service Director has absolutely no experience in Customer Service. Neil Micklethwaite is also Commercial Director. Two hats that do not sit well together. Also a chartered accountant and former civil servant working in the Corporate Service Division of the DSS, as well as a former Cost/Benefit analyst at BT; not roles you'd associate with having to provide good customer service. And in case you're wondering how I know this - his CV is available online! Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: IanC on May 20, 2010, 14:07:14 Two additional trains in each direction. http://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10335~2054843,00.html (http://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10335~2054843,00.html) Trains are now showing up on the National Rail website as running non stop from Newport to Paddington, with the returns an Extension of trains Paddington -> Temple Meads. Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: Chris from Nailsea on May 20, 2010, 20:26:59 From the BTP press release (http://www.btp.presscentre.com/Media-Releases/BTP-CALLS-ON-CARDIFF-CITY-FANS-TO-KEEP-BEHAVIOUR-IN-CHECK-ON-SATURDAY-f1f.aspx):
Quote BTP CALLS ON CARDIFF CITY FANS TO KEEP BEHAVIOUR IN CHECK ON SATURDAY British Transport Police (BTP) officers are calling on Cardiff City fans to ^keep it clean^ and help make sure football fans, families and other passengers can all travel safely to and from Wembley for the Championship Play-Off Final on Saturday 22 May. Between 35,000 and 40,000 Cardiff fans are expected to make their way from South Wales to London^s Wembley Stadium to watch the game, many of them using trains and the Tube to get to and from the venue. BTP officers will be patrolling on board trains, Tubes and at stations between South Wales and London to make sure the day goes as smoothly as possible. Officers want it to be family day to remember and are calling on fans using the rail and Tube network to remember that alcohol will not be allowed on board ANY trains in either direction between Carmarthen/Swansea/Cardiff Central and London, as well as additional trains running between Cardiff and London via Bristol Temple Meads. BTP^s Sector Commander for Wales, Chief Inspector Sandra England, said: ^Saturday promises to be a great day of football for Cardiff fans and our officers will be helping everyone to enjoy it, as well as ensuring fans travel to and from the game safely. Throughout the entire day, we^ll have officers patrolling stations and on trains between South Wales and London and they will not tolerate intimidating or anti-social behaviour from those intent on spoiling the day for others. Trains are confined spaces and it can be a very intimidating experience for families and children when they find themselves in a carriage packed with boisterous fans. Of course, we want fans to have a good time and enjoy the big day and we appreciate the vast majority are always well behaved ^ but we are warning anyone who steps out of line while travelling on the rail network will be dealt with by our officers. Not only are they risking a court appearance, they also risk missing out on seeing their club^s biggest match for decades. Alcohol will be banned on both the forward and return train journeys between key South Wales and London Paddington and is banned on the Tube at all times. In addition, extra trains between Cardiff Central and London Paddington via Bristol Temple Meads will also be alcohol-free on Saturday." Chief Inspector England added: ^We want everyone travelling to and from the match to enjoy themselves but we know from experience that some fans can get caught up in the excitement of the day and this, combined with alcohol, can result in some less-than-desirable behaviour. We^re asking fans to show some consideration for others on board the train and to moderate their language and behaviour - but above all to enjoy the day.^ First Great Western's head of security, Paula Durrans, said: "We are expecting high levels of fans to be travelling to the match with us and we want everyone to have a safe and pleasant journey. With great weather forecast for the weekend, it should be a fun day out for all the family. Although there will be extra trains to get fans to the match, we would advise people to book their seats in advance for the most comfortable journey possible." BTP^s tips for football fans: Do: Allow plenty of time for getting to and from the game as there will be long queues for trains Keep your language clean Enjoy the game and have a great day out Don^t: Take alcohol on train services or the Tube on Saturday ^ it^s banned Leave it till the last minute to go from your meeting place to the stadium Miss the game because you^ve been arrested for anti-social behaviour Dry Trains on Saturday 22 May 2010: Intoxicating liquor (alcohol) cannot be bought, carried or consumed on the following services: :: All trains between Carmarthen/Swansea/Cardiff Central and London Paddington (in both directions) :: The 1055 Cardiff Central-London Paddington via Bristol Temple Meads (dep Bristol 1200) :: The 1930 London Paddington ^ Cardiff Central, via Bristol Temple Meads :: The 2000 London Paddington ^ Cardiff Central, via Bristol Temple Meads. Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: inspector_blakey on May 22, 2010, 19:35:09 My theory is because the current Customer Service Director has absolutely no experience in Customer Service. Neil Micklethwaite is also Commercial Director. Two hats that do not sit well together. I don't have the magazine with me to check, but I believe there was a footnote in the last issue of RAIL suggesting that Neil Micklethwaite might be leaving FGW, although I believe there was no official comment on this suggestion. Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: JayMac on May 22, 2010, 19:52:59 My commiserations to all the Cardiff City fans travelling back home by train tonight. And not even the chance to drown your sorrows, what with all the trains out of PAD to South Wales being 'dry'!
Still, on a more positive note, we can look forward to the Tao of Ian Holloway (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ian_Holloway) on Match Of The Day next season. "Every dog has it's day, and today was woof day" ;) :P ;D Title: Re: Cardiff City at Wembley - need for Extra Coaches? Post by: John R on May 22, 2010, 21:29:50 Thank you for your commiserations although I have to say that the best team won on the day, with the half time score line flattering Cardiff IMHO. And if the enthusiasm and noise of the fans was being scored then it would be 5-0 to Blackpool, as they drowned City supporters out from before the kick off to the final whistle.
Still, this dejected fan managed to get a couple of cans on the 1730 to Weston as a consolation. Next year we must try and get in the top 2. 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 |