Rugby World Cup - underestimated number of fans

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Good to see that lessons seem to have been learned by FGW^▸ (First Great Western).

[John R]

It appears as though at least 4 of the London services were cancelled and returned ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock). So that's good as it would appear that everyone heading back managed to get on a service within an hour or so of full time. Though it does indicate the difficulty of judging the appropriate amount of provision to use.

I suspect many people were put off using rail because of the previous well publicised difficulties, and so made alternative arrangements. Together with the fact that only 4 of the services were shown, which would certainly have made me wary of actually being able to get on one.

[IndustryInsider]

Oh well, looks like we'll have to cheer on tournament co-hosts Wales then...

[Chris from Nailsea]

Member John R will no doubt accept our belated and grudging support, IndustryInsider ...

[trainer]

Some praise from me after my day out on Friday when there was a Cardiff rugby game (I'm no kind of sports' fan so forgive any error in nomenclature).  There were clearly issues around re-arranged stock, diverted to serve the fans.  Thus one train from Exeter had extra stops put in, well advertised on the platform, but not communicated to the conductor until she got to Taunton. At Taunton, the usual evening platform arrangements were altered to use the island platforms for all north bound trains which enabled the staff to a) clearly direct passengers to the correct train and platform, b) walk along the train and inform people of the extra stops and c) be a presence to re-assure regulars and occasional travelers.  By bunching the staff together (and I assume having extra people at gone 20:00) in this way, some disgruntlement was diffused by explanations about coupling up units and reassurance that slightly delayed trains were on their way.

Here, I thought, was clear evidence of thinking about the effects of the rugby arrangements well outside the immediate area and obvious flows.  I'm sure not everyone's experience was good, but I was very gruntled! 

[John R]

Member John R will no doubt accept our belated and grudging support, IndustryInsider ...

Indeed I will... 

I would note that my vociferous cheering on of the Aussies last night (albeit from the comfort of my armchair) was purely tactical, given I don't reckon Wales stand much of a chance of beating them next weekend, so it was our best chance to progress.  And it's somewhat ironic that England's untimely exit is originally due to a Welsh loss against Australia 3 years ago, which meant they fell to 9th in the rankings a couple of days before the draw was made, and thus outside the seeds. Hence the Group of Death was born, which turned out to include the host nation.

Can't see us progressing beyond the quarters mind you, but who knows...

[TaplowGreen]

Member John R will no doubt accept our belated and grudging support, IndustryInsider ...

Indeed I will... 

I would note that my vociferous cheering on of the Aussies last night (albeit from the comfort of my armchair) was purely tactical, given I don't reckon Wales stand much of a chance of beating them next weekend, so it was our best chance to progress.  And it's somewhat ironic that England's untimely exit is originally due to a Welsh loss against Australia 3 years ago, which meant they fell to 9th in the rankings a couple of days before the draw was made, and thus outside the seeds. Hence the Group of Death was born, which turned out to include the host nation.

Can't see us progressing beyond the quarters mind you, but who knows...

Good luck against the Aussies, they are on fire at the moment it seems!

In England's defence, the last two defeats were purely tactical, we are of course saving ourselves for the 6 Nations, which everyone knows is far more important! 

[TaplowGreen]

Sounds like fun & games getting to Cardiff again today.....massive overcrowding, overrunning engineering & Severn tunnel blocked at the moment heading into Wales.

[chuffed]

Here, I thought, was clear evidence of thinking about the effects of the rugby arrangements well outside the immediate area and obvious flows.  I'm sure not everyone's experience was good, but I was very gruntled! 

I am sure trainer would have even more gruntled if he could have pushed me on to the line. leaving me just dead chuffed !

[bobm]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have been thwarted at almost every turn this morning.

Several additional London Paddington to Cardiffs after it seems an agreement was reached to end the engineering work half an hour earlier than originally planned.  However some of the works over-ran the new finish time and caused delays.  Then one of the engineering trains broke down between Didcot and Swindon meaning at least one of the extra trains, already delayed, had to reverse to cross over and use the reversible signalling to get past the failed train.

Apparently at 8am there were around 1,500 people waiting for trains at Paddington.

[TaplowGreen]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have been thwarted at almost every turn this morning.

Several additional London Paddington to Cardiffs after it seems an agreement was reached to end the engineering work half an hour earlier than originally planned.  However some of the works over-ran the new finish time and caused delays.  Then one of the engineering trains broke down between Didcot and Swindon meaning at least one of the extra trains, already delayed, had to reverse to cross over and use the reversible signalling to get past the failed train.

Apparently at 8am there were around 1,500 people waiting for trains at Paddington.

There were more than that well before 0800!!! Pal of mine got there at 0730 and there were already very long queues....non existent/poor/inaudible information being provided to customers, most relying on Twitter to find out what was going on.

There are still delays but they seem to be easing....it's a shame because for once GWR seemed to have got their act together in terms of well publicised capacity/organisation, only to be let down by overrunning works.

Luckily its rugby fans rather than football hooligans!

[TaplowGreen]

.....and in other news......http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/rugby-world-cup-thousands-queue-for-trains-to-cardiff-after-engineering-works-overrun-a3093036.html

[IndustryInsider]

Looks like pretty much everyone would have made it in time for the 1pm kick-off.  All the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) regular and additional trains had arrived by 12:35, with two charters arriving later at 12:45 and 12:57 - additional delays to those being caused by a trespasser near Swindon.

[TaplowGreen]

Well the good news for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is that's the end of matches in Cardiff with the remaining matches in London featuring only Southern Hemisphere sides    Felt for Scotland who came closest out of the home nations to getting through to the semis. Bit unsure of some of the ref's decisions today but I'll leave that to those who have a better technical knowledge of the game than me.

Agreed, Scotland desperately unlucky and that particular ref has been criticised in similar circumstances....hopefully the experience will help GWR prepare better for similar events at Cardiff come the 6 Nations.....they've got until 2017 when England play there again!!!

[John R]

The 6 nations are fine as the majority of tickets are sold through the welsh rugby clubs, so there's a predictable minority of fans travelling from outside Wales, and the demand is reasonably well managed. For the World Cup it's been the majority of fans coming from across the border which has been the problem, as we saw for Team GB^▸ (Great Britain) football in the Olympics.