UEFA Champions League Final June 3rd

[whole diary]

[Bmblbzzz]

Great that there will be so many extra trains into London; but what about on from London to the various airports?

[grahame]

Great that there will be so many extra trains into London; but what about on from London to the various airports?

Buses from Paddington every 30 minutes to Stansted
Services to Heathrow from 04:37

Ignoring the lack of a night tube to Paddington ... (but there are all night buses at Paddington)

:02 after every hour, all night, to Gatwick from Victoria
First service to Luton at 06:04 from St Pancras

I'm sure there will be plenty of leaflets in Dutch, Spanish and English with all the details 

[Adelante_CCT]

The 04:37 to Heathrow is ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock), the first service being the 05:10

[Thatcham Crossing]

Traditionally the Champions League Final, especially if staged in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) and not between UK-based teams supports a massive airlift, and I'm sure that's how a lot of the fans will travel - the well-heeled/corporate ones in fleets of private aircraft, the rest in chartered aircraft of all sizes.

When it was last held at Wembley, between 2 German teams in 2013, the "smaller" London Airports (Luton and Stansted) were full to bursting.

Cardiff Airport is well used to the 6 Nations Rugby airlifts, but this will be a lot bigger.

To update my earlier post re. the expected large airlift, aviation forums are reporting that Bristol will take 125 additional movements (mainly from Spain), Cardiff 235 (mainly from Italy) with Exeter taking some aswell. Aircraft arriving at Bristol may have to drop pax and re-position to other airfields for parking due lack of apron space. Gloucester and Kemble taking some private flights aswell.

Those no's for Bristol and Cardiff are probably arrivals and departures, but that is still an impressive throughput if accurate.
A lot of these will no doubt also be private flights, but some will also be widebodies up to 747 size at Cardiff.

[Adelante_CCT]

I understand that 3rd June "Weymouth Wizard" is to be loco hauled.  What loco not yet know. 

DBS^» (Deutsch Bahn Schenker - UK^▸ (United Kingdom) website) providing drivers, Top and Tail 67s on 11 coaches according to the train planners in Swindon. 6 coaches locked out of use on the run to Weymouth, but all in use on it's later run between Cardiff and Paddington.

[Thatcham Crossing]

More details of the airlift (at Cardiff anyway) are becoming more public.....
https://www.aviationwales.com/uefa-champions-league-final-airlift-know-far/

Seems that Vueling (an existing Cardiff operator) is picking up quite a lot.

This is probably quite a long way from the final picture and won't (for obvious reasons) include a lot of the private stuff.

[Rhydgaled]

I understand that 3rd June "Weymouth Wizard" is to be loco hauled.  What loco not yet know.

No loco at all, possibly no coaches either. Either way; you're not going anywhere. I just asked the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) mixing deck journey planner for Bristol-Weymouth (with no changes of train) on June 3rd and I cannot see the Weymouth Wizard there at all.

From Bristol, the 08:39 is followed by the 09:49, the Weymouth Wizard is missing.
Leaving Weymouth, there is nothing shown between 16:08 and 18:28, not even a rail-replacement road service.

The Pembroke Coast Express and associated intercity stopper services to/from Pembroke Dock have similarly vanished without a trace on June 3rd. If they need the IC125s for the match traffic then fair enough cancel these summer specials, but would you agree that not putting on replacement road transport is unacceptable?

[ChrisB]

So how many coaches do you think would be needed?

And rhe staff will be looking after many more pax around Cardiff?

[Rhydgaled]

So how many coaches do you think would be needed?

That rather depends. Since the schools haven't broken up for summer yet the loadings on the Pembroke Coast Express and friend might not be all that heavy yet, some weekends in previous years when I've taken a look I think the number of passengers on the Pembroke services MIGHT have been able to fit on a class 150, but sometimes 5 of the eight mark 3 coaches are needed. All depends on what the weather is like next weekend, the sunny Saturdays seem to be far busier. Either way, I don't think it is right to leave gaps of over four hours in what is normally a 2-hourly timetable, especially since ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)))'s paper timetable shows the GW^▸ (Great Western) services. What happens if pepole turn up for the Pembroke Coast express and find that there is no train and no replacement road transport either?

[TaplowGreen]

The Champions League Final is one of the greatest non-international sporting events on the planet.

Not resourcing the logistical arrangements (including transport) adequately would reflect badly on the whole country.......for once, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) seem to be on the front foot and that's a really positive thing and hopefully an indication of lessons learned and future performance.

I'm sorry, but if it means you have to catch another train or make alternative arrangements to get to the seaside just this once, it's a pretty small price to pay. 

[Rhydgaled]

The Champions League Final is one of the greatest non-international sporting events on the planet.

Not resourcing the logistical arrangements (including transport) adequately would reflect badly on the whole country.......for once, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) seem to be on the front foot and that's a really positive thing and hopefully an indication of lessons learned and future performance.

I'm sorry, but if it means you have to catch another train or make alternative arrangements to get to the seaside just this once, it's a pretty small price to pay.

I'll say it again: "if they need the IC125s for the match traffic then fair enough" take the IC125s away and replace them with road transport. I'm just thinking of the reputational damage the railway would suffer if passengers turn up at the station, having looked at the timetable and seen the train is due, and find they have a wait of over two hours. If the timetable had a footnote to say the trains would not be running on the 3rd it wouldn't be a problem, but they have advertised a service so should provide something even if that isn't a train.

[John R]

Since the schools haven't broken up for summer yet the loadings on the Pembroke Coast Express and friend might not be all that heavy yet, some weekends in previous years when I've taken a look I think the number of passengers on the Pembroke services MIGHT have been able to fit on a class 150, but sometimes 5 of the eight mark 3 coaches are needed. All depends on what the weather is like next weekend, the sunny Saturdays seem to be far busier. Either way, I don't think it is right to leave gaps of over four hours in what is normally a 2-hourly timetable, especially since ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)))'s paper timetable shows the GW^▸ (Great Western) services. What happens if pepole turn up for the Pembroke Coast express and find that there is no train and no replacement road transport either?

We all know the Pembroke Coast Express is very dear to your heart, but I think you are getting its removal for one weekend out of all proportion. The majority of people these days use online journey planners and timetables, and both ATW and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have been warning people of the potential for changes on the 3rd for weeks now. Even the paper timetable for West Wales highlights the potential for disruption that weekend very clearly (albeit a bit Cardiff focused). If it happens to be a sunny Saturday and a few people can't have an afternoon on the beach then, well, so be it. I think it's great to see the operators pull out all the stops to ensure a smooth a day as possible for those going to Cardiff.  

[Rhydgaled]

both ATW^▸ (Arriva Trains Wales (former TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company))) and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have been warning people of the potential for changes on the 3rd for weeks now. Even the paper timetable for West Wales highlights the potential for disruption that weekend very clearly (albeit a bit Cardiff focused). If it happens to be a sunny Saturday and a few people can't have an afternoon on the beach then, well, so be it.

I might not mind if I knew that everybody who might think of going to Tenby knows that the train isn't running before heading out, but we cannot be sure everyone will check a journey planner website. If, as I suspect, the timetable posters on ATW services are the same as the booklet a passenger could take the ATW service to Tenby that arrives at 10:26 and look at the timetable to see when the trains back are. If they see the 15:36 departure (the non-express service to Paddington) and decide to use that to get home, they'll be in for a bit of a shock. The front page of the ATW timetable booklet says trains will be busy with some temporary timetable changes to Cardiff services, but the timetable pages say "Saturdays to 9 September" with no footnotes warning a service won't run. Similarly, the footnotes in GWR's Central 1 PDF timetable say that the service runs until September; if that footnote said "excluding 3rd June" and ATW's timetables had something similar this would be a different matter.

[Adelante_CCT]

08:05 Cardiff Central to Fareham due 11:35

Facilities on the 08:05 Cardiff Central to Fareham due 11:35.
Service full and standing from Cardiff Central. There are no reservations on this service throughout.

I'm guessing some fans stayed through the night.

On a separate note it appears all the overnight extras to Paddington did in fact run

[phile]

I understand that 3rd June "Weymouth Wizard" is to be loco hauled.  What loco not yet know.

No loco at all, possibly no coaches either. Either way; you're not going anywhere. I just asked the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) mixing deck journey planner for Bristol-Weymouth (with no changes of train) on June 3rd and I cannot see the Weymouth Wizard there at all.

From Bristol, the 08:39 is followed by the 09:49, the Weymouth Wizard is missing.
Leaving Weymouth, there is nothing shown between 16:08 and 18:28, not even a rail-replacement road service.

The Pembroke Coast Express and associated intercity stopper services to/from Pembroke Dock have similarly vanished without a trace on June 3rd. If they need the IC125s for the match traffic then fair enough cancel these summer specials, but would you agree that not putting on replacement road transport is unacceptable?

I suggested to you on another Forum that your gripe re the Pembroke Dock services should be with GWR and that as well as mentioning it on a Forum where it would go nowhere, you should ask or complain to GWR.  Just wondering if you did it.