Extra trains for the six Nations, 15.3.2025

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the Chepstow Beacon

Great Western Railway will provide 11 extra trains and more than 6,000 additional seats for fans attending Saturday’s Wales v England Six Nations fixture.

Trains are expected to be very busy immediately after the match at the Principality Stadium and a queueing system will be in place outside Cardiff Central station. Fans are reminded to allow plenty of time to queue to board trains safely.

Great Western Railway will provide 11 extra trains and more than 6,000 additional seats for fans attending Saturday’s Wales v England Six Nations fixture.

Trains are expected to be very busy immediately after the match at the Principality Stadium and a queueing system will be in place outside Cardiff Central station. Fans are reminded to allow plenty of time to queue to board trains safely.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) will operate a total of six additional services on top of the usual timetabled service to Cardiff ahead of the 1645 kick-off, with a further five extra trains carrying rugby fans home afterwards. As well as extra trains, GWR will also put on extra carriages.

[TaplowGreen]

From the Chepstow Beacon

Great Western Railway will provide 11 extra trains and more than 6,000 additional seats for fans attending Saturday’s Wales v England Six Nations fixture.

Trains are expected to be very busy immediately after the match at the Principality Stadium and a queueing system will be in place outside Cardiff Central station. Fans are reminded to allow plenty of time to queue to board trains safely.

Great Western Railway will provide 11 extra trains and more than 6,000 additional seats for fans attending Saturday’s Wales v England Six Nations fixture.

Trains are expected to be very busy immediately after the match at the Principality Stadium and a queueing system will be in place outside Cardiff Central station. Fans are reminded to allow plenty of time to queue to board trains safely.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) will operate a total of six additional services on top of the usual timetabled service to Cardiff ahead of the 1645 kick-off, with a further five extra trains carrying rugby fans home afterwards. As well as extra trains, GWR will also put on extra carriages.

Well, you'd hope so.

It's generally chaotic after the match with the last London bound train ridiculously early.

[UstiImmigrunt]

With what crew and what rolling stock?

[grahame]

With what crew and what rolling stock?

I'm not sure if there may be links here ...

13:08 Didcot Parkway to London Paddington due 14:20

Facilities on the 13:08 Didcot Parkway to London Paddington due 14:20.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.
Will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.

05:25 Swansea to London Paddington due 08:11

05:25 Swansea to London Paddington due 08:11 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

... or whether these are just parts of the daily stuff.  I'm also noting tomorrow's engineering changes and wondering if the resulting Sunday thinning out releases crews to work Saturday (today)?   Ah well - let's see how it goes.

[UstiImmigrunt]

Nope... Thinning out the Sunday service won't increase the number of avaliable crew on a Saturday late turn.

[UstiImmigrunt]

Back in ye olden days when it was the National Stadium of Wales and all games kicked off at either 1430 or 1500...

The NSE^▸ (Network South East) commuter stock that would sit spare for the weekend (look away bean counters) would be utitlised for rugby specials. One ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) move would be Oxford Foxhall curve Kemble Gloucester to Chepstow forming an additional to Milford Haven which then worked to Cardiff, ECS to Newport for another extra to Cardiff.

There were many rakes of vacuum braked mk1s used all around South Wales, ending back at the Thames Valley depots during Sunday. They needed a good clean before Monday morning but when the cleaners were on a basic of around £152 a week for 39 hours there were no shortage of volunteers to come in Sunday morning for £50 or £60 to do the dirty work.

The last train to London was from Swansea around 2020, 2125 from Cardiff.

Don't times change...

And to quote a Tory snob in the summer of 1993 who assaulted me by grabbing my shoulder and shaking me.

"Privitisation will sort out the railways and make it better."

(Looks at the current drivers salary and compares it to 1994 when I drove my first train).

[TaplowGreen]

I've been to Cardiff on a number of occasions for rugby and getting away afterwards was always a miserable experience irrespective of kick off time - but the later it got the worse it was, albeit never helped by the last train being ridiculously early after such a major event. Occasionally one extra train would be laid on but not publicised.

Latterly we took to heading back to Bridgend or staying overnight in Cardiff (booking as soon as the fixture was announced to try to avoid price gouging) but that of course relied on gambling that trains would be running on Sundays, and we all know what a gamble that is nowadays.

Thankfully now a friend's son lives in Cardiff so we drive and park/stay at his place.

It does seem largely to be a Cardiff specific issue - Twickenham has a lot of options in terms of stations as well as its own (Richmond/Whitton/St Margaret's/Hounslow etc) all within walking distance, at Murrayfield it's superb - they now have the trams, and on my last trip there, services were running from Haymarket towards Glasgow every 8-10 minutes, and Stade de France is well served by the RER.......Dublin is small enough to walk around..................but Cardiff always struggles in this respect.

[UstiImmigrunt]

Memory jog, can't remember if 2022 or 2023 but a person under the influence of alcohol tried to board a moving IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) on platform one and failed miserably. Platforms one and two were shut for a few hours until I could travel from BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) to Cardiff and take the train to Stoke Gifford.

All trains, east and west, had to use platforms 3 and 4 so unsurprisingly it was chaos. I did a bit of cheating by messaging a friend in the WROC and my service got priority into Cardiff, a very rapid reboot of the IET concerned and on the move as quickly as possible. A brief use of the hose pipe and platforms reopened.

That's where the TfW staff deserve much praise coping with those who want to get home an hour previously.

[grahame]

I find myself looking at this

Newton Abbot area – weekend of 15/16 March
Track renewal work will affect trains via Newton Abbot.

Trains for London Paddington or Bristol Temple Meads and beyond will run to/from Newton Abbot on Saturday, then Exeter St Davids on Sunday.

Other trains will still run between Penzance and Plymouth on both days, plus between Paignton and Newton Abbot on Sunday.

Replacement buses are planned between:

Tiverton Parkway and Plymouth (non-stop) – both days
Newton Abbot and Plymouth – Saturday
Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot/Plymouth – Sunday

And find myself wondering if the number of trains running via the Berks and Hants is reduced, and if a couple of IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) from Longrock have moved onto the connected network to help out into South Wales.

[TaplowGreen]

I find myself looking at this

Newton Abbot area – weekend of 15/16 March
Track renewal work will affect trains via Newton Abbot.

Trains for London Paddington or Bristol Temple Meads and beyond will run to/from Newton Abbot on Saturday, then Exeter St Davids on Sunday.

Other trains will still run between Penzance and Plymouth on both days, plus between Paignton and Newton Abbot on Sunday.

Replacement buses are planned between:

Tiverton Parkway and Plymouth (non-stop) – both days
Newton Abbot and Plymouth – Saturday
Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot/Plymouth – Sunday

And find myself wondering if the number of trains running via the Berks and Hants is reduced, and if a couple of IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) from Longrock have moved onto the connected network to help out into South Wales.

I seem to recall the plan was to use 8 or 12 car 387s to run extra services to/from Cardiff on match days?

[UstiImmigrunt]

I find myself looking at this

Newton Abbot area – weekend of 15/16 March
Track renewal work will affect trains via Newton Abbot.

Trains for London Paddington or Bristol Temple Meads and beyond will run to/from Newton Abbot on Saturday, then Exeter St Davids on Sunday.

Other trains will still run between Penzance and Plymouth on both days, plus between Paignton and Newton Abbot on Sunday.

Replacement buses are planned between:

Tiverton Parkway and Plymouth (non-stop) – both days
Newton Abbot and Plymouth – Saturday
Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot/Plymouth – Sunday

And find myself wondering if the number of trains running via the Berks and Hants is reduced, and if a couple of IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) from Longrock have moved onto the connected network to help out into South Wales.

Unfortunately those sets have to be back in position for the start of service Monday morning. So how do they get back and with what drivers?

[grahame]

Unfortunately those sets have to be back in position for the start of service Monday morning. So how do they get back and with what drivers?

DPM - "Dense Passenger Mode" - why "have to"?   Why are there direct trains at 30 minute intervals from Plymouth to London from 04:54 to 08:35 with two of them being overtaken by others on the way?  I can appreciate the need for a good flow of trains off the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury) into London and they will be busy - but I always imagined them to come off Laira / Longrock in such droves to "feed" busyness further in for operational reasons more than for capacity out there at 5 in the morning!   Why not start the ones that are overtaken in passenger service from - say - Taunton on Mondays that the line though Totnes is close on the Sunday?

[UstiImmigrunt]

Unfortunately those sets have to be back in position for the start of service Monday morning. So how do they get back and with what drivers?

DPM - "Dense Passenger Mode" - why "have to"?   Why are there direct trains at 30 minute intervals from Plymouth to London from 04:54 to 08:35 with two of them being overtaken by others on the way?  I can appreciate the need for a good flow of trains off the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury) into London and they will be busy - but I always imagined them to come off Laira / Longrock in such droves to "feed" busyness further in for operational reasons more than for capacity out there at 5 in the morning!   Why not start the ones that are overtaken in passenger service from - say - Taunton on Mondays that the line though Totnes is close on the Sunday?

The timetable planners and those who make the running decisions both long term and short term plans are the only people that can answer those questions.

I just drove the trains that I was rostered or instructed to.

[IndustryInsider]

I seem to recall the plan was to use 8 or 12 car 387s to run extra services to/from Cardiff on match days?

The 19:50 additional to Paddington is indeed formed with an 8-car 387.

[Southernman]

I find myself looking at this

Newton Abbot area – weekend of 15/16 March
Track renewal work will affect trains via Newton Abbot.

Trains for London Paddington or Bristol Temple Meads and beyond will run to/from Newton Abbot on Saturday, then Exeter St Davids on Sunday.

Other trains will still run between Penzance and Plymouth on both days, plus between Paignton and Newton Abbot on Sunday.

Replacement buses are planned between:

Tiverton Parkway and Plymouth (non-stop) – both days
Newton Abbot and Plymouth – Saturday
Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot/Plymouth – Sunday

And find myself wondering if the number of trains running via the Berks and Hants is reduced, and if a couple of IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) from Longrock have moved onto the connected network to help out into South Wales.

And how much better it would be for the majority of passengers if the Southern route via Okehampton was available for diversions - both planned and emergency! Interesting that prelimary work is happening at Meldon Quarry to restart operations. Talk is for a Block Instrument at Okehampton to divide Meldon from the passenger line from Crediton.