Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
 Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 12:35 15 Mar 2025
 
- 'For holding a wombat, thousands threatened my life'
* North Sea collision ship captain appears in court
- It's not a competition! The collaborative video game loved by players
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]		 19/03/25 - WWRUG AGM
19/03/25 - Forum offline 00:00 - 02:00
21/03/25 - TravelWatch SouthWest
27/03/25 - MetroWest -> Wiltshire event

On this day
15th Mar (2021)
Bus Back Better launched (link)
Train RunningCancelled
10:38 Castle Cary to Gloucester
12:51 Filton Abbey Wood to Bristol Temple Meads
13:12 Bristol Temple Meads to Avonmouth
23:30 Bristol Temple Meads to Swindon
Short Run
11:52 Worcester Foregate Street to Bristol Temple Meads
12:05 Newbury to London Paddington
12:05 London Paddington to Newbury
13:05 Newbury to London Paddington
13:05 London Paddington to Newbury
13:46 Avonmouth to Weston-Super-Mare
14:04 Newbury to London Paddington
14:05 London Paddington to Newbury
15:03 Newbury to London Paddington
15:05 London Paddington to Newbury
16:03 Newbury to London Paddington
16:05 London Paddington to Newbury
17:05 Newbury to London Paddington
17:05 London Paddington to Newbury
18:05 London Paddington to Newbury
18:06 Newbury to London Paddington
19:05 London Paddington to Newbury
19:06 Newbury to London Paddington
19:30 London Paddington to Taunton
19:55 Newbury to London Paddington
Delayed
12:00 Cardiff Central to Taunton
21:00 London Paddington to Reading
•
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2025-03-10 Should transport for Wales run express north-south coach services in Wales?
•
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
•
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
•
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
•
Train companiesSelect from:
GWR
SWR
XC
Chiltern
TfL
TfW
WMR
Southern
• Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple Meads • Bath Spa • Chippenham • Swindon • Didcot Parkway • Reading • London Paddington • Melksham
Exeter St Davids • Taunton • Westbury • Trowbridge • Bristol Parkway • Cardiff Central • Oxford • Cheltenham Spa • Birmingham New Street
March 15, 2025, 12:44:15 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[196] 175s to GWR
[143] Our contributor base and membership base.
[49] Extra trains for the six Nations, 15.3.2025
[40] New Oxford - Bristol direct service, ongoing developments and ...
[30] 13th March 2025 - Community Rail Awards, Newcastle
[28] RAIB Report into the fatality at Stoats Nest Junction on the B...
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Great Western Coffee Shop > Journey by Journey > London to South Wales > Extra trains for the six Nations, 15.3.2025
Pages: [1]
« previous next »
  Print  
Author Topic: Extra trains for the six Nations, 15.3.2025  (Read 161 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 43590



View Profile WWW Email
« on: Yesterday at 20:08:16 »
From the Chepstow Beacon

Quote
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.
Logged
Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
TaplowGreen
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 8549



View Profile
« Reply #1 on: Yesterday at 22:15:33 »
Quote from: grahame on Yesterday at 20:08:16
From the Chepstow Beacon

Quote
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.
Logged
UstiImmigrunt
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 114



View Profile
« Reply #2 on: Today at 07:21:29 »
With what crew and what rolling stock?
Logged
Retired and loving it!

Pround owner of a brand new little red book and an annual first class https://oneticket.cz/networkPassSearch

It will be well used and I doubt I'll ever get any delay repay compensation.
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 43590



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #3 on: Today at 08:25:50 »
Quote from: UstiImmigrunt on Today at 07:21:29
With what crew and what rolling stock?

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

Quote
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.

Quote
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.
Logged
Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
UstiImmigrunt
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 114



View Profile
« Reply #4 on: Today at 08:30:07 »
Nope... Thinning out the Sunday service won't increase the number of avaliable crew on a Saturday late turn.
Logged
Retired and loving it!

Pround owner of a brand new little red book and an annual first class https://oneticket.cz/networkPassSearch

It will be well used and I doubt I'll ever get any delay repay compensation.
UstiImmigrunt
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 114



View Profile
« Reply #5 on: Today at 08:50:54 »
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).
Logged
Retired and loving it!

Pround owner of a brand new little red book and an annual first class https://oneticket.cz/networkPassSearch

It will be well used and I doubt I'll ever get any delay repay compensation.
TaplowGreen
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 8549



View Profile
« Reply #6 on: Today at 09:12:32 »
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.
Logged
UstiImmigrunt
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 114



View Profile
« Reply #7 on: Today at 09:29:36 »
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.
Logged
Retired and loving it!

Pround owner of a brand new little red book and an annual first class https://oneticket.cz/networkPassSearch

It will be well used and I doubt I'll ever get any delay repay compensation.
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 43590



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #8 on: Today at 12:20:24 »
I find myself looking at this

Quote
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.
Logged
Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
« previous next »
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the 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 the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules via admin@railcustomer.info. Full legal statement (here).

Jump to top of page • Jump to Forum Home Page