World Cup organisers and travel providers have introduced a raft of changes to the transport operation in Cardiff for the remainder of the tournament in the wake of mounting criticism.
Fans attending the three matches at the Millennium Stadium have complained of long queues and overcrowded trains as they have struggled to get to and from Cardiff, while there have been other complaints about transport at matches at Gloucester and in London.
The organisers met Great Western Railway (GWR), which has been criticised for not laying on enough services at a time when it is spending heavily on publicising a rebrand, and Arriva Trains Wales on Friday for a round of crisis talks.
They said on Wednesday that the new measures – additional trains, changes to the timetable, more park-and-ride spaces, new shuttle buses to Bristol and better queuing systems – would help improve the passenger experience for the remaining five matches.
The England Rugby 2015 managing director, Stephen Brown, said: “The three matches that we have hosted so far in Cardiff have been a great success in a full and vibrant Millennium Stadium, but there have been a number of transport challenges. We want to ensure that fans have the best experience so we have listened to feedback and worked constructively and collaboratively with the key transport providers to agree a number of changes to the transport operation.”
Among the changes are the introduction of 100 shuttle buses from Cardiff to Bristol Parkway, which organisers say will be the quickest way to reach that station, in a bid to deal with congestion.
New trains will shuttle back and forth to Newport, with London-bound trains no longer stopping there. Hundreds more park and ride spaces will be made available and organisers have promised better signage, better organised queues, more information screens and more facilities at Cardiff Central.
The problems with the trains have threatened to put a dampener on what has otherwise been a well-received opening fortnight, with attendance records broken and almost 400,000 fans packing into fanzones to watch matches on big screens.
On the opening weekend of the tournament, Great Western was forced to apologise to passengers caught up in severe overcrowding at Paddington and Bristol Parkway as fans attempted to get to the Ireland v Canada match.
A spokesman for GWR said: “We’ve worked with Arriva and Network Rail to make sure we can get more trains into and out of Cardiff Central earlier, and get fans on their way as safely and quickly as possible after the match.”
GWR was also lambasted for not putting on trains that would allow Wales supporters to get home from Twickenham on Saturday night. It then emerged that Great Western had put on a contingency train at midnight in case any fans were stranded but did not broadcast the fact.
Lynne Milligan, customer services director at Arriva Trains Wales: “Getting everyone safely on their train home in the most effective way remains our most important priority. The changes being made at these events will help us to better achieve this aim, to the benefit of all our customers.
“We are also determined to ensure that those not attending the rugby and relying on train services experience the least possible inconvenience.”
Fans are being advised to arrive early for the next two matches – Wales v Fiji on Thursday and New Zealand v Georgia on Friday – and to make full use of the fanzone to stagger their journey home.
Of the two fixtures, there is more concern about the New Zealand match because many fans are likely to be travelling from London and it is an 8pm kick-off on a Friday night.
Organisers also previously faced problems on the opening night of the tournament when passengers were diverted to other stations after a fan fell under a train at Twickenham, causing the station to be closed for 50 minutes.
