Rugby World Cup organisers have insisted their contingency plans worked after Twickenham station was closed for 50 minutes following England’s opening match against Fiji, leaving thousands of fans struggling to get home.
Police are investigating what was believed to be an accident at the station on Friday night following the first match of the tournament, which had serious knock-on effects for those trying to get home.
Meanwhile, First Great Western was forced to apologise to passengers on Saturday who were caught up in severe overcrowding while attempting to reach Cardiff for the Ireland v Canada match at the Millennium Stadium.
Organisers had identified the possibility of transport problems as their No1 concern in the runup to the 8pm kick-off on Friday night, given the comparative lack of public transport alternatives to Twickenham station.
Those fears were realised when a passenger suffered head and leg injuries after falling from the platform. He was taken to West Middlesex Hospital .
A British Transport Police spokeswoman said: “The man was struck by the train (10.33pm Windsor to Waterloo service), which was slowing down to come into the station, and suffered head and leg injuries as a result of the incident.
“At this stage it is unclear exactly how the man came to fall on to the tracks, though early indications suggest it was an accident, and officers are now working to determine the full circumstances.”
Organisers attempted to funnel spectators on to shuttle buses to nearby Hounslow and Richmond stations, with others going directly to Waterloo. But long queues built up and due to the station closure local roads were also closed for up to half an hour longer than originally planned.
An England Rugby 2015 spokeswoman said: “We put our contingency plans in place with spectators being diverted to alternate modes of transport.
“We communicated with fans via our spectator services teams on the ground and via our Twitter feeds, and were able to offer alternative transport options to fans who were at Twickenham station.”
First Great Western admitted to severe overcrowding at Paddington and there were also large crowds at Bristol Parkway as fans attempted to reach Cardiff in time for kick-off. The company said it had put on 8,000 extra seats but had been forced to add another 1,500 and said it would review arrangements for future matches. “We’re sorry for anyone caught up on busy services ahead of today’s match at the Millennium Stadium,” said First Great Western.
“Although we warned customers services were likely to be very busy and to travel early, the number of people wishing to travel is slightly higher than predicted, and passenger numbers have been less evenly spread throughout the day than we would normally expect.”
More than 2.25 million people are expected to attend matches throughout the tournament, with 400,000 fans having travelled to the country from overseas.
