The atmosphere in Wales was electric on Sunday evening as the nation celebrated Wales' qualification for the World Cup. However, after the partying was done it was time for fans to head home, only for many to run into difficulty while doing so.
Delayed and cancelled trains meant many struggled to get home, with reports of trains throughout the Vale of Glamorgan cancelled and train services not running late enough. Rhyd Cole, owner of Turf clothing, from Bridgend, was among those who struggled to get home on Sunday, June 5. He described the situation at Cardiff Central Station as an "absolute shambles".
He explained: "We were in Gareth Bale's bar and left about ten to ten, we got to the train station and the train we were meant to get was 15 minutes late."
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Rhyd was directed to platform four initially, where he was told a train was terminating. However, an official on the platform then informed them it was the correct train and to board. "Everyone was in a rush to get on and not miss the last train home," Rhys explained.
However, after boarding, the engine stopped and passengers were told to disembark and head to the adjacent platform - platform three - and board the train there. From there, passengers were told once again to change platforms, this time heading to platform two, where passengers waited until they were told to return to platform four.
"By that point everyone was rushing and rushing. I'm pretty easy going with this stuff but there were a group of girls who were a little bit scared and trying to get on the train, people were holding the doors open for the girls trying to get on, and there were a big group of lads trying to push and squeeze people on."
While the atmosphere on the platform was mostly positive thanks to Wales' win, Rhyd said he was worried about people's safety at the station.
"Going from platform to platform, you go down the stairs, there were no security at the bottom of those stairs," he said. "You were left to fend for yourself and from a safety point of view, it was an accident waiting to happen. If it was 10 minutes longer it would have been absolutely horrendous."
Rhyd's train eventually left the platform, travelling via a longer route home, meaning he did not arrive in Bridgend until around 11.30pm.
Elsewhere in the city, a concert was finishing at Cardiff Castle, causing additional footfall on the Sunday evening trains. Many complained about the lack of trains throughout the Vale of Glamorgan and Rhymney line on social media.
Christopher Hughes said the transport travelling back was "awful". He explained: "The last train to Bargoed and Rhymney was at 9.10pm from Queen Street, the two earlier trains were cancelled. Considering the game didn't finish until after 7pm, also it's a long walk into town and there was a sell out concert at Cardiff Castle not finishing until 10.30pm, how can we expect to get home?"
He stressed the importance of public transport infrastructure, saying the only alternatives were overpriced taxis, expensive car parks or expensive hotels.
A spokesperson for Transport for Wales said: “We recognised the significance of Sunday’s World Cup play-off final and worked very hard in advance to plan as much additional capacity as possible, including adding extra carriages to services, pausing evening engineering works on Valleys services and running an additional post-match service to Wrexham.
“Due to the scheduling of the game on the Sunday evening of a Bank Holiday weekend there were fewer services than normal available and unfortunately this was impacted by several short-notice cancellations due to train crew availability.
“We asked fans using Cardiff Central after the match to queue on the covered platforms rather than outside the station to shelter from heavy rain. Unfortunately, this did result in some customers having to move platforms when changes were made to services.
“Despite the scheduling, we were able to get people home safely, including to North Wales, and we’d like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding.
“We’re really proud Wales has qualified for the first World Cup since 1958 and look forward to supporting future matches. We’ll continue to work closely with the Football Association of Wales and other partners to improve the experience of supporters travelling to games.”
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