Additional capacity and later rail services added for Wales’ Euro 2024 qualifying matches in Cardiff

Additional capacity and later rail services have been added for Wales’ Euro 2024 qualifying matches in Cardiff this March.

The Wales men’s team play Finland in their play-off semi-final at the Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday 21 March before facing either Poland or Estonia on Tuesday 26 March, which may be a play-off final or international friendly depending on the result of the Finland game.

Transport for Wales (TfW) has strengthened its key services on match day, and the following day, by adding more carriages and later services in case of extra time and penalties.

Pre-match

• 10:40 Holyhead to Cardiff Central and 12:30 Manchester Piccadilly – Cardiff Central will be a minimum of four carriage trains.
• Additional capacity planned between Cardiff Central and Ninian Park.
• Additional capacity planned on key routes pre-match, focussing on Ebbw Vale, Maesteg, all Valley services, Marches, Vale of Glamorgan, Barry and services from West Wales.

Post-Match

• Full reinstatement of Rhymney, Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr services for the evening. Additional capacity added where possible.
• Additional services to Rhymney, Newport and Penarth.
• Additional services from Ninian Park to Radyr.
• A later Cardiff Central – Crewe via Wrexham / Chester service leaving Cardiff Central at 22:47.
• The key Cardiff Central – Holyhead on the day after the games will leave Cardiff Central at 11:25 as run with a minimum of four carriages.
• Full major event plans and standby buses will also be in place for both games.

Marie Daly, Chief Customer and Culture Officer at TfW said: “We recognise the importance of these games and have listened to feedback from our customers about our services on a match day.

“Mid-week matches can be a challenge because we do not have control over important factors such as planned engineering work* and the staffing of signal boxes which can have a big impact on late evening services, but our team have worked hard to add later and additional services where possible.

“We’ll have staff at key stations across Wales on the day of the game and extra staff travelling from north Wales with passengers to provide support to our customers.”