Wales v South Africa: Great Western Railway providing 72 trains for Summer International

More than 70 Great Western Railway trains will serve Cardiff on Saturday for the Wales-South Africa Summer International, providing 34,000 seats.

GWR will operate a total of 40 trains to Cardiff Central ahead of the 1515 kick-off at the Principality Stadium, with a further 32 trains carrying rugby fans home after the match.

This includes 16 additional services on top of the usual timetable, and features the use of GWR’s more sustainable Class 387 Electrostars operating a shuttle service between Cardiff and Newport after the match.

Trains are expected to be very busy immediately after the match and a queueing system will be in place outside the station.

In a repeat of the system in place for this year’s Six Nations fixtures, supporters travelling east towards Newport will be asked to queue on the square in front of Cardiff Central, rather than from Riverside Car Park.

There will be no CrossCountry services between Birmingham New Street and Cardiff Central, and between  because of industrial action by the RMT union.

GWR Customer Service & Operations Director, Richard Rowland, said:

“We’re pleased to be able to provide some additional services for Saturday’s Summer International, but we’d like to remind supporters that trains will be extremely busy leading up to kick-off and immediately following the match.

“We would encourage customers to check journey times and allow sufficient time to queue to board trains safely.”

Transport for Wales’ Head of Operational Planning, Adam Terry, said:

“TfW will have all available trains and carriages in service this weekend for the rugby in Cardiff.  However, we expect services to be busy and urge all customers to check before they travel and plan ahead, especially as there is some industrial action on other operators between Cardiff and Cheltenham Spa which will have an impact on some customers.”

For more information, or to check your journey, please visit GWR.com.