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Friday 14 Mar 2025

Collaboration the key as Cardiff Central gears up to welcome thousands of rugby supporters on 'Super Saturday'

Region & Route:

Wales & Western

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

Wales take on England in the second of their two home Six Nations matches for 2025 tomorrow – which means tens of thousands of rugby supporters will be passing through Cardiff Central station before and after the match.

Any regular eventgoer to the Principality Stadium who uses the station will hopefully have seen a marked improvement in the event-day experience in recent years, notably when it comes to getting home afterwards.

Months of planning go into every ‘Category A’ event day – that is any event at the stadium with an attendance of more than 50,000 people.

Much of the work around timetables and platforms that will come to fruition this weekend was being planned back in the autumn, even before the November international matches took place at the stadium.

And not only do the numbers suggest train performance around big events at the stadium is going in the right direction, but the anecdotal feedback from those using the station on such days is constantly improving.

Sam Wilmott, Network Rail Wales and Borders’ business continuity project manager, explained: “I think it’s fair to say that, if we go back two years, the event-day operation at Cardiff Central needed some improvement.

“We started looking at how we could do things better. We tried to identify what was causing problems – and primarily it came down to communication at all levels.

“We looked at off-the-shelf plans, but given the variations in event days, event times, and crowd demographics, that wasn’t possible. Every event now has its own, tailored plan.

“Take Billy Joel last summer, for example; Cardiff was his only European show, so the ticket heatmap was unlike what we’d typically see for a rugby match or an artist who might be touring the UK. Having sight of this information is valuable and is a sign of the kind of cooperation and collaboration that is contributing to the smooth-running of these events.”

The cross-border passenger numbers are again likely to be high this weekend as England supporters travel to and from the match, which is why it is important Network Rail works closely not only with Transport for Wales (TfW) but train operators such as Great Western Railway and CrossCountry.

While TfW manages the station itself and operates the largest number of trains at the station on any given day, it is important to keep every queue moving after a big event – and services to Bristol, Gloucester, London and other parts of England will play a crucial role in determining the success of Saturday’s operation.

The 2025 calendar at the stadium is looking incredibly busy. Although there is one fewer Wales match in the Six Nations, additional rugby matches come in the form of both European club cup finals in May and Bristol Bears’ match against Bath in England’s Gallagher Premiership.

The summer is then full of huge events, with the first Oasis concerts since 2009, two Stereophonics shows, and concerts from Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar and SZA, and Catfish and the Bottlemen. Wales will also play four matches in November; against Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.

Watch our video to get a glimpse behind the scenes on a Category A event day – recorded at Cardiff Central station and Network Rail’s Wales Rail Operating Centre on the day of Wales’ match against Ireland in February.