DO YOU TRAVEL BY TRAIN TO CCFC ?

Do you travel to Cardiff City Stadium by train?

Following a number of surveys undertaken by the Club, one of the common themes that came up was difficulties concerning access to and from the stadium, in particular the lack of service at the Ninian Park holt.

Many supporters currently go to Ninian Park to change at Central Station for the Valley lines trains home. But did you know that Grangetown station is only an extra five minutes walk from CCS and all Valley lines go through this platform without any direct no changes.

Grangetown station has the capacity to deal with 8,000 passengers per hour unlike Ninian Park which has 400 passengers per hour.

We have been working with Arriva Trains to highlight the services from Grangetown. For more information on train times, please contact Arriva Trains on 0845 606 1660.

i catch the train from mountain ash to cardiff then get on the train to ninian then,and on the way home sometimes i go to ninian or sometimes grangetown

always get the train the ninian is a nightmare after the game and even though you say grangetown is only 5 mins extra the hassel of crossing the road puts many off even though there is a crossing,if city ever gain promotion to the premeirship the ninian platform will only get worse considering they can only get two carriges because of the length of platform,maybe arriva could look into extening the platform???????????/

yes mate on the train from Bristol the way over is fine till central to Ninian Holt as there isn't many trains! I walk down to canton coming back is a bag of shite the train arrives late and It's Tiny so 3/4 of the people get on!

does the grangetown station option help fans travelling to gwent?

Do you travel to Cardiff City Stadium by train?

Following a number of surveys undertaken by the Club, one of the common themes that came up was difficulties concerning access to and from the stadium, in particular the lack of service at the Ninian Park holt.

Many supporters currently go to Ninian Park to change at Central Station for the Valley lines trains home. But did you know that Grangetown station is only an extra five minutes walk from CCS and all Valley lines go through this platform without any direct no changes.

Grangetown station has the capacity to deal with 8,000 passengers per hour unlike Ninian Park which has 400 passengers per hour.

We have been working with Arriva Trains to highlight the services from Grangetown. For more information on train times, please contact Arriva Trains on 0845 606 1660.

How about asking the traffic police to empty the stadium car parks like in the USA. I have seen 50,000 seater stadium, car parks emptied in minutes.

Some one told me they do a similar thing at Anfield. Anyone know if that is true.

Train services from the Ninian to the Rhymney Valley are crap. This is about 4 carriages on, then when the train stops there is a large surge towards the doors. Kids and OAPs have been crushed sometimes and tempers flare!!!
Sometimes loads are fans are left behind.
We now tend to go in the Ninian after the game to avoid the chaos, but something has to be done !!!

The majority of fans who get on trains at NP, especially after home games have not got valid tickets for travel, & thats a fact.
If there were barrier & crowd control systems in place at both Ninian Park & Grangetown stations on match days then their wouldn't be a problem.

Train from llanelli then walk to the ground.

TRAIN NERD MODE ENGAUGE!

Ninian Park Station is served by the Cardiff City Line, which runs down the west side of the City from Radyr to Central. The section from Radyr to the junction just east of Ninian Park (and onwards to the harbour at Penarth) was built by the Penarth Harbour and Dock Railway (the controlling interest being owned by the Taff Vale Railway) in the 1850s as a freight only line (mostly coal) and to avoid the bottlenecks at Queen Street and General (as Central was then known) for a fast export at the harbour at Penarth (and later Barry).

Apart from being absorbed into the Great Western Railway in 1922, the line ran unaltered until the rise of Cardiff City FC at around the same time. As trains was the dominant mode of transport, the GWR built Ninian Park Halt, which would only operate on match days to receive the numerous football specials laid on for away fans. At 150 metres, the two platforms could both hold 6 modern day carriages. For another 60 years the line would go on with little change, apart from the nationalisation of the railway network and a decline in traffic, both football specials and freight traffic.

In light of the suburban sprawl in the western part of the city, British Rail opened Ninian Park and the line as a whole to passenger traffic in 1987, with new stations built at Danescourt, Fairwater and Waun-Gron Park. Unlike Ninian Park station, the platforms at the new stations were built to hold only 2 carriages. Today the line continues to operate, with a service operated by a Class 143 DMU in each direction every 30 minutes. And its here we reach the problems we currently face.

TRAIN NERD MODE DISENGAGE!

When I was living in Newport, Ninian Park Station is my station of choice when going to Cardiff matches, but I faced two problems.

1. On the outward journey, connection times would always result in standing around at Central for a good 15-20 minutes.
2. On the return journey, overcrowding and long waits for trains and poor connection times back at Central (particularly with an evening kick off)


As I said, the trains that operate the City Line are Class 143 DMUs from the Pacer family of trains, which were introduced to the area in 1991. The 143 are designed to operate in 2 carriage sets, although a 4 carriage set can run, but would have no gangway between the 2nd and 3rd carriages and may require an additional conductor/ticket inspector to prevent fare dodgers, but seeing that apart from Ninian Park, the platforms on the line can't accommodate longer trains. As such, a 2 carriage set can only carry 104 people sitting and about 25 more standing. Everyone who goes to Ninian Park station after a match knows that at least 200 people can be found on each platform and when the train arrives...all hell breaks loose. People asurge for the doors, Mothers are yelling out that they have kids to people behind so they don't get crushed, people with crutches or wheel chairs can't even get on and when you do get on, you're crammed in so much that moving your arm to scratch your nose is a challenge. And owing to the nature of the 143's chassis and bogie design, the ride back to central is extremely rough

Secondly, they do not friendly to disabled persons, owing to a large step by the doors to get onto the train and with all public transport needing to be accessible to the disabled by 2019, the 143s will be withdrawn as they can't be rebuilt to comply with the regulation.

I forget which match it was, but following an evening weekday match (Leicester?), I was at the station waiting for a train from Radyr to take me back to Central when for an unexplained reason, a 4 carriage train pulled into my platform, let us on and shuttled us back to central. This I feel should be done on a more regular basis. With more carriages, capacity is higher, its safer for passengers and its convenient. Along with a 4 carriage Central-Ninian Park shuttle, I feel Arriva Trains Wales should do the following:

1. In the past at evening matches, I've seen several evening commuter trains coming from the valleys arrive at Central, where the service ends. Cardiff fans get off the train and wait for another to take then to Ninian Park or Grangetown while the train they were on returns to Canton Depot. Rather than ending the service, trains should continue onto Ninian, unload their Bluebirds, then return to Depot. With more trains to running to Ninian Park, there is the added bonus for more flexible connection times for those who have travelled from Newport/Bridgend or further afield.

2. As the stations west of Ninian Park can only hold 2 carriages, extra carriages are out of the question. Instead, an extra train or two should run to cater for fans between there and Radyr.

3. The shuttle service stated above should run for at least 30 minutes after the match. Its gets both home and away fans back toCentral quicker, where they can catch their trains home.

And the real bold one that Includes First Great Western's London Paddington-Swansea services.

4. Have the main line trains stop at Ninian Park. With some track relaying, trains from London can leave Central, divert onto the City line, then back onto the South Wales Main Line via the connecting link just west of the station. Although FGW trains are 8 carriages long (plus the power cars at each end) and can't fit into Ninian Park, having a almost door to door service would make it a popular thing for fans travelling from London


We see hundreds if not thousands parked on the street around CCS because people can't depend on the public transport system. If a better service is provided, it will get people out their cars onto the trains, ease traffic congestion and helps the environment.

They say 5 minutes more to Grangetown, but it isn't. Sad as it may seem, I have actually timed it.

They say 5 minutes more to Grangetown, but it isn't. Sad as it may seem, I have actually timed it.

Your sad

I travel by train to all home games. Would be nice if Arriva could add extra trains when we play on a Sunday.

Most home games are by train (sometimes get a lift or drive) and travel (from now on) from Sunny Neath. A few sherbets in Town and then a few in Canton.
Nine times out of ten I get a lift home though so the train station is not in the equation.

I would be very surprised if you could walk from the CCS to Grangetown Station in 5 minutes perhaps Usain Bolt could do it

Bus-Train-Plane-Car-Pub-walk....
Car-Ferry-Pub-walk

I go up on the train to Cardiff Central, wander over to Chip Alley/Caroline Street/Chippy Lane/whatever you want to call it for a cone of chips from Dorothy's and then walk down to the Ninian. I'm not lazy see

One of the problems I find on the service from NP to radyr, is that some dimwits barge to get on first, only to then get of at Waungron park or Fairwater!!

For evening games there is the direct Treherbert service (4cars) that runs from NP at 21.55 (and it does wait if we have extra time), why can't they provide a similar service to Merthyr/Aberdare/Ebbw Vale?

Always take the train from Bristol T M to Cardiff Central NEVER take the train to NP halt I walk down to Canton to meet friends for breki & a couple of drinks and always walk back after the game to Central far too much hassle at NP halt.

Good shout that in recent years I always get back on at Grangetown

Im superstitious. Get train to central and drink my way to NP/CCS.

One warning when going down the City sometimes the train does not stop at Grangetown it didnt for me yesterday and I ended up going all the way to Penarth then back and it stopped then so to be honest I will be going down via ninian in future as the guard said this is a regular thing.

Also Sunday games is a nightmare and evening games even worse I will use the car for evening games unless the railway improve by more trains otherwise you will see even more people leaving early during the game as they wont get home.

I get free rail travel as I worked on the Railway for 24 years so if they improved it I would use it all the time but not risking being stuck in cardiff or paying stupid money for a taxi

One warning when going down the City sometimes the train does not stop at Grangetown it didnt for me yesterday and I ended up going all the way to Penarth then back and it stopped then so to be honest I will be going down via ninian in future as the guard said this is a regular thing.

Also Sunday games is a nightmare and evening games even worse I will use the car for evening games unless the railway improve by more trains otherwise you will see even more people leaving early during the game as they wont get home.

I get free rail travel as I worked on the Railway for 24 years so if they improved it I would use it all the time but not risking being stuck in cardiff or paying stupid money for a taxi

When a service is running late then that service is run "fast" too its final destination,,,in your case Penarth. As for Sunday services, the City line service does not run full stop, so Ninian park is out of the question anyway.

One warning when going down the City sometimes the train does not stop at Grangetown it didnt for me yesterday and I ended up going all the way to Penarth then back and it stopped then so to be honest I will be going down via ninian in future as the guard said this is a regular thing.

Also Sunday games is a nightmare and evening games even worse I will use the car for evening games unless the railway improve by more trains otherwise you will see even more people leaving early during the game as they wont get home.

I get free rail travel as I worked on the Railway for 24 years so if they improved it I would use it all the time but not risking being stuck in cardiff or paying stupid money for a taxi

When a service is running late then that service is run "fast" too its final destination,,,in your case Penarth. As for Sunday services, the City line service does not run full stop, so Ninian park is out of the question anyway.

Very true. Infact, because of the abundance of idiots attending the Big Cheese yesterday, quite a few trains were running late so had to go straight true. Thankfully, the Big Cheese happens once a year, for I would have to consider my existence if it was more frequent.