Transport for Wales has announced that it will add extra capacity and later trains to its services for the Wales men’s team’s Euro 2024 qualifying matches in Cardiff this month.

Wales plays Finland in the play-off semi-final at the Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday 21 March (kick-off 19:45), and will then pay either Poland or Estonia on Tuesday 26 March (kick-off time to be confirmed).

If Wales wins the first match, then the second will be the play-off final; if they lose the first match, the second will be an international friendly.

The team will have to win both matches to qualify for the Euro 2024 finals in Germany this summer.

Transport for Wales (TfW) says that it is strengthening its key services on the day of the match and the next day, adding more carriages and later train services in case the match goes into extra time or even a penalty shoot-out.

Before the match:

• 10:40 Holyhead to Cardiff Central and 12:30 Manchester Piccadilly – Cardiff Central will have at least four-carriage trains.
• Additional capacity between Cardiff Central and Ninian Park.
• Additional capacity on key routes, focusing on Ebbw Vale, Maesteg, all Valley services, Marches, Vale of Glamorgan, Barry and services from West Wales.
  

After the match:

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

Marie Daly, Chief Customer and Culture Officer at Transport for Wales, 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.”