Women’s World Rugby Cup match travel was a ‘fiasco’ fan says

Women’s World Rugby Cup match travel was a ‘fiasco’ fan says.

A man claims he was one of several who arrived late for a World Cup rugby match owing to “chaotic transport arrangements and perpetual queuing.”

Joe Docherty traveled from Chichester to Brighton on Saturday, September 6, to attend Ireland’s Women’s Rugby World Cup match against New Zealand at the Amex.

But “what should have been a joyous occasion” turned out to be a “profound disappointment”.

“The fundamental problem was there was a grossly inefficient train service to move the numbers of people for a sold-out match at the Amex,” Joe told the crowd.

“I’ve attended football games at the Amex on Saturdays when the services are double what they were for rugby.

“Trains ran only every 20 minutes, with four carriages per train.

“They know they’ve sold 30,000 seats, and they know the stadium’s capacity.

“This was all completely expected and predictable.

“They understand that individuals are coming from all across the country, not just locally. It was just embarrassingly hopeless.”

Joe Docherty missed 20 minutes of the first half due to ‘chaotic’ transport arrangements(Image: Supplied)

Joe arrived at Brighton Station around 1.05pm, which “should have been generous” considering the 2.45pm kickoff.

Instead, the 68-year-old had to wait for 90 minutes in Brighton before boarding a train to Falmer Station. By the time he arrived at the Amex, he had missed 20 minutes of an 80-minute contest.

“I got on the train at kickoff time,” he added. “I stood on the train, watching the New Zealand squad perform the haka on my phone.

“There were thousands like me. There were also a large number of families, including parents taking their children out for the day and babies in arms. I felt so horrible for them. “No one deserves to stand for two hours while carrying their child and buggy.”

Joe reports that there was only one steward in sight and no transport police or Tannoy notifications at Brighton or Falmer Stations.

“It was just thousands of people all being kettled and then there would be a sudden movement, and people would shuffle along 70 feet” , Joe commented.

Huge queues to get into the stadium(Image: Supplied)

To make matters worse, Joe had to walk two hours from the stadium to the train after the game, a route that normally takes only ten minutes.

“I follow rugby all throughout the country, and I’ve been to Twickenham many times, which has an 82,000-person capacity, and I’ve never seen anything like the crowds I witnessed on Saturday

. It was completely unforgivable. “When I see Bella Sankey saying what a gigantic success it was and patting herself on the back, I think that someone needs to tell her what it was like for the people paying and giving up hours to travel all over the country.”

Joe says he “couldn’t complain about the price” because he got one of the nicest seats for £25.

“Whoever performed the ticketing did an excellent job, and that’s a miracle; it was simply great. They performed their job, and the public did theirs by showing up, yet they were treated like garbage on the day.

“Everyone involved in such a mess should be ashamed of themselves.

“It was an embarrassment to the stadium, to the city of Brighton, to the tournament organisers and ultimately, to the country.”

A spokeswoman for Govia Thameslink Railway, which operates Southern and Thameslink services, said:

“We sincerely regret to those fans who did not arrive at the stadium for the start of Sunday’s match. We understand how annoying this must have been, and we are doing an internal assessment to identify what may have been done better.

“Our workers are well-versed in managing huge numbers of passengers travelling to and from the stadium utilizing queuing procedures at Brighton, and, as is customary for matches, we ran additional services to Falmer and The Amex, increasing the ordinary frequency from three to five trains per hour. We also extended the length of some trains.

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