11 Mar 2025

Extra trains are being put on to allow Welsh football supporters to get home from a key World Cup qualifier this month.

Wales take on Kazakhstan in their first match in group J on Saturday 22 March at 19:45 in Cardiff, hoping to book a place at the 2026 World Cup finals.

To support the event, Transport for Wales is running additional trains to north Wales from Cardiff and also extra trains to support the Wrexham v Stockport match in League 1 on the same day.

Supporters from north Wales got a further boost as pre-planned engineering works that weekend have now been moved.

Network Rail were planning to deliver three pieces of work between Shrewsbury and Wrexham over the course of that weekend, meaning anyone traveling down to Cardiff would be faced with a rail replacement detour.

The work had been pre-planned back in 2023 but the fixtures were only confirmed at the start of this year.

Transport for Wales’ Customer Delivery and Special Events Planning Manager Georgie Wills said:

“We know just how important major sporting, music and cultural events are to the economies we serve.

“Working with the FAW we know that supporters from North Wales are increasingly coming to rely on our services to get down to Cardiff and back which is a testament to the improvements made over the past 18 months. So once again we’ve been able to run some extra trains to support those who want to travel home after the game, above what is in our standard timetable.

“This one was more challenging as the fixtures were only confirmed at the start of the year and Wales could just as easily been playing away.

“But we’ve got a fantastic relationship with Network Rail and I’m delighted that we could work together to find a solution.”

Additional trains are also being run to support both the Wales and Wrexham matches.

Nick Millington, Network Rail’s Wales and Borders route director, said:

“Our partners at Transport for Wales asked us to move our engineering work to accommodate the significant number of Wales football supporters looking to get to and from North Wales for the match against Kazakhstan in Cardiff.

“The work between Shrewsbury and Wrexham was planned to take place between Saturday morning and Monday morning.

“However, we have been able to move some of it to Sunday morning between 1am and 9.30am, and the rest until February 2026.

“It’s not always possible to move such work but in this instance we were able to accommodate the request and we are happy to assist TfW’s plan to run additional services on Saturday night and Sunday morning.”