JOSHUA’S BIG FIGHT NIGHT IS HERE
THOUSANDS of sporting fans face travel disruption on one of Cardiff’s biggest sporting weekends of the year thanks to rail works closing the Severn Tunnel.
Anthony Joshua will today be going head to head with Carlos Takam in front of an estimated crowd of 75,000 fans at the Principality Stadium, while across the river Taff, Cardiff City will be facing Millwall at the Cardiff City Stadium.
At least 92% of ticket-holders for the Anthony Joshua fight are expected to be coming from outside Cardiff, promoters have said.
But ongoing rail maintenance means several key rail services will be disrupted or severely limited.
Great Western Rail are today closing the Severn Tunnel for ongoing maintenance, resulting in south Wales highspeed services being diverted between Swindon and Newport.
The GWR service between south Wales and London will be operating just one train an hour between Paddington and Swansea, and diverting them around Gloucester between Swindon and Newport.
Buses will replace trains between Newport and Bristol over the weekend.
Network Rail says more essential upgrading work will affect fans travelling to and from the event.
There will be fewer trains travelling to Cardiff today, and there will be no trains back to London or Bristol once the fight finishes at 10.30pm.
The line between Cardiff and Newport is closed until 1pm tomorrow, with buses replacing trains between Cardiff and Bristol.
London Paddington, Taunton and Portsmouth Harbour services are all terminating at Bristol Parkway.
Buses will run between Cardiff Central and Bristol Parkway.
Arriva Trains Wales services are not affected and it will be running an enhanced local service with additional carriages today.
Network Rail said the work had been planned well in advance since 2016 before the Joshua fight had been arranged, and had been advertised in advance
Mark Hopwood, GWR managing director, said: “The work over the weekend is a vital part of Network Rail’s upgrade plans, helping GWR to take full advantage of our new fleet and the greatest step-change in experience for our passengers in a generation.”
South Wales Police are preparing for policing the two big sporting events by bringing facial recognition vans to use across the weekend.
The force will use the cameras across Cardiff in a bid to trace criminals coming into the city. The technology holds a watch list of individuals who are wanted on warrant or those who officers would like to speak to in connection with outstanding offences.
There are also several road closures in place to help the city cope with crowds of fans.
Today there will be a full city-centre road closure from 4pm until 1am.
This includes Duke Street, Castle Street, High Street, St Mary Street, Westgate Street, Quay Street, Guildhall Place, Golate, Park Street, Havelock Street and Scott Road, among others.
Kingsway will also be closed from its junction with North Road and Duke Street, and Cowbridge Road East from its junction with Cathedral Road to its junction with Westgate Street.
Scott Road and Park Street will be closed from early in the day to prepare Gate 5 and protect queuing fans.
Cardiff Council said it would re-open the roads as quickly as possible after the boxing finishes.