Fans are left waiting amid taxi ‘carnage’

MUSIC fans and city centre visitors were waiting hours for a lift home after the Ed Sheeran gigs in Cardiff last week due to delays at a city taxi rank, drivers have said.

Hackney carriage drivers have described traffic “carnage” at the rank in St Mary Street near the railway station, operated by For Cardiff, during the four concerts at the Principality Stadium.

They say there were long queues of taxis trying to get to the rank – with some drivers waiting up to 45 minutes to reach the rank.

One hackney carriage driver has claimed people were waiting up to four hours for a lift home on Saturday, and has blamed delays from the marshals operating the rank.

For Cardiff says there was high demand for taxis over the weekend, and that it is working with partners to stop the area’s roads from being blocked so the rank can run more smoothly.

Hackney carriage driver Yusef Jama said: “People were waiting hours to get into taxis.

“We had taxi drivers waiting at the rank for marshals to put them in, but they were talking amongst themselves.

“If they were doing their job properly the rank would have been moving and people wouldn’t be waiting for hours to get into the taxis.

“The problem with (the marshals) is they don’t know how to work a system that works for them and customers.”

On Saturday night the queue of taxis was stretching as far back as Penarth Road under the railway bridge, Mr Jama said.

Phil Dukes, another hackney carriage driver, also said there were long queues of taxis trying to get to the rank.

He said: “I was waiting up to 15 minutes just to get a fare. It’s not good.

“All these people were waiting, and if I’m waiting 15 minutes then they are waiting as well. Everything was jammed.

“I kept away from the area in the end because I couldn’t work.”

For Cardiff, a group funded by city businesses, runs a marshalling service every Friday and Saturday from 10.30pm until 4.30am.

The group, formerly Cardiff Business Improvement District, took over the service after Cardiff Council stopped running it due to budget cuts.

Adrian Field, executive director for For Cardiff, said the service has been wellreceived since it launched in April.

He said: “As everyone would expect, Saturday was extremely busy with high demand for taxis. Over the four nights Ed Sheeran was in residence at the Principality Stadium, our night marshals helped 11,184 people get taxis with 3,378 people assisted at the bottom of St Mary Street on Saturday night alone.

“The new night marshalling service has received really positive feedback from partners, customers and taxi drivers since we took it on in April, [with] the majority of drivers welcoming the zero tolerance approach to drivers trying to queue jump and seek the larger fares or park where they want.

“Our next step is to work with partners who deal with highways management and enforcement to look at ways to stop parked cars and taxis which block areas such as Mill Lane, as happened on Saturday, in order to ensure that we can send people home quickly and safely.”