Transport chaos hits Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup transport chaos that affected as many as 20,000 fans last night was still being investigated by officials this morning.

At the end of the first day’s play at The Belfry spectators returned to the specially set-up bus terminal to be ferried back to their cars at the National Exhibition Centre 10 miles away.

There was one problem, though. Nowhere near enough buses were provided.

Many people were waiting in excess of three hours. Some were angry, some decided to return to the public catering areas on the course – and some sang ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’.

Bus drivers had reached the legal limit on the number of hours they could work and were eventually given special police permission to do overtime and sort out the problem.

An extra headache was the normal Friday night congestion on the M6 and M42 motorways.

Chief inspector Chris Jackson of Warwickshire Police said: “The first wave of traffic went very nicely, but there must have been 15-20,000 people who waited until the finish of the matches before returning to the terminal.

“There seems to have been a bit of a breakdown of the arrangements with the number of buses.

Many had gone off earlier than anticipated and it was then decided to grant an extension to their tachograph hours and we scavenged as many buses as we could.

The angry spectators, many of whom had got up in the early hours to arrive in time for the 8am start, were seeking both an apology and an assurance there would not be a repeat on day two.