Soccer: Measures announced to combat cup final chaos

The English Football Association have announced a series of measures designed to avoid travel chaos in Cardiff on FA Cup final day.

The final on May 12 is at the Millennium Stadium, the same venue as for the Worthington Cup final in February.

Cardiff's transport system was overwhelmed by the number of fans attending the game between Liverpool and Birmingham.

The FA invited key parties involved in planning the FA Cup final to a meeting in the Welsh capital in a bid to tackle those problems, which arose both before and after the Worthington Cup final.

The police, rail and road authorities, council officers and FA officials agreed several measures for FA Cup final day including:

Great Western Railway will double the number of trains from London from five to 10 on the Saturday - one of the finalists will be either Arsenal or Tottenham - and will consider extra services on the Sunday.

Unlike the Worthington Cup final, if the match goes to extra time and penalties, trains to take fans home will be held back at Cardiff station.

Railtrack will suspend rail engineering works in the Severn tunnel on the Saturday and perhaps the Sunday.

The Highways Agency agreed to reduce roadwork's in Cardiff and surrounding trunk roads and motorways to a bare minimum.

Police will manage traffic so that fans of different teams are diverted off at different motorway junctions.

The FA will ask fans to travel by coach or train rather than private car.

FA spokesman Paul Newman said: "We are encouraged that there has been so much co-operation from all the parties involved.

"Our message to fans is if they use public transport it will be a lot more efficient than coming in a private car.

"There is parking for 1,000 coaches within walking distance of the Millennium Stadium, while private cars will not be able to park nearly so close."