SCOTRAIL have been blasted by Ed Sheeran fans who were forced to wait up to two hours for trains after his concerts at Hampden Park.
Trains travelling back into Glasgow city centre were described as being ‘half empty’ despite thousands of people waiting to board trains over the weekend.
ScotRail urged passengers to go to Mount Florida train station soon after the concerts finished – warning that trains would be ‘exceptionally busy’, despite there being extra carriages on trains.
Similar queuing systems were in effect at Glasgow Central, with people experiencing lengthy waits to buy tickets and board trains heading to Hampden.
However, platforms were kept empty in the time between trains arriving and departing the station, causing chaos on each of the three nights’ Sheeran played at the national stadium.
Commuters have claimed that when trains arrived, ScotRail staff were only allowing a small number of people to board trains to go home.
One fan from Auchinleck in East Ayrshire, who wishes to remain anonymous,
but attended Sheeran’s gig on Saturday night said: “The concert finished at around 20 past ten. We were on our way to the queue for half ten but it took us a full 15 minutes just to walk to the back of the queue halfway down Battlefield Road.
“We didn’t get a train until quarter past 12.”
She later took to Twitter to branding ScotRail as ‘Scotland’s shame’ and said that staff on the platform were “out of order” in the way they dealt with the situation.
Twitter user Sarah Gilmour said: “(There were) six trains running from Mt Florida post Ed Sheeran at Hampden on Sat night.
“No info or @ScotRail staff to advise on trains. Took 30 min to find end of queue, @policescotland advising to walk 40min to City Centre. Not good enough.
“No chance they trains would have took the number of people waiting in this queue on Sat after the gig.
“Glad I walked back to my car in the City centre didn’t rely on @ScotRail to get home. Would hever have made the last train to Ayrshire.”
Sheeran is in the middle of a worldwide stadium tour, which got underway in Australia back in March with dates still to come across Europe and North America, concluding in Atlanta in November.
A spokesman for ScotRail today (tue) said: “We always welcome customer feedback after major events.
“Over the three nights, ScotRail helped thousands of people get to and from Hampden Park to enjoy the Ed Sheeran concert.
“We provided extra carriages and additional late night services for our customers. We will continue to do everything we can to provide the best possible service for our customers.”
The news of the weekend’s issues comes as ScotRail claimed only 53 out of 58,000 services missed stops last month.
