Glastonbury Festival 2023 trains: Great Western Railway issues …

More than 60 trains are set to ferry a flood of Glastonbury Festival^[1] passengers between London Paddington and Castle Cary next week, Great Western Railway (GWR) has revealed. The train firm is warning festival travellers to reserve tickets or they will not be allowed to board as a massive influx of rail passengers is expected.

Glastonbury Festival opens on Wednesday, June 21 and thousands of people are expected to arrive in Castle Cary^[2] by train before taking a free connecting bus service to Worthy Farm. Demand for train services is set to be so high that GWR is requiring all customers travelling on the route to make a reservation, and those travelling are also reminded that a queuing system will be in place at London Paddington to board trains safely, and at Castle Cary to exit the station.

GWR is set to operate 39 trains from London Paddington, providing in excess of 26,000 seats, between Wednesday and Friday (June 23), taking people to the world-famous music festival. A further 24 trains will operate for the return journey towards London Paddington on Monday (June 26).

Train travellers pour onto the platform at Castle Cary train station ahead of Glastonbury Festival (Image: 2015 Matt Cardy)

Those looking to travel on Wednesday are recommended to do so after 2:30pm, with all morning trains already booked up. Availability remains on early morning trains (7:03am and 8:38am) on Thursday (June 22), or again after 2:30pm.

As well as reserving a seat, GWR is reminding customers that they will need to be able to carry their luggage over the footbridge at Castle Cary before boarding the shuttle bus service to the festival site – so it is asking travellers to only bring what they can carry. The train firm has reiterated that trolleys and sack barrows will not be allowed on trains or buses.

Castle Cary station manager Ben Scott said: “Glastonbury Festival is one of the busiest events on the GWR network and we want to get everyone here in a safe and affordable manner. To offer the very best experience for all of our passengers, that means limiting what can and cannot be brought on board and providing people with the best information we can to let them take advantage of less busy trains.

“Reserving a seat allows us to see which trains are the busiest, so we can let people know on our website where there is more availability. While we have bottled water on site, given the weather forecast I would also recommend people remember their sunscreen and carry water with them.”

References

1. ^{^} Glastonbury Festival (www.somersetlive.co.uk)
2. ^{^} Castle Cary (www.somersetlive.co.uk)
3. ^{^} Glastonbury Festival: Health bosses warn of measles risk at Somerset event (www.somersetlive.co.uk)