Fans tell of travel chaos in Gelsenkirchen after England-Serbia game

BERLIN : Fans complained of lengthy travel disruptions and crowded trains following England and Serbia's Euro 2024 game in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday, which drew tens of thousands to the western German city with a population of 200,000.

Crowds waited for available carriages to carry them from the crowded station near Arena AufSchalke stadium until well into the night, according to the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper on Monday.

Video shared on social media showed trains and station platforms packed with fans who jostled to find space.

"Game finished just before 11pm. 3 hours to travel by tram and train to Dusseldorf, which is less than 50 miles. Astonishingly bad," one fan wrote on the X social media platform.

Local police said the fans' departure had been "largely orderly", but acknowledged bottlenecks at some stations due to the large number of visitors.

"This is normal," a spokesperson for the city authority told Reuters. "If 60,000 people all come at once, they can't expect to leave within 10 minutes," he said.

Gelsenkirchen is flanked by the larger urban centres of Cologne, Dortmund and Dusseldorf. Many international fans stayed in those cities, putting pressure on the national rail operator Deutsche Bahn to get them there and back.

Deutsche Bahn said it and various local operators had worked to increase train capacity, including a special line running between Gelsenkirchen and nearby cities.

"Football fans know that as soon as the referee blows his whistle, everyone goes home. It can get crowded on the platform," a spokesperson said.

Tournament host Germany expects 2.7 million people to attend matches in stadiums across the country and some 12 million in fan zones for outdoor viewing.