The company which runs Cardiff's railway stations is urging organisers of the Six Nations rugby tournament to reschedule the kick-off time of a prestigious match.

Wales and Borders fear that fans will be crushed when 28,000 people try to catch trains home on the Saturday evening after the Wales-England international at the Millennium Stadium in February.

The word in all our minds when we are talking about crowd safety is 'Hillsborough' Chris Gibb, Wales and Borders trains

Because of the safety fears, they are cutting services to stations east of Newport, to minimise the risk.

The company says the decision to stage a late kick-off - at 1730 GMT - to accommodate TV broadcasting agreements means Cardiff's two stations would be put under an intolerable strain.

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain and First Minister Rhodri Morgan have both questioned the decision to cut services towards London and other parts of England on 22 February.

Mr Hain said: "It's very bad for the image of Wales that we cannot provide a decent train service to get England supporters home safely after the game."

Fans face difficulties leaving the game

Mr Morgan acknowledged that the timing of the event was unfortunate, but also levelled blame at the train operators.

"Why put this game on at this time?" he said. "It's crazy. But Wales and Borders also don't come out of it well, because if you can run a train as far east as Newport, you can run a train as far east as Bristol, Gloucester, and Bath, where an awful lot of England rugby fans live."

Wales and Borders has cancelled train services east of Newport and is instead running shuttle services to Newport where fans can continue their journey by road.

The company plans to run a normal service west from Cardiff and to the south Wales valleys.

Crowd safety

Managing Director of Wales and Borders Trains, Chris Gibb, said: "We will not compromise the safety of the travelling fans.

"The word in all our minds when we are talking about crowd safety at Cardiff Central Station is 'Hillsborough'.

"The Hillsborough incident and the resulting inquiry is compulsory reading for my team of managers who run Cardiff Central Station on match days, and we are determined to learn every lesson that was learned in that tragic incident.

"We don't want that sort of thing happening outside the front of Cardiff Central Station."

The BBC, which plans to broadcast the game, said: "We are surprised by the decision as there was no reason for us to believe that the kick off time would cause any problems.

"There has been lots of time for arrangements to be made and evening kick-offs are not unusual at the Millennium Stadium and objections have never been raised before."

The 1730 GMT time has been decided on to avoid a clash with the Italy v Ireland game which is being televised at 1430 GMT the same day.

Pressure is now mounting on the Six Nations committee and the broadcasters to bring forward the proposed kick-off.