A public transport system is supposed to cater for the needs of the public..
Typical we can't and shant go to work attitude from rail staff on this forum.
It's easy for people on here to throw around soundbites on various threads along the lines of "the railway should be a public service" (e.g. in terms of whether it should be nationalised, in terms of whether it should cater to various niche markets), but where do you draw the line?
Are you saying that Cardiff should have regular departures until midnight seven days a week (even when there are no gigs on)? Or only extended late departures when there are events of a particular size? An Ed Sheeran gig is presumably important enough but does the "meeting the needs of the public" test have a certain threshold, at which later departures are necessary? Would the timetable have different notes in it to show that trains would run slightly later on evenings when Cardiff City are at home and maybe an hour later when there's International Football/ Rugby in central Cardiff? How complicated to you want to make it? Do we get into arguments about mid-level gigs, or maybe Carabo Cup matches being worth/unworthy of such services?
And how far out of Cardiff should services run? Do late night departures after an evening football international need to permit supporters to get all the way to Holyhead? Too far fetched? Wrexham then? Fishguard? But Cardiff City games only need to cover the Valleys/ Maesteg/ Ebbw Vale?
As I said before, the railway has always been relatively inflexible. It's not like putting on buses/coaches (where you only need one member of staff per vehicle, plus maybe one person in a control room). As well as the Drivers and Guards there are the station staff, presumably some security to deal with the crowds, signal boxes would have to be staffed... all of this for the sporadic nature of a certain number of gigs per year? We can't run Sunday services without relying on overtime, but we should have something written into the contract for days when pop stars are in Cardiff?
The "it should be a public service" argument gets over-egged by some people on here to justify lots of different things - often the kind of demand where coaches or even minibuses would be sufficient to cope with the various branches of demand.