GWENT residents are being warned of major travel disruption during the UEFA Champions League final and are being urged to make only essential journeys.

As 170,000 fans are expected to travel to Cardiff for the four-day UEFA Champions Festival, from Thursday, June 1 to Sunday, June 4, Newport is being identified as a travel ‘hotspot’ with road and rail likely to be affected.

Extra rail capacity is being created to allow for thousands of journeys in and out of Cardiff on the day.

In addition 1,500 coaches will be used to try to reduce the number of private cars using the M4.

All services toward Cardiff are expected to be “exceptionally busy” all day on the day of the final itself according to the event’s local organising committee (LOC).

Newport station is one of seven train stations earmarked as travel hotspots along with the M4 in and around Newport and the A449 from Usk.

Commuters have been encouraged to re-time their journeys or to not travel on the day of the final - Saturday June 3 - unless absolutely necessary.

According to Tom Legg, the LOC’s head of transport, work has been done with the South Wales Trunk Road Agency and Highways England, to try to minimise disruption.

The number of trains operating on the day has been increased to allow for 60,000 rail journeys in and out, a significant increase on what has been delivered for previous major events in Cardiff.

“For the last 18 months we’ve been working to ensure we have the capacity on the network to cope with the sort of demand we’ve forecast to come through that part of South Wales during the morning of the final,” he said.

Mr Legg added that more than 1,500 coaches will be in operation on the day to try to reduce the number of private vehicle use on the M4.

Cardiff will be the smallest host city and Wales the smallest country to host the UEFA Champions League final in the premier European club competition’s modern form.

The security operation will be one of the largest ever held in Cardiff and for a major sporting event in the UK.

The UK Government has put £1.4 million into the policing effort which will see more than 1,500 police officers from forces around the UK present over the weekend.

Officers from Gwent Police will be among those drafted, with South Wales Police Superintendent Steve Farnham stating that the neighbouring force will be”playing a huge part” in the security effort.

He said: “We will be asking Gwent officers to both come to Cardiff to work on the day but of course Gwent itself will have a lot of activity in its force area.

“The road transport, rail networks, people coming from Bristol Airport through Gwent will be critical to making sure that the transport runs smoothly in order to get people into and out of Cardiff and through the Gwent area.”

Barriers such as the ring of steel - similar to that at the NATO summit in Newport in 2014 - will be used in Cardiff city centre.

Hotels across Gwent, notably Newport and Monmouthshire, are close to capacity - if not completely booked - with eight weeks to go until the event.

A cruise ship, The MS Magellan, will be docking in Newport for the final and is set to be used for the event.