Manchester United and Everton supporters have vented frustration at the timing of their FA Cup semi-final tie on Saturday April 23, after it clashed with long-planned engineering work on the West Coast Main Line.
The game kicked off at 1715, making the last timetabled direct train services from London Euston to Liverpool (2031) and Manchester Piccadilly (2100) uncomfortably close to the expected final whistle.
London Midland ran later services as far as Warrington and Crewe, while Virgin Trains said that essential maintenance work undertaken by Network Rail prevented it from running any later services. This raised concerns that many of the 60,000 supporters expected to travel down from the North West would have been left with no choice but to book a night’s accommodation in London in advance, or be forced to make alternative travel arrangements.
Football fans’ options were restricted further by the London Marathon taking place the following day, driving up the cost and reducing the availability of accommodation in the city, while making return rail services on April 24 extremely busy.
Supporters groups criticised the lack of co-ordination between Network Rail and the Football Association over the scheduling of sporting fixtures, following on from similar levels of disruption caused by engineering in 2012 when Liverpool fans were badly affected heading home from their FA Cup final clash with Chelsea. Twelve months later supporters of both Wigan and Manchester City were faced with limited return travel options after their FA Cup final clash.
Fans also called for a return to the traditional kick-off time of 1500 (abandoned by the FA in 2012 to accommodate larger television audiences).
Network Rail laid the blame at the FA’s door. It stressed that improvement works are planned at least 18 months in advance, well ahead of any scheduling of sporting events or knowledge of which teams will compete in them.
The FA told RAIL it had “worked hard with relevant partners to ensure that other options were in place”, including Park & Rail opportunities via the Chiltern Line and London Underground, which serve Wembley Stadium, Wembley Park and Wembley Central stations. The FA’s transport partner National Express was planning to run special coach services guaranteed to leave Wembley 45 minutes after the final whistle, while Manchester United offered free coach travel to its entire travelling contingent.
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Andrewjgwilt1989 - 26/04/2016 13:09
Well at least Manchester United are in the FA Cup final and they face Crystal Palace which I reckon Man United would in it anyway.
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Andrewjgwilt1989 - 26/04/2016 22:29
win* My apologies.
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D. O'Connell - 27/04/2016 11:57
As evident on many occasions in the past the FA look to greed first and the fans last. Likewise the TV people. Having said that N / Rail have the dates of major events years in advance. So it would seem sensible not to schedule ANY works on the main routes that weekend or have diversionary options available.
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