KENNY Dalglish has accused the authorities of taking football fans for granted in organising the FA Cup Final and when you look at the trouble Liverpool fans hoping to travel to Wembley will face next month, it’s fair to say that Kenny’s accusation is not unfounded.
The Liverpool and Everton fans that travelled to Wembley by train last Saturday will surely have been grateful to Virgin, who laid on extra trains to avoid overcrowding.
Reds fans hoping to travel to Wembley by train for the FA Cup Final will not be so lucky. Due to engineering work, Virgin have cancelled all but three of their trains from Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston and the three trains that are still running all leave Liverpool before 8am. The last of those three trains arrives in London at 10am, more than seven hours before the FA Cup Final kicks off.
There are no direct journeys back from London after the final until Monday morning, leaving fans with a choice between staying in London for two nights or travelling back to Manchester, Chester or Crewe instead. Fans hoping to get back from London by train on the Sunday will need to change trains at least twice and face journey times of more than five hours, while fans who wish to travel back to Liverpool on Saturday evening after the game would have to get to London Euston before 8:20pm and would not get arrive in Liverpool until just before midnight at the earliest.
An off-peak return between Liverpool Lime Street and London Euston costs £74.20 and due to the lack of direct trains, this ticket is not valid on all services. Admittedly, this train fare is cheaper than more than half of the 25,074 tickets Liverpool have been allocated but highlighting that merely points out how expensive the tickets are.
Of course, travelling by train is not the only way for Liverpool fans to get to Wembley. Thomas Cook are offering return coach travel from Anfield to Wembley from £37 per person, which is cheaper than travelling by car – the estimated fuel cost from Liverpool to Wembley is £40 and on top of that there’s a parking fee at Wembley of £27.75 per car.
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If I was given the choice, I’d jump at the chance to watch Liverpool play at Wembley but I would balk at the costs involved. By my estimation the cheapest cost of ticket plus travel would be £82 and for most fans going to Wembley, I’m sure the actual cost will be far higher. As Kenny said:
“It could have been made a bit easier for [the fans], but they will get there.”
He’s right but it will be neither easy nor cheap for them to do so, which simply isn’t fair.
Despite the high costs involved, the most frustrating thing of all for Liverpool fans must surely be the insultingly low ticket allocation the club has been granted. There were almost 7,000 more tickets available for the FA Cup Semi Final and with almost half of the tickets available for the FA Cup Final allocated to neither Liverpool nor Chelsea, you can’t help but wonder how many tickets will end up with touts.
Liverpool’s third trip to Wembley this season is sure to be a special day for those who make it down to London, especially if the Reds are able to defeat Chelsea and secure a domestic cup double. But regardless of the result, the FA Cup Final will remain tainted by the transport difficulties involved, along with the late kick off time, low ticket allocation and high cost.
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Typically F.A. , Absolutely Useless, a Shambolic Bunch of ….s (u know what)