The Planner
Veteran Member
- Joined
- 15 Apr 2008
- Messages
- 16,016
And I agree with this as well though I feel it should be noted that the FOCs tend to have more flexibility on their traction / route cards than sadly TOCs do and said TOCs could learn from this.
You would be surprised, the FOCs have been hit the same way and often come back saying they can't go a particular way they had in the past.
Done to death on other threads, but the paying off of Wembley is the root of this, though I have heard anecdotal evidence internally that 2/3 of the tickets for the Man City Liverpool game are from the SE. Who is going to run the trains to Paddington or Marylebone, Chiltern etc are all still running a service and unless you are route conducting, no one signs it?I agree with you that the FA are a pain, however I do wonder how much much slack the FA have got in the football caledendar to accommodate matches. Season 2021/22 seems almost certainly to have been affected by the late finish of 2019/20 season and consequential late start of 2020/21 season (September 2020) and a need to fit in the Euros, delayed from Summer 2020 to Summer 2021 and the need to finish this season (2021/22) such that the players get a break this summer and that next season 2022/23 starts on time in late July / early August due to the World Cup being in December 2022 rather than Summer 2022. It should be noted there were no replays for FA Cup nor the League Cup this season - all matches decided on the night but also the FA Cup 5th Round was held midweek rather than at the weekend, which in my view is not great for the going to the match type fans.
In terms of the railway one could argue its not been flexible enough using the rails left at its disposal to run services to get passengers to the game in question despite the actions of the FA. There are no 'Blockade busters' from Marylebone or Paddington via the Chilterns to Birmingham New Street on Voyagers with Pendolinos from New Street to Liverpool / Manchester. Secondly how about EMR perhaps running some trains from Liverpool / Manchester via the Hope Valley to St Pancras, they managed a train last week in connection with the Grand National.