FA Cup Quarter Final Sunday 9th March - East Midlands Trains

[transmanche]

I think you're being unfair transmanche.

No, I'm just ignoring the spin. A casual observer would think that these five trains are over and above the standard Sunday timetable - when they're not.

And Network Rail changing the plans to allow the trains to use the main line on Sunday afternoon (the plan was to divert via Knottingley) is a sign that the industry are paying attention.

Which I acknowledged:

What is good is that Network Rail has rescheduled some of the work in order to allow some of these 'extra' trains to run. So, yes a big hurrah to the rail industry for managing to do something - but it's not quite the massive increase in capacity that it's been presented as.

Or did you miss that bit?

 

[wensley]

Well let's see.

EC are putting on two extra southbound trains on the Saturday and Sunday, with four extra northbound trains on the Sunday. GC are putting on one extra train each way on the Sunday.

Which sounds fantastic... until you realise that due to planned engineering works, EC are only running 1tph between Newcastle and London, instead of their normal 2tph. So although it's been presented as five 'extra' trains running, it's still quite a reduction on the normal Sunday service.

What is good is that Network Rail has rescheduled some of the work in order to allow some of these 'extra' trains to run. So, yes a big hurrah to the rail industry for managing to do something - but it's not quite the massive increase in capacity that it's been presented as.

Engineering on the ECML is going ahead as planned, which constrains capacity in the south end of the route, with all traffic via Hertford. NR have been great in amending the blocks to allow a better service on the Sunday. It's not all about capacity increases, station management has taken a lot of effort behind the scenes to make the fans' journeys as easy as possible.

And for GC, that extra service is a big step with such a small fleet. On Saturday (when a lot of fans are travelling south) a 10-car 180 will operate on two of the busiest trains also. EC will be ensuring trains run as full formations to offer maximum capacity.

 

[The Snap]

Surely it would not be that hard for EMT to put on an extra earlier train given that there is likely to be the demand for it.

From a railway perspective, there will likely be a lot of possessions on the ECML/MML/WCML on the Saturday night, most finishing around 0700hrs. Running earlier trains on a Sunday isn't normally something that can be done easily!

So yeah, I agree, the FA are complete morons. No consideration for fans at all...and that's accross the board from all levels of football. TV comes first, always (to be fair, TV does fund the whole thing really). Last season Everton had Southampton away on a Monday night for TV...I mean, really?!