Useless train firms letting down fans

THIS is not an FA Cup semi-final weekend, but Chelsea fans trying to get to Everton for their 2pm kick-off on Sunday will get a taste of how it felt. Works have closed the north-west line again, so the only rail option that arrives a reasonable time before the match involves a departure from London Marylebone at 8am, an all-stations rattler to Birmingham Moor Street, a walk across town to Birmingham New Street and another train to Liverpool. Reversing the route after the game will get a passenger back to Marylebone at 11.16pm. An alternate route involves two trains, a bus between Milton Keynes and Bedford and a nine-stop Thameslink into St Pancras. Meanwhile, on Sunday, my 9.17am to Liverpool was showing as a 9.17am to Manchester. My booking said 9.17am Liverpool, my ticket said 9.17am Liverpool. A station employee confirmed they had changed the schedules. I could get the 8.52am on platform 12. It was 8.50am. If I’m not a travel nerd who gets to stations unnecessarily early, I’m late. You don’t need to know my adventures, but you need to know this: it is not the work of the FA, the Premier League, broadcasters, or the clubs when you are stranded trying to get to a match. It’s the work of companies like Avanti West Coast. They’re useless. And, by the way, they’ve got a Government regulator.