Travel info for fans: Christmas and New Year
From the official FSA.Org website:
When the domestic football schedule gets back underway post-World Cup supporters will be facing disruption on the rail network as industrial action and planned engineering works take place.
With Government and railways workers remaining in dispute, RMT have announced another round of strike action. Additionally, Network Rail’s maintenance and upgrades on key infrastructure will proceed as planned around Christmas and New Year.
While we have done our best to provide up-to-date information at the time of writing, please bear in mind that this information is subject to change – check with any transport providers you plan to use before setting off on your journey.
Industrial action
Supporters travelling to and from games will be affected, especially in December and into January – impacting upon the leagues, League Cup fourth round and FA Cup third round.
RMT have said they plan 48 hour strike action on the following dates:
- Tuesday 13th & Wednesday 14th December
- Friday 16th & Saturday 17th December
- Tuesday 3rd & Wednesday 4th January
- Friday 6th & Saturday 7th January
As this is a Network Rail strike, it will affect train lines across the country. However, Transport for London hasn’t confirmed its participation in this strike. So the London Underground, London Overground and other London lines should still run as normal.
Staff at the following train operators have confirmed that they will be taking part in the industrial action: Great Western Railway, Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, LNER, Greater Anglia, Cross Country Trains, South Western, West Midlands Railway, Northern, GTR (including Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern and Gatwick Express), Southeastern, c2c.
In addition to the strike action there is also an industry-wide overtime ban from Sunday 18th December to Monday 2nd January which will cause further reductions in services.
Operating companies are warning that travellers should plan ahead and only use trains if absolutely necessary, with the majority of services being cancelled. Services that are still running are expected to be extremely busy.
Planned engineering works
In addition to industrial action, there are also planned engineering works taking place in December across significant parts of the rail network.
The Christmas and New Year period will be heavily affected by planned works, with lines closing from Wednesday 23rd December to Saturday 3rd January.
London: There will be no services from London’s Liverpool Street station from Christmas Day to Monday 2nd January 2, no Southern or Gatwick Express trains from London Victoria station over the same dates, and a reduced timetable from London Euston station to places like Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool between Christmas Eve and Friday 30th December.
East Coast Main Line: A reduced Transpennine Express service of two trains per hour will run between York and Manchester from Tuesday 27th December to Sunday 1st January. Bus services will be in place between York and Scarborough, Middlesbrough, Northallerton and a shuttle train service will run between Newcastle and Northallerton.
Roadworks and congestion
While most focus will be on the rail network don’t forget to check National Highways for updates on significant roadworks. Follow them on Twitter @NationalHways
Google Maps also provides up-to-date information via their Google Traffic widget – more here.
‘Chelsea Supporters Group’ can also be found on Twitter and Facebook