It has recently been announced that they have decided to carry out major East Coast Mainline rail works on the weekend of the League Cup final which will seriously disrupt any Sunderland fans travelling to and from Wembley by train...It makes you wonder who is responsible for making these decisions...
They might be able to put special trains on specifically for fans heading south, and re-route them down the west coast line.
Just been on the future engineering website and for the East Coast on Sat 1 and Sun 2nd it reports ; East Coast Trains will be diverted between Doncaster and York and will have journey times extended by up to 45 minutes. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/currentAndFuture.aspx Edit: That page was updated today at 14.00
Having enquired about this on twitter, here are the responses I got from the official enquiry account... Me: So @nationalrailenq have decided Rail works to be done on north east lines on 2/3/2014, what idiot decided that? #SAFC #CapitalOneCup National Rail Verified account @nationalrailenq The works are planned months in advance by @networkrail and there is never an ideal time unfortunately. Me: @nationalrailenq @networkrail so decided to do it on the day of Football final...when there is a HIGH chance of fans travelling... National Rail ‏@nationalrailenq 2m They were probably planned before the football dates were available, sorry about this. bearing in mind this article... http://www.capitalonecup.co.uk/news/article/201314-round-dates-792045.aspx written in April 2013 states when the final shall be held...
well if you saw the East Coast series about the trains you could see it is run by some right back and white morons......