football specials

[SteamPower]

yesterday there was a special from Sheffield to Chesterfield at 17:59, which got me wondering who would have been responsible for organising this? and since it left 15 minutes late would the TOC have been fined in the same way as late running normal passenger service?

 

[jopsuk]

The club's supporters club would be the ones who would organise it- similar to the coaches that are much more commonly laid on. It may use normal TOC stock (most are able at weekends to charter some out) or charter company stock. I guess charters get fined for disruptive late running?

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Football Specials used to be a cheap way for fans to go to the match and kept large crowds off the 'ordinary' services. They still have them in Germany. It's about time someone prodded those in power at football to put some of the obscene money involved in the premier league in to bringing them back on a wider scale.

 

[Prodigy]

Bad thing about Football specials is the fact TOC won't accept any forms of railcards. My friend was charged a ridiculous price (£5.60) just to get from Old Trafford to Piccadilly train station. Another problem is a lack of information being handed out to the staff operating these services, one of my friends got in with a ticket which was from Greater Manchester to Old Trafford yet my other friend had to buy a brand new ticket even though his was a Greater Manchester ticket too.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

In the 'good old days' the Soccer Specials would be cheaper than using ordinary services even taking in to account railcard discounts (Actaully I don't think they had railcards back then - but they were certainly cheaper in most instances than going half fare on a child ticket on the ordinary trains).

 

[OxtedL]

I laugh that you think £5.60 is a ridiculous fare. (It is of course very ridiculous, but I live in the South East so I run by different rules most of the time...)

But still, lack of Railcard acceptance is very unfortunate. If they want people to use Football Specials they sorta need to make it practical easy to do so, and not hide behind a wall of random fares...

 

[HSTEd]

There is not enough rolling stock around for them to be feasible on a large scale any more, we arent sitting on vast piles of Mark 1 and Mark 2 rolling stock and there isn't much slack in the system as that would be inefficient.

Unless you are proposing to require football and other sports teams to provide funding to allow for trains to be acquired and maintained, perhaps acting as service relief trains at other times.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

There is usually a special or two between Birmingham (Moor Street) and Wembley Stadium and back whenever there is an England game or a cup final on. I think Club Wembley charter it, but I am not 100% sure. They tend to show on the departure screens as "charter" with no information as to where they are headed, but from time to time people with normal train tickets will find their way onto the train too.

**edit**
It seems Club Wembley do charter the train from Birmingham (link) they may charter more from Marylebone too as there are always a ton of extra trains every time there is a Wembley event.

 

[Prodigy]

I'm not sure if United pay for these services at all, might just be another way for Northern to make money. But OxtedL, the funny thing is I can get a return from Mossley to Manchester which is like twice the distance for £3.60 (I think) and a single from Old Trafford to Piccadilly is £5.60 that's crazy.

One advantage though is these services are less busier than the trams and I do agree more clubs should start investing in these services whether it's to take fans to away games or just to get them to the main stations after home games.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Unless you are proposing to require football and other sports teams to provide funding to allow for trains to be acquired and maintained, perhaps acting as service relief trains at other times.

The Premier League is rich enough and the fact that they switch matches so there is a game almost every day of the week would mean they would not be sitting around so much. Would be especially useful for those Monday night 8pm kick offs up at Newcastle for instance.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

The Premier League is also run by capitalists, and they wont provide transport to the games when they dont have to.

 

[OxtedL]

Yeah, I've just tried to look up some vaguely comparable fares but not having much luck thinking of any.

London to Selhurst return is £6.80 anytime return, NRE doesn't want to give me an off peak ...
Brighton to Falmer is a very low £4.50 anytime ie £3.10 off peak although that may be kept down by university agreements...? Railcards are of course valid with this, and they must both be longer.

 

[HSTEd]

It would take a "Sporting Event Transportation Act 201x" to make them employ the massive financial resources they have to support such services, even a half a dozen sets, to support the entire Premier league would cost more than £50 million if they are any reasonable length.

 

[Greenback]

The Premier League is also run by capitalists, and they wont provide transport to the games when they dont have to.

Quite right. They are far more interested in the money they get from SkyTV than the logistics of getting fans to and from matches as conveniently and cheaply as possible.

It might be in individual club interests to try and do something, but only if it won't cost them anything, or, better still, make them money!

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Brighton to Falmer is a very low £4.50 anytime ie £3.10 off peak QUOTE]

When they were at the Withdean your match ticket included free local bus travel to and from the ground.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

It would take a "Sporting Event Transportation Act 201x" to make them employ the massive financial resources they have to support such services, even a half a dozen sets, to support the entire Premier league would cost more than £50 million if they are any reasonable length.

The annual salary of one non-entity 'star' player

 

[tbtc]

The odd thing about it is that there's no lack of direct public transport from Sheffield to Chesterfield (eight buses an hour, via various routes, up to six trains an hour), so there's not so much need for a "special" as there would be for something like Sunderland to Swansea (where there's no direct train service available).

Lack of stock and inflexible rules mean most TOCs can't provide these kind of services for matches on normal Saturdays nowadays though.

 

[marks87]

I was on a football special back in 2003 when Dundee were in the Scottish Cup Final. The club organised a special train to Queen Street, and sold the tickets themselves. I think the original plan was to run direct to Mount Florida, but I believe that was abandoned because nobody could think of a practical route.

It was a bunch of ScotRail 150s and 156s, which took up the whole of platform 7 at Queen Street station.

 

[HSTEd]

Huge DMU lashups.... I wish I was old enough to remember those, I hear stories about massed Class 101s.....

 

[tbtc]

Huge DMU lashups.... I wish I was old enough to remember those, I hear stories about massed Class 101s.....

I wish I had a digital camera back then!

Now the only "lashups" you get are this time http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebustocrookes/6112675903/ - not the same!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bad thing about Football specials is the fact TOC won't accept any forms of railcards. My friend was charged a ridiculous price (£5.60) just to get from Old Trafford to Piccadilly train station.

Do Northern Rail receive all the monies from these services or is part of the revenue passed on elsewhere?

 

[Prodigy]

Do Northern Rail receive all the monies from these services or is part of the revenue passed on elsewhere?

I'm not too sure mate. I guess United could take some of the revenue to help pay off our debt

 

[DarloRich]

There is usually a special or two between Birmingham (Moor Street) and Wembley Stadium and back whenever there is an England game or a cup final on. I think Club Wembley charter it, but I am not 100% sure. They tend to show on the departure screens as "charter" with no information as to where they are headed, but from time to time people with normal train tickets will find their way onto the train too.

**edit**
It seems Club Wembley do charter the train from Birmingham (link) they may charter more from Marylebone too as there are always a ton of extra trains every time there is a Wembley event.

East Coast tend to run an extra tran when England play at home. It seems to run Kings Cross-Doncaster-Leeds-York-Newcastle (with stops in between!)

 

[sonic2009]

There's been a Rugby Special for Worcester Warriors before it was 3 x class 150 running Worcester Shrub Hill - Gloucester for the European Challenge Cup Final a few years ago on a Sunday