Fans Left Stranded: Demand for Government and National Rail Action on FA Cup Semi-Final Chaos
Aston Villa fans travelling to Wembley Stadium for the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday 26th April (the match kicks off at 5:15pm) are set to face major travel disruption, as rail services from Birmingham and across the West Midlands are severely limited due to engineering works and capacity issues.
Chiltern Railways has confirmed that there will be no trains running from Birmingham Moor Street, Solihull, Dorridge, Lapworth, Hatton or Warwick to London on the day. Instead, Chiltern will operate, what they describe as, an "enhanced service" from Warwick Parkway to Wembley Stadium to help manage the increased demand from Aston Villa fans.
However, fans travelling from Birmingham itself are set to struggle: Warwick Parkway is not easily accessible from Birmingham, and parking is limited. Even worse, Chiltern has admitted it "does not have the capacity" to get fans back out of London from Wembley after the match, and has even advised supporters to consider staying overnight in London – an unrealistic and unaffordable option for many.
This comes on top of similar experiences faced by Birmingham City Football Club fans in the English Football League Trophy Final and is symptomatic of a wider pattern of failure to provide adequate rail services for major sporting events.
Cllr Ewan Mackey (Con, Sutton Roughley), Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Birmingham Local Conservatives, said:
"Richard Parker, the Labour Mayor of the West Midlands, should be publicly demand better from the government and nationalised rail companies. It is not good enough for ministers to simply pass the buck while thousands of Midlands football fans are left stranded and out of pocket. Labour is abandoning the people of the Midlands, ever waving the white flag. Nowhere is that more evident than in Richard Parker."
Cllr Robert Alden (Con, Erdington), Leader of the Opposition and Birmingham Local Conservatives, added:
"The Government, Network Rail, and Chiltern Railways must get their act together and deliver a proper service for fans. National sporting occasions like the FA Cup deserve a transport system that works for ordinary people, not just empty promises and half-measures. Failure to fix this penalises fans and football teams from the Midlands and is totally unacceptable. Birmingham and the Midlands deserves much better than this".
