Liverpool fans could face travel chaos next month as they make their way to watch the FA Cup semi final.
The Reds edged past an impressive Nottingham Forest side yesterday. The 1-0 victory means they will now take on Premier League title rivals Manchester City in a showpiece semi-final at Wembley on the weekend of April 16.
Wembley is expected to be packed with fans travelling down from Liverpool, Manchester and across the North West for a tantalising clash between the two rivals. But both sets of fans could face a travel nightmare, with no trains running for the entire weekend.
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Avanti West Coast has confirmed that it will not be running any trains into London Euston over the Easter weekend of April 15 to 18. This is because engineering work is taking place across a number of locations between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central. The company said further work is also taking place on the West Coast Main Line which will cause further alterations to services.
Services from Liverpool Lime Street will start and terminate at Rugby across the long weekend. Trains from Manchester Piccadilly will start and finish at Milton Keynes Central and run via Stoke-on-Trent.
Commenting on the situation on Twitter, Liverpool fan Stephen Evans, son of former Reds boss Roy Evans, said: "No trains running from Liverpool or Manchester to London for the whole of the weekend when the semi final is on is a joke. Traffic going down for the League Cup final was horrendous, this will be twice as bad. Surely the game should be moved to Old Trafford?"
The situation was also commented on by Reds boss Jurgen Klopp, who told The Times: "How is that possible? The whole of the North West is cut off from the rest of England? I don’t know which kinds of solutions are available but I hope somebody finds one. If we could play with supporters that would be really good — for both teams.”