Spirit of Shankly, the Liverpool supporters’ union, say they are “appalled” by the “shambolic travel arrangements” that have seen trains from Merseyside to London cancelled on the weekend of the FA Cup semi-final.
And the Football Association have confirmed they are in contact with Liverpool and Manchester City to devise a solution for a problem that will impact tens of thousands.
The Reds booked their place in the last four of the FA Cup when they beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 at the City Ground on Sunday evening, thanks to Diogo Jota's late strike.
It has set up a first semi-final in the FA Cup for the club since 2015 as they get set to go head-to-head with their Premier League title rivals City at Wembley over the weekend of April 16.
However, both sets of supporters face a logistical nightmare to get to the national stadium due to no running trains from the North West to the capital over the Easter weekend.
PAUL GORST: Jurgen Klopp lazy accusations dismissed as Liverpool set up Man City clash
IAN DOYLE: Gomez sends Liverpool reminder as Oxlade-Chamberlain frustration speaks volumes
Avanti West Coast confirmed that it will not be running any trains into London Euston from April 15 to 18 because of engineering work that is scheduled to take place across a number of locations.
The travel company said that further work is also slated on the West Coast Main Line, which will cause further alterations and disruption for travellers.
Services from Liverpool Lime Street will start and terminate at Rugby across the long weekend, while trains from Manchester Piccadilly will begin and end at Milton Keynes Central and run via Stoke-on-Trent.
In a tweet sent out on Monday afternoon, Liverpool fan group SOS said they were "appalled" at what they labelled "shambolic travel arrangements" before confirming they were in discussions with their Man City counterparts about what could be done.
SOS tweeted: "Fan reps of both @LFC & @ManCity are appalled at the shambolic travel arrangements #notrains for the prestigious @EmiratesFACup semi-final at @wembleystadium and are in contact with each other, full joint statement to follow later from ourselves & @WeAre1894".
Jurgen Klopp was asked about the situation when speaking pitch-side at the City Ground after the game on Sunday and while the Liverpool manager was unaware of the transport issues, he hoped there could be some intervention to ease supporters' travel fears.
"How is that possible?" asked the Liverpool boss. "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.”
The Football Association were unable to provide details of any plans that were in place that would help fans travelling from the North West that weekend when contacted by ECHO on Monday morning, while Liverpool said they were looking into the matter.
However, the governing body later released a statement saying: “The FA will be liaising closely with both Liverpool FC and Manchester City FC on all match arrangements, including supporters travel for the upcoming Emirates FA Cup Semi Final fixture at Wembley Stadium, with further details to be announced in due course.
“We are also continuing to work with both Network Rail and National Express to find a solution so that supporters of both teams are able to travel to and from the fixture with as minimal disruption as possible.”
Stephen Evans, the son of former Liverpool manager Roy, tweeted: "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 @FootballAssocation."
Reds legend Robbie Fowler responded, saying: "Absolutely spot on, when all the talk of super league going ahead it was money this, money that, taking away from fans etc. Let's hope they prove it's about the fans, can't continue at Wembley + it takes away [the] importance of what it means to get to the final if you were there weeks before."
