Sheffield United: Blades fans face major travel disruption on EFL Championship play-off final day
Sheffield United plans are facing major travel disruption on the day the Blades head to Wembley for their play-off final.
United face Sunderland on Saturday afternoon, as the two teams battle it out for a place in the Premier League next season - but railway bosses have scheduled major engineering works on the line between Sheffield on the same day.
It means Blades fans heading for the match by rail will not be able to get a train directly from Sheffield to London, and instead will have to get on a bus link, or go to Doncaster to get a train from there.
The game is scheduled for a 3.01pm kick off, but fans will have to get through engineering work taking place between Bedford and Harpenden over the weekend, affecting rail services along the Midland Main Line.
The East Midlands Railway trains will run from Sheffield as far as Bedford, but there will be no trains running between Bedford and London St Pancras.
It means Sheffield United fans travelling by train have to change at Bedford where there will be replacement bus services to take passengers to Hitchin, to connect with alternative trains through to London St Pancras International.
Replacement bus services will operate every 15 minutes between Bedford and Hitchin. The train from Sheffield to Bedford is timetabled to take around 1hr 40, with the bus from Bedford to Hitchen scheduled to take another 55 minutes. National Rail lists trains from Hitchin to London as taking 47 minutes. The whole journey usually takes just under 2hrs 10 mins.
Travel South Yorkshire says EMR has been working closely with LNER and Sheffield United and is encouraging supporters to either travel to Wembley on LNER services via Doncaster on the East Coast Main Line, or consider travelling to London on Friday May 23 or returning on Monday May 26, to avoid the peak of engineering disruption .
Travel South Yorkshire added in a statement: “Other services are expected to be busier than usual and to help supporters and other customers on Saturday May 24, additional staff and crowd management resources will be in place at Sheffield train station and customer information will be regularly updated.”
Customers can plan their journey using the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner or the TSY Journey Planner.