This has until recently been our best season for many, many years.
Unfortunately for Southern-based supporters, it has been completely wrecked by the bus
strike on the Burnley – Manchester route in August and September and the breakdown of
any recognisable train service on the London – Preston route from October onwards.
Who can ever trust Railtrack again, and as I write this
in early January, April seems to be the date for a return to some sort of normality. One
horror story after another keeps emerging in our national papers about people who
won’t want to use the train unless they have to.
For those people who don’t travel very far to
watch Burnley, even the local matches have been wrecked. The weather meant the
postponement of the game at Watford, but the timing of 3-15 pm meant the whole day was
wasted. The loss of the Wimbledon match meant the holiday period drew a blank and a last
minute equaliser at Crystal Palace condemned us to extra time and elimination from the
Worthington Cup.
Now five straight defeats and a rail system which has
almost collapsed leaves us at our lowest ebb for many years.
Having decided to attend the Kingstonian v Woking
fixture on New Year’s Day, I had a couple of hours to kill before the match started,
and I decided to visit Euston and Kings Cross. At Kings Cross, the woman at the concourse
enquiry bureau handed me a Christmas horror timetable, which lasted until January 5th.
When I enquired about trains beyond this date, I was met with a puzzled stare and a reply
that some sort of timetable may be available nearer the date! At Euston it was even worse,
and the answer to my question was, ‘We only work from day-to-day dependent upon what
Railtrack tell us’. Remember, this is January and the Hatfield train crash took place
in October on another line!
I staggered away from the station knowing that my
journey had been a complete waste of time. Then suddenly I came upon a poster telling me
about the new fare rises due to come into effect on January 7th. Don’t
they realise you can’t get on a train to pay these new fares! Perhaps Railtrack and
the FA could merge. That would be a public relations disaster.
