Travel with SCSSC

Our promotion to the Premiership has seen an upsurge in interest in club travel. Here is an update you on what is happening with travel in SCSSC, both the current situation and plans for the future...

Midweek minibuses

These should run as normal to all midweek home matches, and possibly some appropriate away matches. Keep an eye on our forthcoming trips page for details. Contact Les Tuck for bookings and more information – by phone is the best bet – 020 7720 3959.

Car sharing

Many members travel to matches by car from all parts of the south, and some are often willing to share. In June 2008 we introduced a car share messageboard on this website to help like-minded members to sort out sharing arrangements. You will find it here.

Trains – current situation

There has been and will continue to be a small but hardy band of regulars travelling by rail to home matches and some away matches. However, they are making their own travel arrangement these days, but we will post details of which trains most tend to take so you can join them if you wish.

We have stopped running organised group trips because the arrangements that made this possible have been withdrawn by Virgin Trains (see article below). We have tried on occasions to use the rail companies ‘normal’ group travel arrangements, but the terms and conditions on these are too strict for us, and it just does not work. We have also tried block booking of ‘cheap’ tickets but had to stop as we were starting to lose money – and we can’t afford to do that. As to the future – read on…

Trains – news from APFSCIL

Our Apfscil rep John Wood reports… every month the longest item on the agenda, and the biggest talking point, is travel. This has been the case ever since I became our Apfscil rep in 2005. In that time we Stokies have suffered at the hands of Virgin who have effectively withdrawn group travel for football supporters groups. They are not alone; almost every other rail company has done the same. Notable exceptions include GNER who entered into an agreement with clubs on their line setting out terms, prices and separate booking facilities for their client clubs. As far as I know their successor company is carrying on the contract so we should be ok for next seasons trips to Boro, Sunderland and Newcastle!

Apfscil has been campaigning for group travel to be restored on many fronts. So far our travel secretary has involved the House of Commons Select Transport Committee, the FA, the Train Operating Companies (TOCS) and Passenger Focus – a rail consultative group who act as a pressure group for lobbying on diverse matters such as fares and access. In January a member of Passenger Focus attended Apfscil and agreed to take forward clubs representations on group travel as well as the disparity in fares and late release of cheap tickets. On the FA front our travel secretary has been instrumental in getting group travel on to the quarterly Rail Forum Meetings despite opposition from the TOCS. The battle still goes on, football clubs are being asked direct to bring pressure on the TOCS, and the Chair of the Select Committee is being kept in the picture. After all, the railway companies are subsidised with yours and my money as taxpayers. We simply want a service and Apfscil are trying to get it back.

Trains – the future –some better news

Those who take the train to Saturday home matches will be pleased to know that from December 2008 the line through Lichfield should reopen so that the weekend trains from London will be able to run to Stoke with a reduced journey time of about 90 minutes. The improvements to the line have removed a notorious bottleneck and Virgin plan to run three trains an hour to Manchester from December, although only two of those will stop at Stoke. Doubtless our regulars will be pleased about the extra drinking time! Note that the timetable will change when this happens.

Another interesting change due in December will be the addition of a ‘semi-fast’ service between Stoke and Euston, run by London Midland. These are proposed to be hourly and will take about 2.5 hours, although it has yet to be confirmed that they will be able to get us back after the match on Saturdays! The longer journey time will not be to everyone’s liking, but we suspect that these could offer a cheaper alterative for those on a budget, or those travelling from Rugby, Northampton and Milton Keynes.

Click here for details of trips to forthcoming matches.