Best Practice

I thought people might like to see the information posted by London Midland for supporters travelling to Northampton Town's match at Wembley yesterday. (I've cut and paste the info, as it may disappear soon.)

It struck me, as excellent, both in terms of the advice given to fans (many of whom would not be regular travellers), and in terms of the effort LM^▸ went to provide appropriate capacity, both by juggling their own stock, and hiring in from other operators. In addition, the changes were highlighted clearly on the home page, signposting people to the appropriate page, which is very clearly laid out. Everything supporters would want to know is included, including fares, the best way to get to Wembley and even suggesting alternative TOC^▸ 's services.

Sadly for those travelling, the final sentence of the page was in vain.

Latest Wembley travel advice for Northampton fans

Date: Thursday, 16 May 2013

Heading for Wembley on Saturday?

Trains between Northampton and London will be extremely busy on Saturday 18 May as up to 10,000 Cobblers^ fans take to the rails for their journey to Wembley for the npower League 2 Play-Off Final against Bradford City.

London Midland will be providing as much extra capacity as possible to help everyone get to the game on time. However, non-match goers are being advised to avoid London-bound trains before midday (as well as evening departures from Euston between 1630-2000hrs due to anticipated crowding.

A revised timetable will be operating on the Euston line to help provide additional carriages on the busiest services. If more capacity is required at key times, we may have to cancel/amend additional scheduled services - please visit our live info page on the website, check live departure boards or tweet @LondonMidland before you set off.

Longer trains
Although there are 13 trains from Northampton to London between 0730-1150, they all start from Birmingham, which means many are already over half full by the time they arrive at Northampton.

Where possible, we will be attaching extra carriages to these trains at Northampton. However, we still have to provide carriages for the other 1,200 trains we run across our network on a Saturday, so not all departures from Northampton will benefit.

Extra trains
As we have limited spare carriages of our own, we have also hired a number of extra trains from other operators, including Virgin Trains.

This will allow us to run additional non-stop services from Northampton to London at 0744, 0838, 0915, 0938, 1009 and 1037, returning from Euston at 1650, 1718, 1750, 1816, 1842 and 1950. Each of these 11/12 carriage trains will be able to carry over 800 people (normal tickets will be valid).

Getting to Wembley Stadium?
We recommend that you take the first available train to London Euston then take the Metropolitan Line from Euston Square to Wembley Park (which is close to stadium).

Wembley Central station (between Watford Junction and London Euston) is a 20-25 minute walk from the stadium, so it is quicker to travel via Euston and the Metropolitan Line. The station is also unable to accommodate our longest trains, so only a handful of London Midland services will stop there before the match. There will be no London Midland services from Wembley Central after the match, so please head for London Euston for your train home.

Arrive at the station early
Thousands of people are expected to travel from Northampton station, and since our scheduled trains are already very busy on Saturday mornings, we recommend that you arrive as early as you can. The earlier you arrive, the quicker you^ll be on your way.

Boarding controls - buy your ticket before Saturday
As with all major events, we^ll be operating a queuing system at Northampton. Only those with a valid ticket will be able to join the queue, so the best bet is to get your tickets in advance. Tickets can be bought at any ticket office or by going online and collecting them from any London Midland self-service ticket machine.

If you turn up on Saturday without a ticket (or you haven^t collected it from the ticket machine), you could end up queuing twice!

What rail ticket do I need?
The one day Travelcard (^30.70) allows a return journey from Northampton to London, plus unlimited use of tubes, trains and buses throughout London (including Wembley). It^s the best ticket if you^re heading into Euston first.

If you are travelling with children, ask for a Family Travelcard (children travel for just ^1), or get a GroupSave fare (up to 50% cheaper than normal fares) if 3 or 4 of you will be travelling together all day.

Buy now

Avoiding the queues
If you want to avoid the queues, you may find it easier - and quicker - to travel to London from another station:

Milton Keynes
^ Up to 8 trains an hour to Euston (Virgin, London Midland, Southern)
^ Travelcard ^27 (save ^7 if you exclude travel on Virgin or London Midland to/from MK^▸ )

Wellingborough
^ 2 trains an hour to St Pancras (East Midlands Trains)
^ Travelcard ^49.50

Bicester North
^ 3 trains an hour to Marylebone (Chiltern Railways)
^ Travelcard ^31.80

More information
Any additional information before the weekend will be posted here, but if you need help on Saturday, we^ll have extra staff on hand at Northampton, Milton Keynes Central and Watford Junction. You can also see how things are running - any day of the week - by checking our live information page, downloading our free iPhone App or by sending a tweet to @LondonMidland any time after 7am.

We hope you have a good day and fingers^ crossed for the right result!