Travel News

Well it is if you've decided to follow the Blues until the rest of the season. No more Borient away and even the relatively easy one of Swindon on Easter Monday becomes a kick in the teeth with a 19.45 kick off!

Most cheap train fares go on sale three months in advance and have been snapped up but I hope the following will give anyone making a late decision some helpful tips if you enjoy travelling outside the official coaches or having to drive. Roadworks I will look at in The Car section of the previews as we get closer to the games. Good Luck, however you plan to support the Blues on a road we hope will end sometime in May at Wembley. (All prices as of March 13.)

HUDDERSFIELD (March 15)

By now I'm sure you've got supporters club coaches booked, train tickets in your wallet or cars fully tanked up. At nearly 80quid, blimey I got to Marrakech and back for sixty and it took an hour less, you would have to have been quite overcome by the stirring performance of the lads on Tuesday evening to fork that out! If you are being tempted this is the best I can advise.

Get up very early on Saturday, (and I mean early, you will need to be on a train by the 6.46 from Southend Victoria if not before), and buy a 16.80 travelcard from a Southend station of your choice to get you to London Victoria by around 8.15. Click on www.nationalexpress.com and buy a funfare single from London to Leeds on the 8.30 coach at 9quid, it gets in at 13.05. Buy the single back as well, the 18.05 which gets back to Victoria at 22.20, that one is currently on offer at 7pounds. There is time for a couple of pints in the excellent Scarborough Hotel, two minutes from Leeds rail station and a fifteen minute walk from the coach stop. Buy a 4.20 day return on the 20 minute trip to Huddersfield, they are every 15 minutes but the 13.55 or 14.10 would be OK as it is a relatively short walk to the ground. After the game you must get the 17.17, there is a 16.57 and 17.27 but the latter would mean a very brisk walk after you get off, as the 18.05 is the last coach back to London! A 23.15 from Liverpool Street or the Fenchurch Street line will be open to whisk you back to your beds close to midnight and 19 odd hours after you got up! Phew, but you have 'only' spent 37quid, so along with the match ticket you've kept it under 60, the best I can do at this stage.

SWINDON (March 24)

3pm kick off on Easter Monday and this would have been easy, 7.45 and it's looking ugly, most of the Liverpool St. line is closed as well. All I can advise here is the usual travelcard then a 25pounder single on the 15.41 to Swindon from Paddington, see www.thetrainline.com, that's the easy bit, (if the district and circle line are up and running), but you've spent 42quid and there's no guarantee you will get home that evening! There is a ten pound single on the 21.34 that will get back you back at 1.08 but it's a good 20 minute walk from the ground, 15 if your a good runner, so it's an early leave. The last service of 22.29 would get you home, thanks to the engineering works, at around 3.19am! Really, book a coach here or scrounge a lift!

CREWE (April 5)

A bit easier a few weeks away so here we go. All the following would include the travelcard first and adding at least 90 minutes to get from your local station and through the maze called the London Underground, if the lines you need are not closed. (Make that two hours and check the TFL journey planner!)

Crewe is the short one at 2 and a half hours from Euston but sadly the 13pound fares have gone. So it's 21quid on the 11.38, in after 14.00 but a short walk to the ground, and 26 on anything before. There is a 13pounder on the way back, the 17.53, so a pint celebrating victory hopefully and back soon after ten. You have though spent 53pounds before a match ticket! (Of course I'm quoting the full price for a Travelcard everytime, if you decide to drive to town, live closer or actually in London where you can use an Oyster, fares will drop every time, thirty odd is better than fifty!)

CARLISLE (April 19)

The mother of all away trips and, again I'm afraid, the cheapest singles up from Kings Cross have gone. After another five am wake up call it's now a horrible 36.50 on the 8.10 with a change at Leeds that will get you there at 13.36, the ground is 20 minutes from the station. (There is a 7.10, in at 12.15, if you can somehow get there on time.) Only 15.70 quid getting back though! You must get the 17.20, so ask the local plod politely if we win 2-0 and they decide to keep us behind to let us out. Easy. It's a bit scary that there is only ELEVEN minutes from the change at Newcastle before the LAST 19.06 London train rolls in to get everyone back by 22.17! So if the winds get up learn to say "Where do you find the cheapest hotel?" in Geordie, or we all gang up on the platform staff to get us a nice taxi back home! (Or get the 19.46 which hits London at 9.06 the next morning, well it's a cheap room!)

If you haven't got a ticket yet your looking at three figures with a match ticket, blimey you can have a week on a Greek island for less and your also looking at eight hours on a train! Start talking to mates with a car, even at today's prices half or less of the petrol will be less......maybe.

TRANMERE (April 26)

The closest railway stations are Rock Ferry and Birkenhead Central, both served by Liverpool Lime St. but a fair walk from the ground. (15-20 minutes, fuller details in the match preview in the The Train section but there is a free bus service, show your train ticket, outside Hamilton Square station).

Your back to Euston for this one that will take just over three hours. 13 or 14pounds will get you the 8.17, 9.17, 9.38 and 10.17, all in at decent times. The same back will allow the 18.40 which is the best for a return to Southend at a half decent time with a change at Stafford. So looking at a more decent forty odd notes here but with one game left a gamble to book now, it could all be over, you decide!

There is a five hour coach trip from Victoria, 8am and only a fiver, but the time and a relative small saving of 7quid counts against this, I did take this option but got a fare of a pound and I live in London so worth a gamble, I'd better start checking out those ferry times!

COME ON YOU BLUES!!!!!!!