Why Away Fans In England Don't Take The Train For Tuesday Night Games

Forbes

2 days ago

BRIGHTON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 11: Supporters make their way from Falmer station to the ground before ... More the Sky Bet Championship match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Leeds United at The Amex Stadium on February 11, 2014. (Photo by)
It's a soccer cliché that Lionel Messi wouldn't like to play on a wet and windy Tuesday night in Stoke, but when it comes to watching the game, Tuesdays are the hardest for away fans.
Stoke City wouldn't be the worst venue to get home from though. That dubious honor goes to Yorkshire.
This is based on research by soccer fan app Away End, which looked at whether it is possible to get home on public transport after the game.
The research took every game in the 2024/25 league season for clubs in the English Football League (EFL) Championship, League One and League Two, and simulated return transport for traveling fans.
It found that it was impossible for away fans to get home using public transport from Tuesday 7:45 p.m. matches in more than 85% of cases. For other midweek games, away fans couldn't get home 34% of the time, and unsurprisingly, fans from the northeast and southwest found it most difficult to travel to away games on public transport. These numbers are also a best-case scenario, not factoring in engineering works or leaves on the train line.
Back in 2021, during the COP26 summit in Glasgow, the BBC published an article saying how fans could reduce their carbon footprint. It's number one recommendation: walk, cycle or use public transport to get to games. But this research shows how difficult that is for fans at midweek games, with most opting to drive or take a supporters' bus instead, or just not attend midweek away games at all.
Freddie Daley from Cool Down – The Sport for Climate Action Network, which commissioned the research, said there is room here for train companies to solve this problem, saying 'if they just put the last train 45 minutes later, or in some cases 20 or 30 minutes later, fans would be able to get home.' He says this is something that rail operators, especially those going back under the government's ownership, could consider, adding that surveys by rail companies show that fans want to take the train to matches, and that Germany runs additional late-night trains for sporting events or concerts so it is something that's possible.
James Medcalf, who runs the Away End app, said that on a per-mile basis, fans in Yorkshire had the biggest difficulties getting home, highlighting the disparities in the quality of public transport between the north and south of England.
He said the reason why Tuesday was the worst is because Tuesdays often have a full fixture list involving every team, or are used for games that had been postponed from earlier in the season, whereas when the EFL chooses games for its Monday and Friday TV slots, these games are often local derbies which make for good TV. As such derbies naturally involve teams that are nearby, it just happens that these fans can get home relatively easily.
The report recommends that the EFL and broadcasters should consider travel options and distances when choosing which games to show on TV.
Medcalf says the EFL does try to consider fans when it schedules games, but 'the fact they have to pack a lot of games into a tight schedule means there's very limited impact the EFL can have on certain games being booked in on a Tuesday.'
He highlights the difficulties in the first and last miles of the journey home for fans who aren't near a major train line or who are visiting grounds far from the train station, saying of a trip he took to Preston North End that 'getting away from Preston at the end of the game, which isn't that close to the town center and having to get on the last train to get back to London was quite 'squeaky bum time.''
He also mentions how running the last train half an hour or so later on matchdays would have a big impact but highlights that the cost or rail travel, especially last minute, makes it prohibitively expensive for many fans anyway.
Daley points out that some clubs do try to help fans by offering discounted train tickets. But some things are out of clubs' hands. Plymouth Argyle is one of the clubs that has tried hardest to improve its green credentials recently, but due to its location in the southwest of England, it has been the club with the highest number of stranded fans. One time Plymouth actually sent its players to a match against Watford by train, but a cancellation meant that the trains were so crowded, the players had to sit on the floor.
Fixing the situation isn't easy as there are so many stakeholders involved, but making it easier for fans to travel to away matches would not only help the environment but also improve fan experience and the atmosphere at the stadiums, making it a win-win for everyone involved.