Rail for Footballers
A recent article complaining about use of charter jets by football clubs caught my eye.
Top-tier football clubs have been flying to matches on charter jets, even for nominal journeys with 20minute flight times. These are admittedly a last resort rather than pure Premier League decadence - cases where away fixtures are too far to go by coach and scheduled rail services are too slow or badly timed (it’s not unheard of for teams to simply block-book a coach on a scheduled rail service when there is a reasonably direct train. But obviously having a team carry kit & equipment on a train and then the Underground to get a connecting train out the other side of London is impractical).
The complaint is that whilst coaches are cost-effective, they are not preferred for journeys more than a couple of hours - sitting for long periods is connected with poorer athletic performance. Trains offer a little more space to move and walk around but are inflexible and often suffer similar seating limitations. The team then has to transfer to a coach to reach the stadium anyway. For a travel time of more than a couple of hours, a quick charter flight is seen as preferable.
The better answer - it would surely seem - is for the FA to partner with a rail charter group and procure two or three dedicated team trains for distant fixtures (e.g. Newcastle vs. Brighton), borrowing from the concept aircraft cabin that Nike worked on in 2014. The Nike/Teague cabin was aimed at American professional athletes, after research showed that Away teams were 60% more likely to lose if their match involved crossing more than 3 timezones (which American Pro sports do regularly). Those playing Away to a more local team fared much better due to lower travel fatigue.
Premier League teams able to foot the bill for charter flights would surely be interested in a slightly slower but much more comfortable rail experience, which would deliver athletes rested and un-cramped.
A 3-car FLIRT set like the Class 755 can notionally carry around 166 passengers. One coach could be converted to a luxury passenger car able to carry the squad and support staff in comfortable, first-class reclining chairs. They would have space to walk around and stretch. The other two carriages would have space for table seating and small offices for management/coaching staff along with a kitchen space and treatment rooms for team physios & medics. As a bi-mode, it could happily transition to diesel-electric on branch lines when the OLE runs out.
Such a facility would give the players space to move around rather than being confined to a small seat. The onboard facilities allow the squad support & medical staff to provide post-match treatments on the way home. Journey times would be much more competitive than on scheduled rail since a charter service would be taking a direct, non-stop route. The Class 755 is part of Stadler’s FLIRT product, the base design of which is actually capable of 125mph. If bought new, specifying a 125mph top speed rather than the Class 755’s notional 100mph would allow the team trains to operate more comfortably amongst Azumas and Pendolinos on the mainlines, improving operational flexibility and journey times.
In many cases these should deliver players more or less to-the-stadium. Many stadiums are built on former industrial land and have railways passing nearby. By way of example, Old Trafford, St Mary’s Stadium and the Bet365 Stadium are all located immediately adjacent to railways and could in theory have a little siding for visiting teams to arrive at. It goes without saying that they should also have a platform for match day spectator trains as well - but that’s another discussion.
This might seem expensive, but these trains would be pooled across the league as most teams would be playing more local matches on any given weekend and either utilising coaches or scheduled rail. The trains would be provided centrally to teams with distant matches in the same way the F1 organisers lay on centralised freight flights and shipping between races rather than each team trying to charter their own. Charter trains would almost certainly be cheaper than chartering flights for awkward matches.
Out of season, the trains could be utilised by the RFU during the 6-Nations, for other major sporting events hosted in the UK or simply for other VIP charter services.
If we were further ahead, they could provide athlete services between the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and remote venues (such as the cycling at the London Velodrome). If equipped with European-standard signalling and control equipment, they could be made available to European nations for events such as the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. Albeit the Class 755’s top speed of 100mph is a bit anaemic compared to the TGV. They could nonetheless provide useful shuttle services between venues like Nice, Marseille, Saint-Étienne and Décines-Charpieu.
This is all entirely speculative of course, but it’s also entirely doable. I’m not proposing that all match-day travel move to dedicated rail. Jus that this may be a better solution than flying.