I dread to think what it was like earlier straight after the game in Piccadilly.
We decided we were going to get the 20:13. After queing at Burger king and waiting 10 minutes to be told it will be another 10 minutes, I asked for my money back. Within seconds my food was there. (I should never have eaten it) I don't know why I bothered making a dash to the platform as when I got there, i was only met by every other man and his dog trying to get to the platform.

After been told to go to platform 3, the train arrived and half the platform didn't get on. People were making abusive gestures at others who felt those inside the carriages could move down alittle, and it didn't look long until something would kick off, and I at least 3 women crying.

I went up the escalators on platform 3 to cut through the mayhem on the stairs at platform 13/14. When I arrived, it was quiet. By the time the train came at 21:13, it was abit unsavory. Police had to jump in more than once, people were taking cheap shots and more women were crying. Most of them were going to Stalybridge and didn't know why it was so busy.



Oh, and lastly, I've been throwing up all day due to that Burger. It was either that or not been able to move for 1 hour on a stupidly hot train that made me worse for wear.

I think I will jump on a skateboard next time

Until the last GF I went to last year, the trains on GF day haven't been too bad (busy, but not dangerous). Last time (2012 final), I was surprised that someone wasn't seriously injured the way that BTP and First Transpennine carried on.

Reading FTPE's Twitter feed, their view is that yesterday's failings were the fault of the RLWC organisers for organising a match in a city that they run services to. I really don't understand how, on a day when they know that there is a major event at Old Trafford and on a day when they know 7,000 Leeds United fans are travelling to Blackburn, they can't make arrangements.

As mentioned earlier, Manchester hosts a major football match every week with either City or United. Surely they can't get it this wrong every week?

That's their problem. They are rigid with their timetables and don't make any effort to increase capacity hiding behind the same tired excuses.

My fav moment on a northern train was travelling from Manchester to Preston on a Saturday morning. The train was overcrowded although there was no particular event on. When the tannoy announcer said "we apologise for the overcrowding. This is due to ....." many passengers paused to hear the reason. " the high volume of passengers". Kind of sums up the attitude of rail companies.

Used the metrolink from crumpsall and it was hectic, went for the tram at 12 and 2 went past full. this is a few stops before even getting to the centre. We eventually managed to squash onto one which was packed, it then stopped at victoria and had people running and jumping to squash in which was downright idiotic. then every other station there was no chance.

We left the ground just after the trophy was presented and got our skates on, probably queued for about 25 minutes for a tram which wasn't too bad, a couple went past full because obviously people where just going to altrincham then swapping over but eventually some empty carriages where sent.

I've never seen Manchester so busy, stayed over and today was just as bad because of the markets. It seems that they just couldn't be bothered adding extra services/carriages to cope with the demand, Certainly wouldn't be blaming the RFL.

Never had a problem going to football at Old Trafford. Maybe it's drunken RL fans that are the problem?

It gets busy at Stockport when city are at home but thats about it really.

Leaving your pit village and going to big city must be a huge shift in mindset. Trains, buses lots of people etc

It's bit like your annual trip to Butlins

Driving there, alright until opposite side of Pennines where hit traffic and was crawling through M60 then rammed going towards Old Trafford due to traffic cones and closed lanes. Why oh why do roadworks when there's an event on? Set off around 11:10 and turned up around 13:45.

Parking not clearly signed/poorly signed too and Old Trafford needs signing better from M60.

Coming back, sweet as a nut.

On the whole, though, it was probably easier to get to Eastlands than it was Old Trafford for the Magic Weekend.

Try this next time.
If you go the long way round the M60 (avoiding the usual Saturday mayhem near Trafford Centre). Yes it's longer in miles…but a lot quicker in time.

We did.

There was an accident between Jcn 18 and Jcn 15, which meant the entire M60 was blocked up.

Was that on the way back? If so, i must have got past it before it happened.
There was on on the opposite side going ( slowed down for the Rubberneckers).

Sorry should have made my 1st comment clearer.
Heading from Yorkshire come off at Jnct 18 then head clockwise round M60. You then miss all the Trafford Centre traffic.

Not all those in the 74000+ crowd who went by train were drunk. The vast majority of passengers at Piccadilly were sober or not acting as if they were under the influence. They were treated like idiots by the TPE staff and the lack of information given over platform changes, lack of carriages, why there weren't buses to alleviate the crush. It's lucky there weren't serious injuries from the crushing.

(The bloke from National Rail there was very helpful, just the attitude of the manager from TPE stunk and didn't help matters at all.)

Not really, I work at the station and we never notice much of a difference when Man Utd or City are playing.

Personally didn't have any real travel problems, had about a 40 minute wait at Salford Exchange Tram stop, but the lads worked hard and got empty trams put on to clear the queues as quickly as they could.

Think the reason football fans don't struggle is they are used to it and have found a way to avoid the traffic, maybe thats why OT is half empty after 80 mins of a Man U game.

The Leeds-Huddersfield-Manchester route gets busy all the time, especially on a weekend. But this was beyond that. I took one look at Platform 16 in Leeds and opted for the longer journey to Victoria instead....however, this even took 45 minutes longer than it does normally and was very over-crowded by Hebden Bridge.

We made it to Victoria for about 1....took one look at the tram queues and opted for a taxi. These came at a rate of about 1 every 12 minutes by my reckoning. I've never seen fewer taxis at a major station. Managed to get in eventually just as the Haka was starting.

Anyway, coming back we got a flying start 10 minutes before the end, and must have missed most of the rush. Waited 5 minutes for a tram, and queued for 10 minutes to get on to Platform 13 at Piccadilly. So not too bad, but you could see it was starting to build up, and the staff were very abrupt even at that point.

I cant say any of this came as a surprise though, sadly.

Once on the Manchester Victoria line and had to stand all the way due to the usual shortage of carriages. However, as we approached MV station the driver came on the tannoy and apologised for the poor service and then proceeded to slag off his bosses and told everyone they don't invest on this side of country and all the money went to the East Coast line etc. Brutally honest!

I got dropped off before the game as my missus was travelling on somewhere, but getting back was OK.
Directed to the tram station by the police, big queue, but it moved reasonably quickly.
Jumped off at Deansgate and got the 17.45 train to Lime St. off at Mossley Hill and I was back home by 7.
No worries for me. Looks like you guys coming from the east had the short end of the stick.

Huddersfield was a nightmare, we watched 5 trains go by and couldn't get on any. When we asked the customer services lady if they had planned on extra carriages or trains she declared there was no plans for that, however they would put buses on. Upon going outside to look for a bus, it was a 15 seater mini bus. Her explanation was FTPE didn't expect the passenger load. Who would have thought the annual Manchester Xmas market, shoppers and a major sporting event with the bulk of supporters living on the M62 belt would increase train loads

I travel on the trans pennine trains a fair bit during the week and the number of carriages is almost always higher than the three or four we were faced with yesterday.

I travelled from Halifax, went across to Huddersfield and it was bedlam, took us over an hour and a quarter to get on a train, luckily we got to Hudds at 10.40.

Dally, this game cannot be compared to a Man Utd game where the crowd are dispersing all over the country, when nearly half are heading back to Yorkshire and many of those are on public transport with xmas shoppers added to the mix, and a large Leeds following to Blackburn then the train companies preparation was woeful.

This cannot be compared to the Grand Finals with their 6pm kick offs avoiding such a concentration of travellers all at once. Going home we got lucky realising the lift was still taking people to Platform 13, but the train was still packed. The journey home was made bearable thanks to some charming ladies from Normanton.