2025 FA Cup Final
The 2025 FA Cup final between Manchester City and Crystal Palace will be kicking off at 16:30 on Saturday 17th May at Wembley Stadium. With the teams based over 200 miles apart, many fans will undoubtedly be travelling to the game from all around England, many of which will likely be using trains to complete these journeys, Whether that be as a sustainable alternative to driving, or to allow them to have a few drinks before the journey back!
Travel to Wembley Stadium
Whilst Crystal Palace fans are largely based in London and the South East (78% according to YouGov), 38% of Manchester City fans are unsurprisingly based in the North West and face a considerably longer journey to Wembley Stadium. Wembley Stadium is around 70 minutes by train for any of the three train stations near Selhurst Park, meanwhile Etihad Stadium is not located near a train station but is a 10 minute metro journey from Manchester Piccadilly which is 3 hours from Wembley Station. We decided to analyse the journey times of fans of each team using TRACC to see just how much the travel time varies.
Using TRACC
Journey times were calculated from every rail station in England, arriving at Wembley Stadium by 15:00. These journey times took into account interchanges between different services to ensure that wait times were accurate. This highlighted large variations in journey time within a region.
Access By Region
Whilst those living in London and the South East can expect the quickest journey times to Wembley (1hr2 and 2hr on average respectively), the journey to Wembley can be much longer for those travelling from the North East, Yorkshire or the South West (4hr48, 4hr11 and 4hr7 respectively), including large variations in journey times.
Based on the distribution of fans according to YouGov, Crystal Palace fans can expect an average journey time of just under 2 hours (increased by 10% of fans based in the South West), whilst Manchester City fans have an average journey time of just over 3 hours.
Access By Station
In the South East, whilst residents near Gerrards Cross Rail Station were able to catch a direct train to Wembley Stadium with a total journey time of less than 15 minutes, those located near Doleham Rail Station face 3 interchanges and over 3 hours of waiting between services, leading to a total travel time of 6+ hours.
It is worth noting that this analysis allowed a maximum walking distance of 800m, which prevented alternative options such as walking or driving from Doleham to Three Oaks Rail Station (1.6miles away) which has a journey time to Wembley of just over 2 hours.