Last Sunday, 17th May, c2c, Greater Anglia, and Network Rail Anglia worked together to ensure many thousands of supporters of Southend United football club could enjoy a trouble-free journey to and from Wembley Stadium for the club’s FA Trophy Final with Wealdstone.

With supporters travelling on a coordinated schedule of services, Network Rail’s signalling and control teams worked to ensure their trains ran smoothly and on time. Throughout the day, c2c trains from Southend Central and Greater Anglia trains from Southend Victoria ran to London Liverpool Street, where fans connected quickly and easily to Underground and Overground services to Wembley.

Fans could also take advantage of c2c’s recent “Take the Train to the Game” campaign, which provided full timetable and ticketing information for the day of the final, as well as details of pay-as-you-go with contactless. That facility provided a quick and convenient “tap and go” way to travel from Southend to Wembley, as it was available across c2c’s entire network and on Greater Anglia services between Southend Victoria and Liverpool Street.

Between them, c2c and Greater Anglia operated over 300 services from Southend, with over 91% arriving within three minutes of their scheduled arrival time.

As well as the day being a success for c2c and Greater Anglia, it was also successful for the c2c-sponsored “Shrimpers”, which, after a goalless 90 minutes, won the penalty shootout 4-2, to secure an FA Trophy victory for the first time in its 120-year history.

“After weeks of planning and coordination between c2c, Greater Anglia and Network Rail Anglia colleagues, I was delighted that our operation ran so smoothly and the many thousands of Southend United fans from across south Essex were able to make a safe and straightforward trip into central London on our services. Our collaborative approach to the day, which saw increased levels of demand, clearly demonstrates what we can deliver when working jointly in partnership towards the same shared goal.”

“I would also like to congratulate both the ladies’ and men’s teams on what was an incredible weekend for football, Southend United and the City. We are proud to be the club’s Platinum Partner, and Sunday’s win at Wembley in the FA Trophy is just reward for the hard work and dedication of the whole team at Southend United over a long season. I hope both teams enjoy a relaxing summer break and come back ready to do it all over again in August.”

Rob Mullen, Chief Customer and Commercial Officer for Anglia’s railway