Virgin Trains is advising fans going to the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday 14 April that if they have not already bought rail tickets from Liverpool to London they should consider alternative travel arrangements. The warning comes despite the number of seats on the Liverpool-London route being doubled.

A Virgin Trains’ spokesman said: “We are using our longer trains on the route and will also operate some relief trains which will provide around 1500 extra seats on the route, with a further 900 seats on privately operated charter train services. This is the most we can provide given the early kick-off time for the match.

“We are aware that many fans have bought tickets without seat reservations, with their booking confirmation merely showing a recommended train service. We would ask fans to check their bookings carefully. We want fans to have an enjoyable day and we are doing everything we can to make that possible, but we need the fans to help us.”

Virgin Trains says that fans who have not bought a ticket but who intend to travel by rail to London must:

• Travel on services from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston

or

• Travel on services from Stoke-on-Trent to London Euston. Ample car parking facilities are available at Stoke-on-Trent.

Services from Crewe and Warrington Bank Quay are already heavily reserved and should not be used.