Carlisle United weigh up train travel for team in 2023/24

But the manager admits the price will have to be right if the Blues are to make more journeys by rail.

Simpson and his staff have been analysing their injury record after United’s 2022/23 promotion season came in spite of a number of absences across the campaign.

Among the considerations is whether more often using the train rather than coach for long away trips can benefit the team.

Carlisle travelled by train for their last game of the league season at Sutton United and Simpson says there were clear benefits.

He says club staff are speaking to train company Avanti West Coast about the possibilities of similar trips in League One.

“We looked at the travel, and we are still looking into it, as to whether or not it’s feasible to be able to travel on trains to get there for games,” Carlisle’s manager said.

“The difficulty we have is getting back on a train, because the last train out of Euston is 6.30pm on Saturday, which gives us a real problem to get back to the station to travel back on it.

“We’re trying to weigh up the benefit of going down on the train. We did do it for Sutton, and the players felt the benefit even though the performance didn’t actually show it…

“There was a benefit to it physically. But we have to balance it with the cost of it, because it’s quite expensive to do it.

“Even if we go down on the train we still have to have the coach to meet us at the station and to bring us back.

Simpson said there were clear physical benefits to his players when United travelled by train to Sutton last season (Image: Richard Parkes)

“Sarah [McKnight, club secretary] is speaking with Avanti about it, trying to work out the best way, and we’ll continue to do it.

“If we think it’s the right thing we will continue to do it.”

Simpson is also hoping United can reduce their volume of hamstring injuries as they head towards the 2023/24 season.

He charged physio Chris Brunskill with conducting some deeper analysis of the issues.

And, speaking at last week’s fans’ forum, Simpson said: “It was an exceptionally high season but it was in terms of all injuries.

“We had a high amount of hamstring injuries, a shoulder surgery, a wrist surgery on a goalkeeper, ankle surgery, we had one ACL injury but also had two ACLs that were being rehabbed…

“We had a shocking time with injuries and I wasn’t just prepared to put it down to bad luck.

“We have looked into it. Chris, the physio, did a bit of research into it. Comparing ourselves with everybody else, over the whole of European football there was a 38 per cent increase in hamstring injuries alone. It was something going on all over Europe.

“I’m just hoping we don’t have the number of injuries we had last year in the same season.

“One thing Chris brought up from his research was you expect in a normal season to have something like six injuries related to hamstrings. I think we were at eight or nine.

“We weren’t massively over, but it still felt like we had loads because it seemed all at once.

“We had a period of going down to 65 per cent player availability at times. Then got it up to about 85 per cent or 90. Then amazingly we had 100 per cent availability for Wembley…”

Simpson said the Blues are looking at different ways of monitoring and tracking players after games in case they need to amend certain aspects of their preparation and recovery.

Chief executive Nigel Clibbens also admitted United need to reduce their injury rate.

“Historically, on average we’ve lost 17 per cent of available minutes season on season. Last season we lost 25 per cent to injury,” he said.

“When you’re running a tight squad and need everybody to perform, and you’re losing 25 per cent to injury, over the season on average, it’s a big drain.

“We have to look at ways to get that lower.”