SWINDON Town's Wembley play-off with Preston North End is being dubbed  The Replacement Bus Final after it emerged that Virgin trains will also be unable to ferry fans from the north.

Swindon supporters have alreay learnt that bank holiday engineering work means there will be no trains from Swindon on the Great Western line but it has emerged services from Preston will also be disrupted by work on the West Coast line operated by Virgin Trains.

The situation is particularly embarrassing for Virgin as it is a main sponsor of Preston North End. Fans' difficulties could be worsened by the late 5.30pm kick-off to the match on Sunday May 24.

The kick-off has been pushed back to ensure the match does not clash with Premier League fixtures that afternoon but it does mean that some Preston fans may not be able to get back home on Sunday, particularly if the match goes to extra-time and penalties.

Virgin, First Great Western and Network Rail have all apologised for the situation, with NR saying that the engineering work was essential, had been planned well in advance, and could not be moved.

FGW said: "There are no train services out of Swindon station on the day of the match. We will be running additional coach services from Swindon station to Reading, where you will be able to jump on to a fast service to London Paddington. Journey times between Swindon and London Paddington are expected to take two hours.

"Alternatively, if you are travelling from the east of Swindon, we would recommend you go to Didcot Parkway where there will be two trains an hour into London Paddington."

A Virgin spokesman said: "It's unfortunate timing - and slightly embarrassing for us, bearing in mind our connections with Preston. But NR is carrying out maintenance work on the line between Preston and London and it will be shut down just north of Crewe and south of Rugby.

"We don't have the option on the Sunday evening to put any further trains on, other than the one which is scheduled to come back to Manchester. And that won't accommodate all the 3,000 or so fans we expect to want to travel by rail.

"So we are looking at what we can do on the Monday morning because the feedback we have had says a lot will be staying down for the night."

Swindon fan Chris Woolston, 21, who works for a building society, said he had been hoping to travel by train but has now joined other supporters in hiring a minibus for the journey to Wembley.

Mr Woolston, who lives in Swindon, said: "We've got this minibus and hired a driver for the day and there's 16 of us. A lot of people who were planning on not travelling by car will now have to take to the road.

"It's all a bit unfair and the late kick-off time is terrible for the Preston fans."

Another Swindon supporter, Andrew Steele-Davis, said: "Fans are really being messed around. Network Rail would not budge.

"A lot of supporters are now considering staying up in London overnight.

"With much of the cheaper accommodation already booked, some people might have to pay room rates of as much as £250."

A Network Rail spokesman said: "We know that many people want to use the railway over the bank holiday, which is why the vast majority of the network is running normally over the long weekend.

"We'd like to apologise to any passengers whose plans are affected by our improvement work, but hope they will understand that this is a quieter time on the railway and we want to minimise the overall impact of these vital projects on passengers."