Departure after game & P+R - some constructive criticisms.

[Hunting 784561]

There were literally thousands of people waiting for the various P+R s after the yesterday's game.

I was amazed to see that new buses coming in (to collect) had to be '3 point turned' before they could get their passengers on board - and 3 point turned right in the middle of the thousands of people waiting to get on!

I'm sure this is a design flaw, but it's an accident waiting to happen.

Also it would be quicker and make more sense for 3-4 buses to be loaded simultaneously and departed all at the same time, rather than the current 1 bus at a time.

There is too much strain on the the Village Way & Falmer A27 junctions generally, and I think the club should look at creating some new access directly onto the A27 or the A27 down slips, maybe through the E or NE side of Bennett's Field Car Park for departing traffic - anything to take the stress off those junctions.

If we don't do anything at all , opponents of the proposed extra 8000 seats could have a field day.

 

[Daffy Duck]

Do they stop the traffic lights at the junction with Falmer Road or does everyone have to wait for the green light?

 

[Gangsta]

yeah I've been thinking this all along - The Woodingdean road and its junctions is a bit of a struggle. I left dead on 90 mins and legged it to Bennetts Field and got out in 8 mins, thought it would be much worse - mind you I noticed very few people had actuuly left early - that wont always be the case depending on the mtach score.

Problem with the parking close to the ground is its the wrong side of the railway - they would have to build a bridge - that would put millions more on to the cost of the extra seats and could take a year or so to be built ( knowing this country ). I just wondered if they could upgrade, lengthen, widen and improve the existing bus stop actually on the A27 by the rail station as at the mo its only small - this would remove all buses from the immediate stadium areas.

One other point. From various weekends walks, I kind of remember there being a bridge just the otehr side of Falmer that services a few farm properties on either side of the A27, but as it goes over the A27, could this be used as a turning point for buses going to stadium from west to east then turning back toward stadium heading west again for said new improved drop of point on the A27. I kinda remember it being fairly wide - enough for a bus, but maybe wrong. It would save them having to go all the way to Kingston roundabout and crucially take them off of the Woodingdean road bridge/junctions.

Any ideas?

 

[Scoffers]

I suggest emailing feedback[MENTION=5978]bhafc[/MENTION].co.uk - might not do any good but I might be better than assuming they will read this themselves

 

[Hunting 784561]

Do they stop the traffic lights at the junction with Falmer Road or does everyone have to wait for the green light?

On our P&R bus yesterday we had to wait for the green light.

 

[Daffy Duck]

On our P&R bus yesterday we had to wait for the green light.

No wonder it's a mare trying to get out, then.
Why can't they get the police and stewards to hold back the other traffic to allow buses & coaches to get out quicker. Seems a straightforward thing to do.

 

[The Oldman]

I think they broke every Health and Safety rule for a bus/car park last night. No proper supervision of q's or separating moving vehicles from pedestrians. A motorbike driving throgh 4 lines of people at one point. Stewards gave contradictory advice and so on.
The bus traffic management was poor also. Buses parked in all sorts of directions with 3 point turns involved whilst crowds of people about. Q barriers are required, better directions and stewards who take control. Vlliage Way was a mess also. Cars picking up passengers, taxi's turning and people ambling across the exit from the bus car park. Still I'm sure the club's safety person knows all of this and he will sort it. If not no way will the ground capacity be increased.

 

[Rookie]

Would it not be better to have the Mill Rd q going the other way (away from the steps and more towards the stadium) that would prevent the confusion between the three different sites for starters.

 

[CheshireSeagull]

I used the mithras house p+r lots of ques getting to the ground I guess part of that was due to it being 6:30 and it would be busy anyway! As for getting home I got back to where I was staying in southwick in 50 minutes about a 15 minute que outside the ground and then very quick back to the car couldn't complain really I do think that something will have to be done about the roads if we do get planning permission for the extra 8k

 

[mwrpoole]

it shouldn't take too much thought and wouldn't cause that much disruption for the inside lane on both sides of the A27 to be used for the P&R's on match days. Especially after the match you could have a whole row of buses just sitting there waiting to be filled up. Getting to the stadium is easy with the underpass & new bridge, and this would take so much pressure off the stadium access & roads.

 

[Hunting 784561]

it shouldn't take too much thought and wouldn't cause that much disruption for the inside lane on both sides of the A27 to be used for the P&R's on match days. Especially after the match you could have a whole row of buses just sitting there waiting to be filled up. Getting to the stadium is easy with the underpass & new bridge, and this would take so much pressure off the stadium access & roads.

Yup, I think this is also a solution.

Line up Mill Road and Mithras House buses on the A27 by Falmer station, and leave the stadium site just for the Racecourse buses.

Create an extra exit from Bennett's Field straight out onto the A27 slip, and you would be just about sorted.

 

[southwickseagull]

Still very early days, i'm sure the club, bus company's, authorities etc will get things sorted. I stood on the stairs for half an hour with out moving last night, but feel that the everyone is trying their best to get us away safely. I did notice the London single deckers that they have been using on the Mill Road route were conspicuous by their absence last night. Could this have been part of the problem?

 

[Nobby's Betamax Video]

A few points I noted:-

- Mill Rd London single-deckers - not there last night. Perhaps as needed for London rush hour mid-week? Definitely need more of them and proper single deckers not coaches for mid-week games.

- Queue management - poor. Merged into one. No signs or barriers. Plenty of kids and could have been an accident. Some numpties trying to push in....we ALL want to get home, be patient.

A27 Falmer filter Lane - why oh why do some people have to be so bloody selfish and get dropped off in that queue? They add to the delays significantly, especially if (as I saw a number of times last night) the driver then holds everyone up behind them as they try to rejoin the main A27 carriageway. Taxis were doing this also. The club, police and council need to manage this junction and individuals need to engage their brain....they could drop off at Stanmer Park then turn around, or at the bottom of Coldean or drive across to Falmer High School where it is a short walk.

- P&R to Amex - Saturday, the bus took the empty left hand lane on the A27 Falmer filter road and by-passed the horrendous queue of cars. Last night, the bus didn't take this option and delayed dropping off a bus-load of fans and returning to the P&R site to pick-up more. I think that the P&R buses should use the left hand lane 100% of the time. If you added it up, a single bus may well be carrying as many people as all those car occupants in the queue.

Early days, but there is plenty that everyone can do to improve things.

 

[BensGrandad]

For the Mill Rd P & R could they not use the bus stop/ layby opposite Sussex Uni and thus allow the buses to drive straight onto the A27/A270. The walk to the layby by people at different speeds would also reduce the queue as some would get there quicker and be on a bus whilst others are still walking there.

 

[BHAFC_Pandapops]

I get on the Race Hill P&R. To be frank i find the queues across the car park are blocking the race hill pick up stop! probably no way to get around it but it is a bit annoying. The fans we had to mow through were nice about the situation though <3

 

[drew]

There seems to be a lot of people making suggestions about the buses being moved away from the stadium as that would ease the congestion. This seems to me to be the aim only to make it easier for those to exit Bennetts Field. The club are not going to have P&R drop off and pick up anywhere other than at the stadium. If you use a slip road for the A27 for this purpose then they have to cross over at the new railway bridge which, if you hadn't noticed, gets packed with people waiting for trains. The system, in particular where the queues go, needs tweeking but is basically sound. Fact is people are not going to get away from a 22,500 crowd at the same rate you would for a 7,500 crowd.

Hopefully they will be reviewing the situation over the next few games and making changes accordingly but can't see them in a million years spending more on road infrastructure.

 

[Gazwag]

it shouldn't take too much thought and wouldn't cause that much disruption for the inside lane on both sides of the A27 to be used for the P&R's on match days. Especially after the match you could have a whole row of buses just sitting there waiting to be filled up. Getting to the stadium is easy with the underpass & new bridge, and this would take so much pressure off the stadium access & roads.

The major problem there is how are fans going to get to the A27 - they cannot do anything more to Bennett's field as its got to be given back in three years time - you cannot use the railway bridge as its full of the Lewes/Seaford/Eastbourne train queue

 

[Ken Newbury]

Yup, I think this is also a solution.

Line up Mill Road and Mithras House buses on the A27 by Falmer station, and leave the stadium site just for the Racecourse buses.

Completely unworkable, the new large bridge over the railway line last night was blocked by passengers waiting to get onto the Lewes platform, so much so that people trying to get to the University car parks had a very hard time getting there.

If your bright idea of putting P&R buses outside Falmer Station on the A27 was ever used people literally wouldn't be able to get to them after an evening game.

Back to the drawing board on this one I'm afraid!

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

The bus queues after the game last night were much more of a mess than in previous games. I used the Mithras House bus last night but the Mithras and Mill Road queues were merging onto one. There was a lack of stewards and people were joining wrong queues. All it takes are some temporary barriers to give some direction to the queues and that would be better for both fans and for the stewards who are currently trying to help fans and coordinate the buses.

What would make sense is to move either the Mill Road or Mithras queue over to the South side of the coach park where the Rottingdean bus currently leaves from. The Rottingdean queue is usually shorter so could be accommodated in the middle and the longer Mill Road / Mithras queue can then use the longer paved area to make queuing safer and more organised.

 

[Hunting 784561]

Completely unworkable, the new large bridge over the railway line last night was blocked by passengers waiting to get onto the Lewes platform, so much so that people trying to get to the University car parks had a very hard time getting there.

If your bright idea of putting P&R buses outside Falmer Station on the A27 was ever used people literally wouldn't be able to get to them after an evening game.

Back to the drawing board on this one I'm afraid!

Brilliant. So what are your constructive suggestions, oh wise one ??