Friday night queue at Brighton Station before the game.

[Hiney]

Got to Brighton at 6.18pm and the queue had just started to snake round inbetween WH Smith and the Pasty Shop.

We got to the ground at just after 7.

To be fair to Southern, they are WAY better organised than last season. It's just the sheer numbers that are the problem now but it's always going to be an issue for midweek games when people have much less time available to plan their journey.

 

[Pinkie Brown]

I arrived from the other direction, but two friends said the queue at Brighton station was the worst they have ever known. One person was there around 6.30 & finally got on the train at 7.10.

Another factor may (?) have been: A train from the west that was due to leave Shoreham around 6pm was cancelled. The next train through was so rammed that hardly anyone from Shoreham was able to get on. (Lack of carriages again) This cancellation may have caused people to arrive at Brighton in a larger numbers at the same time rather than being spread out more?

 

[8ace]

Too busy when we go there, ended up getting a sherbert.

 

[Rookie]

Was the worse I have seen it since early days last season (when they didn't really know what they were doing), couldn't get through the ticket barriers (about 6.30 or so) because of q/crowd that had formed in front. Had all the usual commuters and extra fans which obviously didn't help but for some reason the q for Falmer trains didn't go out by the taxi rank (which it did last season). Once it started moving it was pretty quick but was all a bit strange

 

[father_and_son]

I was there about 20-30 mins before you and they seem to have a good handle on what was a longer queue than normal. 2 inner corals (one for each patform) each with a "train full of people" and a long queue stretching from the gates all the way around WHSmith and back to the barriers. Although it looked mental and was clearly p*ssing off the few non-Amex travellers but the queue was moving a good distance every time a train was loaded.

GF's first time at a match by train and she didn't like at all (doesn't like crowds, especially crowded trains) but she survived.

 

[Uter]

Got the 6:24 from Hove to Brighton with Herr Tubthumper (we couldn't get on the first train as it was packed) and arrived in Brighton just before 6:30. A train appeared to arrive from London at the same time so there was a large volume of people heading for the exits.

We couldn't get onto the concourse because the queue from the Lewes platforms had snaked right round and was blocking the tiny exit with the ticket inspector. The knock on effect was that commuters couldn't use the automatic barriers because WE were blocking THEM.

They eventually opened all the automatic barriers, but we didn't hang around and went down the road to catch a bus instead.

They need to have a larger queueing area by platforms 7 and 8 to stop the queue reaching the concourse as it causes problems for everyone when this happens.

 

[les dynam]

It's always way worse midweek because loads of the trains are THREE carriage affairs. On Saturdays those three carriage trains seem to be upgraded to six carriages, and the additional special services are eight coaches.

Running a three carriage train to serve a crowd of plus 25,000 is madness.

The other immensely frustrating thing is that silly two carriage train to Ashford which leaves at 32 mins past the hour (first stop is Lewes) which means that for a period of around 18 mins, there are NO trains running between Brighton and Falmer - this includes 7.32pm (midweek) which is surely the absolutely worst time for this train to be blocking the route.

 

[studio150]

When is the lengthened platform at Falmer Station expected, this will allow for shorter queues in arriving and leaving, assuming that Southern decide to run longer trains. Until then it may be case of arriving earlier if work permits, or getting the bus there and train back.

 

[Garage_Doors]

When is the lengthened platform at Falmer Station expected

There are no plans as far as i'm aware.

 

[CP 0 3 BHA]

There are no plans as far as i'm aware.

For the Barnsley game I made the mistake of being in the rear carriage of a six carriage train. When we were underway an announcement came out that the doors in the last carriage would not open at Falmer due to a shortened platform. When we got to Falmer the rearest (is that a word?) door by which we were standing was safely on the platform by about 2 or 3 metres but the door stayed shut as did all the doors in the carriage - and we had to all troop forward to get off. This was therefore an unnecessary faff which probably delayed the train services through Falmer by 5 minutes or so.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

I am sorry to say I followed those who went right at the taxi rank, behind Smiths, and straight in to the queue almost at the barrier.

I didn't realise the extent of the queue until I was on the Platform.

I can't believe we stopped at London Road!