Is the park n ride becoming embrassing?

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

West Ham fan who went last nite was mightily IMPRESSED with the trains back to Brighton after the game.

So there you go.

 

[Rookie]

West Ham fan who went last nite was mightily IMPRESSED with the trains back to Brighton after the game.

So there you go.

Which is why it says Park n Ride in the title

 

[Brovion]

seriously can we moan about anything else, half an hour to get away from the stadium with 20,000 is good !

I think you're missing the point. This isn't people moaning for the sake of it, if we could see that everything was being done in the most efficient manner possible and it was still taking 20/30/40 or whatever minutes then fine. As has been pointed out it's not THAT long (although it is in the pissing rain).

It's the fact that we can see that it can be done more efficiently that annoys people, not the physical time taken.

 

[Richard Hebberd's Syrup]

Didn't get onto a bus last night for what was approaching nearly an hour after the game. That would have been bad enough in the dry, yet alone the driving rain. Then, when the bus did get filled there were empty seats and nobody standing on the lower deck of it

Next time I use Park and Ride for an evening game, particularly if it is raining, I will be leaving early. I'll take being labelled a bad fan if it means I get home before 11.30 and avoid the risk of catching pneumonia

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Which is why it says Park n Ride in the title

Yes I know I was just SAYING

 

[The Large One]

Because the club made a big thing of making it a 'good day out' for away fans and then at the end of the game stick them out in q with no cover waiting for buses in a completely disorganised system. Add in the fact people are leaving 10 minutes before the end of the game to ensure they get home at a reasonable hour and its not excatly a positive for the new 90 million stadium they want people to come and enjoy is it

That doesn't answer my question at all, but never mind that.

You really think people would be expecting to leave the stadium with 20,000 other people and walk straight onto a waiting bus without the 'embarrassing' indignity of having to - gasp! - queue up alongside others with - dun, dun, der - NO SHELTERS?

 

[ShanklySeagull]

I used P&R for the first time last night. Because I live to the west Mill Hill was the obvious choice, though having heard previous comments on here about it I used it with some trepidation.

I shouldn't have worried. We parked up in the road just through the tunnel as we got there about 6.45pm and the main bit was already full. We were on a coach and inside the stadium by 7.10pm - which I though was excellent.

We left with 2 mins of injury time left as I took my 9 year old daughter and I didn't want here queuing for ages as we were both already pretty wet becuase we are nearer the front of the North Stand. We joined the queue and waited about 10 mins, and then we were on a bus and straight over to Mill Hill and back in doors in Littlehampton by 10.25pm.

Its my first time using it - but based on last nights experience I will certainly use it more in future.

 

[BUTTERBALL]

The park and ride would be fine if the club had stuck to it's promise not to allow cars on the site which clog it up and stop the buses from running freely. A joke waiting 15 minutes at the bottom of Falmer Road to get onto the site.

 

[Rugrat]

We left with 2 mins of injury time left

Its my first time using it - but based on last nights experience I will certainly use it more in future.

BUT ... you left early. I'm not grumbling about anyone leaving early but I left on the whistle (didn't hang around) from seat in row G of WSL and from there it takes 15 minutes to bus stop ... from there I was 40 mins in rain ... so your experience was good but all it'll do is get peeps leaving earlier and earlier and then more abuse etc.

I ignore the idiots that say "do you expect to be able to walk straight out .........." but as another said it's not the absolute time it's the fact that it could be done so much more efficiently. I wouldn't moan at all if I had to wait 40 minutes if it were all running intelligently

 

[Bean]

What a stupid thread. The park and ride is always going to have a few problems due to the sheer size in numbers who use it.

Are you still there now then?

I got to Woodruff Avenue at 10:25 last night on the S Bus and I left on Friends final whistle.

Moan moan moan bloody moan.

I was on the same bus as you

I left at the final whistle, walked down the stairs from WSU, walked to the S bus, and got on. I got home at 10:30. What's the problem?

 

[The Large One]

I ignore the idiots that say "do you expect to be able to walk straight out .........." but as another said it's not the absolute time it's the fact that it could be done so much more efficiently. I wouldn't moan at all if I had to wait 40 minutes if it were all running intelligently

Idiot? You're the one who's grizzling over not much.

Still waiting to hear why it's 'embarrassing'.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

The R and S and P is a shambles.

One line for three different buses. People wait in the road and then all push when a bus comes. Often means old people or those with kids end up missing their bus.

Could all be solved by having three little metal signs with letters on and a steward who got people to queue properly...

 

[Joe Gatting's Dad]

They could try the Southampton method where they have ten buses available all with their doors open which move off in convoy about 20 minutes after the game instead of insisting on forming the very English queue.

 

[Marc1901]

I usually get the train after the game but because I know how much of a pain in the arse that is I decided to get the P&R. Left on the final whistle although was held up on the stairs getting out of the north for about 5 minutes. Once I had got round to the queue for the racecourse I was waiting there for a good 35-45 minutes, got a bit of a joke in the pissing rain.

 

[ROSM]

I left 6 minutes into injury time last night - sorry if that makes me a bad fan. My reasoning was;

at the Hull game my wife and two kids followed the instruction of the guy with the megaphone at the stairs who sent those wanting to use the race hill, and P,S and R buses up the hill past the bennets field car park and into the bus area that way. Given that the kids are 2 and 4 they got barged past in the queue and ended up not getting an R bus back so given ended up cabbing it back.

Now last night we took both kids to the game (so clearly some on here will add bad parent to bad fan) - mainly because we both wanted to go and my eldest was desperate to go to the game (those who've seen him at games know that he sits well and watches the game intently) and given its half term my wife will take the hit with tired grumpy kids today.

We used the Race hill park and ride and my wife was concerned at suffering a similar fate to the hull game so we left and ignored the megaphone man and went up the stairs to the race hill buses. We joined the back of the queue but still had people literally barging the kids out of the way onto the bus. It took some west ham fans to step in and ensure that we got the kids on in one piece.

Brovion is spot on - there clearly is more that can be done. It's not efficient and since bennets field exits have been handed back to stewards it is a very slow process to get out which means it is very slow to load more buses and get them back to sort out the queue.

What i would say though is that the west ham fans we met werent slagging the service off (they thought some of our fans werent that great though) and so embarassing doesnt seem to fit their views of the service.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

West Ham fan who went last nite was mightily IMPRESSED with the trains back to Brighton after the game.

So there you go.

And to Lewes. As far as I could see, every West Ham fan who was aiming to get to Lewes for the 2240 train to Victoria made it in time. They were singing Bubbles very loudly on Platform 2 at Lewes.

 

[Frank Gallagher]

Speaking to west ham fans in the q waiting for the bus back and they couldn't believe it was like that every week. Always going to be a bedding in period but nothing seems to be changing and surely it must be putting off away fans from travelling and leads to people leaving earlier and earlier to avoid standing in the rain for up to an hour.

Worse in mid week and that is when people want to get away quicker

As if a little queue would put off the away fans lol

What world do you live in sir?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Incidentally ... the senior steward who normally manages bus movements at the stadium wasn't there last night. They were struggling slightly, but getting things sorted as best they could.

 

[les dynam]

Overall i think the transport systems are WORKING WELL. I really do. I've used trains and buses, and although yes it takes a little longer than we're used to, it's mainly okay. Having said that, i don't park and ride, and i sounds like that isn't exactly perfect yet.

One point... it seems odd that the various bus services, P&R, P, S and R, seem to leave from different parts of the bus area - at least the P bus which i sometimes use has been parked all over the place. Which ensures chaos, as you end up charging around trying to find it hoping it hasn't left or is full.

One other thing... for people complaining about the trains, why not try the 25 buses after the game - i think these work pretty well?

Actually one last thing... would a new 'H' bus service going straight to Hove help things? Just to give people another option getting back to Hove after the game.

 

[SeagullSongs]

We didn't get out of Bennett's Field car park until just gone 11! By which time there were only a few people (if any) waiting for the Park and Ride.
Gonna stick to the train in future, it seems like the lesser of the 3 evils. The only positive is that I didn't get soaked!