Will The Amex Credibility As A Gig Venue Be Sunk By Sunday Morning?

[happypig]

It does strike me as rather absurd that they are closing the station completely. I accept that the trains cannot accommodate everyone but they would be able to carry some of them and, I would have thought, the object is to get everyone away as quickly as possible.

 

[MACROBLUE]

I'd suggest it will.

There's something inherently dishonest about flogging two days worth of tickets for Fatboy Slim, then telling the punters at more or less the last moment 'oh, by the way, there's no trains back, we're shutting Falmer station (and Moulsecoomb for good measure) when you need it most, but your tickets will be valid on bus routes 25, 28 and 29 blah blah blah.'

How long before the same train bright spark gets the same bright idea of shutting Falmer station half an hour before the end of Albion evening games as the easy option?

All the flak that will be dished out by the Argus over the weekend will be fully deserved IMHO.

I suggest you go and get some fresh air. You obviously have a chip on your shoulder about something in your sad life.

 

[Easy 10]

It does strike me as rather absurd that they are closing the station completely. I accept that the trains cannot accommodate everyone but they would be able to carry some of them and, I would have thought, the object is to get everyone away as quickly as possible.

Its a safety issue with the number of people trying to get on the platforms.

My daughter has sold her ticket, the transport hassle put her right off. Can't say I blame her.

 

[beorhthelm]

i'm inclinded to think they took this action so they didnt have to deal with several thousand pissed up revellers. evening games of footbal dont have several hours of drinking in them.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

It does strike me as rather absurd that they are closing the station completely. I accept that the trains cannot accommodate everyone but they would be able to carry some of them and, I would have thought, the object is to get everyone away as quickly as possible.

They're not closing it totally as you can get off at Falmer. But, I'm totally with you on this; it is incredulous. I understand the reason they cannot put on extra trains and/or carriages BUT if you can let people off already scheduled and running trains, why not let a few on? Fatboy made a sideways swipe at the attitude of Southern and the BTP today. I really do hate it when people or businesses do not rise to challenges. It frustrates the hell out of me. Southern and the BTP are a bunch of bottlers, they are shitters, they are nothing more.

 

[Simster]

Transport is an ongoing concern at the Amex at the moment but as long as the stadium operators learn from their mistakes, it will eventually rid its reputation as a transport disaster. In this instance, I'd fully expect the next concert to be charging prices that build public transport into the cost of the ticket - that shit house train company have decided they can't cope with more than 30 people on the platform, so it appears additional staff will need to be paid for to take punters away from the venue.

As an aside, I know it isn't ideal but is it really such a nightmare for people to find their own way away from the stadium at 10.30 on a summer's evening? My wife took my 8 year old daughter to the O2 to see Ollie Murrs in January. It was the day the snow fell heavily and they came out to find a foot of snow and NO public transport whatsover. They were "lucky" enough to find a bed at a friend's house at 2am. If an 8 year old can hold it together in freezing snowy weather for 4 hours, I should think people ought to be able to manage in this situation for what is the very first concert event at the stadium.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Its a safety issue with the number of people trying to get on the platforms.

My daughter has sold her ticket, the transport hassle put her right off. Can't say I blame her.

And I also hate it when people hide behind health and f***ing safety. It is not beyond the wit of man to only allow specific numbers of people onto the platform is it? They do this week in week out at the football.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Transport is an ongoing concern at the Amex at the moment but as long as the stadium operators learn from their mistakes, it will eventually rid its reputation as a transport disaster. In this instance, I'd fully expect the next concert to be charging prices that build public transport into the cost of the ticket - that shit house train company have decided they can't cope with more than 30 people on the platform, so it appears additional staff will need to be paid for to take punters away from the venue.

Given they are making the station exit only there will be additional staff at the station on tonight and tomorrow anyway. So why not simply allow a few hundred on.

 

[Simster]

And I also hate it when people hide behind health and f***ing safety. It is not beyond the wit of man to only allow specific numbers of people onto the platform is it? They do this week in week out at the football.

But there is a health and safety issue here. The point is surely that the concert promoters and train company should have worked out who was paying for the staff to coordinate safe passage to the train platforms instead of our tin pot shitty train company just washing their hands of the problem.

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

And I also hate it when people hide behind health and f***ing safety. It is not beyond the wit of man to only allow specific numbers of people onto the platform is it? They do this week in week out at the football.

To a certain extent, it isnt health and safety. Just would have been a normal, un-strengthened train service with 3-4 coach trains with none extra - wait for them would be incredibly long and the BTP obviously didnt fancy telling a large crowd of people who would have been drinking a lot that they will be waiting over an hour for a train - the health and safety aspect some to think of it is probably for the BTP !!

Good to see there is a free shuttle bus running between Old Steine and the Amex to help get people away though.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

As an aside, I know it isn't ideal but is it really such a nightmare for people to find their own way away from the stadium at 10.30 on a summer's evening? My wife took my 8 year old daughter to the O2 to see Ollie Murrs in January. It was the day the snow fell heavily and they came out to find a foot of snow and NO public transport whatsover. They were "lucky" enough to find a bed at a friend's house at 2am. If an 8 year old can hold it together in freezing snowy weather for 4 hours, I should think people ought to be able to manage in this situation for what is the very first concert event at the stadium.

I agree, and when I went to see Metallica at the o2 the jubilee line was down and I ended up getting a boat to my hotel. Rock n roll eh?

I see where you're coming from. But the fact one can use an 8 year old's ability to hold it together after an Olly Murrs gig to partially justify a station closure says all you need to know about the total absurdity of this situation.

 

[Easy 10]

And I also hate it when people hide behind health and f***ing safety. It is not beyond the wit of man to only allow specific numbers of people onto the platform is it? They do this week in week out at the football.

True, they could have just controlled the number of people being let through onto the platform at a time, as they do for the football. But on matchdays there's usually a train every 8 or 9 minutes, and thats clearly not going to be the case for this event. You'd only be able to get a tiny fraction of the people on a train, and after a massively long wait as well.

With that in mind I guess they thought it best to just write it off as an option.

 

[Simster]

I agree, and when I went to see Metallica at the o2 the jubilee line was down and I ended up getting a boat to my hotel. Rock n roll eh?

I see where you're coming from. But the fact one can use an 8 year old's ability to hold it together after an Olly Murrs gig to partially justify a station closure says all you need to know about the total absurdity of this situation.

To be fair, I'm not using an 8 year old's ability to hold it together after an Olly Murrs gig to partially justify a station closure. I'm using it to point out that people will bleat and whine about this, despite the fact that we all know the trains won't run.

I'm in complete agreement with you in that it is ABSURD that the trains aren't running. And whilst the BTP and Southern (especially) should shoulder most of the blame, I can't help feeling the concert promoters are also culpable. You'd think - with this being the first concert at the stadium - they'd have done their homework with regards to ensuring there was enough transport to cope with the volume of punters.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

I'd suggest it will.

There's something inherently dishonest about flogging two days worth of tickets for Fatboy Slim, then telling the punters at more or less the last moment 'oh, by the way, there's no trains back, we're shutting Falmer station (and Moulsecoomb for good measure) when you need it most, but your tickets will be valid on bus routes 25, 28 and 29 blah blah blah.'

How long before the same train bright spark gets the same bright idea of shutting Falmer station half an hour before the end of Albion evening games as the easy option?

All the flak that will be dished out by the Argus over the weekend will be fully deserved IMHO.

You almost feel like putting your own trains on that line to show Southern how a railway should be run. Yes it is disgusting. I don't know what their problem is. Could you imagine the uproar if they did this to us. As regards FBS, I honestly think this will be the last thing on party goers minds. Some of them might be off their heads too much to realise and will find their way back somehow.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

But there is a health and safety issue here. The point is surely that the concert promoters and train company should have worked out who was paying for the staff to coordinate safe passage to the train platforms

Given they have worked out who will be paying the staff to stop punters getting on the platforms and to allow those alreeady on the train to get off I'm pretty confident they could have worked this out. And given the promoters are paying over 50k for transportation a few Southern goons in hi-vis vests would have been quite cheap in comparison; given the attitude of most Southern employess I'm sure they will do it for free as long as they get a uniform and a peaked cap.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Transport is an ongoing concern at the Amex at the moment but as long as the stadium operators learn from their mistakes, it will eventually rid its reputation as a transport disaster. In this instance, I'd fully expect the next concert to be charging prices that build public transport into the cost of the ticket - that shit house train company have decided they can't cope with more than 30 people on the platform, so it appears additional staff will need to be paid for to take punters away from the venue.

As an aside, I know it isn't ideal but is it really such a nightmare for people to find their own way away from the stadium at 10.30 on a summer's evening? My wife took my 8 year old daughter to the O2 to see Ollie Murrs in January. It was the day the snow fell heavily and they came out to find a foot of snow and NO public transport whatsover. They were "lucky" enough to find a bed at a friend's house at 2am. If an 8 year old can hold it together in freezing snowy weather for 4 hours, I should think people ought to be able to manage in this situation for what is the very first concert event at the stadium.

Fact is though, a LOT of the punters at these gigs will not be local. They will not know what buses to catch / which direction to walk, etc, and by the time they've worked it out, they'll have missed their last train hme from Brighton. Its pretty shit frankly.

Its almost tantamount to encouraging people to risk driving under the influence.

 

[Simster]

Given they have worked out who will be paying the staff to stop punters getting on the platforms and to allow those alreeady on the train to get off I'm pretty confident they could have worked this out. And given the promoters are paying over 50k for transportation a few Southern goons in hi-vis vests would have been quite cheap in comparison; given the attitude of most Southern employess I'm sure they will do it for free as long as they get a uniform and a peaked cap.

Are they? f***ing hell I hate Southern. Useless f***ing twats.

 

[beorhthelm]

True, they could have just controlled the number of people being let through onto the platform at a time, as they do for the football. But on matchdays there's usually a train every 8 or 9 minutes, and thats clearly not going to be the case for this event. You'd only be able to get a tiny fraction of the people on a train, and after a massively long wait as well.

exactly.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

To be fair, I'm not using an 8 year old's ability to hold it together after an Olly Murrs gig to partially justify a station closure. I'm using it to point out that people will bleat and whine about this, despite the fact that we all know the trains won't run.

.

When you say 'we', you mean a bunch of people who frequent a BRIGHTON focused message board, the majority of whom live in BRIGHTON, and are privy to the information broadcast in the BRIGHTON media?

(as opposed to thousands of concert-goers from across Southern England?)

 

[Deleted member 22389]

Feel sorry for the people at the bottom end of the company, but I certainly don't feel sorry for greedy bastards at the top. If the promoters are paying 50k for Transportation that's an absolute disgrace on Southern Railways part. The problem is we all can't boycott them, they have everyone by the bloody balls.