Amex travel questions and *now* answers

With Amex travel options now published for all to see, many people will have general questions relating to the scheme and/or something specific about their own situation.

Please post your question(s) here - we'll gather them up, de-duplicate and endeavour to get all the answers from the club.

EDIT - THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN POSTED, AS AT TUESDAY EVENING, 5 JULY. Some have been reworded, to ensure that they are "general" questions, rather than questions that are specific to an individual poster's circumstances:-


TRAVEL VOUCHERS

When will Travel Vouchers become available?

Will books of Travel Vouchers be sold on-line?

Travel Vouchers come in books of 30. Are the vouchers specific to a particular match?

Some fans committed to paying £25 for a book of 25 Travel Vouchers when they attended season ticket presentations. Will they now have to pay an additional £5 to obtain a book of 30 vouchers?

Can unused Vouchers be carried over to next season?

Are Travel Vouchers transferable to other fans?

Can one book of Vouchers be shared between several people, travelling together (eg a group of people using park & ride)?

Will one Voucher be sufficient for a journey that involves both a bus and a train, or two buses run by different companies (Stagecoach and Brighton & Hove), or two buses run by B&H Buses?

Will it be possible for fans who cannot attend most games to purchase single Vouchers?

Are all passengers using park & ride services required to have Travel Vouchers, or can some users (eg young children, senior citizens, etc) travel without a Voucher?

Will Travel Vouchers be made available to away fans?

Can the Club clarify whether there is a booking fee for purchasing Travel Vouchers?


BUS SERVICES

Will the post-match regular scheduled buses to Brighton call at the stadium? Or should passengers wait for them at the stop outside Falmer Station?

Where will the regular buses to Lewes pick up passengers, post-match? What is the pedestrian route to the bus stop?

Will passengers without a Travel Voucher be able to pay cash on the football special buses (eg the buses from Shoreham or the shuttle service from Rottingdean)?

How many buses does the bus company intend to use on the football special services? Will there be enough capacity to carry everyone who wants to use a football special, especially those people living closer to the ground than the early pick up points?

Do the bus companies (including Stagecoach) plan to run any extra matchday service buses or football specials from areas outside Brighton (eg Haywards Heath)?

Will there be any special buses running from Telscombe, Saltdean, Rottingdean and Woodingdean?

Young people aged 5-19 currently pay 20 pence for bus journeys they make on B&H local buses when they hold a BusID pass and are travelling with a fare paying adult. Will travelling with an Albion Travel Voucher holder on a local B&H bus service count as travelling with a fare-paying adult?

Will Brighton & Hove Buses be running extra buses on the route from Tunbridge Wells, Crowborough and Uckfield?

Will arrangements be made post-match to ensure that fans returning by bus to places beyond Lewes (eg Uckfield, Crowborough and Tunbridge Wells) get priority over Lewes-bound passengers to ensure that they can get a place on one of the few journeys that will be available to meet their needs?

Are B&H Buses planning to make the purchase of "Saver" tickets online so that you can print them out yourself rather than getting them by post?


TRAIN SERVICES

Some train journeys have a “kids for a pound” deal for young people accompanying a fare paying adult. Will this deal be available when the adult is using a Travel Voucher?

What extra train services will be running on matchdays (Saturdays and evenings, pre-match and post-match)?

When will the matchday train timetables be published?

When evening games are played, what is the latest time to catch a train from Falmer to ensure a connection with a train to Haywards Heath or beyond?

Can the Club provide an estimate of how many spaces on trains will be available for supporters, pre-match and post-match – for both Saturday games and evening games?


PARK & RIDE SERVICES

Is every passenger in a car required to have a Travel Voucher? Or is it one voucher per car?

Will it be possible to pay cash to travel on a park & ride bus?

Will car users who turn up at a park & ride site without a travel voucher for each passenger be turned away?

Is park & ride available to away fans?

Will "Walk Up and Go" passengers, "Kiss and Riders" and cyclists who park at, say, Mithras House or the Racecourse, and then use the park & ride buses, have to produce a Travel Voucher?

Are Senior Citizens’ Concessionary Bus Passes valid on the park & ride buses?

What happens when a park & ride site becomes full? How will this be publicised on the day?

Does the Club have any plans to increase the number of park & ride spaces available?

Has Withdean Stadium been considered as a site? Would Waterhall be acceptable as an emergency overflow site, should Mill Road fill up?

How many buses will be used for each park and ride?


COACH SERVICES

Do Travel Vouchers give a discount on coach journeys? Or is the Club's subsidy to coaches paid in some other way? And does it apply to all coach services?

Is the subsidy being given to coach travel sufficient, or will comparatively high coach prices from places like Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill and Hassocks have the effect of encouraging fans from these areas to travel on an already overcrowded train network?


COMMUNITY ORGANISED COACH & MINIBUS SERVICES

Is there capacity in the coach park for all community organised coaches and minibuses to park and pick up passengers at the end of the match?


PARKING FOR DISABLED PEOPLE

Bearing in mind that there are only 46 disabled parking spaces that are available to buy (on a seasonal basis only, at a price of £130 a season), what criteria will be used to decide which disabled people will be permitted to buy these places? And who will decide?

Is it fair to charge for a disabled parking space?

Did the Club advise BODS that disabled parking spaces would be made available free of charge?

If a Blue Badge holder (or other disabled supporter) is unsuccessful in applying for one of the available disabled parking spaces, what alternatives will be offered?

If none of the alternatives is suitable, will the Club offer a refund on the season ticket and PSL that has been purchased?

Are there any plans to help disabled people get from the Sussex University car park to the stadium, if they find that they are unable to get a designated disabled parking space, but do succeed in getting a space elsewhere on the University campus?

If a wheelchair is necessary to assist a disabled supporter to get from Sussex University to the stadium, does the Club propose to make wheelchairs (and pushers) available for this purpose?

Where at the stadium can wheelchairs be parked?

Will it be possible for disabled supporters who do not have an allocated parking space to be dropped off and picked up close to the stadium entrance?

What arrangements are being made for disabled parking spaces to be made available to away fans? How many spaces will be available? And where will they be located?


NEAR-STADIUM CAR PARKING

Will there be any parking available at Sussex University (or another nearby car park) on a match by match basis?

What is the recommended walking route between the car parking areas and the stadium? Is it safely lit?

Will the registration numbers of cars parked at the University be cross checked against season ticket seat numbers?

How will “block parking – bumper to bumper” (as promised on the Sussex University website) work? Will this delay post-match departure times?

Is free matchday parking being made available to stewards and other stadium staff?

The club has announced that: There are 650 parking spaces available for 1901 club members in Bennett's Field; 700 pre-bookable parking spaces are available for purchase by STHs located on the Sussex University campus; 46 pre-bookable parking spaces are available for purchase for disabled attendees. According to the City Council, there are 2,004 near site, match day parking spaces. Where are the other 608 spaces located? Who will they be made available to? And on what basis?

Information on the Sussex University website states that there are 1,100 pre-bookable spaces available for day time matches and 700 for evening games. How will the shortfall be met for evening games? If there is no alternative location, how will the club continue to comply with the conditions of the planning consent?


MOPEDS & MOTOR CYCLES

What parking is available near the stadium for mopeds and motor cycles?


PARKING IN NEARBY RESIDENTIAL AREAS

Do stewards have any legal authority to prevent parking in nearby residential areas (eg Coldean or Moulsecoomb)? If fans do park legally in these areas, will any enforcement action be taken?

Are there any plans for any additional, legally enforceable, matchday parking restrictions to be introduced in Coldean or Moulsecoomb?

Bearing in mind the fact that there will inevitably be people (including away fans) who are unable to use any alternative to the car to get to games, what advice will the Club give them about where to park, assuming that paid parking near the stadium won’t be available and there is a likelihood that park & ride spaces will be fully subscribed?


KICK OFF TIMES OF EVENING MATCHES

Has the Club considered a 7.30pm kick-off time, to clear the stadium in a timely way, and help fans who need to make travel connections as part of their journeys home?


TRAVEL DATA

Will the Club publish the information collected in the travel survey conducted when season tickets were on sale?

Travel Vouchers come in books of 30.
Are the vouchers match specific?
could they be carried over to next season?

My question is that living in lancing, will I be able to use 1 voucher to get the bus to shoreham and then use the same voucher to get the train to Falmer?

Cycle parking, will we be able to park/chain up mopeds in the same area.
I'm talking about the tiny little ones not mini motorbikes.
I have previously asked this on ATC, but was told, "full details will be made available at a later date"

If not, what previsions have been made for moped / motorcycle parking.

Will the club please publish any analyses it has of transport survey data obtained from the Amex STH survey together with any information it has on the available (ie less current usage) train passenger capacity on the Brighton-Lewes-Falmer line on matchdays within (approx) two hours either side of kick-off?
If not, would the club like a copy of B&HCC's response(s) to any FOI requests for this information?

If I am only going to ONE game next season, what are my travel options? Can I purchase a single voucher for the P&R or will I be refused access? Ta

(Normal) Buses after the game - Easterly - Lewes and beyond

B&H website does not suggest any additional services, are the bus stop therefore on the A27 or will these buses be available from the stadium site. If only from A27 is there a safe way to get to these bus stops.

Sussex Uni Car Parks

Are these the ones to the north of the A27 - what is the route fans will walk to and from their cars, is it over the road bridge or footbridge further east of the road bridge - either way, from my limited knowledge of the area, it does not seem very safe, especially after dark when a lot of our matches will finish. Or am I just missing something obvious

Is there an age group that can travel without these tickets on the park and ride coaches?

Bob! said:

Travel Vouchers come in books of 30.
Are the vouchers match specific?
could they be carried over to next season?

Click to expand...

This is particularly important to me as I plan to walk around 50% of the time. In addition, can the vouchers be split in two to enable us to use one half to get too the match, but then to walk home? I'm not going to have the energy to walk the eight miles each way from my flat for every match.

Double post, sorry

I live in Birmingham and am not that shy in letting people know what team I support thus I get asked a lot of questions about what happens for away fans and what is the parking like, so for all those Brummies planning a day out by the seaside what is the arrangements for away fans? (surrounded by Derby, Forest, Coventry and Reading fans too.)

Travel Vouchers

Hi Paul,

Is there a date when the travel vouchers go on sale from or are they available to buy immediately?

Cheers!

What is the capacity for buses/coaches picking up after the game? This is important becausse of the number of community/pub-based coach services being planned across the County.

What are the reasons for not making these voucher books available online? Would a purchase from the club shop not save significant processing costs of processing orders by phone?

Do we know the planned capacity of train services between Brighton/Lewes and Falmer, in the hour before/after a Sat/evening game?

Travel vouchers again

Paul,

A few more questions for clarification on travel vouchers which I can't find answers to in the leaflet:

1) Are all the travel vouchers the same? i.e. if you decide to travel by train rather than the bus, do you need a different type of voucher.

2) Are the travel vouchers match specific? i.e. 1 per game and after that date, no longer valid. I can't get to many games so if that's the case, buying £30 worth wouldn't make much sense.

3) Will you be able to pay cash on the football special buses if you don't have a travel voucher?

As Brighton and Hove buses are providing the transport are over 60s bus passes valid on park and ride - i.e. is there free travel?

I would like some clarification, please, on the parking in 'nearby' residential areas, not very comprehensively covered in the details.

In it, it says only that there will be stewards, and only residents will be allowed to park there. Can this be enforced? I don't think a steward can stop you parking there.

My understanding is that areas like Coldean and East Moulsecoomb are not as yet (and won't be by then) full parking controlled zones, and so not parking there can only be requested by stewards, but they have no power to stop anyone who has paid their road tax from parking in those areas. This can later be changed if the residents demand it from the council.

And ideally I would simply like an honest answer to this question, not a load of patronising guff about 'we'd rather you did it this way'. I know that, I'm interested in the facts only because I have weighed up the easiest way for me to get to the area.

The 'Arriving at the Amex' leaflet mentions that there will be extremely limited near-site car parking that must be pre-booked - will spaces be available to book on a match-by-match basis, if so how many, or if all 700 car park season tickets are sold does this mean there will be no match-by-match spaces at all?

Hi, the travel area shows haywards heath covered by the bus and trains. So I have looked on stagecoaches website for bus times. they do not seem to run any buses from Haywards Heath, or indeed anyway close by. Are they planing on running "specials" or am I missing something?

warlingham seagull said:

As Brighton and Hove buses are providing the transport are over 60s bus passes valid on park and ride - i.e. is there free travel?

Click to expand...

As an operator of bus services that participate in the Brighton & Hove Concessionary Travel Scheme (and the East Sussex Scheme), I'm in a position to answer this question.

The answer is NO. The reason is that the stadium park & ride bus services are not "local services", registered with the Traffic Commissioner. They are therefore ineligible for concessionary fares reimbursement from the local authority.

Concessionary bus passes will, of course, be valid on regular local bus services, including the 23, 25, 28, 29 and 49, run by B&H Buses, and the 42, 43 and 44, run by Big Lemon.

What happens if we say have to change buses with first bus driver taking the voucher - what happens on second bus/leg of journey