[Albion] AEK Post Game Leaving

[Tooting Gull]

Blimey….absolute carnage in the Mill Hill P&R yesterday after the game…..I left on the whistle, queued in the pissing rain for 1 hour 10 minutes…..got on a coach finally and got home to mile oak after being dropped off at the top of mill hill at 10 past midnight! Conversely, got to the top of Mill Hill at 6 and queued an hour to get in the bus! Absolute shambles

the problem now with canning the bendy busses ( that by the way every European city we went to on our holidays last couple of weeks had hundreds of so they can’t be that badly inefficient) is that when a bus arrives, everyone piles on in threes and fours and it fills up really quickly and off it goes….now they have replaced these with coaches that you can only get one person a time on the steps into the coach so it takes ages to fill one coach.

last night at 11:30 there was 4 coaches standing waiting in the pissing rain, for 1 to be loaded and the stewards wouldn’t let the people in the queue go and wait by the loading area….it got really tense and a lot of naughty words were used aimed at the kids manning the area.

if this is now the norm for winter and I can’t get a car parking ticket, I will not be doing many games this season.

Very accurate description. Mill Rd P&R was an absolute sh!tshow on Thursday. The (widely forecast) torrential rain, and people standing up to an hour or more in it at the end. There just weren't enough buses waiting at 9.50pm. This should not be happening after 12 years to get it right at the Amex, and the train queue wasn't much better by all accounts. It spoiled a great occasion and evening, something the result didn't. Either strategically, or operationally, or both, there were big failures. And make no mistake, these failures continue to drive fans to leave early. They don't want to leave early. And the team need them to the end. But standing in torrential run esp with kids on a school night for that long is taking the p!ss. It is cheating the players, almost forcing fans to avoid the carnage. For a club that gets so much so right, the continued failure to get fans away in an efficient and reasonably timely manner stands out like a sore thumb. I guarantee that if the board had all been forced to suffer that, walk round from the West after the final whistle to the Mill Rd queue and stand in it for an hour in the rain...the problem would be fixed for good by the next home game.

 

[BNthree]

Very accurate description. Mill Rd P&R was an absolute sh!tshow on Thursday. The (widely forecast) torrential rain, and people standing up to an hour or more in it at the end. There just weren't enough buses waiting at 9.50pm. This should not be happening after 12 years to get it right at the Amex, and the train queue wasn't much better by all accounts. It spoiled a great occasion and evening, something the result didn't. Either strategically, or operationally, or both, there were big failures. And make no mistake, these failures continue to drive fans to leave early. They don't want to leave early. And the team need them to the end. But standing in torrential run esp with kids on a school night for that long is taking the p!ss. It is cheating the players, almost forcing fans to avoid the carnage. For a club that gets so much so right, the continued failure to get fans away in an efficient and reasonably timely manner stands out like a sore thumb. I guarantee that if the board had all been forced to suffer that, walk round from the West after the final whistle to the Mill Rd queue and stand in it for an hour in the rain...the problem would be fixed for good by the next home game.

Very good post. The has said previously that they can’t control the transport to and from the stadium and it’s out of their hands. However the car parking is organised by the club so can be influenced by the club as is the P&R service. Both of those can be run better to help fans. Having better organised stewards to help the traffic flow from the car parks would be a start. As would having a replacement for the lost and never replaced Mithras House P&R.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Very accurate description. Mill Rd P&R was an absolute sh!tshow on Thursday. The (widely forecast) torrential rain, and people standing up to an hour or more in it at the end. There just weren't enough buses waiting at 9.50pm. This should not be happening after 12 years to get it right at the Amex, and the train queue wasn't much better by all accounts. It spoiled a great occasion and evening, something the result didn't. Either strategically, or operationally, or both, there were big failures. And make no mistake, these failures continue to drive fans to leave early. They don't want to leave early. And the team need them to the end. But standing in torrential run esp with kids on a school night for that long is taking the p!ss. It is cheating the players, almost forcing fans to avoid the carnage. For a club that gets so much so right, the continued failure to get fans away in an efficient and reasonably timely manner stands out like a sore thumb. I guarantee that if the board had all been forced to suffer that, walk round from the West after the final whistle to the Mill Rd queue and stand in it for an hour in the rain...the problem would be fixed for good by the next home game.

Is it time for us to start a proper organised protest? I think most of us are happy with the Amex in general, and certainly with Tony Bloom and his senior management colleagues for the team and the coaching, and the pleasure they’ve given us in recent years in particular. But can they be happy that so many fans feel the need to leave before the end to stand a chance of getting away in reasonable time? For most of us, getting to the stadium is easy; it’s the getting away that can be a dreadful experience. Instead of moaning to each other, shouldn’t we be doing so to the club, and in a more organised way? Perhaps it’s time for a few banners and a petition. Something to raise the temperature a bit. I’ve no doubt whatever that the club is aware of the frustrations, and I know they’ve looked at options, but there seems to be no sense of urgency, and no sense that post-match transport is a real crisis. I’ve no illusions that there’s a simple solution, and it may involve us needing to pay something for better/more park and rides and extra buses. I know this has been looked at before but I simply can’t accept that this is a problem with no solution.

 

[Napper]

Is it time for us to start a proper organised protest? I think most of us are happy with the Amex in general, and certainly with Tony Bloom and his senior management colleagues for the team and the coaching, and the pleasure they’ve given us in recent years in particular. But can they be happy that so many fans feel the need to leave before the end to stand a chance of getting away in reasonable time? For most of us, getting to the stadium is easy; it’s the getting away that can be a dreadful experience. Instead of moaning to each other, shouldn’t we be doing so to the club, and in a more organised way? Perhaps it’s time for a few banners and a petition. Something to raise the temperature a bit. I’ve no doubt whatever that the club is aware of the frustrations, and I know they’ve looked at options, but there seems to be no sense of urgency, and no sense that post-match transport is a real crisis. I’ve no illusions that there’s a simple solution, and it may involve us needing to pay something for better/more park and rides and extra buses. I know this has been looked at before but I simply can’t accept that this is a problem with no solution.

If Thursday had happened 8 years ago , barber would have issued a statement .

Now a shit show is just the Norm and we have to suck it up

It’s crap as are the queues for beers and everything else

Agree something needs sorting with a different approach

 

[studio150]

I've just read the strangest posting on X(Twitter) in years.
The Seagull Travel coaches were scheduled pre game to leave at 10.15 and obviously with the lengthy stoppage in the game, they pushed the departure time back so that people could stay to watch the whole game.
However it seems that some people have complained, because they left the game early and wanted their coach to leave at 10.15 despite no doubt being 95% empty.

Madness.

 

[timbha]

I've just read the strangest posting on X(Twitter) in years.
The Seagull Travel coaches were scheduled pre game to leave at 10.15 and obviously with the lengthy stoppage in the game, they pushed the departure time back so that people could stay to watch the whole game.
However it seems that some people have complained, because they left the game early and wanted their coach to leave at 10.15 despite no doubt being 95% empty.

Madness.

It just shows that whatever you do, an Albion fan will complain

 

[Colonel Mustard]

I've just read the strangest posting on X(Twitter) in years.
The Seagull Travel coaches were scheduled pre game to leave at 10.15 and obviously with the lengthy stoppage in the game, they pushed the departure time back so that people could stay to watch the whole game.
However it seems that some people have complained, because they left the game early and wanted their coach to leave at 10.15 despite no doubt being 95% empty.

Madness.

I saw something similar on Facebook and couldn’t understand it. The couple of times I’ve used ST, they’ve made a point of announcing that the coach will leave after the final whistle, when everyone is back on board, and that people shouldn’t panic if the match is delayed or extended. In fact, I’ve never been given an actual departure time in advance. Weird.

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

I've just read the strangest posting on X(Twitter) in years.
The Seagull Travel coaches were scheduled pre game to leave at 10.15 and obviously with the lengthy stoppage in the game, they pushed the departure time back so that people could stay to watch the whole game.
However it seems that some people have complained, because they left the game early and wanted their coach to leave at 10.15 despite no doubt being 95% empty.

Madness.

Very poor if true - if people are that anxious about leaving at the allotted time at all costs then better not going. Common sense should undoubtedly have been that the ‘extra match time’ had to be reflected in the coach departure time Shirley

 

[The Grockle]

Left just after the 3rd AEK goal. I'd actually pre planned to leave after 84mins anyway.

Apologies to those who are so offended by that. But it's it's a 1hr 50 min drive home. And I have work in the morning on a Friday. So if anyone wants to moan about me wanting that first or second Mill Road bus, in all due respect, you can suck it. Don't care. Getting home just after midnight. Some of us aren't local anymore.

Evening games suck balls. I was tired driving which is dangerous enough

I decided to stay right to the end but ended up getting soaked and didn't get back to Dorset till 130am, I certainly wouldn’t judge anyone for leaving early in your situation it's just one of the few negatives of an out of town stadium.

 

[Deleted member 37369]

I saw something similar on Facebook and couldn’t understand it. The couple of times I’ve used ST, they’ve made a point of announcing that the coach will leave after the final whistle, when everyone is back on board, and that people shouldn’t panic if the match is delayed or extended. In fact, I’ve never been given an actual departure time in advance. Weird.

I use ST all the time - I have a season ticket with them for home games.

The departure time has been there for the ‘x’ number of years that I’ve used them. For a Saturday 3pm kick off, the aim is for the first buses to start departing at 5.15pm. That worked when added time was the usual 3/4 minutes - but that has obviously changed this season. ST have told people to check their social media channels if there’s been any lengthy time added to see any revised departure times. BUT … anyone travelling with them should know that there will always be time to cheer the lads for a good few minutes after the final whistle (whenever that is) and make a visit to the loo (including need to queue behind at least a couple of people in the gents) … before making there way back to the coach park.

I suspect the people moaning (I saw some of the moans) were possibly new travellers with ST or haven’t used them very often. Leaving before the end of the game when travelling with ST is just bonkers!

 

[tigertim68]

Is it time for us to start a proper organised protest? I think most of us are happy with the Amex in general, and certainly with Tony Bloom and his senior management colleagues for the team and the coaching, and the pleasure they’ve given us in recent years in particular. But can they be happy that so many fans feel the need to leave before the end to stand a chance of getting away in reasonable time? For most of us, getting to the stadium is easy; it’s the getting away that can be a dreadful experience. Instead of moaning to each other, shouldn’t we be doing so to the club, and in a more organised way? Perhaps it’s time for a few banners and a petition. Something to raise the temperature a bit. I’ve no doubt whatever that the club is aware of the frustrations, and I know they’ve looked at options, but there seems to be no sense of urgency, and no sense that post-match transport is a real crisis. I’ve no illusions that there’s a simple solution, and it may involve us needing to pay something for better/more park and rides and extra buses. I know this has been looked at before but I simply can’t accept that this is a problem with no solution.

I agree

 

[chimneys]

I think I’d prefer not to even go than risk missing a turnaround at the end.

The game was on TV, not criticising anyone for leaving early as I couldn’t care less people can leave when they want, just always found the mindset of planning to leave early a strange one, especially when quite often the most dramatic period of a football game is the final 10 minutes.

It’s like paying £50 for a theatre ticket then leaving before the dramatic twist, might as well have just kept the £50 and watched it on TV, at least that’s what I’d prefer to do anyway, imagine we’d turned that around and won 4-3…..

So with all the subsequent stories of woe on this thread do you feel any more informed now as to why people might leave early? And so we can judge your view properly, care to tell us from how far away you journey to Amex?

 

[The Grockle]

If Thursday had happened 8 years ago , barber would have issued a statement .

Now a shit show is just the Norm and we have to suck it up

It’s crap as are the queues for beers and everything else

Agree something needs sorting with a different approach

Clearly I'm no expert but could they not have the first few trains backed up and waiting for 5 or 10 minutes after the final whistle? If the initial rush of fans were moved off more promptly it would save lot of frustration.

Our contribution towards travel in the match ticket can't be an insignificant amount of cash to southern rail and worthy of a much better service IMO

 

[A1X]

Clearly I'm no expert but could they not have the first few trains backed up and waiting for 5 or 10 minutes after the final whistle? If the initial rush of fans were moved off more promptly it would save lot of frustration.

Our contribution towards travel in the match ticket can't be an insignificant amount of cash to southern rail and worthy of a much better service IMO

The trains aren’t just for us but for normal travelers too, I very much doubt they’d appreciate sitting in the middle of nowhere in the dark because they’re stacking trains for our benefit

 

[The Grockle]

The trains aren’t just for us but for normal travelers too, I very much doubt they’d appreciate sitting in the middle of nowhere in the dark because they’re stacking trains for our benefit

Yeah I get that but surely you'd just factor that into the time table, it's a couple of hours a maximum of 25 times a year

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Yeah I get that but surely you'd just factor that into the time table, it's a couple of hours a maximum of 25 times a year

Inconveniencing other travellers to help us isn’t the best answer.

 

[Bozza]

I imagine @jackalbion could elaborate, but I suspect the "a few trains lined up" option also fails when it gets to the "where the hell do they all park when they get to Brighton" bit.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

I've just read the strangest posting on X(Twitter) in years.
The Seagull Travel coaches were scheduled pre game to leave at 10.15 and obviously with the lengthy stoppage in the game, they pushed the departure time back so that people could stay to watch the whole game.
However it seems that some people have complained, because they left the game early and wanted their coach to leave at 10.15 despite no doubt being 95% empty.

Madness.

Assuming first timers.

The published leave time ahead of the game is 30 mins after the scheduled final whistle (so 17:15 on. 3pm factoring in half time)

This doesn’t account for injury time as obviously it’s not known at the time. So it’s always been broadly 30 mins after full time.

Some have taken the leave time literally missing the point that one of the USP’s of Seagulls Travel is that you don’t have to leave early

 

[Skuller]

Here are a couple of practical, and not too difficult, suggestions to help the trains.

Firstly, the club should talk to Southern (they do, after all, hold the contract with them for the subsidy) and ensure that all trains on match days are eight coaches. Up to Thursday this season, the trains on the Seaford line have all been 8 coaches and it’s amazing how they can “drain” Falmer of people. On Thursday on the Seaford line there was one three coach train, one six coach train and I don’t know about the third. And, of course, more coaches going east mean more coaches going west.

Secondly, Southern should force (I suggest the use of guns as encouragement) everyone on the easterly platform to get on the next train whether they’re Seaford or Eastbourne or Lewes bound. They can then sort themselves out at Lewes, providing relief for the platform capacity at Falmer. I’m fed up with the gates at Falmer going east being shut (because the platform is full) while I’m on the ramps, watching a Seaford train arrive and only half the people on the platform get on while we’re held back. The train then sets off, sometimes half empty, leaving the damp-ones fuming on the ramps.

 

[rebel51]

Very accurate description. Mill Rd P&R was an absolute sh!tshow on Thursday. The (widely forecast) torrential rain, and people standing up to an hour or more in it at the end. There just weren't enough buses waiting at 9.50pm. This should not be happening after 12 years to get it right at the Amex, and the train queue wasn't much better by all accounts. It spoiled a great occasion and evening, something the result didn't. Either strategically, or operationally, or both, there were big failures. And make no mistake, these failures continue to drive fans to leave early. They don't want to leave early. And the team need them to the end. But standing in torrential run esp with kids on a school night for that long is taking the p!ss. It is cheating the players, almost forcing fans to avoid the carnage. For a club that gets so much so right, the continued failure to get fans away in an efficient and reasonably timely manner stands out like a sore thumb. I guarantee that if the board had all been forced to suffer that, walk round from the West after the final whistle to the Mill Rd queue and stand in it for an hour in the rain...the problem would be fixed for good by the next home game.

Bloody well said.