[Albion] New fan zone - "The Terrace"

[tigertim68]

Yesterday I queued for the Race Hill P&R bus after the game, as I regularly do. Having stayed to the final whistle, I was not at the front of the queue. There were still 5 or 6 buses waiting to be loaded as I queued. They loaded two buses at a time, as they usually do.
Those 5 or 6 buses then departed, and I was still in the queue.
There was then a delay of 30 min untill the next buses arrived. This was not due to a lack of buses being provided, but entirely due to the decisions of the man who controls the traffic lights.
The bus controller at the head of the queue confirmed, with significant frustration, that the plan is always to prioritise those buses and coaches (and the cars in the Director's car park) to allow them to leave. So the green lights are held in an extended pattern to allow vehicles exiting.
The result of this is that buses returning from the Mill Road and Race Hill P&R can not get back into the Amex to pick up, causing greater delays for those standing in the cold (thankfully no rain yesterday).
So, more buses will have little or no benefit. Similarly, a new P&R at the Level will have little impact.
I counted ten buses queuing down Falmer Road waiting to return to the Amex, once I finally got on the bus. They were all stuck in an almost stationary queue, because someone has made the decison to prioritise exiting coaches and cars.
This is just a small observation for those who are calling for more buses, more P&R sites etc. The T-junction at the end of Village Way is a significant problem. Untill that is optimised, providing more buses will simply cause more buses to be parked on the Falmer / Drove Road, or nortbound on the A27 waiting to be let back into the Amex pickup points.

It always amazes me how slowly it takes to fill the buses , and when I used to go to the Mill Road P&R , it used to drive me crazy that they could only load one bus at a time

 

[ROSM]

Yesterday I queued for the Race Hill P&R bus after the game, as I regularly do. Having stayed to the final whistle, I was not at the front of the queue. There were still 5 or 6 buses waiting to be loaded as I queued. They loaded two buses at a time, as they usually do.
Those 5 or 6 buses then departed, and I was still in the queue.
There was then a delay of 30 min untill the next buses arrived. This was not due to a lack of buses being provided, but entirely due to the decisions of the man who controls the traffic lights.
The bus controller at the head of the queue confirmed, with significant frustration, that the plan is always to prioritise those buses and coaches (and the cars in the Director's car park) to allow them to leave. So the green lights are held in an extended pattern to allow vehicles exiting.
The result of this is that buses returning from the Mill Road and Race Hill P&R can not get back into the Amex to pick up, causing greater delays for those standing in the cold (thankfully no rain yesterday).
So, more buses will have little or no benefit. Similarly, a new P&R at the Level will have little impact.
I counted ten buses queuing down Falmer Road waiting to return to the Amex, once I finally got on the bus. They were all stuck in an almost stationary queue, because someone has made the decison to prioritise exiting coaches and cars.
This is just a small observation for those who are calling for more buses, more P&R sites etc. The T-junction at the end of Village Way is a significant problem. Untill that is optimised, providing more buses will simply cause more buses to be parked on the Falmer / Drove Road, or nortbound on the A27 waiting to be let back into the Amex pickup points.

I was on the 1st seagull travel bus out of the car park yesterday (the woodingdean, rottingdean, saltdean one) after the Everton coaches. This was 5.30pm. At that point there was one park and ride bus returning from mill road and one from racecourse waiting at the lights. I saw one other on the falmer road at woodingdean. So all in all 2 racecourse park and rides in a 1 mile journey. Of course by the time all the seagull travel buses left there may have been a few more

 

[Dave the OAP]

It always amazes me how slowly it takes to fill the buses , and when I used to go to the Mill Road P&R , it used to drive me crazy that they could only load one bus at a time

The worse ones are when they pt on coaches instead of busses, in that at least with busses it loads quickly as you can get more that one person on at a time and people file down the bus quickly as opposed to people hunting a seat on a coach.

certainly the “ experience” which is all what things seem to be about these days, is woeful for spectators wanting to get to and from the stadium.

you can understand why people have chosen to opt for giving up on it all. Of course there is still a supposedly waiting list so there must be people still wishing to experience the “ experience “ and good luck to them.

first time I have seriously thought of not renewing my ST since I had one at withdean. Home games and the “ experience “ are just not doing it for me anymore

 

[goldstone]

The worse ones are when they pt on coaches instead of busses, in that at least with busses it loads quickly as you can get more that one person on at a time and people file down the bus quickly as opposed to people hunting a seat on a coach.

certainly the “ experience” which is all what things seem to be about these days, is woeful for spectators wanting to get to and from the stadium.

you can understand why people have chosen to opt for giving up on it all. Of course there is still a supposedly waiting list so there must be people still wishing to experience the “ experience “ and good luck to them.

first time I have seriously thought of not renewing my ST since I had one at withdean. Home games and the “ experience “ are just not doing it for me anymore

Only ever used the P&R once myself a few years back. Never again due to frustration with loading the bendy buses. The complaints here are genuine and it appears that there are some things that can be fixed if some common sense is applied. Someone senior at the club needs to have a proper look at the whole process. Can't someone on the fan advisory committee thingy bring this up as a priority?