Southern railway train service tonight

[Beach Hut]

In the FIRST CLASS lounge

If only Southern treated their customers like Virgin Trains do but alas not

 

[Arkwright]

Sadly Harvey's is rarely on in The Kings Head, service in the pub is as bad as the service offered by Southern Rail with many delays and cancellations. Fortunately many other outlets are available.

 

[seagull_in_malaysia]

Trains from |Lewes are good. Always get the first one out. Be careful returning through Lewes after an evening match as last train quite early.

i would definatly do this if i were coming from London, change at Haywards Heath if not already on an Eastbourne train.

note on Saturdays where they put on longer trains, on return need to be in the front 5 (or 6?) cars to get off at Lewes.

Thanks, I will try going via Lewes, although there only seem to be 2 trains an hour from Victoria. Better luck changing at Haywards Heath if I just miss one of the direct ones?

The 25 doesn't go from Brighton Station - either walk down to Churchill Sq or St Peters

Sorry, yes I meant from the church. I'm guessing about 20-25min?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Why don't you just get the 25 bus from Portslade station before the match? OK, it's not the fastest route to Falmer, but then again you wouldn't have to play Train Roulette and rely on trusting Southern to run a half-decent service.

The 25 starts from Palmeira Square, but a 49 bus will run from Portslade Station to there.

 

[perseus]

Why don't you just get the 25 bus from Portslade station before the match? OK, it's not the fastest route to Falmer, but then again you wouldn't have to play Train Roulette and rely on trusting Southern to run a half-decent service.

I have tried the bus from Shoreham (discontinued) but the Russian roulette with the traffic was even worse.

The best alternative tried is the bus from Shoreham to Brighton station then the train in. But that seemed risky and it was a disaster on the way home.

It's all to do with Southern Rail and their general rotten service which is really only bad early evenings and Saturday mornings and that's the case if the football is not on anyway.

Fulham was the final straw for some people. It certainly made me think of alternatives. Other people I know have stopped going because of the trains. It is the West Coastway bit.

A football survey said that 43% of supporters would prefer to go matches by train and that is a higher % than go to work by train. It is really the best way to transport large numbers quickly and cheaply and I bet they get it right in Germany. Its all down to the poor performance of Southern Rail.

Fans were really irate!

 

[Frutos]

surely it would be better if they cut out London road and moulscoomb stops and just ran constant shuttles between Brighton Falmer and Lewis, would it really be that hard to implement that?

What about people going to the game from London Road or Moulsecoomb?

 

[beorhthelm]

Thanks, I will try going via Lewes, although there only seem to be 2 trains an hour from Victoria. Better luck changing at Haywards Heath if I just miss one of the direct ones?

theres only the 2/hr regular from Vic plus a couple from LB in the rush hour. if you can make the train from Victoria thats probably easiest, otherwise anything to Brighton change at HH onto whatever goes that way next.

 

[seagull_in_malaysia]

theres only the 2/hr regular from Vic plus a couple from LB in the rush hour. if you can make the train from Victoria thats probably easiest, otherwise anything to Brighton change at HH onto whatever goes that way next.

Great, thanks for the heads up.

 

[perseus]

Trains from Brighton for Tuesday:

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/Brighton/FMR/190416/1845/dep

Except I no longer trust the timetable or that the trains will have enough capacity.

About 400 fans will arrive West Coastway at 7:05 pm (if the train is running just 5 mins late) and expect to get a train to Falmer to arrive before KO. There is not much alternative of trains.

This is the timetable it has always been for evening games.

From memory it has worked every time except last Friday. However, it did arrive a few minutes late for the first game v Forest.

This is the return West Coastway from Brighton westwards:

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/BTN/SSE/190416/2230/dep

The first train (22:36) is standing in the station and they will not let people on it at 22:30. This is very irksome and subject of a complaint to the Transport Manager*
The second train (22:43) does not run at all. Most often, less than 50%.
The third train (23:04) runs but not every time.
The fourth train (23:13) runs, but can be late and misses the connection. (connected on Friday as the London train was late)
The fifth train (22:43) means arriving home after midnight. (if the second train does not run it may depart much later but before 22:43, But is a slow train and I still get home after midnight.)

*The Transport passed my message on to Southern Rail, but their reply was nonsense.

It is the last West Coastway train that is the final straw. After working all day, another six hours is too much and by that time everybody is getting tired and irritable.

It is no surpise to me that the gates for evening matches (even play-offs) tend to be lower. Or that other fans leave before time to save an hour on their journey home.

On reflection an eight o'clock KO would making getting home even more tricky. It would make getting there on time easier though.

 

[seagull_in_malaysia]

theres only the 2/hr regular from Vic plus a couple from LB in the rush hour. if you can make the train from Victoria thats probably easiest, otherwise anything to Brighton change at HH onto whatever goes that way next.

Sorry just one more question. I should be able to get the 17.57 from Victoria which gets to Lewes at 19.08. Is there a queueing system at Lewes/is it difficult to get on board Brighton-bound trains at that time? I'm hoping that getting to Lewes at just after 7pm won't be an issue if I'm aiming to be at Falmer just before KO. Thanks!

 

[HH Brighton]

Sorry just one more question. I should be able to get the 17.57 from Victoria which gets to Lewes at 19.08. Is there a queueing system at Lewes/is it difficult to get on board Brighton-bound trains at that time? I'm hoping that getting to Lewes at just after 7pm won't be an issue if I'm aiming to be at Falmer just before KO. Thanks!

Lewes is not normally a problem at this time although for the Fulham game we had couldn't get on the first 3 coach train that came in and had to wait for next one. I think this was due to a cancellation earlier but generally not too bad.