The "dreadful" transport situation - a poll

[oneillco]

Yes a sensible post...Saturdays are fine, evenings need looking at. Agreed.

Saturday works very well on the Trains. I left Three bridges on the 1.32 train on Saturday and arrived at the ground at 2.17. Enough time for a beer and pie in Dicks. 50 mins to get back to Three Bridges. No problem.
Evenings are a blooming nightmare. Trains about 6ish gets me to the ground around 7.35. no time for beer, but still get a pie. Going home, if you don't get the 9.37, you are bolloxed. last night was bad, I did not get home till 11.15.

Overall. Saturdays work fine, Evenings, need looking into.

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

I don't give a damn what the reasons are, failed train, driver error, whatever, the simple fact is if there isn't a 2146, trains heading west are buggered. If you're heading far west it can have massive connotations. There was some tosspiece on the other train thread laughing at the fact that someone was complaining that there wasn't another train for 10 mins. That might not sound bad, but that 10 minutes at Falmer turn into an hour later arrival at points in the far west. Even if you get to a Brighton ok, that 2203 is a shambles. Surely there must be 3 car set of that crappy former North London line stock somewhere. Due to all this, I always take a half day on the next morning and stay in Lewes, as I don't trust the monkeys at a Southern not to bollocks it up. [MENTION=616]Guinness Boy[/MENTION] is right, it is so fragile after an evening game.

Despite all that, I would say I'm satisfied.

 

[MJsGhost]

It's easier than traveling to Gillingham.

It's hard to disagree with this.

I only come from Hove, so haven't experienced any of the car parks / park & ride etc - just the buses and trains. In my opinion, travel arrangements are far from perfect but I don't really see how it ever would be - getting that number of people away from the ground quickly & efficiently in a short space of time is nigh on impossible.

I tend to avoid the crush by hanging around for a few pints, but I appreciate this isn't an option for all...

 

[perseus]

I don't think it is getting to and from the ground that is the problem but the generally poor local train service at weekends and the evenings..

It is exacerbated by the short trains.

 

[KJP]

I aslo don't understand why are fans are so obsessed with getting on the front of a train they'd rather cram in the front carriage than take one of the many seats at the back of the train.

On Saturdays this is because the 5.14 from brighton going west is generally just 3 carriages and as soon as loads of fans appear on brighton station they shut the gate whether the train is full or not, if you are at back of the falmer to brighton train then you have no chance of getting that train and it's another 20 minute wait till the next one which also stops at every station on the way.

People's expectations of how to move just short of 30,000 fans out of a relatively small area at once is incredible. I feel that some wouldn't be happy unless they could park literally outside the east stand entrance, for free, and then have priority to leave the stadium first on the sound of the final whistle and have Barber personally chauffeur them to their front door.
Some people have overly high expeditions and no patience.

Falmer to brighton is generally fine, when the 9.46 or 5.06 train is 8 or more carriages, but sometimes it's just 4.



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Just remembered another trip home we had earlier this season or end of last season, 8 carriage train left brighton for hove which was a shuttle, we all got off at hove, and a 4 carriage train turned up, trying to cram 8 coaches full of fans onto 4 carriage train was a nightmare

 

[golddene]

I do Park & Ride at Mill Road (well Ride as I live close to the top of Mill Rd), and it's very good. One minor change I would make is to set the left-lane on the slip road to Falmer as a "Right-turn for buses" lane. Otherwise it's hard to criticise[/QUO
I have thought this for some time, all they have to do is to extend the bus lane up the slip and leave the last 20 -30 mtrs for vehicles to turn left into the campus and giving buses right turn priority at the round-a-bout, as park and ride is the preferred option to travel to and from the ground it seems to make sense, I really hate the Lewes road bus lane introduction in my daily life as i live at the rear of Mithras house and getting home of an evening can be frustrating but on a match day i love it, so quick to travel down once on the bus and i commend the club for taking the difficult decision in delaying Bennets field parkers which makes the bus turnaround much faster. Well done to the club. All in all the service although not perfect is as good as it could be under the circumstances.

 

[theboybilly]

What is surprising is that there isn't any form of Falmer (or Lewes) to Littlehampton service either before games or after, particularly midweek.

I didn't think such a thing was possible until, last night, my Hove - Brighton train then became a Brighton - Falmer/Lewes service leaving from Brighton Platform 3 (i.e. not the regular side of the station for Lewes trains). And, just to be clear, it was never advertised as a Lewes train from West of Brighton, it was just the rolling stock was then used to go to Lewes having arrived at Brighton.

But, given it is possible for a train to traverse East to West and West to East through Brighton like this, why not have a special service or two like this? It would save a lot of congestion on Brighton Station itself.

West Worthing - Seaford (and return) services used to do the complete journey via Brighton up until a few years ago. I don't really know why they (Southern) can't still run a few of these services on matchdays

 

[theboybilly]

The trains are great (for me) on Saturdays. I get to the ground nice and early for a beer in Dick's Bar before the game with no hassle (from Shoreham). After the game I have a beer while waiting for the queues to die down the jump on the 17.38 train to London Road for a post-match session in the Signalman. A grand day out.
Weekdays I take my 125cc scooter to the Amex and am home for 10.15 easily. Free motorcycle parking is great.

 

[SouthCoastOwl]

We use the Bridge car park and that's fine.

The only thing I'd change is that it needs some "light" stewarding to make the queue at the exit a bit fairer. Four or five stewards standing by the bridge talking about what they're going to have for their tea really doesn't help with the ruck that's happening at the exit!

 

[portlock seagull]

3 seasons in, I do find the number of stewards standing around, doing what appears to be very little or when on occasion I've needed to ask something it's usually a case of calling their supervisor and waiting eternally to the point u wish never asked, simply bizarre. Mill Road is fine but wish more capacity for fans coming from north and west as quite stressful trying to get their early enough or face being turned away for those of us coming long Distances and with shorter lead times.

 

[Left Footer]

Its fine, I`m generally on a bus within 30 mins of the final whistle and back in the pub by 6 .

 

[Norman Baker suck my lozenge]

Evening kick offs always gonna be an issue,get the train and generally everything is fine although a little tweaking of the arrangements regarding trains to Worthing and beyond from Brighton.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

West Worthing - Seaford (and return) services used to do the complete journey via Brighton up until a few years ago. I don't really know why they (Southern) can't still run a few of these services on matchdays

It's the fact that this manoeuvre at Brighton station requires through trains on the Coastway route to cross over in front of trains on the Mainline. Any delays to just one train has a knock-on effect that creates more delays for other trains - disrupting the whole network. The current frequency of trains on the Mainline means this is best avoided.

Besides which, it is only short trains that can make this manoeuvre. Adding a short train into the matchday Brighton - Falmer service could reduce the number of seats provided between Brighton and Falmer at the very busiest point in the timetable when most fans want to travel.

 

[Bozza]

It's the fact that this manoeuvre at Brighton station requires through trains on the Coastway route to cross over in front of trains on the Mainline. Any delays to just one train has a knock-on effect that creates more delays for other trains - disrupting the whole network. The current frequency of trains on the Mainline means this is best avoided.

Besides which, it is only short trains that can make this manoeuvre. Adding a short train into the matchday Brighton - Falmer service could reduce the number of seats provided between Brighton and Falmer at the very busiest point in the timetable when most fans want to travel.

I bow to your superior knowledge, but the train I was on did all of this at 18:10 on a weekday - presumably a peak commuting time.

The train was just not timetabled as such and all 4 carriages were all but empty.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I bow to your superior knowledge, but the train I was on did all of this at 18:10 on a weekday - presumably a peak commuting time.

The train was just not timetabled as such and all 4 carriages were all but empty.

It used to be a regular feature of the network. There was a peak hour (and all day) Eastbourne - Bournemouth service that was very handy for East Sussex commuters who wanted to go to places like Chichester.

 

[stripeyshark]

Saw all 6 minutes added on at the end of Saturdays game AND got the 17:01 train back home. Cannot complain.

 

[Official Old Man]

Satisfied. As mentioned a couple of times, only improvement would be to make the up ramp, left lane from the A27, buses only on match days. This would require a steward at the roundabout but could cut 10 minutes from the trip and allow more drinking time.

 

[Gordon Bennett]

I used the Mithras House P&R for the first time last, and could not for the life of me understand why the buses have to queue up on the main road to get up to Falmer. Why can they not turn left at the Uni turning where the number 23 bus goes. They could even potentially stop there and let people off who could then just walk over the railway bridge. It took over half an hour last night from leaving Mithras to getting off the bus at the ground. As I say, last night was a first for me on that one - is usually that long?

They do send some of the Mithras House P&R buses through the University but it may be that they are making more use of that route as it happened to me for the first time on Saturday and then again on Tuesday night!

Being able to avoid the queue off the A27 (either coming through the University or being able to use the left hand lane of the slip road off the A27) makes a difference to the journey time when it gets busy.

 

[martyn20]

I am amazed at every game just how well the coach park runs, fills up quick and empties in minutes, Seagulls Travel really make things so easy and straightforward, everyone with travel problems should give them a go.

 

[Hotchilidog]

I am amazed at every game just how well the coach park runs, fills up quick and empties in minutes, Seagulls Travel really make things so easy and straightforward, everyone with travel problems should give them a go.

I use them for away days, very good service. Great to see so many coaches from all over Sussex at the home games.