[Brighton] Thousands queuing for trains at Brighton station

[BNthree]

Seems Sussex Police aren't too great at crowd control..

 

[mikeyjh]

And in response, the Police have issued a thinly veiled criticism of Southern...

https://www.sussex.police.uk/news/b...onse-to-policing-at-brighton-railway-station/

You have to love that police response, if I may paraphrase - "From our perspective, it all went swimmingly, we did a great job". There was a hint that not everything was perfect but that was someone else's fault. Bellend.

 

[The Large One]

The situation at the station and with the trains was a disgrace and Govia Thameslink, British Transport Police and Sussex Police all had their part to play in this omnishambles. Everyone knew that there would be many many thousands of visitors arriving and leaving by train and the choke point would obviously come 30 mins after Britney ended. GTR say they had 15 extra trains ready to use, but as usual with this shambolic organisation they hadn't thought through the logistics. I also cite Brighton Council as a villain; they are happy to close roads for the party but where were the dozens of skips required on every corner for the sea of rubbish, and where were the portaloos needed around town to stop every doorway and alleyway becoming a sewer? If all the bodies mentioned above can't get their act together for next year then I don't think Brighton should be allowed to host another Pride.

What does the rubbish have to do with the trains?

And there were dozens of skips on the route. We had to break our line several times to avoid them.

 

[The Large One]

You have to love that police response, if I may paraphrase - "From our perspective, it all went swimmingly, we did a great job". There was a hint that not everything was perfect but that was someone else's fault. Bellend.

They didn't say it went well. You're not paraphrasing at all. You're making up something completely different.

 

[oneillco]

What does the rubbish have to do with the trains?

And there were dozens of skips on the route. We had to break our line several times to avoid them.

Keep up luv, I'm citing it as another example, along with the train nightmare, of the lack of preparation to handle such a massive event. I must of imagined being ankle deep in rubbish throughout the town despite all these skips you were bumping into...

 

[mikeyjh]

Seems Sussex Police aren't too great at crowd control..

Too bloody right.

 

[The Large One]

Keep up luv, I'm citing it as another example, along with the train nightmare, of the lack of preparation to handle such a massive event. I must of imagined being ankle deep in rubbish throughout the town despite all these skips you were bumping into...

Keep up yourself luvvie. You blame the authorities for a lack of preparation, yet some skips were hardly used, and by not mentioning them, appear to exonerate the party-goers themselves.

I can't help it if you didn't see those skips you evidently went looking all over town for, but couldn't find.

 

[Brovion]

I'm not sure that P&R hasn't been adopted because car drivers are seen as lazy and selfish - we've had a Tory council for most of the past 30 years and they're generally all for private motorists. I suggest that we don't have a P&R because a) we had one at Withdean and it was hardly used and b) because it's hard to find a suitable site for one. The council have been looking for ages and have got nowhere.

You're right about pedestrianising the city centre though. One of the reasons that Withdean failed is that people could still drive in; P&R works in other places because it's impossible or very, very difficult to get to the centre by car. That step has to come first.

And building on Downland is not a minor difficulty either, there'd be all sorts of planning hurdles, although I'm not sure why Mill Road isn't used on a permanent basis.

Yeah I know it will be difficult. My gripe is simply that it's often dismissed with the comment "We don't need it, people shouldn't drive and this will only encourage them." As you pointed out the one time we did try PnR it was a pathetic attempt based in the wrong place and with no incentive to use it. Just because that didn't work 100% doesn't mean it could never work.

THPP's Congestion Charge is on the face of it a good idea - but as things currently stand that will actually make the situation worse. We need to find a way to take the pressure off public transport, not increase it.

 

[The Large One]

Yeah I know it will be difficult. My gripe is simply that it's often dismissed with the comment "We don't need it, people shouldn't drive and this will only encourage them." As you pointed out the one time we did try PnR it was a pathetic attempt based in the wrong place and with no incentive to use it. Just because that didn't work 100% doesn't mean it could never work.

THPP's Congestion Charge is on the face of it a good idea - but as things currently stand that will actually make the situation worse. We need to find a way to take the pressure off public transport, not increase it.

If you can find it - great.

Successive councils, transport consultants and other interested parties have tried for yonks to find the appropriate place to put one. With - as we all know - no success.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Apparently not.........according to GTR the trains weren't used because the police closed the station (and they don't put all the extra ones on the timetable).....wonder if it actually was, at least in part, down to inadequate marshalling of the crowds around the station.Can see days of finger-pointing from all the authorities involved, and exactly the same happening next year........

I want GTR to prove the extra trains actually existed. Until such time I choose to believe there were no such trains. Much the same as the knives and knuckledusters BS lies spun by Sussex police after the Palace game. Let them produce evidence of those trains. Strongly suspect it won't be forthcoming.

Maybe one of our insider train wallahs is in a pisition to confirm one way or the other?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Oh, and according to the BBC, Sussex police are denying (5th paragraph down in the link) that they ordered the station to be closed:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-45083414

Bit of a quandary really. Which set of lying ******** to believe least...

 

[Gwylan]

Next time you're a pedestrian pinned to the pavement at traffic lights, look how many cars sweeping past have a single occupant.

I was bored waiting for the bus the other day and did this: more than 90% of cars had a single occupant

Whilst I'm in agreement with you generally I'd be amazed if there would be so few per car. You'd get groups of friends travelling together with a designated driver. Say 3 people per car and that is still 33,333 cars so your point still stands.

I was going on the MoT figures but you may be right and there were more in the car but unless they're packing 27 in, it's still a hell of a lot.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

From the BBC website, Angie Doll, in classic gibberish mode, contradicting herself within two sentences...

GTR spokeswoman Angie Doll said: "We had standby trains. We had an additional 15 trains available."

She said: "When we do events like this, we advertise the trains that are in the public timetable but we also have additional trains."

She said the rail company did not use its additional trains on Saturday.

Ah that bint Doll is back with her excuses ..... forgive me if I don't believe the word of someone that should have been sacked ages ago !

 

[alfredmizen]

It was bad though. Who'd have known that on a hot sunny Pride Saturday 100's of thousands of people would flock to Brighton and then, unbelievably, want to go home?
I was driving past at 11:00 and it was chaos.

brighton old bill couldnt run a piss up in a brewery

 

[theboybilly]

I want GTR to prove the extra trains actually existed. Until such time I choose to believe there were no such trains. Much the same as the knives and knuckledusters BS lies spun by Sussex police after the Palace game. Let them produce evidence of those trains. Strongly suspect it won't be forthcoming.

Maybe one of our insider train wallahs is in a pisition to confirm one way or the other?

It would be interesting to know where these 15 trains on stand by were as I can't see that they would all have been berthed at Lover's Walk Depot in Brighton. That would have meant having to get trains from Eastbourne or Littlehampton or, at a push, Selhurst Depot, and that is disregarding the fact that a lot of scheduled maintenance to trains is done over the weekend. Most available trains would have been in service on Saturday anyway. But the main thing that suggests to me that Angie Doll is making things up is that I cannot see where the extra drivers would have come from, They would normally have a spare man at L'hampton and Eastbourne and possibly a couple of spares at Brighton but Southern don't like spending money so won't want to have forked out for up to a dozen blokes on overtime and not turn a wheel. In my experience that's not how they operate. I would take Ms Doll's assertions with a huge dose of salt.

 

[BrightonCottager]

If they ran regular trains through the night it would surly .

Don't call me Surly.

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Don't call me Surly.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Reckon a hefty congestion charge would decimate the thoughtless one-car-occupant overnight. Or at least focus their minds and force them to conduct an informal cost/benefit analysis before just jumping in their car. Next time you're a pedestrian pinned to the pavement at traffic lights, look how many cars sweeping past have a single occupant. Most of them. If they want to clog our town, so be it. Let them pay through the nose for the privilege. On the public transport front, convoys of buses through the town centre aren't doing a whole lot better to de-clutter the town. Much as I hate to say it, B&H could do a whole lot worse than follow the Croydon Tramlink model. It's gotta come someday shirley?

Trams, you say?

 

[Brovion]

If you can find it - great.

Successive councils, transport consultants and other interested parties have tried for yonks to find the appropriate place to put one. With - as we all know - no success.

Oh I know. My own personal favourite would be to have a huge ****-off car park at Waterhall complete with a parkway station - a proposal which I accept is completely and utterly out of the question at this moment in time (and indeed for the forseeable future). However at some stage some bullets will have to be bitten, some eggs broken and some sacred cows slaughtered. Either that or Brighton is going to have to downsize its ambitions, and only stage events it can cope with. As I mentioned earlier we're only just about coping with normal summer tourists.

 

[essbee1]

On the subject of left rubbish - I think we might be on a sticky wicket. Have you seen the state of the Amex after a match?