pure_white
Well-known member
- Dec 8, 2021
- 1,216
Cancellations, chaos, punch up at Brighton Station. Thanks Southern fail.
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And on my way to the Amex I get the announcement due to the train running so late I can claim a 25% refund, no I can't. That really p1ssed me off. Its ridiculous how few trains there are post match looking at the train times i could not see the usual extra trains had been put on. Perhaps someone at the club can take this up with Southern Fail?Southern Rail are crap. A few games ago, for the first time ever they challenged us about travelling more than 3 hours before the game. I didn't pay for an extra ticket, my son did.
The conductor person argued that people shouldn't be using the train to go into Brighton to do something else before the game. Bloke next to me lied and said they were going to the ground straight away, I said I was going into town for a couple of pints.
Pointed out their general unreliability and that the trains get so rammed it probably does everyone a favour if people travel early and spread things out. Tonight highlighted this well, a right pain in the arse.
Lewes was an absolute shambles this evening. I joined the queue snaking around the station at 6:25pm and only just made it in time for kick off. There were hundreds behind me who didn’t stand a chance of getting there in time.
I arrived at Brighton station this evening at around 17.45, and joined a not very large queue ("excellent", I thought). I was adjacent to those toilets at the coffee shop, so quite near those doors before you get onto the platform. And then we waited, and waited...
It took until 18.20 till I was on a train. And then, the train didn't leave the station till 18.40. So I spent nearly an hour from entering the station, to departing it. Christ knows what the queues were like behind me. I'm sure there's a very good reason for this clusterf*ck of a "service", but whats the point. Its just par for the course.
By FAR the highlight of my day was having a little read in the pub before mincing up to BTN station. Left home at 4.15, got home at 10.15. Everything from 6pm onwards was basically SHIT
Do the club have some sort of agreement with the railway about putting on extra trains? I don't think there were ANY extra trains tonight, that plus loads of away fans travelling London bound and many more having to go via Brighton northbound did not help.
Yup.
Left home at 5.30. The 5.42 from Portslade was already late and almost full as SASTA insisted on sticking to their current one train every 30 mins "timetable" on Coastway West and only provided a three car chugger. Just about squeezed on but took absolutely ages to disembark at Brighton as the wallies had allowed the commuters to fill platforms 1 and 2 to wait for our service and there was a dangerous crush to get on and off that needed a copper to sort out. Finally joined the same queue as you at just gone 6pm and I suspect we were on the same service. Waited for ages to be let on to the platform, waited for ages to be allowed to board the train, waited for ages for that train to leave, Finally in the concourse at about 7. At least there wasn't a queue for a beer as every other bugger was still stuck coming over.
7pm was the highlight of my evening. Finally a beer in my hand and a chat with my friends. From 7.30 onwards everything went south again. Having told a friend about the train over, he'd parked at Mill Rd and offered us a lift back. The queue for the P&R buses was absolutely ginormous and barely moved. Home after 10.30 to find Mrs GB was unwell and I had the happy task of taking the dog round the corner for an empty before finally settling down with a nightcap to have a moan on here.
All in all probably the worst "matchday experience" for a very long time with the exception of the beer queue, but God knows how much beer and pie revenue SASTA did us out of.
I heard there were trespassers on the line on the Lewes side somewhere (Polegate ?). If so, not a lot Southern can do
They always trot this excuse out.