Trains need sorted before the really nasty teams come visiting

[Springal]

The fact is, they don't let enough people through on the platform, then a train comes, its half full, and they just send it. Seems they rely on their click counters a bit too much instead of using common sense. Especially pushing people down near the front of the trains (heading to Brighton) we were in the 2nd carriage on Saturday and there were empty seats, and barely more than 25 people in the carriage, this was about 5.30 with still a reasonable queue up the ramps.

Doesn't really need more trains, just better organisation.

Talking about 'scary teams' coming down, how do Charlton do it at their station?

 

[British Bulldog]

20 minute wait: If you just miss one, this is a massive wait. Not sure the singalling argument works here - 20 minutes on a train doing 60mph is 60 miles. Arn't the signals 1/4 mile apart.

In this time, there would be time for a train to come out of brighton on the other side of the track. Pull up at Falmer and get back before the next train arrives! Problem to accomodate that train at Brighton solved by putting 2 trains on one platform (often happens on plats 1 and 2)

As I've allready said the trains heading to brighton are moving as fast as the signalling will allow, The signals on that line are very few and far between. And if your seriously proposing running trains out of brighton on the wrong line to Falmer to start a service back then trust me it would take longer than the massive 20 minutes wait to set up the single line working necessary to do it and it would bring the whole line to a stand still in both directions while you do it.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

People are talking like the travel is a disater zone. It compares well to a lot of grounds, I have waited just as long at Leeds, Stoke, Reading, Portsmouth, Tottenham and the worst West Ham. I would think we will easyily get the planning persmission to add an extra 8000 seats, the only gripe is really people do not want to wait up to an hour to leave, welcome to big crowds at modern stadiums, Wembley takes me well over an hour to make the tube after some games but no one moans its just part of the experience these days.

At high risk games, fans may be brought in and out by bus or keeped in and like our games at Leyton Orient marched onto a train/carriges set aside for them. It will be easier than managing the games at Withdean, where there was a few rowdy chants but little else. Palace have not even sold out the last two games against us.

We could always relocate to Milton Keynes, plenty of parking only £5 and about 10 minutes to get out of the car park...

 

[Seagull Stew]

Where would all these spare buses come from? Haven't you noticed that they are having to borrow buses from all over the place just to get the park & ride services working?

Problem solved!

 

[Lawmololly]

Is it easier to drive to Lewes and grab the train from there to Falmer? The P&R was a nightmare when I used it previously. Am doing the train tonight from Littlehampton to Falmer, but not even considering what time we will get back due to missed connections etc due to queueing.

 

[Pinkie Brown]

LB suggested it was more efficient to have a train with capacity leave on time in order to keep the timetable moving? That to me is counter productive & rightly pisses people off who are standing in a queue whilst a train with spare capacity departs. Those people left behind each time are going to backlog more & more.

Having worked in the transport industry for many years previously, abet the airline industry, the 'must be on time' mentality was something I argued about often - It was farcical to have a situation where an aircraft departed on schedule (at the insistence of a duty manager) but half the passenger baggage was left behind. The same thinking appears to be occurring post match at Falmer?

People have to get used to the idea, at a large stadium its going to take ages to get away. Hoping in the car at 5pm & being home 10 minutes later for tea is unlikely to happen. Having said that, there's no need to make the situation worse by having trains leave Falmer that clearly have spare capacity.

Another option the powers that be may consider for potential problem games. All away fans MUST travel by organised coach & be issued with match tickets as they get off the coach on the coach. This system has been used for the genteel affairs such as Millwall -Leeds, Cardiff - Swansea & the like in the past. Post match, they can be escorted back to their coaches & sent on their jolly way home to their South London or Hampshire hovels.

There ya go - Problem sorted.

 

[Commander]

You cant expect 22,500 people all to get out of a stadium and home at the same time without having to queue and wait. I think a lot of us are too used to going to football with only 7,000 people there. Have you tried getting out of Wembley? This is why the bars staying open on the concourse is such a good idea, as it does reduce the amount of people at Falmer station straight after the game. But that only really helps on a Saturday, which makes it all the more ridiculous why we are playing most of the teams with a potential for trouble in meedweek. They have created a problem that didn't exist by doing that. On a Saturday I am happy to hang around aftrer the game and have a pint and wait for the queues to go down, but on a Tuesday night I need to get home straight after the game. As do 2500 Palace / Milwall / Leeds fans. I hope the police are intelligent enough to realise that next year we need to play these teams on a Saturday.

 

[Commander]

Another option the powers that be may consider for potential problem games. All away fans MUST travel by organised coach & be issued with match tickets as they get off the coach on the coach. This system has been used for the genteel affairs such as Millwall -Leeds, Cardiff - Swansea & the like in the past. Post match, they can be escorted back to their coaches & sent on their jolly way home to their South London or Hampshire hovels.

This would seem incredibly harsh I think. It's not Boca v River, It's Brighton v Palace. There will be problems, but the police should be able to cope. Although if you were going to go down the coach route, couldn't they just run the coaches from Haywards Heath or somewhere with the same restrictions? So fans could only get tickets by picking them up on the coaches at Haywards Heath, but were free to make their own way there? Then they can still travel independently and drink in the pubs around Haywards Heath but then there is no issue at the station or on the trains. That wouldn't be that hard to organise, would it?

If you did it the other way then there must be loads of Palace etc who live in Sussex, what are they meant to do? If this system was in place for when we went to Palace, what about all the Brighton who live in London? Are they supposed to get the train down to Brighton to then get the coach back up to Croydon?

 

[teaboy]

LB suggested it was more efficient to have a train with capacity leave on time in order to keep the timetable moving? That to me is counter productive & rightly pisses people off who are standing in a queue whilst a train with spare capacity departs. Those people left behind each time are going to backlog more & more.

Having worked in the transport industry for many years previously, abet the airline industry, the 'must be on time' mentality was something I argued about often - It was farcical to have a situation where an aircraft departed on schedule (at the insistence of a duty manager) but half the passenger baggage was left behind. The same thinking appears to be occurring post match at Falmer?

People have to get used to the idea, at a large stadium its going to take ages to get away. Hoping in the car at 5pm & being home 10 minutes later for tea is unlikely to happen. Having said that, there's no need to make the situation worse by having trains leave Falmer that clearly have spare capacity.

The problem with holding trains longer at Falmer is the knock-on effects further down the line of trains and staff being late for other departures. This can then cause more widespread problems due to signals being missed all over the place.

 

[Simster]

My gut feeling is that most of the transport issues will settle down before the end of the season. There are still loads of teething troubles, and a lot of people still haven't arrived at the best way to get to the stadium. It's not just the trains that need to be properly filled by stewards, but I got on a #23 bus to the marina right after the game and that was 3 quarters empty too.

However, would the infrastructure cope with 8,000 more seats, including an increased away presence? I'm not so sure.

 

[Mendoza]

I got the 28 bus from St Peter's Church on Saturday, probably only 5-10 mins longer journey time than the rattler.

Having seen the train queues after the Gillingham game, I thought a good idea would be the 25/28/29 on the A27 back into Brighton.

Only problem is, that of the 6 buses scheduled at the falmer station stop between 21.50 and 22.20, none of them turned up, leaving people stranded.

a 25 and 28 turned up 22.24, but those two buses didnt have the capacity to take the people now waiting at the bus stop. (i think more and more people kept turning up having seen the train queue)

If the buses ran the schedule they were supposed to, it would go a long way to solving people being stuck at the ground after midweek games

 

[Simster]

You cant expect 22,500 people all to get out of a stadium and home at the same time without having to queue and wait. I think a lot of us are too used to going to football with only 7,000 people there. Have you tried getting out of Wembley?

Comparison's with Wembley are not fair. I think there is an expectation of transport delays for a day out in the company of 90,000 other people.

 

[Captain Sensible]

I'm sure potential problem teams will be kept in after the game and escorted, they might run 2 or 3 extra trains to cope and the palarse etc will have a very long wait for them. Not our problem about the away6 fans. I think the evening games will work better playing these sides because on a Saturday you get total mixing of supporters ala Blackpool on Saturday. Also the bars stay open and you can drink in each stand. I'm sure Sussex Police will increase 5 fold for these matches and will keep everbody segregated the whole time after the game. It has to be......no?

 

[Commander]

Comparison's with Wembley are not fair. I think there is an expectation of transport delays for a day out in the company of 90,000 other people.

Perhaps, but my point is it takes a hell of a lot longer to get out of Wembley and onto a train or whatever than it does to get out of the Amex. And there are three stations there.

 

[Dover]

I'm on nights on Friday, hence will get on the 12.58 no23 from Queens Park Road junction. I'll let you know how I get on, but so far have used the train out to Falmer, and a bus or Taxi back here. Taxi fare was only £11.50 going along the Falmer Road, and along the Racecourse.

 

[Falkor]

must admit the service to Seaford is pretty rubbish, i was amazed at how packed the train is, and a number of Brighton fans got on at Lewes as they had got the earlier train to Lewes then jumped on the one to Seaford, tbh going to Brighton there is is a constant stream of trains

 

[Thunder Bolt]

The fact is, they don't let enough people through on the platform, then a train comes, its half full, and they just send it. Seems they rely on their click counters a bit too much instead of using common sense. Especially pushing people down near the front of the trains (heading to Brighton) we were in the 2nd carriage on Saturday and there were empty seats, and barely more than 25 people in the carriage, this was about 5.30 with still a reasonable queue up the ramps.

Doesn't really need more trains, just better organisation.

I commented on this whilst on the opposite platform last week. People get on the train but stand near the door when they could move into the carriage and make room for more people to get on behind them. It just takes a bit of thought and common sense.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I'm on nights on Friday, hence will get on the 12.58 no23 from Queens Park Road junction. I'll let you know how I get on, but so far have used the train out to Falmer, and a bus or Taxi back here. Taxi fare was only £11.50 going along the Falmer Road, and along the Racecourse.

Why not use the P & R from the Racecourse? Who is going to check that you haven't parked a car?

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

This would seem incredibly harsh I think. It's not Boca v River, It's Brighton v Palace. There will be problems, but the police should be able to cope. Although if you were going to go down the coach route, couldn't they just run the coaches from Haywards Heath or somewhere with the same restrictions? So fans could only get tickets by picking them up on the coaches at Haywards Heath, but were free to make their own way there? Then they can still travel independently and drink in the pubs around Haywards Heath but then there is no issue at the station or on the trains. That wouldn't be that hard to organise, would it?

If you did it the other way then there must be loads of Palace etc who live in Sussex, what are they meant to do? If this system was in place for when we went to Palace, what about all the Brighton who live in London? Are they supposed to get the train down to Brighton to then get the coach back up to Croydon?

The Club contended in the Stadium planning application that all away supporters would travel by coach and MP was still following this line at the Racecourse P&R planning committee meeting in June. Whether this contributed to the scepticism/concerns expressed by some committee members (of all parties) about the Amex transport arrangements in general may only become apparent if/when they are asked to consider an expansion in capacity.

 

[Scotty Mac]

i left the gillingham game five minutes early and it was fine