[Travel] Trains shitshow - next STRIKE - October 8th (Spurs)??

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

There have always been issues with transport to/from The Amex.

Hopefully one of those elected to the FAB will ask some questions:

Park and Ride - why not load more than one bus at a time? It's so painfully slow - Saturday's heat just exacerbated the problem
Park and Ride- who controls the lights at top of village way?
Will there ever be a third P& R (Mithras house now closed)

We have crowds approx. 8-10k bigger than when the Amex opened but less P P& R spaces....

Uni / Bridge Car Parking - Stewarding could be SO much better - if you get there early, you should surely be directed to where you can leave first. Actually at the Uni just have someone who knows what they're doing...

Bennett's Field (If planning is rejected, will the club get this back?) would free up more Uni parking spaces places...when will the planning application be heard?

Trains - already covered on this thread.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

However, it must be said that catering has improved a hundred-fold. I do wonder whether people who talk about how poor British Rail was, are thinking solely of sandwiches

Very unhealthy but the toast or bacon sandwiches on the buffet car in the mornings were great. Thick sliced bread and it seemed like they just cut a slab of butter and put it on the bread under the grill so it oozed buttery goodness. The bacon sandwiches were basically two slices of said toast but with a couple of decent rashers of bacon in between.

 

[maresfield seagull]

Ah yes the buffet car days of BR
Away days to football free beer
Some scoundrel distracts the BR employee as his pal pinches a case of beer
Then generously hands em out to all and sundry

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Have emailed PB on pretty much the above. Love the bloke. He replied within 30 minutes - as I sort of knew he would - and he copied in the Albion transport manager. Class act PB

Fair play to PB and AM for both taking time to reply to me in double quick time. Nul Point tho for pushing back on my suggestion of reinstating display of real-time transport information on the concourses. Oh well

 

[el punal]

It should be of concern to PB. It's the Albion's least best 'customer matchday experience' by a country mile. 10k of that 31k are pure EPL tourists of one sort or another. Not the kind to hang around should things ever go tits up

10k of 31,000 EPL tourists, how so? 23,000 are Albion ST holders, 3,000 are away fans. That leaves 5,000 who are Albion fans who are not ST holders (Albion + members and so forth) who take in the occasional game, hospitality guests, club guests (players’ friends and family) and then general public sale attendees. I would suggest that your estimate of 10,000 tourists is a bit off beam.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

10k of 31,000 EPL tourists, how so? 23,000 are Albion ST holders, 3,000 are away fans. That leaves 5,000 who are Albion fans who are not ST holders (Albion + members and so forth) who take in the occasional game, hospitality guests, club guests (players’ friends and family) and then general public sale attendees. I would suggest that your estimate of 10,000 tourists is a bit off beam.

Watch the numbers quietly - and sharply - fall away the first time the Albion take a misstep back down to the Championship

 

[chaileyjem]

Watch the numbers quietly - and sharply - fall away the first time the Albion take a misstep back down to the Championship

whens that due then ? Anyway if the worst did happen - i'm sure there'd be a hit but if you I look at clubs like Fulham, Norwich, Burnley, Bournemouth - then struggling for evidence that it would be "sharply" . And certainly not quietly. Championship and even L1 attendances are very healthy. Not sure why Albion wouldn't benefit from that.

 

[el punal]

Watch the numbers quietly - and sharply - fall away the first time the Albion take a misstep back down to the Championship

Yeah, well let’s cross that bridge as and when we get there, hopefully not any time soon.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Watch the numbers quietly - and sharply - fall away the first time the Albion take a misstep back down to the Championship

Of course, but it's like that for the vast majority of clubs. I guess the moral of all this is, don't get relegated!

 

[Weststander]

Watch the numbers quietly - and sharply - fall away the first time the Albion take a misstep back down to the Championship

You may have to be patient with that, TB appears to be getting better and better at this EPL malarkey.

 

[Coldeanseagull]

Hmmmm....the unavoidable bottleneck in the London suburbs aside, my recollection of the slam door era was good. My commute from Faversham to London 30 years ago was decent. Always got a seat. Toilets shabby but always open. Ticket price structure simple and not especially expensive.

The privatised trains on the other hand are slower (10 minutes on the timetabled journey), uncomfortable (narrow armless seats in cattle class), brittle (a puff of wind or a millimeter of snow halts the service), and expensive. Plus the toilets are frequently locked, with none available on occasions (sometimes for weeks). And of course you need to have a smart person in the ticket office if you want to buy the cheapest ticket:

Are you travelling before 9, between 9 and 10 or after 10?
Is that with or without high speed?
Single or return?
What time are you coming back? (this is a very silly question because it doesn't matter on my line - when you leave dictates cost).
Any concession cards?
First class you say?

Turns out my best ticket when travelling before 10 is an ordinary single (my senior railcard gives no discount when travelling at this time), and a first class 'super' off-peak return with the senior railcard discount, with ho high speed option. This is not the default. The default is the ordinary peak time return which is £20 more expensive. Not a lot of people know this (including most of the ticket office staff). I have spent quite some time arguing the toss with those who don't, and who can't follow my instructions. A five minute job (that should be a 30 second job).

No, the rail system in the UK is far worse than it used to be in every respect apart from the air conditioning. If that's working....

It was more a dig about every thread being turned political to champion comrade Harold

 

[worthingseagull123]

That is what I miss most about the Goldstone.

Walking to games and not needing the train.

 

[drew]

Watch the numbers quietly - and sharply - fall away the first time the Albion take a misstep back down to the Championship

Any evidence to support that theory?

It's just a guess on your part and gates would certainly not suffer if we mounted a promotion challenge.

 

[drew]

That is what I miss most about the Goldstone.

Walking to games and not needing the train.

Guessing you weren't a 'Worthing' Gull back in the day!

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

That is what I miss most about the Goldstone.

Walking to games and not needing the train.

Easily solved. Move to East Brighton.

 

[Gazwag]

There have always been issues with transport to/from The Amex.

Hopefully one of those elected to the FAB will ask some questions:

Park and Ride - why not load more than one bus at a time? It's so painfully slow - Saturday's heat just exacerbated the problem
Park and Ride- who controls the lights at top of village way?
Will there ever be a third P& R (Mithras house now closed)

We have crowds approx. 8-10k bigger than when the Amex opened but less P P& R spaces....

Uni / Bridge Car Parking - Stewarding could be SO much better - if you get there early, you should surely be directed to where you can leave first. Actually at the Uni just have someone who knows what they're doing...

Bennett's Field (If planning is rejected, will the club get this back?) would free up more Uni parking spaces places...when will the planning application be heard?

Trains - already covered on this thread.

With trains going east getting worse every year I would love a park and ride Lewes way, us East Sussex fans have never had a park and ride

 

[portlock seagull]

With trains going east getting worse every year I would love a park and ride Lewes way, us East Sussex fans have never had a park and ride

That's why West is Best

 

[dazzer6666]

Watch the numbers quietly - and sharply - fall away the first time the Albion take a misstep back down to the Championship

You can’t wait, can you

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Yep,.in my experience, most people who talk about how poor British Rail was don't remember it. Like you, I was a regular commuter throughout the 80s and the trains were much, much more punctual than they are now. On my last month of commuting (in 2014), there was a delay on every single day between London and Brighton - sometimes the morning, sometimes the evening, sometimes both. It quite regularly took me three to four hours. And the trains were more comfortable then too. And you're not wrong about prices, train fares have gone up well above the inflation rate.

However, it must be said that catering has improved a hundred-fold. I do wonder whether people who talk about how poor British Rail was, are thinking solely of sandwiches

Went up to London today. No 'accessible' toilets. What they meant was no toilets. FFS!

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

irony of complex ticket options is they come from the regulator insistance to provide a % of affordable discount options, and to encourage more travel off-peak. we then complain about them.

I complain when the ticket sellers haven't got a clue what is the cheapest ticket for me, if I buy at the station. I don't try buying complex tickets online because I unless I know what the cheapest option is....I can't ask for it.