[Albion] Transport to/from The Amex

[BensGrandad]

]Fully enforce the no pick up in Village Way, and stop all cars coming up from the University of Brighton Campus and Virgin Gym at Maryland House, to enable 25 bus to turn round and continue route into town without being stuck in traffic. This would also allow any overflow of buses or coaches on Village Way to safely turn road using this option.[/B]

This would only need to be in place until the coach park had cleared

Also would an additional option be for a further fleet of buses to run after the game between the Amex and Brighton Station thereby reducing the volumes looking to use the train option back into town. This could just be extending the current P+R route from Mithas House to the station after the game

How do you enforce that?


Where do the extra drivers for the extra buses that would be needed due to the time taken for the extra distance of each journey. come from?

The simple answer if it could be done would be run a train every 1/4 hour Brighton to Lewes to Brighton stopping at Falmer each way and that would probably clear the crowd in no time but apparently it cant be done for a number of reasons.

 

[theboybilly]

How do you enforce that?


Where do the extra drivers for the extra buses that would be needed due to the time taken for the extra distance of each journey. come from?

The simple answer if it could be done would be run a train every 1/4 hour Brighton to Lewes to Brighton stopping at Falmer each way and that would probably clear the crowd in no time but apparently it cant be done for a number of reasons.

Do Southern still persist with 3 car trains? Running more 8 coach trains would help. Even 2 x 3 coaches would be an improvement

 

[perseus]

Taxi driver drop fans off at the nus stop on the main road. Beats the Village Way drop off.

Taxi from Shoreham does not beat the trains from Shoreham if they are running properly even for evening games.

West Coastway trains can be a problem,

 

[Seagull by the Sea]

With reference to Bennett’s Field Parking...

The exit time this season has been ridiculously long and that is even when you have stayed an extra hour+ after the game before returning to the car.

The main issue seems to be the cars (VIP?) that come from the car park in front of the club shop (sorry, don’t know the name of that car park) and up the slope that runs alongside Bennett’s Field. They do this at the same time as all the levels of Bennett’s Field are opened together and basically it is a free for all with no one wanting to let anyone out.

In previous seasons the stewards would open each level up one at a time, starting from the bottom and working their way up Bennett’s Field. There would also be a steward standing at the BF’s exit and would allow cars through whilst stopping the VIP cars, then stopping the BF cars and letting some VIP cars through and so on.

This season this has not happened, stewards have been standing around and just watching as all the cars just jostle for position. After the Southampton game they obviously decided it was chaos and the stewards intervened, after they did that everything ran smoothly. Is this going to be the norm again or will it be a free for all?

 

[Boston28]

I've used the racecourse P&R for the last two games out of necessity (usually use Mill Rd). Need to steward the queue after the game as there are far to many people wandering up and jumping in. Might be that there is inadequate signage and/or no barriers.

If there was one big change that would help it would be escalators to WSU!!!!

I have used the racecourse park and ride for 4 years now and you probably won’t be surprised to know I have seen it regularly kick off between fans after people doing this. One game it went beyond just being told to piss off to the back of the line, I assume it was reported because the next game there was indeed a couple of stewards overseeing but they were never seen again after that one match.

 

[Official Old Man]

Three points that need to be mentioned that are regarding my forms of transport.
1/ The left hand lane off the A27 up the slip road needs to be turned into a bus lane. A marshal or Police at the top to control it as well thus stopping cars jumping in. This would cut P&R journeys by up to 15 minutes plus turn the buses around quicker. But do not cut back on the amount of buses.
2/ Coaches. Something I've seen at away games is the Police escorting the coaches out all in one go. 40 plus coaches do tend to get in the way so at a set time, say 30 minutes after the final whistle, stop all other traffic including the junctions with Village Way plus both round-a-bouts accessing the A27 and get them all out of the way quickly.
3/ Stop all cars from entering Village Way for one hour after the match. Now my Mum sometimes comes to a match and she cant walk so I drop her off pre match in the designated 'drop-off' zone within the entrance (is it still there?) and P&R myself. Maybe she can use the 1901 shuttle to get to a designated pick up point.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Move the ground

 

[Invicta]

P and R used occasionally last season at Pyecombe was very good. Be great to make it permanent.

 

[tubby]

I have never understood why, after the game, they insist on loading one park & ride bus and waiting for that to leave before loading the next one. If there are several buses why don't they let us get on any bus that is there. It will speed up loading and get the buses away quicker and as a result they will get back to the Amex quicker to load again.

 

[Perry Milkins]

The club could put a bit of shelter up where the bus queues stand ....I think it would be useful if the club/transport people ran a ticket based P&R system so people might have a better of idea of a time band when to start queuing.

Surely that would not cost too much?

 

[B-right-on]

1) Have the P&R at Sainsburys West Hove running perminantly. When its running, it alleviates the Mill Rd ques and speeds it all up for everyone on the P&R from Hove.

2) Stop the cars parking in Falmer itself and dropping off round there (as well as the other dropp off points that arent supposedot be per earlier post). There seems to be a lot of cars heading down that way and this backs up the P&R buses which then slows down the P&R system which then leads to people taking their cars.....

 

[goldstone]

Open the Bridge Car Park exit to the southwest of the car park that leads into Lucraft Road. Simple solution. Sure it would lead to extra traffic on a couple of Moulescoomb roads for an hour or so on about 20 occasions in the year, but it would solve the problem.

 

[Rugrat]

I've been in correspondence over the past few days with Paul Barber regarding transport to and from The Amex.

The Albion's sustainable transport system is highly subsidised by the club, and it's agreed that it generally works well, and with sell out crowds patience will sometimes be required.

My initial idea was to have a meeting with the Transport Manager of the club, bringing together a group of people who use different methods of transport to/from the ground to discuss if there were any ways that P&R, trains, Bridge car park, uni car parking etc. could possibly be improved.

Such a meeting is not going to happen, partly because PB informed me the club doesn't have a Transport Manager, but the club is 'happy to receive suggestions'.

Rather than lots of emails to PB, if anyone has any (sensible)suggestions regarding transport, please put them on this thread and I'll put them in one email to him by the end of the week.

Cheers.

Good luck with that, was precisely what I suggested to the Transport Manager (when there was one) who thought it was a brilliant idea and then didn't follow through and do anything

I think you're going to have to keep ideas to the very best if you want to get Barber interested otherwise stand by for a patronising response and little else.

My issues (if needed) are mostly with Park and Ride. I don't use it now but still think these are valid

1. Exactly as [MENTION=12226]tubby[/MENTION] says, load the buses in 2's, it's not rocket science. Used to be that a steward would then walk on double deckers and count any empty seats and then let 3 or 4 more on. How about counting down the line and sending those people to a specific bus
2. Try to get another P&R site to the North. Hickstead might be too far for buses to get back. I think there's a disused quarry or similar just north of Pyecombe that would be ideal. But surely they can find something out there to ease some pressure on Mill Road

I actually think there are loads of small things that could be done. Individually most won't improve dramatically but collectively they could make a significant difference. Unfortunately I don't fancy your chances and you'll need to try to get beyond the nicey nicey replies to some real action

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Fixed-price leave-when-full taxi/minibus rank at the Amex with a very limited number of stopping points between the stadium and Brighton station. Some people genuinely need to get back into town in a hurry who would be prepared to pay a premium to do so. Pretty sure there's a few cabbies out there who wouldn't mind the business, particularly for midweek evening games. Could similarly serve Lewes station.

 

[goldstone]

duplicate post

 

[jaghebby]

I think all P&R users could help the speed of boarding of P&R buses after games as a minority of people do seem slow down once they are on the bus, deciding where to sit, not moving right down to the end of the bus, blocking the aisles and generally faffing around! Also I have seen buses leave for the race course P&R with empty seats on the top deck!

 

[Stat Brother]

P and R used occasionally last season at Pyecombe was very good. Be great to make it permanent.

I don't think anybody trying to get into Mill Road would question this.
Occasionally the unmoving tailback snakes right round to the inside lane of the A27.
Obviously relieving the pressure on the MR roundabout will also give the buses a quicker turnaround.

All the more so this season (and hopefully next) with the massive number of supporters regularly coming down from London.

1) Have the P&R at Sainsburys West Hove running perminantly. When its running, it alleviates the Mill Rd ques and speeds it all up for everyone on the P&R from Hove.

Always very happy when Sainos is running.

 

[BNthree]

Now my Mum sometimes comes to a match and she cant walk so I drop her off pre match in the designated 'drop-off' zone within the entrance (is it still there?) and P&R myself. Maybe she can use the 1901 shuttle to get to a designated pick up point.

Just so you know there is a shuttle service for those with limited mobility that goes from just outside the lift to the coach park and goes over to the Sussex University sports centre car park. It runs before and after matches and is for fans just like your mum. There are 2 or 3 shuttles buses that go back and forth. Might make your and her life a bit easier.

 

[BNthree]

Fixed-price leave-when-full taxi/minibus rank at the Amex with a very limited number of stopping points between the stadium and Brighton station. Some people genuinely need to get back into town in a hurry who would be prepared to pay a premium to do so. Pretty sure there's a few cabbies out there who wouldn't mind the business, particularly for midweek evening games. Could similarly serve Lewes station.

Reckon Falmer station car park could work for cabs heading to Brighton, saves clogging up Village Way. Outside the Swan for cabs going to Lewes? Wouldn't impact the Uni car park exit ueues too much that way.

 

[amexee]

Ask him what the criteria is for using the "disabled" line to get on the trains. Groups up to 8 in total, seem to stroll down with one of them swinging a walking stick, in a token attempt to imitate disability. Some don't even bother with that charade