[Albion] Transport to/from The Amex

[Worried Man Blues]

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.

This

 

[Moshe Gariani]

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

This is a minor but sometimes significant irritation. No more than one additional adult should be allowed to accompany a "disabled" person in their queue jump - it would only take one week and a couple of posters put up to get the message across.

 

[Marshy]

As a park and ride user I can only really comment on that.

But as has been said, using the left hand side of slip lane for buses would speed the journey and turnaround of buses up greatly, a very simple thing.
And a P&R point at Hickstead for example also makes great sense and would relieve some of the pressure on Mill Road.

In general though its pretty good

 

[Stat Brother]

It might be an idea to relocate the unmanned 'box' at the end of the Mill Road stadium queue.
Funnelling 8 people wide into space for 3, pushing them into the Mithras Hse buses while expecting 2 cones to crowd control, isn't great.

This is my second comment here and I feel quite guilty, as overall I think the transportation of 30,000 people all wanting to do the same thing at the same time is excellent.


I've used all transport means available except for the Racecourse and walking, and by and large all have been great.
Although when The Bridge goes wrong it goes very very wrong.

The club needs to take on board some engagement with the fans/users on this.
I get the impression there's a degree of 'actually we're pretty good, we subsidise it, so stop moaning', which to a point I agree with.
But I'll hazard a guess there are some big improvements that can still be made just be tweaking the current operation.

 

[Chinman3000]

Permanent Sainsbury's West Hove P&R

 

[Norman Potting]

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

There are already five an hour but not spaced out evenly. Times on a Saturday (and Sunday I think) are (from Lewes) 07, 13, 29,44 & 58 past the hour. I am sure that most/all of the ones I have encountered on my two visits this season have been at least 6 cars or 8 which I think is the maximum bearing in mind platform lengths.

At the Southampton game the chaps on the platform let a train depart back to Lewes with numerous empty seats at the front much to the chagrin of those queuing, particularly us as we were right at the front of the queue. My suspicion is that the guy on the platform was in "jobsworth" mode and didn't let these seats be filled as (I think) they may have been first class! Perhaps Mr. B could ask Southern to brief their staff that, for the short hop to Lewes, to allow these seats to be filled by us proles!

 

[Whoislloydy]

1) Have the P&R at Sainsburys West Hove running perminantly.

I second this, used it twice last season for midweek games when Southern were on strike and it worked very well.

 

[BNthree]

The club needs to take on board some engagement with the fans/users on this.
I get the impression there's a degree of 'actually we're pretty good, we subsidise it, so stop moaning', which to a point I agree with.
But I'll hazard a guess there are some big improvements that can still be made just be tweaking the current operation.

Indeed a few smallish improvements, such as those mentioned in this thread, would make it all so much better.

 

[rippleman]

There are already five an hour but not spaced out evenly. Times on a Saturday (and Sunday I think) are (from Lewes) 07, 13, 29,44 & 58 past the hour. I am sure that most/all of the ones I have encountered on my two visits this season have been at least 6 cars or 8 which I think is the maximum bearing in mind platform lengths.

At the Southampton game the chaps on the platform let a train depart back to Lewes with numerous empty seats at the front much to the chagrin of those queuing, particularly us as we were right at the front of the queue. My suspicion is that the guy on the platform was in "jobsworth" mode and didn't let these seats be filled as (I think) they may have been first class! Perhaps Mr. B could ask Southern to brief their staff that, for the short hop to Lewes, to allow these seats to be filled by us proles!

It certainly wasn't first class seats that weren't filled on that train. There were even seats available in the first carriage. Just sheer, total incompetence. But then what do you expect from Southern?

The club needs a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Southern to specify:

1) Scheduling of services after the game

There should be a train scheduled to leave 5 minutes after end of game to clear away the early leavers and then services at least every 15 minutes after the game.

West Coastway services should be scheduled to depart soon after the trains from Falmer arrives

2) Capacity

All trains an hour before and an hour after should have the maximum carriage capacity, as should the West Coastway services for an hour after the game

3) Stewarding

Recruit stewards for Brighton station who have a bit of a clue what is going on and are able to communicate that to the fans, and who can use their noddle. It is pointless making all fans wanting to catch West Coastway Services leave the station and then re-enter when there are only half a dozen people in the kettling area

4) Compensation

The SLA should have a provision for compensation to be paid to the club if Southern fail to deliver the agreed services

5) Payment

Payments by the club to Southern should be made by installments throughout the season. If the club pays them up front then there is no incentive for Southern to deliver any kind of timely and efficient service

 

[portlock seagull]

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?

This. What annoys me about the unreasonable delays is that they keep all the disabled fans bottled up in there too, as if they haven’t got enough difficulties and time pressures to contend with the club keeps these fans waiting longer than any others! Some equality that. But yes, it’s absolutely ridiculous making all these cars wait until the very last coach, bus etc has gone when whilst these are being loaded, many of these cars could be allowed to leave. The bottleneck occurs because Village Way including the lights are not traffic police handles but left to automation meaning everything’s equal except the traffic flow is obviously very different before and after. For the sake of a single ‘Italian style’ cop with a whistle directing traffic instead, we could all be away far far quicker. Instead the club insists on employing scores of hi vis vest goons who do little more than stand around pointing at the bleeding obvious but with no authority to even make a common sense judgement. I know many just shrug their shoulders and have accepted it’s just the way it is. But it doesn’t have to be, the transport problems are a huge issue and can be improved. I refuse to accept anyone’s argument that it can’t. Unfortunately the club are especially interested and this is condoned by many supporters apathy towards. The whole mindset needs changing. The end of match transport policy should be conducted as an evacuation (ie inject some urgency) rather than plodding along same old same old...Another example is filling one bus at a time from the front. Why not have a steward with a clicker on each door, front and middle. Reduce loading times by half. Just little things that would make big differences but all we hear is how it can’t be done. Sick and tired of the mentality our club has towards the ridiculous number of hours you have to budget for to get to and from the ground when you’re within the Amex zone ie the last leg. Takes nearly as much time as the prior travel time from 70miles away. If it was safe to walk along the A27 from Mill Lane etc I’m sure many would. Damned quicker on many occasions for sure. Anyway, that’s car and bus sorted...anyone got any ideas re: Southern Fail?!!!

 

[Brovion]

From the first of PB's emails to me.

'We don't have a transport manager, because we don't control transport. We never have'

But they DO control the transport. Or at least they control the stewards (unless the stewards just do as the please without any input from anybody, which actually I can believe).

In my experience the biggest source of stress and strife is queue jumping. We all accept we've got to queue. No problems. But we want these queues (bus, train, P 'n' R and car park egress) to be 'fair'. There is nothing more infuriating than to see people just randomly push in and the stewards tolerate it.

A second (related) gripe is loading. Make sure the trains don't leave with empty spaces!

 

[Prettyboyshaw]

Slip road/bridge onto A27 heading south from the carpark so they don't have to use the bottle neck joining the Falmer Road.

Get the council to hand over a few fields to turn into car park paint the tarmac green to keep the tree huggers happy!

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

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.

Absolutely and utterly this. I realise that you and I probably miss much of what goes on, both arriving for games in good time and by public transport, but with tens of thousands of people all arriving and departing within an hour or two of each other, problems will always occur. With the club footing the bill for fans who choose to travel by public transport and Park & Ride services, I'm amazed that many of them still complain to such an extent.

 

[trueblue]

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.

I assume they've done studies into this sort of thing BUT... always seemed to me that Southampton's system is much better. They load up all the buses (and there seem to be many more), then they all leave at once. Ok, you have to hang around waiting for the bus to leave but you do it sitting on a warm bus, not standing in the pissing rain. The current idea seems to be that there will be a constant stream of buses as they make their circular route, but there just aren't enough buses for that to happen.

 

[Since1982]

In the spirit of "small things which could make a difference" I never understand why there are stewards at the zebra crossing in the uni but they do not regulate the flow of pedestrians and cars to deal with the inevitable large flows of people and vehicles converging at this point post match. When we did have a Transport Manager I raised this with him and received by way of a response an extract from the Highway Code as to how to approach a zebra crossing in a car!

 

[James Bond's body double]

But they DO control the transport. Or at least they control the stewards (unless the stewards just do as the please without any input from anybody, which actually I can believe).

In my experience the biggest source of stress and strife is queue jumping. We all accept we've got to queue. No problems. But we want these queues (bus, train, P 'n' R and car park egress) to be 'fair'. There is nothing more infuriating than to see people just randomly push in and the stewards tolerate it.

A second (related) gripe is loading. Make sure the trains don't leave with empty spaces!

I emailed the club about this, I received a reply and they said more stewards will be added after the game but, by the time the stewards have arrived all the jumpers have already go their space in the line and it's too late. They need more barriers, this will stop it happening. I use train back to Brighton so I know that will work (barriers from slope say up until the line where no alcohol is allowed) I can't answer for the P&R but surely more barriers where fans queue will stop the others walking down the line and pushing in at the front?

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Re above having always parked in bottom of Bridge car park last season and parked at top a couple of times this season - it takes just as long from top - actually feels longer as from higher up you can see all other cars leaving

There have definitely been two occasions where this happened. Once was Newcastle last year, people at the bottom of the car park were out of their cars watching as the car park was cleared from the top. Can't remember offhand the other time, it was this year. This is not the norm though, I've used the top and it can take ages as you say.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

IMHO any tweaks to the existing transport infrastructure should be prioritised on the public transport infrastructure i.e. what the club originally envisaged (or at least paid lip service to) in order to get the planning application passed. Any private motorists who somehow envisaged that paid parking would somehow allow them to be whisked home in two shakes of a lamb's tail past the queueing public transport lumpenproletariat should maybe re-evaluate their transport choice. Or just suck it up and resign themselves to queueing like everybody else, only a few quid lighter.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

I emailed the club about this, I received a reply and they said more stewards will be added after the game but, by the time the stewards have arrived all the jumpers have already go their space in the line and it's too late. They need more barriers, this will stop it happening. I use train back to Brighton so I know that will work (barriers from slope say up until the line where no alcohol is allowed) I can't answer for the P&R but surely more barriers where fans queue will stop the others walking down the line and pushing in at the front?

How about machine gun posts every 50 yards or so? would that do the job?

 

[Stat Brother]

The stadium officially opened on 30 July 2011... ...The stadium set its first record attendance with 21,897 against Liverpool.

What actual changes has there been to the transport infrastructure over the 6 seasons that the capacity has increased by a third, a full 10,000 people?