So what happened to the expected travel chaos?

Tom Hark Preston Park · Jul 31, 2011

csider said:
Why??

Because the following day will be a work day for many people, there will be fewer trains that time in the evening, and people with further afield to travel home will not want to be hanging around in a queue at Falmer station for very long. Last train leaves Brighton for London at half eleven of a weekday for example.

Maybe adding a number of buses going direct from the ground to Brighton station could help with that particular midweek problem?

Acker79 · Jul 31, 2011

LE2 said:
Where exactly are these P&Rs? I've always used Mill Road before, but these sound perfect! And I promise not to tell anyone else!

They are at mithras house and the cockcroft building.

Mithras house and the cockcroft building are the Brighton University sites on lewes road (one on each side of the road) just along from coombe road/B&Q (towards falmer).

Lush · Jul 31, 2011

mithras house lewes road brighton - Google Maps

Here - one each side of the road. Zoom out to get your bearings.

thedonkeycentrehalf · Jul 31, 2011

Mill Road is always going to be the most popular as it is the first one fans arriving from the West on the A27 or from the North on the A23 will come to. Maybe some additional signage to point people to the alternative P&R sites might spread the load a bit.

I was one of the last to get in there yesterday at around 1:40 and the bus got to the ground in about 20 minutes. The only problem is that it has to join the queues on the A27 (our driver went down the outside land and then cut in at the last minute which helped!). I still feel it may be better to send the buses down Coldean Lane and in through Stanmer Park - especially if you get stweards giving buses priority on the roundabout. Alternatively, buses should be able to use the inside of the two lanes up the sliproad and again given priority to get onto the roundabout.

Coming back, there was an issue after the first wave of buses left as the queue got quite large and spread across the car park. The stewards (sensibly) created a second queue but there was no segregation so as soon as the next bus turned up, those at the front of the second queue jumped on the bus leaving a lot of people annoyed at having waited patiently to then miss out when others who arrived much later got onto the bus. An additional set of barriers along the waiting area to enable two queues to be created would help this. Overall the P&R worked fine well for me and I was still back in Worthing by 6pm which was not too bad at all.

Superphil · Jul 31, 2011

Lord Bracknell said:
And disabled parking certainly remains a problem.

I don't think the disabled spaces in Bennets field were all used. It also seemed to me that only about half the wheelchair spaces around the ground were in use. In the 1901 WSM I tihnk I saw 2 or 3 wheelchair users, then the other wheelchair spaces and helper seats were all taken up by stewards, some kids, and others who didn't bother returning to their own seats after half time.

Butch Willykins · Jul 31, 2011

Jim in the West said:
I was VERY pleasantly surprised....we'd parked at Haywards Heath and took the train via Lewes. Perfect both ways. Falmer station is actually brilliant - is there a football ground in the UK with a closer railway station?

Old Trafford has a station under their South Stand.

Christshospital Seagull · Jul 31, 2011

Superb experience, C/H to the stadium one hour using the train from Haywards Heath & a return trip time of 1hr 30. Well done
The Albion

gazingdown · Jul 31, 2011

The Mithras House option seems interesting.

I would be travelling down the A23, coming off at Pyecombe, across to Clayton then down the Ditchling road, through Coldean to Mithras park. OR I could park in Coldean?

The other option is to use the Mill Road P&R. Is this ultimately going to be a lot quicker? I like the MH option as I can walk back if buses are busy.

Conkers · Jul 31, 2011

csider said:
Why??

Because 1000's were happy to mull around with mates enjoying a cold beer on a warm summers day. A game which finishes at 9:40 on a work night on a fecking cold day will make more people rush home at the same time. Oh and an extra 5,000 fans to boot...........

ngood77 · Jul 31, 2011

gazingdown said:
The Mithras House option seems interesting.

I would be travelling down the A23, coming off at Pyecombe, across to Clayton then down the Ditchling road, through Coldean to Mithras park. OR I could park in Coldean?

The other option is to use the Mill Road P&R. Is this ultimately going to be a lot quicker? I like the MH option as I can walk back if buses are busy.

Bomb it down to the A27, go east, come off at first junction (Hollingbury, Ditchling Road) and go straight down into Coldean Lane ?

Fungus · Jul 31, 2011

Lush said:
mithras house lewes road brighton - Google Maps

Here - one each side of the road. Zoom out to get your bearings.

Brilliant, thanks!

Superphil · Jul 31, 2011

Conkers said:
Because 1000's were happy to mull around with mates enjoying a cold beer on a warm summers day. A game which finishes at 9:40 on a work night on a fecking cold day will make more people rush home at the same time. Oh and an extra 5,000 fans to boot...........

A bit like most other grounds then? Although nowhere near as bad as getting away from Old Trafford, Wembley, Pride Park, Hillsborough to name the first four nightmares that come to mind, weekday, evening, weekend, summer, winter, whenever, they are all terrible.

SICKASAGULL · Jul 31, 2011

Would be interested to learn from those who used the Racehill Park & Ride

Cian · Jul 31, 2011

Jim in the West said:
I was VERY pleasantly surprised....we'd parked at Haywards Heath and took the train via Lewes. Perfect both ways. Falmer station is actually brilliant - is there a football ground in the UK with a closer railway station?

Old Trafford has a halt of its own, if you can class it a station... Milwall and Derby had them but the line closed and the stadium moved respectively

I nearly missed the train out due to queues for a ticket - noticed Southern / Network Rail / whoever had put Falmer Day Return on the front page of the fastticket machines which was a good idea. Thankfully it was delayed due to coupling another 377 to it to make it 6 car so got on it.

Mackenzie · Jul 31, 2011

If you live in the Queens Park/Eastern Road area then catch the 23 bus, it drops off/picks up from Village way. Very easy get away.

Herr Tubthumper · Jul 31, 2011

Superphil said:
I don't think the disabled spaces in Bennets field were all used. It also seemed to me that only about half the wheelchair spaces around the ground were in use. In the 1901 WSM I tihnk I saw 2 or 3 wheelchair users, then the other wheelchair spaces and helper seats were all taken up by stewards, some kids, and others who didn't bother returning to their own seats after half time.

All the BF disabled spaces had cars in them yesterday.

Also, not all of the seats along the back row are wheelchair helper seats. Where my father sits there is a block of four seats to his right and about 6 feet away. These are not designated as disabled according to the seat plan we have. And yesterday they were being used as directors box over spill.

melias shoes · Jul 31, 2011

Smart Mart said:
Left Bennett's Field Car Park 30 minutes after the end of the game, and was back home in beautiful downtown Saltdean just 10 minutes later.

Could. Not. Have. Been. Better.

Well done to all

We was in bennetts and they held us for 10-15 mins
Didn't bother us at all. Once they moved us we moved quickly away. We were very impressed with it all. :thumbsup:

Dick Knights Mumm · Jul 31, 2011

Jim in the West said:
I was VERY pleasantly surprised....we'd parked at Haywards Heath and took the train via Lewes. Perfect both ways. Falmer station is actually brilliant - is there a football ground in the UK with a closer railway station?

Old Trafford is next to the stand.

(see MYOB).

Tummy Burger · Jul 31, 2011

Hve to say travel was excellent. Way above my expectations. Train from HH via Brighton, and returning via Lewes. I would say that I took the clubs advice and stayed for a couple of pints after, hence return journey was no problem at all. Big thumbs up from me.

pork pie · Jul 31, 2011

Lord Bracknell said:
From what I can tell, skimming through a few threads, the numbers travelling by train seem to have been well below the Club's estimate - which is good news.

Getting back to Mill Road P&R seems to have presented a few problems - was it full to capacity?

The biggest issue seems to have been the time it took to get away from Bennetts Field and the University car parks - holding vehicles back from getting out of Bennetts Field would certainly help get buses and coaches out of the coach park.

I did speak to someone who was worried about how long their coach service would survive, with so few people using it.

Did anyone have a problem with queues at Brighton Station? Or getting on a train at London Road? The train I caught at Glynde had standing passengers well before it got to Lewes - but passengers wishing to board it at Lewes were being shepherded on to an alternative train that was waiting to leave five minutes later.

I heard there were problems on the London main line. What happened?

What about parking in Moulsecoomb and Coldean? How did that work out?

What about Travel Vouchers? No-one was interested in checking either tickets or vouchers on the trains I travelled on.

And disabled parking certainly remains a problem.

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So what happened to the expected travel chaos?

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