Problems with the Railway Bridge post match

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Hi Insider,

Last night, there were a few people getting very irate as the BT police and stewards stopped people getting onto the bridge as the train queues were blocking the bridge. Although the BT police and most of the stewards were trying to be calm and rational when addressing the people raising their frustrations, one of the supervisors became very defensive, raising his voice and he only succeeded in inflaming the situation rather than calming things down.

Some time ago I asked about trying to separate the queues heading across the bridge after a match as those trying to get either to the University car parks or to the bus stops on the A27 are being held up by everyone queuing for Eastbound trains. This is always worse after evening matches as more people try to head home at the same time. You said you were going to pass this on to the transport manager but nothing has happened.

For the Palace league game last season, a 'lane' was created on the right hand side as you approach the bridge that enabled people not catching the train to cross the bridge. This could be with a couple of temporary barriers or even the stewards directing people and keeping a small channel free on the bridge. As there are often two stewards blocking the inside channel of the bridge slope after matches, moving these up onto the bridge shouldn't cause any increase in costs. It shouldn't be too difficult to implement this for all matches (or even just evening kick-offs) so as to avoid inconveniencing people and also making life much easier for both BT Police and your stewards.

Thanks.

 

[Insider]

Fans were held at the bottom of the bridge until the worst of the Lewes & Eastbourne bound queues cleared, and there was a safe route for those wanting the A27 bus stops and Sussex Uni. At the end of last season we had a very dangerous crushing incident on the bridge after an evening game, so now rather than allowing fans to squash each other on top of the bridge we now hold them on our concourse, where there is more space until the Lewes/Eastbourne train queues have reduced and there a safe path over the bridge. Final whistle was at 21:42, we held queues on concourse at 21:48, released them again at 21:54, and the train queues were all cleared by 22:20. Based on last year’s experiences holding queues knocked approximately 10 to 15 minutes off the overall queue time. It would be wonderful to trial some barriers over the bridge separating lanes, something we have been trying to get for months. Management of the bridge is the responsibility of the rail company and despite the best efforts of the club and BTP, Southern aren’t willing to agree to lane segregation. We are extending the barriers on our side of the bridge and constructing a gantry with signs to direct fans to the right lane, which should help a little but evening games will always be an issues when everyone wants to go home at the same time.