Well done southern

[Easy 10]

How difficult would it be to put a big notice up at Falmer Station advising people who have never travelled to Lewes before that they need to be in the front five carriages?

You just want to spoil ALL the fun.

I bet its people like you who insist cars must have headlights on when driving in darkness.

 

[felbridgeseagull]

Got the train back to Eastbourne last night and the boy and I were in coach 7 of 8. Managed to bag a pair of seats but it was rammed.
The guard gave his customary "travel in the front five carriages only due to short platform" warning, prompting a load of people in the last couple of carriages to try and shuffle through. Train gets to Lewes, still much shuffling but then leaves with quite a few Lewes-bound passengers still on board, next stop Polegate.
Then, outside Lewes we come to a halt; some idiot has tried to force a door open.
However, the guard and his controller have played a blinder and arranged for the train to stop at Glynde and for the Lewes-bound service to also stop there so they can swap and get back quicker.



Some people are very quick to criticise the trains but I thought they handled this problem very well.
Comedy moment though when he gave the "travel in the front five carriages only due to short platform" warning again.

yes your are right there! could have been lot worse if that train was not at Glynd - it was the fact that they told us they would give us time to get of that annoyed us, most of us realised we were in the wrong part of the train and would have tried to moved up earlier, but the did announce they would give us time to get off and once were were on, it was pretty packed and hard to get forward anyway. Still won't do it again.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

It was an almighty cock up by the conductor if you ask me. He put out an announcement that they would stop at Lewes for longer to allow those stuck in the rear few carriages to be able to walk through and get off at Lewes but they left after a fairly brief stop, contary to the announcement given.

I was in carriage 6 behind a lot of people in there looking to exit at Lewes too and didn't get close to making it out before it left Lewes and there were people in carriage 7 wanting to leave too. There were probably about 100 people left on the train wanting Lewes and the whole mess could have easily been prevented had they just stopped at Lewes for longer as they said they would.

It could have also been made clearer at Falmer that passengers needed to be in the first 5 carriages for Lewes, we were let onto the platform whilst there and the train was already fairly full but it wasn't until after the train departed that we were told which carriages we needed to be in and it was impossible to get far enough forward due to the numbers aboard, but the announcement meant many stayed where they were rather than trying to force their way forward to a front 5 carriage.

Apparently the emergency alarm was pulled as the train first started to leave Lewes but it took at least 5 minutes before the train stopped again but in the middle of nowhere (just outside Glynde) and they said they couldn't continue until it was reset so I was surprised the train went for as far as it did without stopping (thankfully in the case it wasn't a real emergency like someone collapsing and needing urgent medical attention) I always thought they used to automatically stop the train from continuing straight away.

That said, well done to the railway company in finding an alternative to get us back to Lewes by arranging the unscheduled stops at Glynde, and for also holding the Seaford train at Lewes to allow those wanting it to be able to switch and get home. It was just a shame it was needed to resolve something that could so easily have been avoided in the first place, surely this can't have been the first time that a lot of fans wanted to get out at Lewes from further down a train thats too long for the platform post match? How many games have there been now, surely this sort of cock up shouldn't be happening.