[Albion] Evening games - does the aggravation make it worth attending?

[Wozza]

With the World Cup and Euros being expanded, they don’t need to have as many qualifiers as they do. In South America, 7 of the 10 teams qualify for the World Cup so do they really need to play 18 qualifiers which involve a large proportion of players flying in from Europe.

The international calendar is locked in. No point arguing about it on messageboards.

Anyway, in my experience, Englanders trying to dictate these things aren't well recieved...

 

[jackalbion]

Nothing will change because the way the Govia Thameslink (GTR) franchise - in reality, a management contract - is structured means there is no commercial imperative for them to improve. The Department for Transport (DfT) pays them a fixed fee to run services and assumes all the revenue risk. Late Thameslink trains from Brighton seem to be cancelled quite frequently on the mainline, but this and some fitba' supporters being inconvenienced every few weeks has no impact on their bottom line.

GTR nominally assume the cost of rolling stock. Are they likely to invest in that? Highly unlikely I would say, given Labour's manifesto pledge to take the Railway back into public ownership.

I'm certain the whole situation boils Barber's pish. Chelsea/Bournemouth/Villa evening games there have been fewer people attending. Yet while the club can huff and puff, what realistically can they do? The Terrace may help at weekends, but Saturday games are not much of an issue. Making sure the queues are being correctly and intelligently martialed might be one thing.

Otherwise, I fear empty statements about 'allowing plenty of time' and 'carefully planning your journey' are probably as good as it gets.

Glad someone else said it before I did. Write to your local MP, the talk from the two MPs earlier in the season, has started a working group within the industry to solve the problem, it won't however be quick. You cannot magic trains out of nowhere.

Ultimately though if you can't be bothered to go on a Tuesday, then don't go I guess? People travelled from all parts of the country to the Villa game and probably will again. So just suck it up I guess.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

when the stadium opened and the stadium capacity was just over 20,000 we had 3 main P&R sites. We've since lost one of those and meanwhile the capacity has gone up to 30,000, which may not seem like a big leap but it is an extra TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE.

Whilst the train situation may be out of the clubs hands, other alternative options could well be within their power and these could ease the strain on Falmer station

-AT LEAST one more P&R site
-Shuttle buses into central-ish Brighton
-Monorail

For the Forest game, both P&R sites were full over an hour before kick off which surely demonstrates the need to bring in a replacement for Mithras House which was generally the most efficient of the sites.

If they could come to some arrangement for using the multi-storey car park that is just behind the old Mithras House car park then it could be reinstated.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Glad someone else said it before I did. Write to your local MP, the talk from the two MPs earlier in the season, has started a working group within the industry to solve the problem, it won't however be quick. You cannot magic trains out of nowhere.

Ultimately though if you can't be bothered to go on a Tuesday, then don't go I guess? People travelled from all parts of the country to the Villa game and probably will again. So just suck it up I guess.

Has the hybrid working patterns since the pandemic really had no effect? What if the weekday mainline trains were 8 carriages instead of 12? What if the Falmer trains were 6 carriages instead of 4? Sorry, but refuse to accept the 'suck it up' dismissal. And this from the Albion-friendly good guy

 

[jackalbion]

What I do find a little strange is that the club are paying Southern for x amount of people to travel for free. This seems to be a blank cheque for Southern to do as they please, but knowing the club as we do, and knowing the club do really go the extra mile to make things work, I’m really surprised that Southern aren’t held to account with their service levels. Perhaps they are & the club hold back payments but we just don’t know.

Southern provide 6 trains an hour, which is the full capacity of the line. Extra trains run on all matchdays (2tph from Brighton to Lewes), the issue is midweek the carriage length, that is down to procurement of rolling stock, which falls under the responsibility of the Department of Transport.

 

[Stuart Munday]

For the Forest game, both P&R sites were full over an hour before kick off which surely demonstrates the need to bring in a replacement for Mithras House which was generally the most efficient of the sites.

If they could come to some arrangement for using the multi-storey car park that is just behind the old Mithras House car park then it could be reinstated.

Said it before, the university is really struggling financially, worse than initially predicted nothing is off the table about reducing costs. I think it would be difficult to turn down a reasonable offer to use their car park even if they don’t want to, also the same for the rugby pitch and land adjacent to the Amex.

 

[jackalbion]

Has the hybrid working since the pandemic really had no effect? What if the weekday mainline trains were 8 carriages instead of 12? What if the Falmer trains were 6 carriages instead of 4? Sorry, but refuse to accept the 'suck it up' from the Albion-friendly good guy

Because the contract with the department for transport stipulates that scheduled services have to be a certain length, that cannot be applied to additional services. Ultimately its the broken up way the railways are run, I don't think its very good, but I don't know what people want to happen, you can't change it without serious reform, but there isn't a willing to do that from the major players within the industry, whether that be government, bone idle TOCs which are about to be dissolved or Rolling Stocks Companies which are just pointless investment funds, so individual employees have to make plans and solutions as you see fit. If there's going to be changes its not going to happen next week.

 

[BN9 BHA]

I've made no secret of this opinion this week though. If you're not bothering simply because of the transport or opposition and you have a BN or RH post code it's really a bit flakey.

Doesn’t really apply to me as I haven’t missed a home league match this season, I did join the ‘Flakey Fanbase Club’ because I missed the Chelsea cup game.
I must admit I don’t enjoy getting the train after an evening match, especially if I have been grafting all day, at my age I’m usually shot to bits and my patience is wearing a bit thin standing in a train queue after 10 at night. Thankfully the train journey doesn’t take long and sometimes I’m lucky enough to get a lift.

Seems a bit harsh from you to mention fans in the RH postcode though.
If some of these fans have had a long working day I can see the novelty wearing a bit thin after many years of getting a train to some of these areas after an evening match (see below).

The BN postcode also covers Littlehampton and Arundel which is a fair distance from the Amex.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Apologies if this point has been made before on this thread but what really pisses you off is seeing carriages not being filled before leaving - trains with empty seats departing yet hundreds still on the platform. It has been going on for years and is still happening. Shambolic beyond belief.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Because the contract with the department for transport stipulates that scheduled services have to be a certain length, that cannot be applied to additional services. Ultimately its the broken up way the railways are run, I don't think its very good, but I don't know what people want to happen, you can't change it without serious reform, but there isn't a willing to do that from the major players within the industry, whether that be government, bone idle TOCs which are about to be dissolved or Rolling Stocks Companies which are just pointless investment funds, so individual employees have to make plans and solutions as you see fit. If there's going to be changes its not going to happen next week.

Thanks for detailed reply. Total respect mate

 

[jackalbion]

Thanks for detailed reply. Total respect mate

It’s a completely ridiculous situation that nobody can bothered to fix, it drives me up the wall as much as anyone else.

 

[JManGulls]

I have always thought, that if there is nothing they can do with the trains, then surely putting on a shuttle bus service to Brighton station (or within 10 minute walk) would split the queues and cut the queue time.

Being a season ticket holder from RH1, the trains just simply aren’t an option due to the risk of missing the last train back. But that’s accounting for about an hour (or more) of queueing which could be reduced.

Weekdays for me end up being park and ride, which has its own queuing problems…

 

[Guinness Boy]

Doesn’t really apply to me as I haven’t missed a home league match this season, I did join the ‘Flakey Fanbase Club’ because I missed the Chelsea cup game.
I must admit I don’t enjoy getting the train after an evening match, especially if I have been grafting all day, at my age I’m usually shot to bits and my patience is wearing a bit thin standing in a train queue after 10 at night. Thankfully the train journey doesn’t take long and sometimes I’m lucky enough to get a lift.

Seems a bit harsh from you to mention fans in the RH postcode though.
If some of these fans have had a long working day I can see the novelty wearing a bit thin after many years of getting a train to some of these areas after an evening match (see below).

The BN postcode also covers Littlehampton and Arundel which is a fair distance from the Amex.

View attachment 199517

I suppose "within an 'x'miles radius of the ground" would have been fairer than postcodes, though a lot of those postcodes are well served by both Seagull Travel and NWSS coaches.

Either way, if you'd told me when I was sat in my seat in 1999 waiting for Mickey Adams' blue and white army to rip Mansfield a new one, in a temporary, roofless stadium that in 25 years or so we'd have played in Europe and be in the top ten of the Premier League with 23 internationals in the club and had sold a player for £115 million, but people weren't going to watch us because they'd have to wait a while for a train afterwards, I think I would have genuinely laughed the teller out of Withdean.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Midweek evening games for me are a non starter due to work and travel.
Shame, but there's nothing I can do about it except list my ticket

It’s a long old trip from Kent for you mate.

 

[BN9 BHA]

I suppose "within an 'x'miles radius of the ground" would have been fairer than postcodes, though a lot of those postcodes are well served by both Seagull Travel and NWSS coaches.

I did start using the Seagull Travel coaches for evening games several seasons back. I don’t bother now as the prices have gone up, not sure how much fans have to pay in some of those postcodes.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Outside of the bubble that is the game itself, I'd suggest that the Amex Matchday Experience for midweek games for most fans is pretty stressful and not hugely pleasant

 

[Pavilionaire]

It seems like we’ve had a lot more evening matches this season. We had barely any in the first couple of years in the Premier League. If only they scrapped all these unnecessary international breaks, all matches could be on a Saturday.

I'm growing to hate international football. Less is more. I would like to see alternate seasons with no international matches whatsoever, anywhere globally, the Europa League binned off completely, friendlies abolished and the number of qualification matches slimmed right down.

Any English kid who puts a run of 10-15 decent club games together gets an England call-up. Playing for England should be hard fought, like getting selected for the British and Irish Lions.

 

[hart's shirt]

I'm growing to hate international football. Less is more. I would like to see alternate seasons with no international matches whatsoever, anywhere globally, the Europa League binned off completely, friendlies abolished and the number of qualification matches slimmed right down.

Pav, I'm guessing you mean the Nations League here.

 

[Beanstalk]

Because the contract with the department for transport stipulates that scheduled services have to be a certain length, that cannot be applied to additional services. Ultimately its the broken up way the railways are run, I don't think its very good, but I don't know what people want to happen, you can't change it without serious reform, but there isn't a willing to do that from the major players within the industry, whether that be government, bone idle TOCs which are about to be dissolved or Rolling Stocks Companies which are just pointless investment funds, so individual employees have to make plans and solutions as you see fit. If there's going to be changes its not going to happen next week.

You could sort it out if you cared though Jack. You just choose not to.

 

[Muhammad - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

It’s a long old trip from Kent for you mate.

SUSSEX.
Wadhurst is in SUSSEX




As well you know