Suggest rail travellers check with Southern Rail: this from National Rail website - Network Rail and Southern have been monitoring ground water levels at Patcham, near Preston Park for several days; this has now caused flooding of the signalling equipment, and there is an expectation that more significant flooding will occur which means the following changes apply: Monday 17 February Southern • Buses will replace trains between Brighton and Hassocks, serving Preston Park (subject to road conditions) • A half-hourly train service will run between Brighton and London Victoria, although will be diverted via Lewes with extended journey times. •First Capital Connect trains between Hassocks and London can be used by Southern ticket holders •Trains between Littlehampton / Worthing and London via Haywards Heath will either be diverted via Horsham, or will be diverted to run to/from Brighton • Passengers for London from stations east of Worthing should travel via Brighton and Lewes • Passengers for London from stations west of Worthing should travel via Barnham and Horsham. • Tickets can be used on South West Trains services between Havant and London Waterloo. First Capital Connect •Trains will run every 30 minutes between Hassocks and Bedford, calling at Burgess Hill, Wivelsfield, Haywards Heath and then on to Bedford. • Buses will replace trains between Brighton and Hassocks, calling at Preston Park if road conditions allow this. •Passengers can use Southern trains between Brighton and London. •Trains are currently unable to run from Wimbledon towards Mitcham Junction via Sutton (trains in the opposite direction are able to run as normal). Gatwick Express •The morning peak services that run from Brighton to Gatwick Airport, and continue as Gatwick Express services to London Victoria will not run between Brighton and Gatwick Airport. •The evening peak services which operate as Gatwick Express services to Gatwick Airport and continue to Brighton will not run between Gatwick Airport and Brighton.
Last night proved to me that clubs can learn from the Amex experience. Good points: Reasonable food, but could be so much better. Loads of friendly smiling helpful stewards. Good stadium nice padded seats. Bad points: Getting there. Getting back. Collecting away tickets. 75 mile journey. Left home at 4 and still missed the first 10 minutes. I can't blame the club for the delays due to flooding. But the last train left for Southampton from Brighton at 9.33. £15 to park near the ground isn't on. Our plan was to park in Lewes, but we couldn't get there in time so we parked at Hove and got two trains. Southern trains do a good job of marshalling the sheep, I mean fans, but the the home fans put up with this I don't know. The number of stewards outside of the ground is fine, but to be honest flourescent jacketed blokes with a megaphone just pissed me off. By the time I understood what they were saying, I was past them and had to stop. I had no problem collecting my ticket, but an away fan collection point near the away end would help. Got home last night at 1am, not good considering the distance. One thing that clubs can learn from is Brighton Eye's involvement. Having a supporter who engages with away fans in the away end in order to help the club improve the pre and post match experience is a great idea. I met him whilst having a pint waiting for the queue to go down. Around 50 City fans stayed back for the same reason and a few Brighton supporters came on to the concourse. Good friendly chatting about the match and loads of questions about the name change. So the Amex great stadium, good fan experience, very hard to get to. Will I go again........sorry but no.
Our stewards are happy, smiling and helpful too. For away fans. In fact I don't recall any away fans complaining about the match day experience at the KC, well other than the Millwall fans who didn't like our seats. If our stewards treated the home fans the same way as the away fans, things would be a lot better, so I don't think you can compare away games stewards to our home game ones Mel. I do feel your pain with the travel though, I didn't go last night, mid week and all, just too much for me sadly.
last night even the Brighton fans were complaining about the traffic and some City fans missed the first half hour - it is a disgrace the lack of parking for away fans - even the Bridge car park, which is relatively small, that I was advised to use costs £15, has only one entrance/exit, took over thirty minutes to get out and is nowhere near a pub, sorry the Star is for home fans only - so - parking is **** and there are no pre-match facilities for away fans, personally I don't wat to stand on the concourse for two hours before the game starts - plus the Brighton fans sang 'we can see you holding hands' at the City fans - so much for surveys about how away fans behave and so much for how they accommodate away fans - does that help - well done 695 city fans for putting up with that - lets see how many Brighton turn up - wonder whether they can park near the ground and go to the pub for a drink before kick off - think you already know the answer to that - I repeat, **** experience and the way travelling fans are treated is a disgrace
How far into the match did that happen? I didn't hear it from the telly (or didnt notice it) but if it did, you should report it to the police. It's exactly what their soft lot do to any away fans who sing supposedly 'homophobic' chants.
Brighton fans themselves are commenting about it on their board. I love the irony of this being about Brighton. (My highlight) http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?295803-Some-Proper-Pricks-In-The-North-Stand-Tonight There's also a thread on there about parking etc. http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?295797-Car-parking-and-stewarding
The away fan experience really is sh*te ... last time I said I wouldn't go again but ... I did! A shame as most of it is ok but the getting there and back is just stupid - how can anyone allow a ground like that to be built with no decent getting there and back plannning? OK Southern rail did not help but queuing so long unsheltered in the rain for an inadequate rail 'shuttle' stinks. Left London at 4.30 and still missed 10 minutes. Got home at 1am. And it's not even that far away. As for the rubbish about homophobic stereotyping - why is it ok for them to stereotype 'dirty northern b*st*rds? Don't get me wrong, I would not want to stop the latter - just good banter but bugs me when they get so uppity about stereotyping.
In reply to some of your comments: â The near 800 City fans who came last night are absolute heroes. No doubt about that. Itâs such a shame that, for many of them, their first visit to the Amex was marred by horrendous, flood-related transport problems beyond anyoneâs control. With the normal London â Brighton rail route flooded out, mainline train services were being diverted via Lewes, causing disruption to the normal Amex shuttle service. All fans were affected by that, obviously. To put the transport logistics into context: unlike any other ground in the country, the only site in the Brighton area that was actually available for a new stadium was in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. That meant severe restrictions in the planning consent, including a tightly controlled transport strategy. As a result, sustainable transport had to be prioritised - ie walking, cycling, rail and bus services, with car travel handled by just three park-and-ride facilities and only very limited near-stadium parking. Itâs a unique situation for sure, and hardly what Brighton fans themselves would have preferred. But despite all this, we still have more than 23,000 season-ticket holders (apparently 10th highest in the English leagues) with an average matchday attendance just shy of 27,000. Most away fans are pleasantly surprised at how well the Amexâs highly unusual transport arrangements actually work. Anyone whoâs queued for post-match transport at West Ham or Wembley â or even joined those long bus queues at Elland Road â will know that not everyone enjoys such excellent transport logistics as exist at the KC. As for who it was who gave planning permission for such an absurd stadium application? Some bloke called Prescott, believed to be a politician from somewhere up north⦠Last night was totally chaotic, absolutely. But please donât think thatâs how it is down here every week. Again, big hand to all those heroes who came down â and who were rightly applauded by the Brighton crowd. It was excellent meeting The Omega Man and many other Tigers fans in the away concourse last night. Thanks for coming in such horrendous circumstances, and making it, despite everything, a memorable night.
Fair play - it was just a particularly bad night, I guess. And the home fans support for 19:04 was welcome.
