Villa Park redevelopment

[DaveAV1]

14 hours ago, blunther said:

To be honest if we expand capacity without doing anything about transport I'll probably knock it on the head. The days of 33-37k were okay, but getting out of the area when we sell out is terrible, I can't imagine how it'd be with 50k. I'd bike, scoot, tram, train, bus, drive, whatever it took if it got me the 6 miles home quicker than 90 minutes but it's starting to take up too big a chunk of my weekends with having to leave so early and get back so late for 90 mins of football. 

I moved away from Brum over 4 years ago and so no long get to games. But I was speaking to a mate the other day who told me it took them 50 minutes to get a train. The problem isn’t the transport links, it’s the incompetent idiots who run it. At Aston they don’t allow people to queue on the platform and so everyone queues along the road until a train arrives. Then people race up the stairs and try to get on the train which often leaves half full. Madness. 
 

I used to go on the train and it was always a crush due to them not putting enough carriages on. Now it seems to have got worse. It’s a management/organisation problem. Surely not insurmountable. 

[blandy]

3 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

At Aston they don’t allow people to queue on the platform and so everyone queues along the road until a train arrives. Then people race up the stairs and try to get on the train which often leaves half full.

Totally untrue, in my experience.  They absolutely do allow people on to the platform to wait for trains, but they stop the platform becoming (dangerously) overcrowded by stopping more people at the bottom of the stairs.  The trains do not leave half full, but rammed.

That said, I stopped getting the train after the game because of all the queues, feeling “I might as well walk, it’ll be no slower”, so it’s possible I suppose that the transport wombles have somehow gone completely mad more recently, but I doubt it.

[DaveAV1]

7 minutes ago, blandy said:

Totally untrue, in my experience.  They absolutely do allow people on to the platform to wait for trains, but they stop the platform becoming (dangerously) overcrowded by stopping more people at the bottom of the stairs.  The trains do not leave half full, but rammed.

That said, I stopped getting the train after the game because of all the queues, feeling “I might as well walk, it’ll be no slower”, so it’s possible I suppose that the transport wombles have somehow gone completely mad more recently, but I doubt it.

That’s right they do allow some queuing on the platform and I can see the safety angle. I’m just saying what my mate experienced. 
 

Myself and some mates used to have a car park season ticket at the leisure centre but getting away especially after a big night game got ridiculous. We missed last orders once!! So we started going on the train which worked great for years, although the carriages at times got dangerously full. One or two extra carriages would have solved the problem. It was getting worse when I moved 4 years ago and sounds like it’s becoming a bigger problem now. But I feel it’s more of an organisation problem than infrastructure. Surely we’re not going to allow a badly run train service restrict our future development?

[Brumstopdogs]

54 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

It’s certainly full of dicks. 

[Brumstopdogs]

Hopefully regardless of whether we get the ground redeveloped or not Purslow is able to use his influence/contacts to improve the transportation to and from matches.

Surely it will be fairly high up his agenda particularly if we're losing potential customers regularly because people are being put off going to matches due to the travel ineffeciencies.

[Mic09]

What sort of transportation improvements would have to happen short term?

Expanding the Aston station? More trains?

What more can be done?

[Stephen_Evans]

10 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

I am quite smug I bought my copy for about 15 quid 5 years ago. Selling for over £40 now the last time I checked it.

It should be compulsory reading for those running the club!

[DaveAV1]

1 hour ago, Mic09 said:

What sort of transportation improvements would have to happen short term?

Expanding the Aston station? More trains?

What more can be done?

Getting to the ground isn’t such a problem, as people arrive at different times, it’s getting away that’s the problem. It seems to me that more carriages and a safe system of queuing would go a long way to solving the problem. It’s not as though they don’t know what the attendance is and therefore a good idea of what the likely train demand will be. It’s just a lack of willingness on the part of the train service providers to find a solution. 

[Don_Simon]

Put a couple of marquees up outside the ground, some heaters, some bars, people will stick around, spend some money there and stagger the amount of people leaving at the same time.

Boom. Problem solved. 

[The Fun Factory]

Short term options include better road management after the game and putting on more football special buses back into town.

Any train improvements will be a long and complicated process.

[Risso]

3 hours ago, blandy said:

Totally untrue, in my experience.  They absolutely do allow people on to the platform to wait for trains, but they stop the platform becoming (dangerously) overcrowded by stopping more people at the bottom of the stairs.  The trains do not leave half full, but rammed.

That said, I stopped getting the train after the game because of all the queues, feeling “I might as well walk, it’ll be no slower”, so it’s possible I suppose that the transport wombles have somehow gone completely mad more recently, but I doubt it.

I know lots of people have commented that the trains are leaving Aston half empty recently Pete, while the queues outside the station are still horrendous.

[blandy]

8 minutes ago, Risso said:

I know lots of people have commented that the trains are leaving Aston half empty recently Pete, while the queues outside the station are still horrendous.

Fair enough, Mart. My experience is that if I've legged it from the ground and just made it in time to get the first train, then that isn't always filled up - through lack of people being there to get on it, but after that they always have been. Recently though (as I posted) I've not even tried to wait in the queues because it seemed to make more sense to just walk back to New St.

But to stay on topic, as many have said, expanding the capacity of the ground and leaving the transport as it is now (and it's clearly got worse, not better) would be a nightmare.

[VillaChris]

Shuttle bus to and from Star City for those who chose to park there (I get a lift from the bus stop there for midweek games and always plenty walking back) seems an obvious short term move.

Do a sort of circular route and drop people off by Trinity entrance and do it every 15 minutes starting from half 1 or something.

Edit: They really should've extended the tram down there years back, plenty of space on most of Lichfield Road to do it and have terminus at Star City and that would be useful link on matchdays, similar to Perry Bar but if there's no tram extension for Commonwealth games it's never going to happen realistically.

Edited December 4, 2021 by VillaChris

[Talldarkandransome]

When I went every week with few mates we used to get the train to and from Aston or Witton for the 3pm kick offs. It was basically 9am start, brekkie, beers, footy, beers home. Used to get back about midnight. 

Can't really do that anymore, so when I do go now I drive. Depending on where I park it can take me almost 90 mins to get out of the car park and that's even worse for evening games. This really puts me off going regularly now, just can't commit to the time required. 

[VillaChris]

10 minutes ago, Talldarkandransome said:

When I went every week with few mates we used to get the train to and from Aston or Witton for the 3pm kick offs. It was basically 9am start, brekkie, beers, footy, beers home. Used to get back about midnight. 

Can't really do that anymore, so when I do go now I drive. Depending on where I park it can take me almost 90 mins to get out of the car park and that's even worse for evening games. This really puts me off going regularly now, just can't commit to the time required. 

Wow 90 minutes, do you park right by the ground in Witton?!

Actually part of matchday experience is the walk up to the ground and the crowds building as you get nearer to VP. Don't go with my Dad anymore due to his health but we used to park on the Holford industrial estate so 15 minute walk and then pretty quickly could get back to Sutton.

Depends where you're going but if you're coming from other side of Brum/south then Aston Uni is probably o.k place to park if you can cope with 25 minute walk. Star City for east/North Brum and beyond.

[sidcow]

I park on the very edge of the parking circle round Villa Park. 

OK, it's a 20 minute walk to the car but I generally get in the car and drive straight off no bother. 

Can't understand these people trying to get as close to the ground as possible. Probably save 10 minutes over me in walking time then spend 50 minutes more trying to get away. Even 5 minutes walking closer adds a load of extra traffic time. 

Edited December 4, 2021 by sidcow

[DaveAV1]

15 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Wow 90 minutes, do you park right by the ground in Witton?!

Actually part of matchday experience is the walk up to the ground and the crowds building as you get nearer to VP. Don't go with my Dad anymore due to his health but we used to park on the Holford industrial estate so 15 minute walk and then pretty quickly could get back to Sutton.

Depends where you're going but if you're coming from other side of Brum/south then Aston Uni is probably o.k place to park if you can cope with 25 minute walk. Star City for east/North Brum and beyond.

My Dad used to park on Plume Street and when I was old enough to drive myself I did the same for years. Car break ins got too frequent in the end. We had 3 one season including at the time a VW Golf special addition that was due to be on Too Gear a few days later! So we switched to the leisure centre after that. 

[Vincenzo]

3 hours ago, DaveAV1 said:

Getting to the ground isn’t such a problem, as people arrive at different times, it’s getting away that’s the problem. It seems to me that more carriages and a safe system of queuing would go a long way to solving the problem. It’s not as though they don’t know what the attendance is and therefore a good idea of what the likely train demand will be. It’s just a lack of willingness on the part of the train service providers to find a solution. 

Used to always get the train many years back when we’d sometimes have crowds of 48000 but can’t ever recall waiting 50 minutes for a train

Bumbling baffoons running the trains is the problem 

[Brumstopdogs]

53 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

My Dad used to park on Plume Street and when I was old enough to drive myself I did the same for years. Car break ins got too frequent in the end. We had 3 one season including at the time a VW Golf special addition that was due to be on Too Gear a few days later! So we switched to the leisure centre after that. 

My uncle who used to go down the Villa for donkey's years used to park quite near there on Long Acre and then in later years at a car park off Holborn Hill - he used to be able to get away from the football really easy using either of those.

Personally when I go I use the Powerleague car park - probably get stuck for 15-30 minutes getting out but nothing that major.

[Lichfield Dean]

1 hour ago, Brumstopdogs said:

My uncle who used to go down the Villa for donkey's years used to park quite near there on Long Acre and then in later years at a car park off Holborn Hill - he used to be able to get away from the football really easy using either of those.

Personally when I go I use the Powerleague car park - probably get stuck for 15-30 minutes getting out but nothing that major.

Longacre is a good shout. Not too far from the ground and not too bad getting away from.