Villa Park Redevelopment

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

I'm 50. When I was first dragged to Villa Park as a nipper it was done by bus, bus to Bearwood and then jump on the No11. After the game there would be loads of buses lined up almost directly outside the ground, heading in all directions to get fans home. To get a bus back now is a joke, the trains are shambles, as are the train stations. It's no wonder that so many drive. Then we wonder why parking spots are so hard to find.

[pauliewalnuts]

I'm 50. When I was first dragged to Villa Park as a nipper it was done by bus, bus to Bearwood and then jump on the No11. After the game there would be loads of buses lined up almost directly outside the ground, heading in all directions to get fans home. To get a bus back now is a joke, the trains are shambles, as are the train stations. It's no wonder that so many drive. Then we wonder why parking spots are so hard to find.

In the last few years, it has actually got worse.

And it's not just about capacity crowds, we had plenty of those in the MON years and it wasn't as bad as it is now.

There is zero joined-up thinking. It's like the powers that be - the police, the council, the train companies - don't give a flying fuck.

[FatSam]

If you think Birmingham Council is bad you should live in Dudley, the council here is a disgrace and has been for 20 years+

We had 8 million visitors to the Zoo and Black Country Museum last year and yet the high street which is within walking distance of both attractions is a disgrace ( it has been voted one of the worst high streets in the country)

Not that it changes the point that you are making, but I think you might have exaggerated those visitor numbers by a factor of 10.

[The Edge]

I'm 50. When I was first dragged to Villa Park as a nipper it was done by bus, bus to Bearwood and then jump on the No11. After the game there would be loads of buses lined up almost directly outside the ground, heading in all directions to get fans home. To get a bus back now is a joke, the trains are shambles, as are the train stations. It's no wonder that so many drive. Then we wonder why parking spots are so hard to find.

In the last few years, it has actually got worse.

And it's not just about capacity crowds, we had plenty of those in the MON years and it wasn't as bad as it is now.

There is zero joined-up thinking. It's like the powers that be - the police, the council, the train companies - don't give a flying fuck.

Spot on

[LeeB]

I'm 50. When I was first dragged to Villa Park as a nipper it was done by bus, bus to Bearwood and then jump on the No11. After the game there would be loads of buses lined up almost directly outside the ground, heading in all directions to get fans home. To get a bus back now is a joke, the trains are shambles, as are the train stations. It's no wonder that so many drive. Then we wonder why parking spots are so hard to find.

In the last few years, it has actually got worse.

And it's not just about capacity crowds, we had plenty of those in the MON years and it wasn't as bad as it is now.

There is zero joined-up thinking. It's like the powers that be - the police, the council, the train companies - don't give a flying fuck.

Spot on

To be fair, this doesn't just apply to our issues, it's pretty much all aspects of civic life

[Pat Mustard]

It doesn't help when the infrastructure that already exists isn't being used.  On the Cross City line there was barely a match last season that wasn't affected by reduced or no services - a huge number of supporters who should be using public transport couldn't for loads of home games, and that is before the ludicrous queuing system they seem to have place at Aston Station now where people are forced to queue up along the pavement and alleyways despite the platforms being half empty.  It's beyond frustrating watching trains going off half-empty when you haven't been able to get to the platform in time.

[astonvilla82]

It doesn't help when the infrastructure that already exists isn't being used.  On the Cross City line there was barely a match last season that wasn't affected by reduced or no services - a huge number of supporters who should be using public transport couldn't for loads of home games, and that is before the ludicrous queuing system they seem to have place at Aston Station now where people are forced to queue up along the pavement and alleyways despite the platforms being half empty.  It's beyond frustrating watching trains going off half-empty when you haven't been able to get to the platform in time.

Also it doesn't help when people won't move away from the doorway and block other people from getting on

[SoccerHQ]

I'm 50. When I was first dragged to Villa Park as a nipper it was done by bus, bus to Bearwood and then jump on the No11. After the game there would be loads of buses lined up almost directly outside the ground, heading in all directions to get fans home. To get a bus back now is a joke, the trains are shambles, as are the train stations. It's no wonder that so many drive. Then we wonder why parking spots are so hard to find.

In the last few years, it has actually got worse.

And it's not just about capacity crowds, we had plenty of those in the MON years and it wasn't as bad as it is now.

There is zero joined-up thinking. It's like the powers that be - the police, the council, the train companies - don't give a flying fuck.

Even back then you had plenty of shuttle buses parked up on Witton Lane taking fans back to Tamworth, Redditch and a few other venues.

The missed opportunity was the Trams I think, just focusing on city centre extensions instead of pushing it towards Star City and down the A34 and also A51 up to the Alex stadium but ultimately they would probably take a decade to be built.

With the new Academy building opening the other side of Witton station you have potential for more daily footfall but train frequency is only every half hour so that's why you get the bottle neck queues on matchdays.

Don't think the CC line is ever going back to 6 trains an hour post covid either so can't see anything changing in near future which is going to be a bit of a problem with 50k + crowds descending in the near future.

It's funny though, all these issues and the last time I can recall a kick off being delayed was that Liverpool cup game over 20 years ago.

Was in the Holte upper corner by Witton a few times last season and could see down in the gap hundreds queueing to get in after the game had kicked off. Also missed a few kick offs from arriving at 2.45pm and going into the North Stand so actually interested how many thousands have to be outside for call to go in to delay until something like 3.15-3.30?

[SoccerHQ]

It doesn't help when the infrastructure that already exists isn't being used.  On the Cross City line there was barely a match last season that wasn't affected by reduced or no services - a huge number of supporters who should be using public transport couldn't for loads of home games, and that is before the ludicrous queuing system they seem to have place at Aston Station now where people are forced to queue up along the pavement and alleyways despite the platforms being half empty.  It's beyond frustrating watching trains going off half-empty when you haven't been able to get to the platform in time.

One thing that would help imo is do what they do in Bundesliga and you get a matchday travelcard to use with purchase of ticket or it gets loaded with a season card.

That to me is one way to sort transport queues out. You can hop on the 11 for no charge and get to Erdington and then get on another bus to Sutton/Four Oaks rather than waste away an hour or two waiting at Aston Station with CrossCity roulette.

[pauliewalnuts]

There’s no way the tram would be pushed up towards Aston yet, there are other routes far more convincing economically.

It has to be about the train service first and foremost plus some actual coordination of other transport.

It has actually got significantly worse in recent years

[pauliewalnuts]

It doesn't help when the infrastructure that already exists isn't being used.  On the Cross City line there was barely a match last season that wasn't affected by reduced or no services - a huge number of supporters who should be using public transport couldn't for loads of home games, and that is before the ludicrous queuing system they seem to have place at Aston Station now where people are forced to queue up along the pavement and alleyways despite the platforms being half empty.  It's beyond frustrating watching trains going off half-empty when you haven't been able to get to the platform in time.

One thing that would help imo is do what they do in Bundesliga and you get a matchday travelcard to use with purchase of ticket or it gets loaded with a season card.

That to me is one way to sort transport queues out. You can hop on the 11 for no charge and get to Erdington and then get on another bus to Sutton/Four Oaks rather than waste away an hour or two waiting at Aston Station with CrossCity roulette.

Re the travel card thing, yes absolutely agree

I remember about twenty years ago Newcastle had a match ticket / free transport on the bus and metro agreement.

In terms of coordination we are in the dark ages.

[dave.woodhall]

It doesn't help when the infrastructure that already exists isn't being used.  On the Cross City line there was barely a match last season that wasn't affected by reduced or no services - a huge number of supporters who should be using public transport couldn't for loads of home games, and that is before the ludicrous queuing system they seem to have place at Aston Station now where people are forced to queue up along the pavement and alleyways despite the platforms being half empty.  It's beyond frustrating watching trains going off half-empty when you haven't been able to get to the platform in time.

One thing that would help imo is do what they do in Bundesliga and you get a matchday travelcard to use with purchase of ticket or it gets loaded with a season card.

That to me is one way to sort transport queues out. You can hop on the 11 for no charge and get to Erdington and then get on another bus to Sutton/Four Oaks rather than waste away an hour or two waiting at Aston Station with CrossCity roulette.

Re the travel card thing, yes absolutely agree

I remember about twenty years ago Newcastle had a match ticket / free transport on the bus and metro agreement.

In terms of coordination we are in the dark ages.

The club have tried, tried and tried again. The travel companies aren't interested.

[London Villan]

Free travel with a match ticket would be the forward thinking thing to do.
80,000 journeys on a match day. Wonder how that compares with the total number if journeys on a saturday, probably a small percentage.   .

[Percy McCarthy]

Does anyone still get the number 11 to games? I haven’t tried since the game v Swansea in the cup, when I was sitting in ignorant bliss and it took an unexpected right turn a couple of miles before getting to Villa Park. I asked the driver what was going on and he told me the bus avoids the ground on match days. Is it still the same?

[pauliewalnuts]

Free travel with a match ticket would be the forward thinking thing to do.
80,000 journeys on a match day. Wonder how that compares with the total number if journeys on a saturday, probably a small percentage.   .

It wouldn’t be anywhere near that number, so shouldn’t really be that big a deal for them.

Although tbh without improvements to the public transport network it wouldn’t really improve that much.

Certainly for rail it’d just make it worse.