Villa Park Redevelopment

[pauliewalnuts]

Add £5 per ticket for the hospitality seats to cover the cost and it’s free for anyone with a match ticket who wants to use them. Each bus does 3-4 trips, thats 6,000 seats.

I doubt the feasibility of 3-4 trips, especially after the match.

Then there's other things - how do the bus company check the user has a valid ticket? They install readers on all their buses? It quickly gets complicated.

[London Villan]

Maybe 4 trips is a little ambitious. As for checking tickets - you just have to show them as you get on. Realistically who else is going to be heading to and from Aston on a match day?

[Des Little]

The price of my season ticket nowadays I should get collected from my house and taken to B6, with a pint and a bag of salted peanuts for the journey.

[LeeB]

The price of my season ticket nowadays I should get collected from my house and taken to B6, with a pint and a bag of salted peanuts for the journey.

Should be carried in a sedan chair after the latest hike

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

The price of my season ticket nowadays I should get collected from my house and taken to B6, with a pint and a bag of salted peanuts for the journey.

Should be carried in a sedan chair after the latest hike

ST holder I know at Man U told me his has gone up by £30. This is the first increase in his area for 11 years which surprised me.

[Villan For Life]

The price of my season ticket nowadays I should get collected from my house and taken to B6, with a pint and a bag of salted peanuts for the journey.

That option is available, they pick you up at 7.30am on the Thursday for a Saturday 3pm kick off. There’s no washing/shower facilities though.

[chrisw1]

30 buses per match would cost the best part of £50k to hire.

Half the weekly wage of one squad player. Every 2 weeks.

or another £32 per season ticket to put it into property context.

[chrisw1]

We can't just magic 30 coaches. As mentioned before, for the Commonwealth Games there were coaches from all around the country specifically hired for the event.  I just don't see this being an attractive gig for coach companies.

[Brend'Watkins]

We can't just magic 30 coaches. As mentioned before, for the Commonwealth Games there were coaches from all around the country specifically hired for the event.  I just don't see this being an attractive gig for coach companies.

There are a number of coach companies in and around Birmingham. I'm sure they'd welcome the business and certainly around the winter months.  Interested to see where the figure of £50k for 30 coaches over a period of no more than 4 or 5 hours is arrived at. Less than half that is more realistic I'd say.

[Nev]

We can't just magic 30 coaches. As mentioned before, for the Commonwealth Games there were coaches from all around the country specifically hired for the event.  I just don't see this being an attractive gig for coach companies.

But Edgbaston can engage NE to provide double decker buses. Why can't we?

[London Villan]

It was a guestimate based on what it costs to hire minibuses for the day. Our matches are normally away from traditional rush-hours - even more so next season with the amount of (hopefully) Sunday home games. Sourcing 30 buses/coaches from the wider region shouldn't be an issue.

More of an issue would be creating one-way systems and quick access to and from the city centre.

If there is a will there is a way.

[Ger Regan]

We can't just magic 30 coaches. As mentioned before, for the Commonwealth Games there were coaches from all around the country specifically hired for the event.  I just don't see this being an attractive gig for coach companies.

But Edgbaston can engage NE to provide double decker buses. Why can't we?

How often do they need them in Edgbaston? It's a lot easier to cover events with overtime if they are infrequent, less so if it's something that has to happen every couple of weeks.

[olaftab]

We can't just magic 30 coaches. As mentioned before, for the Commonwealth Games there were coaches from all around the country specifically hired for the event.  I just don't see this being an attractive gig for coach companies.

During  CWG's anything upto 150 to 200 buses were made available, mostly from around the country but I am sure WMPT can find 30 standing idle in their garages on a Saturday or Sunday. Bigger problem is weekday matches when full service is required for the general public.

[Chico Hamilton III]

We can't just magic 30 coaches. As mentioned before, for the Commonwealth Games there were coaches from all around the country specifically hired for the event.  I just don't see this being an attractive gig for coach companies.

But Edgbaston can engage NE to provide double decker buses. Why can't we?

How often do they need them in Edgbaston? It's a lot easier to cover events with overtime if they are infrequent, less so if it's something that has to happen every couple of weeks.

Mentioned it before but they manage it very well at Anfield. Paid £4 return when we played them at the end of last season. Outwards, we walked from the pub in the city centre straight on to a bus. After the game, a 5 minute walk from the ground and a 10 min queue to get the bus back.

[Pat Mustard]

More buses would help, but it is just a sticking plaster solution when the real answer is proper investment in public transport in Birmingham.  A fraction of what is spent on London would mean proper redevelopment of Aston and Witton stations, new rolling stock (about 5 years ago we were promised new stock for the Cross City Line that would be the same as that used on London overground, which has higher capacity), and a return to a full timetable.  On top of that we were promised the introduction of tram-style Sprint buses on major routes in and out of town, with dedicated lanes - where are they?

Last season was the worst I can remember for using public transport to get to matches.  Just getting things back to how they were pre-pandemic would be a start.