Villa Park Redevelopment

[AV82EC]

We've seen this month how little consideration train companies have for us.

You mean nationalised train companies of course cd. <winky thing>

[cdbearsfan]

Well, yes, nationalised rail should be run by a government that doesn't have disdain for anyone outside London.

[eamonn]

So are we saying that none of this is going to happen due to the contingent element of trains being sorted out, unlikely to materialise?

[eamonn]

Inter seem to do alright too.

Yes but does the San Siro skyline stain the snow? If not, no amount of tarting-up a famous old ground is going to work.

[Sexual Ealing]

Inter seem to do alright too.

Yes but does the San Siro skyline stain the snow? If not, no amount of tarting-up a famous old ground is going to work.

Let's chase the Darmian.

[AV82EC]

So are we saying that none of this is going to happen due to the contingent element of trains being sorted out, unlikely to materialise?

It’s the station that needs sorting, you can sort the trains afterwards. Though as ever any sorting of the station will have to be done with the notoriously awful Network Rail as the Project Manager. Network Rail are good at plenty of stuff but delivering station infrastructure improvements even stuff as basic as what’s required at Witton at pace and to budget and deadlines isn’t one of them. I’m hopeful rather than confident.

[PeterWithe]

You wouldn't need to extend other platforms. If you can get a couple of double trains cross city style running round and round via New Street at the end of the game, you could move about 4000 crush loaded. Then you have the normal trains too. They take another couple of thousand across 4 trains in the hour after the game.

I don’t think much of that is logistically sound.

The difficulty with extra Trains for the Football is WMT don't have any extra trains and WMCA don't have any money to procure or lease trains for that purpose. Of course if we had anything like a sensible public transport culture or strategy in this country then this wouldn't be an issue but we don't so we can all sit in our cars for 30-45 mins and moan about the traffic.

And even if there were more trains, you’d struggle for “paths”. And you can’t just turn trains at Witton.

Couldn't they just install one of those big wheels like in Thomas the Tank Engine to turn the trains around? Drive in, turn the wheel 180, job done and back to New St.

Its this lack of 'can-do' thinking which is holding us back.

[Des Little]

Don’t be ridiculous. All we need is a massive helicopter to pick the trains up and turn them around.

[Brazilian Villain]

Who was it on here that had a bet with their mate that there wouldn’t be a spade in the ground within 3 years of their announcement? We must be 12-18 months in and it’s probably as safe bet.

I think it was Hooky, £100 rings a bell

When he pays up, you'll be able to afford an authentic anniversary shirt.

[Villan82]

Ultimately it’s a football stadium and I’m less concerned with the aesthetics than the move to 50k+. Hopefully we get some movement in the ST waiting list but like others I suspect it’ll be a big uplift in GA+ offerings with maybe 2-3k of the uplift for GA. Though if it maybe agglomerates the GA+ stuff in one place rather than the Lower Grounds mish mash of stuff around the ground that may be a better solution.

I’m reasonably hopeful that Mayor Parker can get the Witton station stuff moving as part of the national money that’s surely available for Euro28. He really needs to deliver on this as he’s got an election in 2028 just before Euro28. I think Naseef’s statement made it quite clear that the whole thing hinges on Parker and the Transport issue. 

Overall I’m positive and it seems to be an achievable plan and not some 60k+ pipe dream without a master plan and council and CA backing.

I agree with this. Only the Holte End has any architectural merit these days from the outside. I think it will look great on the inside when the ground is packed. We will finally have some some symmetry.

Hats off to you by the way. I think you were early with the news that this was being worked on.

This is excellent news. Credit where it's due to everyone at the club. I think this will look ace when it is completed and the modern Villa Park will, finally, have a 'complete' feel to it.

Thanks 😊 Yeah I bumped into a mate in town a while back who works full time at the ground. He told me that they'd had groups of architects and groundwork teams working behind the stand. Finally an itk that actually turned out to be right. It's amazing what they're doing. To build an 7,000 seat extension around an existing stand without losing capacity is clever stuff.

I agree. Credit where it is due. It is excellent engineering

[PeterWithe]

I think my standpoint that Aterios buying shares in us absolutely, definately, catagorically means that we are building a new ground, can be temporarily put to one side.

[Olneythelonely]

You wouldn't need to extend other platforms. If you can get a couple of double trains cross city style running round and round via New Street at the end of the game, you could move about 4000 crush loaded. Then you have the normal trains too. They take another couple of thousand across 4 trains in the hour after the game.

I don’t think much of that is logistically sound.

The difficulty with extra Trains for the Football is WMT don't have any extra trains and WMCA don't have any money to procure or lease trains for that purpose. Of course if we had anything like a sensible public transport culture or strategy in this country then this wouldn't be an issue but we don't so we can all sit in our cars for 30-45 mins and moan about the traffic.

And even if there were more trains, you’d struggle for “paths”. And you can’t just turn trains at Witton.

Couldn't they just install one of those big wheels like in Thomas the Tank Engine to turn the trains around? Drive in, turn the wheel 180, job done and back to New St.

Its this lack of 'can-do' thinking which is holding us back.

I’ll feed it back. The fat controller isn’t particularly amenable though.

[Villan82]

I think my standpoint that Aterios buying shares in us absolutely, definately, catagorically means that we are building a new ground, can be temporarily put to one side.

Don't beat yourself up. We were all trying to read the tea leaves!

[Somniloquism]

So are we saying that none of this is going to happen due to the contingent element of trains being sorted out, unlikely to materialise?

It’s the station that needs sorting, you can sort the trains afterwards. Though as ever any sorting of the station will have to be done with the notoriously awful Network Rail as the Project Manager. Network Rail are good at plenty of stuff but delivering station infrastructure improvements even stuff as basic as what’s required at Witton at pace and to budget and deadlines isn’t one of them. I’m hopeful rather than confident.

There is essentially a big loop from New Street, up to Aston and the Walsall track to Perry Barr, then back down around into the other side of New Street. Obviously capacity at New Street is always an issue but Specials for the Euros could always be put on that way.

[LeeS]

Benfica’s full name is Sport Lisboa e Benfica (Lisbon and Benfica). The stadium was built in the neighbourhood of Luz, next door to the neighbourhood of Benfica. Hence the name Estadio da Luz.

Someone should have told Sunderland that when they copied the name incorrectly.