On 16 Mar, 01:01, Sophie wrote:

On 15 Mar, 13:15, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Sat, 15 Mar 2008 06:01:19 -0700 (PDT), Offramp
wrote:

There was a recent thread here about getting to the Emirates stadium
by public transport.
The upshot seemed to be that depending on where you were sitting one
or other cf the many stations would he best.
Anyway, I was wondering if any other stadium in Europe is so well
served by trains and train stations?

Wembley? - it has three stations.

QPR will have 5 later this year. White City, Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush,
Shepherds Bush Market, Shepherds Bush Overground.

I'm not sure it's down to number of stations - it's really to do with
links in a network and capacity. Hence Berlin's Olympiastadion or
Paris's Stade de France might do equally well in giving good access to
the site of the stadium.


The Emirates isn't as well served as it should be. Drayton Park is
closed on matchdays (it seems a bit insane to me but what do i know),
Holloway Road is exit only after the match and it was totally closed
the last time I went. So that leaves Arsenal but Highbury &
Islington's not far off


Football fans going to/from Ashburton Grove stadium (aka the Emirates)
are encouraged to use Highbury & Islington and Finsbury Park stations
rather than Arsenal, as indeed a very great many do - they are merely
10/15 minutes walk away. Obviously those wanting mainline trains have
to head to Finsbury Park.

Holloway Road is closed on matchdays because it would not be able to
cope with the level of demand - it has lifts rather than escalators to
access the platforms.

Drayton Park would also struggle badly with the crowds and would need
to be rebuilt. However the whole patterns of train services on that
line would also need to be heavily revised as well - currently the
Moorgate 'branch' is only served weekdays until around 10pm, not at
the weekends whatsoever. Additionally the line only has a 10 minute
frequency. Far easier for the crowds people to disperse elsewhere.

Incidentally under earlier plans both Holloway Road and Drayton Park
were to be improved and then open and used on matchdays. AIUI, as part
of the deal for planning permission, Arsenal FC stumped up x amount of
money for transport improvements for TfL to use as they saw fit - in
the end the idea of rebuilding Holloway Road station was seen as
monumentally expensive and just not worth while, so the money was used
to contribute to other improvements (I think the improvements at
Finsbury Park are an example of this).

The thing that has been an issue is that of people catching mainline
trains from Finsbury Park to points north after matches. I have little
experience of this, so after watching the match last night I was a bit
early for meeting up with some friends so I went up to Finsbury Park
and popped up to the mainline platforms to have a look at things - it
all seemed OK to me, some fairly modest crowd management on entering
the station and there were several "additional football services" run
(both fast and slow trains) .

The only thing I really noticed was that there could have been some
more proactive crowd management on the platform itself - many people
were waiting on the centre of the platform rather than spreading out
along it, in parts perhaps because of the lack of a platform length
canopy to stay out of the rain.