A Major Contribution to Carbon Footprint for a Football Club

It's not really a case of railway companies refusing to put on extra carriages, they don't have them. They are contracted to provide a certain level of service and that does not include special events, only day-to-day services. So they only have the rolling stock to fulfil that contract. Any more would be additional costs so they aren't interested.
 
rob_fmttm said:
James Cook Halt hardly gets any use and the hospital is open 7 days a week. Here we are talking about a halt that is used once every two weeks. Obviously if it was a metro tram-like system then it would make real sense. That is what it needs to be.
But you have to ask yourself surely there is something very wrong if most people are not prepared to walk 10-15 minutes from the main station. Am not talking about those with walking problems but the majority of the crowd.
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The stop/station at the ground was supposed to be part of a wider look at public transport. You're right a tram/metro system is what is required, a system that enables people from all over Teesside to travel into town and onto the ground.

As for the station - it doesn't matter if its 10 minutes or 10 seconds from the ground if there's no way of getting there it's irrelevant isn't it? If you live in Ingleby Barwick, Coulby Newham, Pally Park , Eston etc you can't hop onto a train into Middlesbrough centre can you?

Also it's not just about walking 10/15 minutes from the station to the ground. You have to get from where you live to a train station, be lucky enough to have a train running with enough carriages, get to Middlesbrough and then do the walk. And do it all in reverse to get home again so it's not just about a 10/15 minute walk.

The whole public transport system in Middlesbrough is a joke and that's what needs addressing. I live 3 miles away from the ground. I drive to the match. It takes me 5 minutes to get there, a bit longer to get home. I wouldn't dream of getting a bus, it would take at least 45 minutes getting to the ground, much longer getting home.
 
If think the club/council missed a trick when the ground first opened. A decent, well lit coach park could have been built with direct access to the A66, getting mass transport fans away from the ground a lot earlier than they do now.

Many who used the coaches initially have reverted to cars because of the time it takes to get away from the area and back home.
 
NorthumberlandBoro said:
The impact of cars driving to away games music be fairly significant given the numbers we attract.
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i guess it’s done per fan and quite a few get the club bus and others car share or get mini buses do their contribution is shared 🤷🏼‍♂️

may be community busses could be put on from various areas… I’d get one from ingleby as long as they did a return trip.. probably only need to put 20 different locations on to reduce car use a bit, especially if it was included in ticket price… would be a very good promo for the club…
 
Going back to the Dutch GP reference: I belive they used electric shuttle buses to get people from the station to the track. Surely the big Premier league and championship teams could run similar schemes? This would encourage people to get trains to the home ground at least.

Thing is its not as big an undertaking as you would think: the London clubs wouldn't need it and Manchester clubs (and presumably Sheffield United and Forest) are already served by trams.
 
fmttmadmin said:
What is it?
Players flying to matches?
Plastic use, ie bottles etc.

How about fans travelling by car to home matches. Really interested to hear this recently on a FSA zoom call. In the recent F1 Grand Prix in Netherlands most of the fans travelled by bike or green transport. I wonder how we could better address this in Britain and the Riverside.
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The answer to the original question is two fold

An efficient affordable public transport system and a total change of people's mind sets so that jumping into the car isn't the default option - ie taking the kids half a mile to school in the car, going to the local shops to get a paper or pint of milk in the car.
 
Glover_elbow said:
I am sure we were the most localised fan base when we were in the premier league. Unfortunately transport infrastructure is terrible. If you think of all the fans and there must be thousands living in places like ingleby barwick theres really no alternative to the car. For me It takes over an hour on the bus and the nearest train station is 40 mins walk. I would love a train station in IB to goto the match and to work.
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I got the bus to a boro game once and never again, took over an hour to get there and when going back it seems tbe bus timetable stopped for about 2 hours so would have to have waited 2 hours for an extra hour travel time back, ridiculous
 
DCI_Gene_Hunt said:
The answer to the original question is two fold

An efficient affordable public transport system and a total change of people's mind sets so that jumping into the car isn't the default option - ie taking the kids half a mile to school in the car, going to the local shops to get a paper or pint of milk in the car.
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The problem is the 0.5 mile journeys shouldn't need any transport other than walking or cycling.
 
sparkins said:
Out if interest, what provision is there at the ground for cycle parking?
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I don't think there is any, is there? I went to a Eredivisie game in the Netherlands a couple of years ago and it seemed like everyone cycled there. Mind you, nicking bikes isn't really a thing in the Netherlands.
 
Capybara said:
I don't think there is any, is there? I went to a Eredivisie game in the Netherlands a couple of years ago and it seemed like everyone cycled there. Mind you, nicking bikes isn't really a thing in the Netherlands.
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I genuinely don't know (I have emailed the club). The infrastructure in the Netherlands is light years ahead of here both in safe cycling and storage arangements. Town bikes used widely for just getting about are, I suspect, much less attractive than road and mountain bikes which people typically have over here (regardless of how they are used). They don't look very cool but are functional. I wonder if any club in the UK is actively promoting cycling to matches?
 
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sparkins said:
I genuinely don't know. The infrastructure in the Netherlands is light years ahead of here both in safe cycling and storage arangements. Town bikes used widely for just getting about are, I suspect, much less attractive than road and mountain bikes which people typically have over here (regardless of how they are used). They don't look very cool but are functional. I wonder if any club in the UK is actively promoting cycling to matches?
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I was disappointed there were no cycle parks at the Brentford community stadium given how new it is. IN fact the only stadium I know of that has cycle storage is Twickenham, and even that, hardly any
 
Even for the U13s I coach, we have talked with parents about our impact. We are in Lincolnshire and our average round trip to an away game is getting on for 60 miles as our League is very spread out. We take 16 players and often 16 cars. We have 33 teams in the club. That is a hell of a lot of journeys every year. We have a hardcore of parents who want to go to every game but equally a number who don't want to or can't. We have got it down to 6 cars as an experiment, which is a big improvement, but it did make me stop and think about things that I just take for granted.
 
I decided to get my season ticket out this year when I realised that I could get the train straight through from Aycliffe. So I get the mrs to drop me off and pick me up from Aycliffe station on a match day. Great, I thought :oops:

The train going is normally no problem but coming back...... ffs :mad:. A packed platform trying to squeeze into 2 carriages is bad enough in normal circumstances but to be on a packed train whilst there's an ongoing covid risk is ridiculous. It's not as if I have an option either, having committed to the train. There is no other practical way back to Aycliffe from Middlesbrough.

Oh and whilst I say "The train going is normally no problem", the last home game the train was cancelled due to lack of staff, which I only discovered after I'd been sat at the station foe 5 minutes. So I had to get back home and take the car. (and the useless @r$es are still disputing my claim for a refund). This now has me thinking, what would I do if I was at Middlesbrough waiting to come home and the train was cancelled and is it worth the risk of taking the train.
 
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