The Park n' Ride System...your thoughts?

[feo]

OK, we're nearing the end of the Confed Cup, the 2 most contentious issues being the vuvuzela (which already has it's own thread) and the Park n' Ride system.

I've been to 3 matches, the opening match (SA v Iraq), the Brazil v Italy match and the Italy v USA match at Loftus.

My experience was mixed. Match 1 was OK, parked at the Coca Cola Dome in Northgate, the official guys in red were all over but the main flaws were as follows:

1. The queue was long to get into the Dome, Metro Police were all over but traffic control could've been a LOT better.
   
2. Nobody said that it would cost 30 bucks to park there, this whole thing was punted as a FREE park and ride system.
   
3. Initially, not many buses leaving but that picked up later on. Keeping on the buses theme, some of them were CRAP buses, torn seats, no ventilation, 3rd world buses.
   
4. These bus drivers get paid over a GRAND a day to do this job and you expect them to know the quickest routes to and from the stadium but our guy took the bloody scenic route and essentially doubled our travel time. A friend also told me that he got home at 1am last night because of the same reason...not cool.
   
5. Bus drivers don't use the correct pick up points all the time. This really buggered us up at Match 2 where everyone was waiting at the correct pickup point on University Road but the buses were stopping at Burnett Street and then wizzing by everyone with a FULL bus. Everyone was confused, crowds built up quickly (in the freezing cold I might add) and it was a mess.
   
6. I'd like to know why exactly the taxi drivers were not helping, in all matches I attended, I mainly saw buses in action whereas there must've been 100s of stationary taxis parked off at the PnR hub. What exactly is their function?

I'll put down more thoughts later but I'd like to hear other people's experiences and maybe we can use this thread as a way to get ideas how to polish this system up for 2010.

 

[gifs]

1. The queue was long to get into the Dome, Metro Police were all over but traffic control could've been a LOT better.
   
2. Nobody said that it would cost 30 bucks to park there, this whole thing was punted as a FREE park and ride system.
   
3. Initially, not many buses leaving but that picked up later on. Keeping on the buses theme, some of them were CRAP buses, torn seats, no ventilation, 3rd world buses.
   
4. These bus drivers get paid over a GRAND a day to do this job and you expect them to know the quickest routes to and from the stadium but our guy took the bloody scenic route and essentially doubled our travel time. A friend also told me that he got home at 1am last night because of the same reason...not cool.
   
5. Bus drivers don't use the correct pick up points all the time. This really buggered us up at Match 2 where everyone was waiting at the correct pickup point on University Road but the buses were stopping at Burnett Street and then wizzing by everyone with a FULL bus. Everyone was confused, crowds built up quickly (in the freezing cold I might add) and it was a mess.
   
6. I'd like to know why exactly the taxi drivers were not helping, in all matches I attended, I mainly saw buses in action whereas there must've been 100s of stationary taxis parked off at the PnR hub. What exactly is their function?

I went to the semi last night at Ellispark and also parked at the Dome.

1 - The queue was short, got to the dome 2 hours before kick-off
2 - It was free so they probably scrapped the cost
3 - The buses were plentiful, we queued about 5 minutes to get onto one, it was quite a nice bus
4 - Same here, I think they are instructed to take a weird route to avoid the other park and ride routes and all the construction works in the city
5 - Northgate pickup area was clearly marked and all the buses were there
6 - Both taxis and buses were used to transprt people to and from the stadium.

We got back to the dome just before 12:00 last night. The main delay was getting out of the stadium. We were seated on the new Northern stand and my guess is that you will get out of the stadium much fasteer from any other stand. The corridors are very narrow and it took us ages to get back down to ground level. Getting out of the Dome parking then took about 10 minutes.

 

[poolmania]

My experience was good. Went to the Italy v Brazil match at Loftus. Got there in good time, parking was free. Traffic was a bit hectec leaving after you pick up your car but it's manageable and it's always going to be there as there are so many people leaving the stadium at once.

Overall, very impressed and quietly surprised.

 

[curiouswanderer]

I had a terrible experience. went for Brazil vs SA semi. Going there was easy and good experience...I did arrive early though.

going home was a disaster. We parked at Wits. We followed everyone and got to an Alley where there were thousands of people waiting. there were mounted police units and security guard. They 'herd' you into an area with barriers in straight lines. We waited for about 90mins before getting onto the bus. During that though there was no one announcing anything and it felt like no buses were coming. When finally we were allowed to go to the bus pick up area, the buses picked up ppl from random areas...quite disappointing.

 

[sly]

Went to the final match. Parked at wits, took a taxi to Ellis Park. left 10 min before the game ended. Got on the bus.. 15 min trip to WITS.. i was home 12h00 midnight.. i was impressed....

 

[stefan9]

I went to italy vs brazil and it was decent but not great. Going to the stadium was fast but getting back to my car took ages. Had to wait for 5 rounds of the buses going and coming.

 

[nivek]

I had a terrible experience. went for Brazil vs SA semi. Going there was easy and good experience...I did arrive early though.

going home was a disaster. We parked at Wits. We followed everyone and got to an Alley where there were thousands of people waiting. there were mounted police units and security guard. They 'herd' you into an area with barriers in straight lines. We waited for about 90mins before getting onto the bus. During that though there was no one announcing anything and it felt like no buses were coming. When finally we were allowed to go to the bus pick up area, the buses picked up ppl from random areas...quite disappointing.

yeah also, exact same story, got home 1am we waited 2 hrs to get a bus

and there was no signage as to where the pick up points were, and the people working there had absolutely no idea either