[Archived] Traffic Chaos

[Uddersfelt Blue]

If someone has already mentioned the chaos on the roads around Blackburn and Ewood Park I apologise but I can say I'm truly whazzed off at the decision to play this game at a ludicrous time which meant many travelling fans (and no doubt some locals) missed a good portion of this match.

OK we could have set off 3 hours earlier than normal from West Yorkshire but 2 hours was considered to be adequate time given the journey usually takes about 1 hour.

An accident on the M62 didn't help but having reached Grane Rd by 5.25pm we believed that we would comfortably arrive at Ewood in good time to park up and walk to the ground. How wrong we were! The traffic was crawling at snails pace in all directions. At 5.55pm, with nothing on Radio Rovers to indicate the traffic problems might cause the match to be delayed' it became clear that we, and many other fans, were going to miss a sizeable chunk of the game. The decision was therefore made to park up at the nearest pub and watch the first half on TV. Making our way swiftly to Ewood at half time.

As a season ticket holder and a fan who has travelled to Krakow, Salzburg and Leverkusen I never believed that I would be forced to miss watching MY team in a home match just because a TV company has thrown a great wad of cash in Rovers direction.

Thanks Rovers for putting the fans first NOT

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

PLEASE DO NOT MOAN AND GROAN...LIKE MOST,YOU KNEW WELL ENOUGH AND WERE WARNED OF THE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS OF TRAFFIC CONGESTION.

[Hasta]

Not wishing to scaremonger but as I posted on the other Leverkusen thread set off as early as possible for tonights game because the traffic around the M65 J4 will be a nightmare. I want to read about our great performance tommorow, not people moaning who thought they'd sail straight to the ground at 5.45pm despite the fact they could have set off earlier.

i expected a post or two about it, not a thread!

[yorkblues]

i was stuck on the m62 but thats life

[Uddersfelt Blue]

PLEASE DO NOT MOAN AND GROAN...LIKE MOST,YOU KNEW WELL ENOUGH AND WERE WARNED OF THE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS OF TRAFFIC CONGESTION.

And that makes it OK?

What do you want me to do? Arrive 5 hours early just because its a 6pm kick off?

[Ste B]

I also was stck on t62 for ages because of an accident. fortunatley that was at 1330. also got stuck on m65 on way to game, but rush hour traffic and footy were to blame

could all still have gone wrong had it been 2000 kick off.

sorry you missed out but what should rovers do, play at 8 and make nowt, or play at 6 and get hundreds of thousands iff german tv.

[roversmum]

We left t'brook at 5.15 after collecting Miss R from college, M61 slow and directions told Ewood traffic to get off at Junction 3. Took no notice and pretty straightforward getting off at Junction 4 - arrived at ground just after kick off. Would have left much, much earlier if able, like many I guess. No complaints though, except gutted about the outcome of the match, was so looking forward to more European trips

[OscarRaven]

Hardly Surprising though was it?

Rush Hour + Football = congestion (fans compensated by been given the game for free)

Accident on M62/M65 = Rovers fault (really?)

I set off from the Bradford area at 3.45pm arrived at Rovers for K/O having made a diversion to Darwen for a kebab (If I had not done that I would have been parked up and in the pub for 5pm) so having travelled further down the same roads 15 minutes earlier I have no complaints.

Oh yes I do... bloody Rovers and thier free/low cost tickets.... Do you know how long it took me to get served at the Bar after the game! Thanks Rovers for not thinking of my beer drinking.

[1864roverite]

You cannot legislate for acidents but you can plan for the rush hour traffic, and furthermore in the knowledge your coming from Yorkshire you knew it would be busy anyhow even if it was a 6pm kick off. Everyone suffered. for me, what is normally a 10 minute drive from Leyland, it took me 45 minutes just to get to LBR.

You cant blame Rovers, the money was a bonus. It didnt cost you anything for a ticket and no doubt you got a pint whereas us in the ground settled for a pie !!

[stuwilky]

I got the train 1864, knew that there would be chaos so took the afternoon off work and went for a leisurely beer or two in Preston, jumped on the train and then a leisurely stroll from Mill Hill to the ground.

[thenodrog]

Thanks Rovers for putting the fans first NOT

What an ungrateful barsteward you must be! Some people are never satisfied are they? 6.00pm or not half of last nights crowd watched a top european game for free! The other half were charged prices that would not have raised eyebrows a decade ago.

You need a harsh dose of reallty! Tell you what cock tell the Rovers to stick it and go and watch Huddersfeld Town! You should be able to get there easily enough most matches.

[Paul]

It was great. We left home at 5.00pm, journey usually takes 10 minutes and we leave at 2.35/2.40 for a PL game. Took about 45 minutes to reach our car park. I was feeling so good in the traffic jams, backed up to half-way down the hill to the Hoghton Arms. Haven't seen traffic like that heading to Rovers for 10-12 years, really helped my excitment. Nothing more depressing to sail through to Ewood on a Saturday(?) knowing there's going to be around 16,000 on.

Well done Rovers fanns for a great turn out.

[CAPT KAYOS]

And as someone said last night which made me smile , 'just think though there are bound to be Bumley fans caught up in the backlog on the 65

[mike at picture]

Due to a a lack of forward planning and intransigent management I didn't make Ewood last night and I regret it despite the result. Mates tell me the place was jumping. Hopefully this will signal the return of some of the missing thousands. I have the weekend off so Stanley saturday, Ewood sunday. Here's to 6 points and a big, boisterous crowd at Ewood (No chance at The Crown!)

[gumboots]

I was late arriving anyway not because of traffic but because of unavoidable work committments. The really bad thing wasn't getting there in the first place - it was getting out of the car park afterwards. Took me till 9.45 to get back to Clitheroe. Don't mind if we've won but a bit miserable if we haven't!

[Uddersfelt Blue]

What an ungrateful barsteward you must be! Some people are never satisfied are they? 6.00pm or not half of last nights crowd watched a top european game for free! The other half were charged prices that would not have raised eyebrows a decade ago.

You need a harsh dose of reallty! Tell you what cock tell the Rovers to stick it and go and watch Huddersfeld Town! You should be able to get there easily enough most matches.

I'm not ungrateful. I want to watch MY team play without having to be seriously inconvenienced. Quite happy to pay a fair rate to do so. Let's see how many of the 25000 will be at Sunday's match, cock.

No doubt you live around the corner from the ground. Think about some of those who don't before you start telling people to go and watch another team.

BTW I expressed my view about these arrangements as soon as they were announced.

[Ozz]

I left Chorley at 4.10pm, was having a pint in the Moorgate at 4.45pm watching a video of Rovers 92-93 Premiership highlights!

Absolutely dead when I got there, parked in pole position opposite the CO-OP. Great.

Bye.

[SAS]

And that makes it OK?

What do you want me to do? Arrive 5 hours early just because its a 6pm kick off?

it would have been roughly the same had there not been a football match on

its quite fickle to think there wouldnt be masses of traffic

[Damage]

I'm not ungrateful. I want to watch MY team play without having to be seriously inconvenienced.

Its not like choosing which supermarket to shop at (yet!) so you either like it or lump it!

25k liked it last night. A few others didn't.

How do you think Tesco would target future sales???

[Hasta]

Uddersfelt, I'm not wishing to have a pop but this thread is really winding me up. Look at my two posts below which were posted on Tuesday / Wednesday.

If it is going to be a decent turnout tommorow I will state the obvious and say set off as early as you possibly can afford to. Traffic will be chaotic. I often make the short jump from J5 to J4 of the M65 between 5 and 5.30 and it's busy then. I remember for one of the England womens games at Ewood that kicked off a similar time it was horrendous. They were queing about a mile on the motorway just to get off at junction 4.

You have been warned !

Not wishing to scaremonger but as I posted on the other Leverkusen thread set off as early as possible for tonights game because the traffic around the M65 J4 will be a nightmare. I want to read about our great performance tommorow, not people moaning who thought they'd sail straight to the ground at 5.45pm despite the fact they could have set off earlier.

Note how I italicked(?) the 'despite the fact they could have set off earlier.'. You've already admitted that you could. You were driving over the penines into a town in rush hour traffic which is already causing an issue on this board. Not only that but 25,000 extra people ontop of everyone leaving work were heading for Ewood. If you expected the traffic from the Grane road onwards to be any different than it was you obviously know nothing about the traffic round here at 5.00pm and were being very naive. It could take you 25 minutes to get from the Grane road to Ewood every night at that time.

If I had an appointment at 6.00pm I had to keep in Huddersfield I'd probably leave Blackburn at 4.00pm anyway to make it taking rush hour and traffic into account. Under the circumstance I'd have at least given myself an extra 30 minutes last night. I'd rather have risked being here an hour early than getting here half an hour late.

Again, I don't want to be too critical of you as you obviously travel a fair distance for many home games but this thread is an unfair bit of club bashing.

[Paul]

I'm not ungrateful. I want to watch MY team play without having to be seriously inconvenienced. Quite happy to pay a fair rate to do so. Let's see how many of the 25000 will be at Sunday's match, cock.

No doubt you live around the corner from the ground. Think about some of those who don't before you start telling people to go and watch another team.

BTW I expressed my view about these arrangements as soon as they were announced.

Presumably you'd be delighted, along with the rest of us, if Ewood Park regularly had crowds of 30,000.....or it would be a bit inconvenient for you?

[Paul Mellelieu]

Actually Hasta J5 was a lot worse then 4 last night. A 45 minute trip from central Manchester turned into a 2 hour slog and only through a bit of local knowledge did we make the start of the game. It was a nightmare getting in last night, not primarily because of the numbers of rovers fans, but because it was rush hour.

[RevidgeBlue]

Can you believe the dozy bugger who picks us up forgot it was a 6pm kick off, then got stuck in traffic, and didn't pick us up on Revidge until 5.45 p.m. by which time the traffic was stretching back from the lights at Billinge End way back up Revidge past the Corporation!

Somehow, thanks to knowing a decent parking spot we managed to get to our seats just seven minutes after kick off!

[Shabani]

i, like stuwilky got the train

was in on time for the game

and home for 9

use ur brain folks, always gonna be busy werent it?

[Uddersfelt Blue]

Presumably you'd be delighted, along with the rest of us, if Ewood Park regularly had crowds of 30,000.....or it would be a bit inconvenient for you?

I would be ecstatic if Rovers had 30000 every week. Never have any problems getting to Ewood when we do have capacity crowds but these are for matches played at times when every man and his dog aren't trying to get home.

Looking forward to a full house against Pompey