Why would not running trains buses and trams cause an ‘Istanbul cock-up’?
No idea but Villa Park is 40 years out of date. Not enough space inside or outside the stands, very few places to eat or drink. A terrible away trip, even if you go into the city-centre.
Yep, I went to Villa Park recently too. Had to drive and ended parking on a nearby school. Surrounding area wasn't great. No F&B provision in the immediate area other than Villa's on-site fan zone. Not sure what the public transport is like.
The area is totally run down. Dark and dingy with a lot of street lights vandalised, boarded up pubs, a crumbling station nearby with no apparent crowd control, an unwelcoming atmosphere. The stadium has overcrowded concourses and cramped seats. I remember Villa Park in its heyday when it was a great stadium. But time seems to have stood still. Birmingham city-centre, at least around New Street, is also shite. People who criticise Manchester should take a trip there. The bin strike hasn't helped. I know the match was a Sunday but there were mountains of rubbish everywhere. There are plenty of worst cities in the UK but Brum is a symbol of decay.
I have family in Brum so I know there are nice areas but as a city-centre it doesn't compare to Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Nottingham, or even Liverpool. That said the Brummies are mostly friendly people with a good sense of humour. I think they deserve better.
I have made the same decision. Very difficult to get to as well with the crumbling road and rail network. Just a very negative experience and the football has nothing to do with that.
This discussion reminds me of FA Cup Finals when City fans go rightly bananas if the KO goes outside a certain window because of the difficulty of national travel (largely rail). Local transport, which you seem to be referring to isn't a big problem imo, however the national rail network shuts down in the evening. In the 1970s, football was Saturday 3pm, and football fans used to take over other cities by the inter city. Not any more. KO times are all over the place and rail travel is expensive and restricted. On top of that, car travel in cities is becoming awkward. It's more a national problem, but I can't see it being fixed.
Agreed. But some sort of temporary fix will have to apply for the Euros. The rail system in the UK is a laughing stock. Most of Europe has a 24 hours a day high speed rail network and extensive local public transport in all major cities. It is also cheap to use in most locations. We are 30 to 40 years behind and have crumbling infrastructure everywhere outside London,
There were loads of extra trains running late at night during Euro '96, to get football fans back to where they were based. Can't remember who was playing now but I caught one from Sheffield back to Manchester at about 2 am after one game at Hillsborough.
Hampdens a shit hole.
Bring back the Persil train vouchers!
I think your misremembering that last bit. Scotland played England at Wembley and their other two games at Villa Park.
Ive been to Hampden 4 times and I still would struggle to even find it. Hidden away in a bowl in a less than salubrious part of town - the delightfully named Mount florida - its an absolute arse ache to get to/from, and I was travelling with Glaswegian mates who'd been going there for years and knew all the back roads to it. Decent atmosphere as its an old fashioned bowl, but still a relic of a stadium with very few of the Exec Seats/Boxes that the Uefa bigwigs would demand.
