InterSkyBlues
New Member
I suspect this is old news but it wasn't to me hence the post.
I am a season ticket holder who lives in Peterborough. I travel each home game by car and park by the Longford Engine, it take me about one hour roughly and is a fairly ok drive. I then walk to the Ricoh which takes me 15 minutes. It's around a 120 mile trip so quarter of a tank or £15.
In contrast, I had to travel by train last week (for reasons I don't need to go into). So we start by parking at Peterborough Station, catching a train to Nuneaton (holding my breath as we stop at Incester), then a change to get on a train to Cov. Get to Cov and then walk to the bus station followed by waiting and then catching the 101 to the Ricoh.
Firstly, this is not a whine or a call for concern for poor old me, just a comparison and I suspect an identifier as to why very few non car fans come to the Ricoh any more. The first is the price, the train ticket cost me three times more than the petrol, then we add on the car parking and the bus journey. We can also add the dismal state of the trains and having to stand for an hour and a half because they are way to small to cope with the amount of passengers. Lastly, and most importantly, it took me 3 hours door to door, rather than the usual hour and 15 minutes. Six hours in the day because I was using public transport.
So, I submit, the location of the Ricoh, and the lack of a train station near by, is plainly resulting in a loss of fans to home matches. If we estimate that 40%of the Cov fan base lives outside of the city and are likely to want to use the train to travel then here's part of the missing numbers.
Personally I will never travel by train again to the Ricoh, if I can't drive then I just won't go, my seat will remain empty for the day. A perfectly horrible experience and one that cost me way more than driving. So much for a sustainable 21st century.
Thanks for reading so far.
I am a season ticket holder who lives in Peterborough. I travel each home game by car and park by the Longford Engine, it take me about one hour roughly and is a fairly ok drive. I then walk to the Ricoh which takes me 15 minutes. It's around a 120 mile trip so quarter of a tank or £15.
In contrast, I had to travel by train last week (for reasons I don't need to go into). So we start by parking at Peterborough Station, catching a train to Nuneaton (holding my breath as we stop at Incester), then a change to get on a train to Cov. Get to Cov and then walk to the bus station followed by waiting and then catching the 101 to the Ricoh.
Firstly, this is not a whine or a call for concern for poor old me, just a comparison and I suspect an identifier as to why very few non car fans come to the Ricoh any more. The first is the price, the train ticket cost me three times more than the petrol, then we add on the car parking and the bus journey. We can also add the dismal state of the trains and having to stand for an hour and a half because they are way to small to cope with the amount of passengers. Lastly, and most importantly, it took me 3 hours door to door, rather than the usual hour and 15 minutes. Six hours in the day because I was using public transport.
So, I submit, the location of the Ricoh, and the lack of a train station near by, is plainly resulting in a loss of fans to home matches. If we estimate that 40%of the Cov fan base lives outside of the city and are likely to want to use the train to travel then here's part of the missing numbers.
Personally I will never travel by train again to the Ricoh, if I can't drive then I just won't go, my seat will remain empty for the day. A perfectly horrible experience and one that cost me way more than driving. So much for a sustainable 21st century.
Thanks for reading so far.
