• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Wembley post-gig 18/06

Status
Not open for further replies.

gazzaa2

Member
Joined
2 May 2018
Messages
829
Total chaos with people queueing for hours outside Wembley Park with no organisation and non-moving queue after Harry Styles gig.

Concert finished at half 10 resulting in thousands of people missing their connections home. Another gig tonight. What went wrong?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

sammyg901

Member
Joined
24 Mar 2009
Messages
326
Presumably lack of staff to run any extras, TFL do normally have a couple of Met trains in the sidings to run specials as required. Potentially even gaps in the timetabled service, not unusual at the moment either

Chiltern may be a better bet, they're running Marylebone shuttles (resourced by cancelling their trains via Amersham which won't be helping the Met either !)
 

theageofthetra

On Moderation
Joined
27 May 2012
Messages
3,504
Total chaos with people queueing for hours outside Wembley Park with no organisation and non-moving queue after Harry Styles gig.

Concert finished at half 10 resulting in thousands of people missing their connections home. Another gig tonight. What went wrong?
TFL incompetence
 

gazzaa2

Member
Joined
2 May 2018
Messages
829
FVkOsAKWYAIWioV


A picture of the queues for Wembley Park station after the gig.
 

Darandio

Established Member
Joined
24 Feb 2007
Messages
10,672
Location
Redcar
Looks just like Wembley Way after every single event hosted there, doesn't necessarily scream queues to me.
 

gazzaa2

Member
Joined
2 May 2018
Messages
829
Looks just like Wembley Way after every single event hosted there, doesn't necessarily scream queues to me.

I wouldn't have thought it's normal to queue for 2 hours after a gig and for loads waiting that long to not even be able to get on a train. And even loads that did missed their connections out of London by the time they got to a main terminus.
 

Mcr Warrior

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Jan 2009
Messages
11,648
I wouldn't have thought it's normal to queue for 2 hours after a gig and for loads waiting that long to not even be able to get on a train. And even loads that did missed their connections out of London by the time they got to a main terminus.
Didn't this sort of stuff effectively happen to Liverpool FC supporters following last month's FA Cup Final?
 

philthetube

Established Member
Joined
5 Jan 2016
Messages
3,747
It takes over an hour to clear Wembley following a football match if everything is running brilliantly, will take slightly longer at night as less trains running, extras would be out if staff available.

Looking at that pic of Wembley way shows what a mammoth task it is shifting those numbers

you are probably talking 60,000 people travelling south on trains which carry either 1500 or 800 crush loaded, I don't think the performance was that bad.

I agree, the photo could have been taken after any event.

The Liverpool issues had nothing to do with LUL
 

gazzaa2

Member
Joined
2 May 2018
Messages
829
Didn't the football special leave at Euston during the cup final, before the trophy had been lifted, because it went to penalties?

Apparently show started earlier tonight after so many stranded in London last night unable to get home. They've been trying to make more use of Wembley Central as well to disperse better.
 

D821

Member
Joined
1 Sep 2021
Messages
624
Location
The Wirral
Didn't this sort of stuff effectively happen to Liverpool FC supporters following last month's FA Cup Final?
I was at the FA Cup Final and we stayed in the ground for a while after the match finished. The queue was no-where as bad as that 2 hours after the match.
That aside, the Chelsea fans left before the Liverpool ones, rather than everyone at once.
 

philthetube

Established Member
Joined
5 Jan 2016
Messages
3,747
There is no claim that the photo was taken 2 hours following the gig. If it was then that is indeed bad.
 

Dstock7080

Established Member
Joined
17 Feb 2010
Messages
2,741
Location
West London
Total chaos with people queueing for hours outside Wembley Park with no organisation and non-moving queue after Harry Styles gig.

What went wrong?
No LU service/station issues were notified/raised on Jubilee or MET that evening.
 

greyman42

Established Member
Joined
14 Aug 2017
Messages
4,894
It takes over an hour to clear Wembley following a football match if everything is running brilliantly, will take slightly longer at night as less trains running, extras would be out if staff available.
What do you mean by "clear Wembley"?
 

T-Karmel

Member
Joined
20 Mar 2010
Messages
394
Location
London
What is the best route back from Wembley after a concert to Baker Street?
If it really gets so difficult with Metropolitan line as described above, then use the alternative of Chiltern from Wembley stadium station to Marylebone, and walk (approx. 5 min walk to Baker Street).
 

Malaxa

Member
Joined
9 Mar 2022
Messages
114
Location
London
It takes over an hour to clear Wembley following a football match if everything is running brilliantly, will take slightly longer at night as less trains running, extras would be out if staff available.

Looking at that pic of Wembley way shows what a mammoth task it is shifting those numbers

you are probably talking 60,000 people travelling south on trains which carry either 1500 or 800 crush loaded, I don't think the performance was that bad.
Better than that, Harry's performance, according to Metro was

spellbinding and electric.. packed with joy and heart ;)

;)
 

boiledbeans2

Member
Joined
15 Oct 2020
Messages
498
Location
UK
What is the best route back from Wembley after a concert to Baker Street?

I have tried all 3 routes pre-covid in 2019, after multiple gigs at Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena.

The best route of the 3 was the Bakerloo/Overground from Wembley Central. It's the furthest option among the 3, but is the least crowded. In fact, once inside the station, if you walk all the way to the front of the platform (for a Bakerloo), you may even get a seat onboard the train.
 

Wivenswold

Established Member
Joined
24 Jul 2012
Messages
1,478
Location
Essex
From a cup final in the 80's and even just gigs at the Arena, it's always been a nightmare getting into Wembley Park. All London gigs have to finish at 11 (all-nighters excluded) to ensure that people can still get the tube home. Living out in the sticks, most of the evening events I've been to in London have been curtailed before the end so I can get home. I guess quite a few of these fans will be at their first big gig and haven't learned the art of spotting the start of the last song of the encore.
 

peteb

Member
Joined
30 Mar 2011
Messages
1,073
This is nothing new, I missed the end of Genesis at Birmingham NEC December 1981 due to early last trains. It's probably best if these gigs finished at 10 or even 930pm so folk can at least try to get home. Not very rock n' Roll but then neither is sleeping on a station platform! I'd be interested to learn how long it took people to get out of Wembley who drove?
 

D821

Member
Joined
1 Sep 2021
Messages
624
Location
The Wirral
My FiL went by coach to the FA Cup Final, I think he said it took them 2 hours to get out of London. Considering the Chelsea fans had a head start and were probably local, it could have been worse.
 

gazzaa2

Member
Joined
2 May 2018
Messages
829
My FiL went by coach to the FA Cup Final, I think he said it took them 2 hours to get out of London. Considering the Chelsea fans had a head start and were probably local, it could have been worse.

Wembley organisation seems worse post-lockdowns. The Euros final was a complete breakdown of organisation and security last year.

Lessons were at least learned for the second gig on Sunday. Styles started a bit earlier after the Saturday chaos and people were filtered more to the other Wembley stations, plus word of mouth of what had happened the night before so more left early/avoided Wembley Park. Bearing in mind a lot of the crowd were teenage girls and many of them were left stranded in London on Saturday night after being stuck for two hours in the bottleneck outside Wembley Park.
 

Peter C

Established Member
Joined
13 Oct 2018
Messages
4,514
Location
GWR land
I went to Wembley on Saturday - I wrote about my experiences of being caught up in the bit-of-a-mess in my trip reports thread, here.
After the concert ended, we met up with the others from our group who'd been, then went to Wembley Stadium station to catch our train. This is the point at which it becomes less fun, and more annoying.

We got to the station, and understandably there were different queues for different destinations - one for Marylebone, a couple for some other places, then one for Oxford and Oxford Parkway. We joined this queue, and bumped into some family members who, whilst not part of our group in going to the concert, had also been and were now trying to get home to Oxford, from where they would be picked up to go home.

Our queue didn't move for a while, then moved a few times quite quickly. The Marylebone queue was moving a lot quicker than ours - I assume because there were more trains going into Marylebone than Oxford. Eventually, we got onto the bridge which spans the tracks at Wembley Stadium station. Those who know the station will know that it is formed of two platforms, with a road bridge (well, sort of pedestrianised bit I suppose) going over the top. The queueing system in place went onto the bridge. Whilst on the bridge, we could hear a train at one of the platforms underneath. I'm fairly sure people were let on, but I can't quite remember. This was around the time that our train, 1T72 2305 London Marylebone - Oxford, was supposed to be in the station, so we assumed it was ours.

We stood around for what felt like a long time, waiting for our queue to be called and for us to be let onto the train. It was lightly raining by this point, it was cold, and we were all packed into this queue made up of all these portable metal railings. The staff seemed to be doing nothing for our queue. I checked RealTime Trains (a godsend, honestly, at this point), to find that the train which was in the station was, in fact, ours: and, that it had left. We were stranded - no train back to Oxford Parkway to get to the car to drive home. I believe that some people from another queue made a bit of a mad dash onto the platform, then staff stopped people from getting down there. There was the equivalent of a two-coach Class 165 in our queue - assuming all seats were taken and no-one was standing, so it wasn't unreasonable of us, in that moment, to assume that the train wasn't full and that we were just being kept up on the bridge.

Half an hour passed, with no information. At around 2345, a member of staff came up to us, and, in a manner which I can only describe as being that of someone saying, "well it's not my fault, this is your issue now, sorry mate", told us that there were no trains home to Oxford, and that our best bet would be to get the next train, which was for Banbury, and either get off at Bicester North or Banbury and organise our own road transport home. This member of staff seemed to find it amusing that people were stranded and that people were angry, which didn't help matters at all.

We were let down onto the platform. On our way, we passed a group of people, including the aforementioned family member we bumped into in the queue, who were being held in what looked like the railway equivalent of a cattle dock next to the top of the stairs down to the platform: they had been called for Bicester, and figuring that was their best bet of getting home, went for it. We mentioned as we passed that we were going to Bicester, causing people in that group to get a bit agitated and end up being let onto the platform with us (though I think they would have been let onto the platform anyway).

Once we were on the platform, we spoke to a really helpful member of staff - the only helpful member of staff - who explained that the problems were caused by the signaller sending a train out in the wrong sequence, meaning things were thrown into the air a bit. I think he also mentioned that the train for Oxford was short-formed, meaning people for other intermediate destinations could board but then there wasn't enough room for us, but I'm not quite sure.

Before getting onto the platform, we were told that taxis would be organised to pick people up at Bicester (and I think at Banbury, but again I'm not quite sure). Sure enough, when we got to Bicester, taxis were waiting. However, after speaking to two or three, it turned out that they'd either been supposedly pre-booked, or weren't sent by Chiltern Railways at all, and were just sat there on their break. Luckily, my group managed to get two taxis to take us all to Oxford Parkway, from where we drove home. The relatives we met at Wembley had joined the same train as us, but went all the way to Banbury, from where they got a lift home. We finally returned home an hour-and-a-half after we were supposed to, after having gone through quite a degree of stress, anger, and frustration which could have, at least it seemed to us 'in the dark' yesterday evening, been quite easily avoided.

The helpful member of staff at Wembley Stadium told us that we would be able to claim from Chiltern the cost of the taxis, and perhaps even the cost of the tickets - though I'm not 100% sure how we might go about all that, so I'd be very grateful for any advice, probably in the Fares Advice section?

Thanks for reading - apologies for it being such a long post, but I wanted to explain it all. I have sent Chiltern a message on Twitter (as this was the easiest way for me to voice my concerns at the time in the small hours of this morning) but they don't staff that account over the weekend, so I await a response at the beginning of next week!

-Peter

-Peter
 

gazzaa2

Member
Joined
2 May 2018
Messages
829
I went to Wembley on Saturday - I wrote about my experiences of being caught up in the bit-of-a-mess in my trip reports thread, here.


-Peter

Thanks for this. Helps explain what went wrong on the night, as it's never normally as bad as that.

I know people who got stranded and just about managed to get back to Liverpool Street but then had to fork out for taxis to get back to Essex, so it was chaos in all direcitons.
 

Peter C

Established Member
Joined
13 Oct 2018
Messages
4,514
Location
GWR land
Thanks for this. Helps explain what went wrong on the night, as it's never normally as bad as that.
You're most welcome - I doubt it's a fully-comprehensive account, but it explains my perception of how the night unfolded, as someone who's never done that sort of journey/event before.

-Peter
 

Kite159

Veteran Member
Joined
27 Jan 2014
Messages
19,153
Location
West of Andover
Wembley organisation seems worse post-lockdowns. The Euros final was a complete breakdown of organisation and security last year.

Lessons were at least learned for the second gig on Sunday. Styles started a bit earlier after the Saturday chaos and people were filtered more to the other Wembley stations, plus word of mouth of what had happened the night before so more left early/avoided Wembley Park. Bearing in mind a lot of the crowd were teenage girls and many of them were left stranded in London on Saturday night after being stuck for two hours in the bottleneck outside Wembley Park.

Don't concerts at Wembley normally finish earlier on Sundays, even before Covid, due to the earlier "last" trains from Wembley Park? I can't remember which band I saw a few years ago for 2 nights (purchased tickets for the first night, only to win tickets for the 2nd night in a radio competition), and the Sunday timings were at least 30 minutes earlier than the Saturday. Although both days I used the National Express coach back towards Basingstoke, rather than risking the trains.
 

philthetube

Established Member
Joined
5 Jan 2016
Messages
3,747
What do you mean by "clear Wembley"?
To get all the passengers away from the station, you also have to allow an extra 20 mins walking time from the stadium to the station.

Wembley does have a latest finish time for events and I understand that the stadium is prosecuted if this is not adhered to, I don't know what time this is though.

The latest finish time allows people to get away from Wembley and catch trains throughout the underground.

People wanting to travel out of London are often not going to make connections though, nothing LUL can do about that.
 

greatkingrat

Established Member
Joined
20 Jan 2011
Messages
2,749
I have tried all 3 routes pre-covid in 2019, after multiple gigs at Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena.

The best route of the 3 was the Bakerloo/Overground from Wembley Central. It's the furthest option among the 3, but is the least crowded. In fact, once inside the station, if you walk all the way to the front of the platform (for a Bakerloo), you may even get a seat onboard the train.

Another option is to walk to Preston Road. It's a bit of a trek but if you want the Met it will be quicker than joining the back of the queue for Wembley Park.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top