Coach pickup and dropoff

[Perks]

On 21 April 2017 at 3:56 PM, bennyhana22 said:

Need to know what they'll do in Birmingham as the usual site is part of a multi-year, huge construction site.

Not sure where they picked up from last year as I went on National Express.

Any Brum-departers know?

Ben

It's Hill Street dude, where the mega bus stop is. Up the road towards the Town Hall from the John Lewis entrance of New Street. Well that's where it was last year, prob the only bit of Bham that isn't a construction site at the moment.

I'm on the national express (whenever I type that I sing the divine comedy song, prob the best thing about national express) anyway, I'm presuming they go from Digbeth coach station?

[bennyhana22]

9 hours ago, Perks said:

It's Hill Street dude, where the mega bus stop is. Up the road towards the Town Hall from the John Lewis entrance of New Street. Well that's where it was last year, prob the only bit of Bham that isn't a construction site at the moment.

I'm on the national express (whenever I type that I sing the divine comedy song, prob the best thing about national express) anyway, I'm presuming they go from Digbeth coach station?

Thanks, bud.

Yeah, NE are from Digbeth.

The Divine Comedy are playing Latitude this year, where I'm taking Child 3 for his first festival.

And there it is - we've come full circle!

Ben

[Perks]

8 minutes ago, bennyhana22 said:

Thanks, bud.

Yeah, NE are from Digbeth.

The Divine Comedy are playing Latitude this year, where I'm taking Child 3 for his first festival.

And there it is - we've come full circle!

Ben

Thanks to your too, that's handy for me. Our coach is 4.15am!!

What a lucky little lad, hope he enjoys it. Am sure he will :-)

 

[Cieran]

Anyone got any information on where the Leeds pick up point was last year and also the times they left? I understand that they're likely to be different 

[bennyhana22]

4 minutes ago, Perks said:

Thanks to your too, that's handy for me. Our coach is 4.15am!!

What a lucky little lad, hope he enjoys it. Am sure he will :-)

 

I was on the 0315h from Digbeth last year.

Well, almost.

A group of girls from Liverpool got in a furious rage over issues of their luggage which were managed with complete ineptitude by the clueless National Express staff! Eventually a taxi-van arrived to drive behind the coach and one of the other passengers and I took it upon ourselves to get all the gear on board so we could actually leave - which we did at 0400h!

THEN we hit the TrafficMageddon and, after 2 hours stationary, I persuaded the coach driver to let me get my rucksack off and walked the last 8.5 miles to the festival! I can only pray that we don't have the same weather issues this year as I am pretty sure they won't let people get off like they did initially last year...

Anyway, all will be fine. Clearly!

And yes, Child 3 will have a brilliant time at Latitude. He's 16 and a music obsessive. Children 1 and 2 are already indoctrinated, with Child 1 heading to his first Glastonbury in June...

Ben

[sheffieldlady]

13 hours ago, craigyb31 said:

I dont suppose you know the depart times from last year do you? We are coming down from Leeds and trying to think ahead on the best way to get there.

Not sure, last couple of years it's been 9am, I did have one year which had two departure times one at 9am and another at midday. Seetickets usually announce the coach times pretty late. If you're looking for accommodation there's a Travel lodge and an Ibis really close to the place the bus departs. 

[craigyb31]

5 minutes ago, sheffieldlady said:

Not sure, last couple of years it's been 9am, I did have one year which had two departure times one at 9am and another at midday. Seetickets usually announce the coach times pretty late. If you're looking for accommodation there's a Travel lodge and an Ibis really close to the place the bus departs. 

If its 9am then well be fine for getting the train down, cheers for replying

[Skoo]

Coaching from Brighton this year. Last year the times were 7:45 and 10:45 I believe, so no chance of being on site particularly early if it's the same again this year.

Anyone else going from Brighton?

[Perks]

3 hours ago, bennyhana22 said:

I was on the 0315h from Digbeth last year.

Well, almost.

A group of girls from Liverpool got in a furious rage over issues of their luggage which were managed with complete ineptitude by the clueless National Express staff! Eventually a taxi-van arrived to drive behind the coach and one of the other passengers and I took it upon ourselves to get all the gear on board so we could actually leave - which we did at 0400h!

no way, that's mental, who paid for the taxi van to follow? out of curiosity what time did you get to the festival? me pal who was on the see tickets coach 06.00am the early one, didn't get in till after 7pm, we were on the 12.15 from bham and were in a good hour and a half before them. we got mega lucky with the coach driver taking a snide right down a lane and it took us to the gate A entrance. loved that dude for that. still a long ass journey, but could've been so much worse.

Anyway, lets hope there will be none of that malarkey this year

[bennyhana22]

Just now, Perks said:

no way, that's mental, who paid for the taxi van to follow? out of curiosity what time did you get to the festival? me pal who was on the see tickets coach 06.00am the early one, didn't get in till after 7pm, we were on the 12.15 from bham and were in a good hour and a half before them. we got mega lucky with the coach driver taking a snide right down a lane and it took us to the gate A entrance. loved that dude for that. still a long ass journey, but could've been so much worse.

Anyway, lets hope there will be none of that malarkey this year

I presume that National Express paid as, gobby and unpleasant though the girls were (!), they did seem to indicate that the cock-up was NE's! 

I got in through PGA at about 11.15h, I think. I reckon I beat my fellow coachers by 4 or 5 hours and will always be glad I made that decision. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, tiring though it was with rucksack, tent etc.

As you say - this year will be glorious and easy-peasy. Just need to get the 'correct' departure time from those lovely people at SeeCoaches!

Ben

[Tartan_Glasto]

I don't know how I got so lucky last year when I read about all the traffic issues. Got a London NX coach, left about 11:30am on the Wednesday and was onsite by about 2pm. 

[mjsell]

1 minute ago, Tartan_Glasto said:

I don't know how I got so lucky last year when I read about all the traffic issues. Got a London NX coach, left about 11:30am on the Wednesday and was onsite by about 2pm. 

How fast were you going down the motorway? That journey takes about 3 hours with pretty much no traffic.

[somecoolusername]

11 minutes ago, Tartan_Glasto said:

I don't know how I got so lucky last year when I read about all the traffic issues. Got a London NX coach, left about 11:30am on the Wednesday and was onsite by about 2pm. 

yeah, how on earth did you do that? I got on a London National Express at about 9am and got onsite at 6pm

[Tartan_Glasto]

13 minutes ago, mjsell said:

How fast were you going down the motorway? That journey takes about 3 hours with pretty much no traffic.

Just regular motorway traffic speed, I wasn't paying attention to that to be honest. I went with people that got the same bus the year before and they told me to expect at least 4 hours so I was sitting prepared for that but we got there in no time. We were even told before setting off to expect delays due to someone apparently getting hit by a vehicle. I don't really have any way to prove myself...unless there's anyone else here that was on that bus?

Edited April 25, 2017 by Tartan_Glasto

[Tartan_Glasto]

7 minutes ago, somecoolusername said:

yeah, how on earth did you do that? I got on a London National Express at about 9am and got onsite at 6pm

All I can think of is that the driver took a different turn somewhere.

[craigyb31]

4 hours ago, Cieran said:

Anyone got any information on where the Leeds pick up point was last year and also the times they left? I understand that they're likely to be different 

The last time I went from there it was Soveriegn street, not far from the train station, as for times we left about 7.30-8am ish and there was another later on. I think it was around 9?

[Adamon]

Im going from bristol. Anyone else going from there or know where it leaves from?

[glasto-worker]

6 hours ago, Tartan_Glasto said:

Just regular motorway traffic speed, I wasn't paying attention to that to be honest. I went with people that got the same bus the year before and they told me to expect at least 4 hours so I was sitting prepared for that but we got there in no time. We were even told before setting off to expect delays due to someone apparently getting hit by a vehicle. I don't really have any way to prove myself...unless there's anyone else here that was on that bus?

I was not on that coach but traveled the day before and the times look about right to me

My Crew Coach departs at Noon from Clapham Junction but goes via the A303 and it all depends if the driver stops for a rest - if they do that adds 30 minutes to the journey time - 

Now where it differs is as its a crew Coach - we don't get off at the coach station as we enter a different way and there is a lot of red tape while they issue passes and once that is sorted out the actual Coach will enter via the production road and drop us at the Crew site .

this red tape does vary from year to year so I cant claim I am onsite until we reach the crew site.

half the battle is getting out of London. 

[Beerqueen]

Looking into National Express - Wolverhampton is closer for me but how come it takes an hour longer than Birmingham to get there?  According to Google maps there is only 10 minutes in it!  And no direct coaches on the way back (well except 8 o'clock in the morning).  The thought of changing coaches on Monday  (some of them twice)doesn't bear thinking about, let alone the 6 1/2 hours some are said to take (as opposed to 3 1/4 to Birmingham!)

So looks like I'll be travelling through Wolverhampton to pick up the coach in Birmingham.  

I travelled with SeeTickets last year and thought it was brilliant.  How does NE compare?

[verrymerry]

This thread has just reminded me, last year on tbe way back to Manchester our driver managed to leave 3 girls behind at the service station

[somecoolusername]

3 hours ago, glasto-worker said:

I was not on that coach but traveled the day before and the times look about right to me

My Crew Coach departs at Noon from Clapham Junction but goes via the A303 and it all depends if the driver stops for a rest - if they do that adds 30 minutes to the journey time - 

Now where it differs is as its a crew Coach - we don't get off at the coach station as we enter a different way and there is a lot of red tape while they issue passes and once that is sorted out the actual Coach will enter via the production road and drop us at the Crew site .

this red tape does vary from year to year so I cant claim I am onsite until we reach the crew site.

half the battle is getting out of London. 

Well getting out of London wasn't the problem last year - it was the ridiculous traffic around site on the Wednesday. The coach I was on made very good time to within about 10 miles of the site, then we spent another 6 hours or so not moving.

So I'm curious how another National Express coach managed to avoid all that. 

[glasto-worker]

6 hours ago, somecoolusername said:

Well getting out of London wasn't the problem last year - it was the ridiculous traffic around site on the Wednesday. The coach I was on made very good time to within about 10 miles of the site, then we spent another 6 hours or so not moving.

So I'm curious how another National Express coach managed to avoid all that. 

Sounds a bit like 2009 except I suspect I know what may have caused the traffic build up last year { but never found out the reason for 2009 }

We arrived the day before but GFL was very close to Canceling the whole event due to  the flooding - crews that should have been entering one way were being diverted around to the other side - so there was far more traffic than was planned for 

there was posts about traffic at

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/topic/213721-queuing-on-the-a37/?page=3
for the Wednesday

Now what it was like Outside I cant say but I know that some car parks were closed so adding more chaos to the situation.

I have been stuck on a coach for a bloody long time {2009}  so I know what its like but its all down to luck - perhaps the other coach caught a traffic warning so diverted from its normal route.

the sad fact is the closer you get the more stuck you end up as there is many roads blocked off so your stuck to a few routes.

I was amazed we got in at all because there was a river flowing over the Production road which they had been able to unblock just a few hours before we arrived.

lets hope that this year has less problems. 
 

Edited April 26, 2017 by glasto-worker

[Adamon]

Compiled the cities that have been discusses. Still a lot missing!

 

City	Departure Point	Extra Notes
Manchester	Outside the CIS building
Liverpool	Empire Theatre
Glasgow	North Hanover Street bus bay - opposite Queen Street Station	Previous pickup time has been Tues at 11pm
Taunton	Tangiers Coach Park	Tesco 100yds away so could get last minute supplies there.
Brighton	Opposite Sealife Center
Stoke	Train station
London	O2
Bath	Riverside Coach Park
Plymouth	Car park next to Home Park (Plymouth Argyle stadium)
Sheffield	Pond Pond Hill S12BG
Swansea	The road just top of The Kingsway, by the Dragon Hotel
Birmingham	Hill Street	Up the road towards the Town Hall from the John Lewis entrance of New Street
Leeds	Soveriegn street, not far from the train station

[Stokesy10]

Hi guys, sorry if this has been covered, I've never had a coach ticket before:

One of our group, who lives in Oz at the moment, was successful with a coach from Birmingham package. I understand that the pick up is Hill Street (?) - is the pick up time out yet? Will he receive it in an email if not, or do you have to keep a lookout for it? Thanks in advance.

[TiZuff]

On 4/25/2017 at 9:30 PM, verrymerry said:

This thread has just reminded me, last year on tbe way back to Manchester our driver managed to leave 3 girls behind at the service station

bhahahahahahha , with a glastonbury hangover aswell