Pride in one of many events that shuts Brighton down for a day losing traders a lot of money, pretty much all general visitors know to keep away as getting around is pretty impossible. With so many events I suspect casual visitors have, like me, crossed Brighton off their list of places to go at weekends. It's a major bus hub but on these days they all terminate away from the centre and good luck trying to find your onward service, certainly be a lengthy walk probably up a steep hill. Brighton really is a crazy place!
I went there on Sunday to get a connecting train towards Portsmouth and it was crazy busy. I had to leave the station building to rejoin a queue back in to board my train (lucky it wasn't a tight connection) so when I came back, I took SWR to Waterloo because I didn't want to be anywhere near the place.
There were ample warning posters and messages on the train PIS screens, plus platform screens. Nobody could have been in any doubt that Pride was taking place and to avoid if you weren't intending to be part of it, and given the numbers, had a plan B on how you were going to get home.
I'm one of those people who goes to events and often seeks to leave early to avoid the crush when a venue closes (e.g. The O2 or Wembley stadium). Or I book a hotel near, but not too near, and may still take a long time to get there - but not as bad as trying to get all the way home.
I think people cycling to Brighton have now worked out how to get back home, with their bikes, and next year I hope those attending Pride will put more thought into things. It's such a huge event, it's unreasonable to expect the trains, or even the local buses and taxis, to cope. I am sure the buses were struggling and so were the cabs. In fact, as people made their way to the station the traffic must have been terrible too.
