I am not going to discuss the actions of the guard. I don t know what they should or should not have done. I DO know about football and football fans so i will comment on the regular as clockwork RUK anti football fans hatredy wibble:
The guard didn’t initially release the doors and the Forest supporters started banging on the train demanding to be let on. Bearing in mind this was a pacer and these were large football fans, this was quite frightening on the inside.
What utter rot. Love the large football fans line. Superb. It is like some form of Edwardian melodrama! Did any ladies present swoon? Football fan or not I might be tempted to bang on the train if I was left behind for no good reason having paid to travel on the train and having committed no crime!
Not only was this a frightening experience for many on the train, it also delayed/inconvenienced a lot of people, largely due to the inadequate/non-existant policing. Interested what people think?
I do wonder how the scaredy-cat / sensitivly eared RUK members that inhabit this board deal with situations that are truly frightening. It is clear many have no ability to gauge and understand situations.
One of the biggest complaints from traincrew is when faced with gangs of football hooligans that the police just stand back and watch. If the police can't control them on a station then one conductor on their own won't be able to on the train.
Just being in a "gang" of football fans isnt enough to warrant arrest or police interference, despite what poster here would like. A crime has to be committed! What would be the response here if I suggested police harass gangs of train spotters?
I would agree that some sort of crowd control procedure should have been in place.
What? After a Rotherham v Forrest game? Are you serious? There were 11,000 at the game. There will have been no crowd control after premier league games with 5 times those people there! Shall we try and be sensible?
The police should have controlled entrance to the station...sounded like a risk to the fans if no-one else, should never have let so many on the platform. Really BTP should be traveling without crowds like that, particularly on such a short run as Rotherham to Sheffield.
Yes they should and I bet they were. Perhaps they were monitoring the people who might actually be causing a disturbance rather than people trying to get home. I would rather that the police dealt with criminals not normal people simply trying to get home after the match.
I think the Guard was correct to stand their ground. If these people are banging on the doors, it obviously shows intent to cause damage (not that a human fist could damage a toughened train door). If the Guard felt alarmed by the obviously threatening behaviour of these 'fans', then the police had no right to argue about letting them onboard.
eh? intention to cause damage? Is this a serious post?
Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the guard's actions (and I am in no position to offer any kind of judgement) there are, in my view, two sadnesses about this event as described:
1) The fact that it seems no attempt is ever made to blame the "football crowd" culture that plagues such events. It seems almost uniquely to surround football; is far more rare at other sports and/or (for example) when a music concer turns out.
2) The fact that Northern, who must surely have been possessed of the knowledge of the match, were either unwilling or unable (and it matters not which) to provide sufficient capacity. And that does extend to all sorts of other, predictable occasions when traffic is known, in advance, to be likely to highly exceed norms.
1) Of course. Nothing like this ever happens with, say, decent rugger blokes does it?
2) The only person to get to the heart of the issue!
Agreed on both counts. None of these people would act this way if they weren’t a) intoxicated and b) in a mob, and if they did they’d be arrested, so why does it become ok when they’ve been to a football match!?
Because everyone who goes to the match is obviously drunk or an animal. What an silly and insulting post.
On Saturday I travelled on a packed single 153 from Wakefield to Huddersfield. The noise was ear splitting. Leicester City fans slapping and banging fists on seat backs and side walls in good time to the well synchronised singing. Supermarket bags of beer were being consumed around 11.00am, some time before their match
Drinking you say? My god. hang them.
Sorry, during the football season I will be staying away from trains going anywhere near matches, but why should this planning be necessary? It's not the fault of the railway industry as this tribal trouble erupts all around the grounds. There is a cost to all this extra policing and it's probable the extra fare income doesn't cover them.
You have no idea what you are talking about. None. Please stop.
NOTE: I am trying not to be rude to anyone and to remain within forum rules ( which really limits the scope & robustness of my response) but I am sick and tired of the level of silliness this kind of thread generates on this board. It is tiresome.
