Commonwealth Games parking - an update and a rant

I'm all for a bit of ranting, but lets take a step back.

Shuttles between venues is unlikely as most people will be spectating at a single venue and will then return home. So most shuttles are to and from from a central point as that'll be what the majority need.

Time limited parking is also sensible to stop the morning spectators claiming all the spots and so not leaving space for the afternoon or evening visitors to park. Again, not unreasonable.

I understand the frustration of driving into the city centre, but the transport has been designed as a "hub and spoke" so you get (ideally the train) into the city and go out to the venues from there.

Park and rides being full is expected if you're booking late.

Would you not be better parking in the city all day? That'll mean the transport will work as it is supposed to...

On the flipside of this, we were at the Rugby 7s on Sunday night out at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry and had prebooked the park & walk. It was about 20 mins easy walk from the stadium, it was really well organised and the usual nightmare getting out of the carpark at the end of the day was avoided by having loads of helpful staff directing cars and a signposted route back to the M6 avoiding the stadium on the way out.

Best organised sporting event I've been to for aaaages.

I understand that the transport is provided by public transport as part of their attempt to have a carbon neutral legacy.

It's not utterly beyond comprehension. Why can't you use public transport from somewhere else to get to the NEC in the first place and back to that start point at the end of the day?

Would you not be better parking in the city all day? That’ll mean the transport will work as it is supposed to…

I would have liked to have parked in a single place for the day but it's an early start as it is (a 9am session start and we have been advised to be there an hour before to clear security) so parking in the centre and getting a shuttle back out would add a considerable amount of time to our already early start (especially with the NEC being in close proximity to the motorway network).

Shuttles between venues is unlikely as most people will be spectating at a single venue and will then return home.

I don't know - would they? I assumed people would be going to sessions at different venues to take more in (like we are doing). I guess I could be very wrong here.

Time limited parking is also sensible to stop the morning spectators claiming all the spots and so not leaving space for the afternoon or evening visitors to park. Again, not unreasonable.

Park and rides being full is expected if you’re booking late.

I kinda get that they don't want people claiming and keeping spots, but surely it would be more normal to have excess capacity with a focus on trying to avoid cars driving around the city centre.

The NEC is right next to the airport and a pretty big station.

Is there no parking at the station you could move to and get the train into Birmingham?

Train into Brum from NEC. Job Jobbed!

Surely all that's only an issue because you're using a car?

Train to NEC, train to Perry Bar, train home?

Is there no parking at the station you could move to and get the train into Birmingham?

There is. Why on earth could I not find this on their website and why didn't their journey planner suggest that to me? And, more to the point, why did no-one on here suggest that when I first posted the question of getting around on here weeks ago LOL!

I think you’ll find @johndoh that when I responded a couple of weeks ago on this topic, catching the train into the city centre was exactly what I suggested.

I think you’ve been spoiling for a rant for a few weeks now.

I think you’ll find @johndoh that when I responded a couple of weeks ago on this topic, catching the train into the city centre was exactly what I suggested.

I think you’ve been spoiling for a rant for a few weeks now.

Did you? I missed that. All this stress could have been avoided then.

Is there no parking at the station you could move to and get the train into Birmingham?

This is all well and good, but will the bus from the evening session at The Alexander Stadium get you back into central Birmingham in time for the train back to the NEC?

This is all well and good, but will the bus from the evening session at The Alexander Stadium get you back into central Birmingham in time for the train back to the NEC?

Surely as its the airport train, they'll be running pretty late?

We're going on Friday to see the athletics & heading directly from their down to the SW for a week long holiday.

I've let my Wife arrange all the parking etc. so hope it's straightforward. Early start for us too, as it's at least a 2hr drive to the car drop-off point.

My son is competing at the games and one of his first days there the bus driver got lost between the pool and their accomodation, he managed to get fairly close but his advice was to drop them off on the side of the motorway/dial carriageway. Luckily one of the competitors knew their way about and managed to give him directions.

Just hijacking this as heading there on Sunday for the afternoon boxing. Any real life experiences of the drive to the NEC from the South and the associated parking? Pre-booked parking as the train was so damn expensive but have seen on quite a few forums that people are having many issues. I am happy to set off early morning if I have to but the parking window is strict so I can't do anything if I get there early other than drive around the outskirts of the NEC 🙂

Oh! And has anyone tried to do that futuristic thing of adding the ticket to the Apple wallet? Doesn't work, plus when trying to get into the ticket section you get held in a queue even if you already have tickets.........WTF?

^ At the NEC you have to print out the ticket and display it in your window. I believe that parking is available 2 hours before your ticketed session start.

@johndoh, That is another rant in itself 🙂 I booked the parking and then read on the instructions exactly what you said. I was annoyed as i hate wasting paper and ink for no reason when it could be managed electronically by number plate recognition. Emailed the "help" desk and they said "You don't need to print it out, just have your booking on your phone" It is literally splattered all over the ticket that you need to print it out otherwise you get fined. I went back and explained the error of her ways and she stopped talking to me

MrsMC is taking LittleMissMC to the closing ceremony, and is very annoyed that her ticketed disabled parking still needs her to use the shuttle bus.

Today's disabled parking for the time trials was literally opposite the entrance to the event village. Sadly, the road in between was barriered as it was part of the race route, so we had a nice walk down to the crossing point and back up again 🤦‍♂️

Post-Games update...

For all my ranting beforehand, the experience on the day was far removed – well organised, lots of Games Helpers everywhere, loads and loads of shuttle buses to and from the city centre, along with very efficient security and ticket checks at all venues. I just wish the parking/travelling around information on their website was better as it would have saved me loads of stress.

Yeah, same here.
Parking and getting in/out of the stadium on Friday couldn't have been easier.

Just a shame the info wasn't massively clear and caused a bit of unnecessary stress.

I'm glad it wasn't just me (and my wife) that couldn't make sense of the information! I also got chatting to a guy at the athletics who found it the same so that's at least four out of 1.5m people 🙂