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I hope someone may be able to help here as the Games website is useless (constantly saying 'the journey planner is currently unavailable'), they still have no app and despite reaching out on social media, I have had no response from anyone in their communications team...
Anyway, we are going down early in the morning to be at the Birmingham NEC for 9am to watch Ladies Netball then have tickets for the evening session of athletics at the Alexander Stadium before heading back home later on.
I understand there is free travel available for ticket holders which is great, however what I can't work out is the finer details, ie, would it be easier to park at one venue over the other, will there be public transport available when we need it (ie, if we decided to park at the NEC then needed to get a train/bus back after 11pm). I guess it would make sense to park near the NEC if we can as I assume it will be much easier to get back onto the M1 to head back to Yorkshire but that plan is scuppered if there is no transport!
I know this is a long shot expecting anyone to know but I'd like to start having a plan! Thank you!
Can't help you but you have my sympathy. We've booked a campsite which is about 20 mins drive from the aquatics centre. I'm hoping there's going to be a park and ride or something because we will have one car but there will be 6 of us and the bus from the campsite is about 90 mins. We're also waiting to hear how many events my son is competing in. We've bought tickets for everything but some might have to back on the games resale site.
We've got tickets we're, realistically, not going to use. I don't think the resale site is open as I don't think they've sold all the tickets 🙁
I lie, resale is open, our tickets are on there now.
I’m not sure what transport is being put on but my initial instinct would be to park near the stadium as it’s easy access to the motorway when you want to leave. Getting to the NEC would likely involve going back into the city and out again in the evening.
City Centre parking is not too bad at the moment, and even in normal times you can get a train or bus to Perry Barr.
Giving this a bump as I'm thinking it'll be easier for us to drive to the aquatics centre. Anybody local know what parking will be like? I've been looking at parking near Warley woods and walking from there. I'm not expecting to be able to park just round the corner but could we get closer?
There’s a park and ride at The Hawthorns with a shuttle bus transfer to the Aquatics centre. I think you have to book the P&R but I think it’s free (I’m not involved in that so I’m not certain).
The Hawthorns is served by trains from as far out as Stourbridge (with large car parks out there or at Cradley Heath and Rowley Regis). Trains will call at Smethwick Galton Bridge before the Hawthorns and there’s a way-marked walking route from there: It’s a 1.3 mile walk (I hope they’ve tidied it up!) but if you stay on the train to The Hawthorns then you get to the shuttle bus.
Also, The Hawthorns is served by the Metro service from Wolverhampton. So you could find somewhere along that route to park (I’m not so familiar with the Metro route so can’t point you to big carparks along there, sorry)
Between sessions you can get back into the City Centre where there are live sites and exhibitions etc. Should be good.
Hope that helps.
Please be aware that ASLEF are striking on 30th July. There will be NO WEST MIDS TRAIN SERVICE on that Saturday (Metro will still run as long as they don’t find anymore cracks in the chassis 🙄). At this stage even if ASLEF call it off the industry will struggle to reinstate the service.
@johndoh your situation isn’t so easy to work out.
There are serious numbers of people expected to go the NEC during the Games. The train transfer to city centre (10 mins) is expected to be really busy (big queuing system at Birmingham International) but if it gets out of hand then there’s a load of buses they can get into operation to run shuttle services into the city from there.
There are trains from Birmingham New Street out to Perry Barr (1.2 mile walk to Alexander Stadium - all waymarked) and also a bus shuttle service from Smallbrook Queensway (just outside New Street station) directly to the stadium.
It’s worth taking a look at the train times running from Perry Barr to New Street and New Street to International so make sure you can get back to your car etc.
I’m not sure that I can advise parking at either venue as I don’t really know the details of your specific situation or the parking situation very well. Locations like Bescott/JLR Kingsbury have a Park and Ride service planned (with buses running to various venues from there) so maybe look at that? https://parkthecarhere.com/Events.aspx?CustomerId=45
Feel free to drop me a PM if you think I can help.
Note the caveat about train services on 30th above!
Appreciate the effort you've taken but it's not really answered my question. We will have to drive to a train station anyway. I'm used to going to Hampden for big football matches and even with their parking restrictions I know that I can easily park approx 20mins walk away. Not even sure we can get a train that will get us to the pool by 9am on be a Sunday.
Then there's the problem of getting back to our campsite after the closing ceremony.