Prior to moving West Ham promised that the London Stadium would be one of the best-connected stadia in Europe In their FAQ section before the move the official website WHUFC.com said:
“One of the core benefits of the move is that the venue is one of the most well-connected in Europe, so there will be all manner of simple ways to travel on public transport to the ground on a matchday. It is already served by the second best-connected station in London and nine lines across London’s Overground and tube network, with Crossrail set to be added by 2017. This was one of the Stadium’s key attractions to the Club, as it will ensure easy access – within minutes in many cases – from our core catchment areas throughout Essex and east London.”
While the connected part may technically be true, the lines are often closed for engineering works, maintenance or suffer from overcrowding.
This weekend will be no exception. The closest station to the stadium, Pudding Mill Lane DLR used by thousands of West Ham supporters will be closed for the second weekend running. A number of overground routes are also closed or will suffer congestion causing long and nightmare journeys for fans.
When Pudding Mill Lane is open, the platform is often closed for periods of time post-match due to the overcrowding and the same happens at Hackney Wick DLR station.
Meanwhile, Tfl has admitted that Stratford Underground Station needs to be upgraded and expanded to cope with the huge number of customers, particularly on West Ham match days.
OT, and one possibly for Shaun.
Just seen on KUMB a post indicating that SuGo pocketed almost £12.5mill between them in 2016 on loans to the club totalling £49.2mill.
If this is accurate, they’re getting approx. 12.5% interest each on their investment.
Quite a bit more than the 7% I’ve seen quoted.
Any truth in these figures Shaun?
It is complicated
DS has made shareholder loans but also loaned money as a bank of last resort.
Gold and DS have loaned £49m in shareholder loans which accrue interest of 6-7%. Last year £4.2m was paid back. I don’t know how much DS got of that but let’s assume 50/50.
The rest will be paid back in January 2020
DS also loaned money to the club as a bank when the bank loans were refinanced. They were fully paid off in 2016 when we moved. They also had interest of 7%.
From memory that was about £6m as a bank loan plus interest.
I don’t know where the £12.5m claim comes from?
Many thanks Shaun.
I think I misunderstood the interest payments on the £49.2mill unsecured loans from SuGo.
To the untrained eye (ie mine), I assumed the £12.5mill interest paid was to year-end 2016 only, and not accumulated from previous years, hence the 12.5% query.
Once again, many thanks.
Sorry, this place is far worse than Upton Park ever was; at least you had options there, unlike Stratford and it’s Stop-Go boards, et al.
More to the point – Rads – I keep getting adverts for static caravans! Would prefer your broccoli!
Oh boy, some people can’t help themselves from moaning can they. It’s hardly the club or the board’s fault that there are engineering works going on at any time. As opposed to Upton Park where it was the District Line and nothing else (unless you wanted to get stuck in a traffic jam and try to park on heavily restricted local roads) the London Stadium is served by DLR, London Underground, mainline trains, direct service to Kent and if you want to, even the Westfield Car parks – so yes, I think Gold was right in terms of connections. We now have 57,000 coming to matches so any common sense says that’s a lot of people and there will be queues and a need for patience. We walk back to Stratford Intl after the game to get the DLR to West Ham and then c2c home – easy, albeit yes sometimes its annoying to wait while the previous platform load clears but better that than someone falls on the line due to overcrowding. c2c put on extra trains specifically for the football. Getting off at Stratford off the Jubilee before the game its busy – what else do you expect with a shopping centre and a game on – yet we get there, walk through the centre, out onto The Street and to the ground past John Lewis and Jamie Oliver now that they’ve had the sense to reopen that route – easy. And a good wide walkway to turnstile H, no having to walk along the khazi that was East Ham High Street or dear old Green Street. Now there are some moaning that they have to be searched and cant get in on time from having that essential extra pint till 30 mins before kick off – answer, leave earlier idiots. I’d rather a proper search than a repeat of the horrors of Stade de France or Manchester Arena, though sadly if the scum ware out to bomb then no-one can give a 100% guarantee of safety, you still have to try. So please, let’s stop all this negativity – if you want to walk straight in go and watch the Daggers instead, if not accept that we have a brand new ground for almost nothing and that it really is the way forward.
haha love your post!
Stand by for incoming
Am I missing something here but the part of the article about Hackney Wick and Pudding Lane is crap! I’ve never queued at either station but I don’t have a need to go into Stratford. I can imagine what it’s like listening to others. An hour door to door for me and I used to queue for an hour at Upton Park sometimes.
It does make me laugh the fans that stay on past Pudding Mill to get off at Stratford. I don’t have the heart to tell them.
Secondly, Pudding Mill Lane is OPEN this Saturday and closed Sunday. Get your facts right!
More travel advice – you can even get off at Bow Church. 20 min walk…..