Quote:
Originally Posted by markpb
Let's be blunt for a minute, this is nothing to do with health and safety. Stations near statia are operate safely elsewhere. Old Trafford (76,000) has a train station and tram station. Real Madrid's stadium (80,000) has a metro stop five minutes walk away. In the case of Manchester, the tram station is ancient and tiny but the staff do a perfectly good job of keeping everyone safe.
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I used live near Old Trafford. The tram station is over 1 km from the ground, beside the cricket ground on the Altrincham line. There's a few pubs on the way to disperse some of the crowd. On a normal day the tram station may be small and unstaffed, but on a match day the usual entrance is closed and special turnstiles are used. There are usually 30 or so armed police dressed in full riot gear to keep the crowd flowing. Other tram stations nearby are closed off. It works reasonably well, never as smooth as Lansdowne Road though in my experience. The arrangement was far from perfect. Was a right pain when a match coincided with my evening commute.
There is also another tram station which is just as close as the Old Trafford station on the Eccles line. I wouldn't usually be over that side of the stadium but anecdotally it wasn't as busy.
To the best of my knowledge the mainline train station is never used. My usual train home used the same line and I never saw any activity there, even on match days.