The Anonymous Widower

92 Clubs – Day 44 – AFC Wimbledon

This was a visit that showed just how good public transport, and buses in particular,  can be.

I thought to get to AFC Wimbledon would have meant a trip by train to Norbiton station, which is just a reasonable walk from the ground according to the club’s website. However the web site also says that it is easy to get to the ground by bus.

You can take the 131 from Wimbledon Station or Kingston Town Centre, which stops right outside the ground.

So I used the 131 bus from Wimbledon.

I started by taking a 21 bus from near my house direct to Monument station, where I got the District line to Wimbledon station. Unluckily, I just missed a direct train, so I had to change at Earl’s Court.  But it was only just a walk across the platform.

At Wimbledon I had a short walk to the stop on Worple Road for the 131 bus, which I’d looked up on the excellent spider map at the station.

The Bus Stop at Wimbledon for the 131 Bus to AFC Wimbledon

The picture shows the stop complete with its text details for bus information. I used this and found that I’d have to wait six minutes for the 131. I think perhaps the information was a minute out.  But I’ll forgive them that!

Kingsmeadow Stadium Where AFC Wimbledon Play

The Kingsmeadow stadium is shared with Kingstonian and rather tucked away, but less than a hundred metres from the bus stop called Kingsmeadow.

Twenty-five minutes later and I was back on the train at Wimbledon. I arrived home in time to watch the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

This trip goes to show how with good public transport and especially buses with proper information systems and maps, it is very easy to take a bus to any location in London.  Other cities and towns in the UK, should follow the lead of Transport for London.

Some may say rightly, that watching football or any sport for that matter, is a minority interest. but imagine how say an 80-year-old would cope visiting their sibling in hospital at the other end of the country, by buses and trains. The trains aren’t the difficult bit, but outside London, buses are generally fairly dreadful and an information-free and map-free zone.

Although to use a football example here, I could dwell on the insanity of moving the original Wimbledon club to Milton Keynes, where the only way to get to the ground in a reasonable time, I had to use a taxi. No wonder the number of fans, who transferred their support can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand.

November 13, 2011 - Posted by AnonW | Sport, Transport/Travel | 92CCBB, Buses, Football, Trains