Newcastle United fans may soon have the opportunity to forego those troublesome, time consuming stairs outside St. James’ Park if a plan for adult sized slides, called “travel accelerators”, is implemented.

NE1, a company charged with improving various areas of Newcastle city centre, has submitted a bid to construct two large slides alongside long stairs outside the stadium to help alleviate crowd congestion after matches.

NE1 have been working with the police and The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (another real thing, we promise) to ensure the slides are safe for users.

A similar scheme has already been undertaken in the Dutch city of Utrecht (see photos above) where the slide is used by commuters entering Overvecht railway station.

Adrian Waddell, NE1's Director of Operations, told Capital FM:
"The slides are intended to inject some fun into the city centre and take their inspiration from Holland where slides have been installed in a busy railway station to speed up access to train platforms and to inject new life into an area.

NE1's slides, like the rest of our pocket parks, are designed to attract attention and get people talking - one of the secrets of good urban design is to encourage people to focus on their surroundings, to take note and sometimes also to challenge the views and perceptions of a particular area - the slides will certainly do that."

Presumably the, somewhat volatile, element of football fans - leaving a ground high on the joys of life thanks to a late winner against Sunderland and fuelled on a belly of lager - coming across a giant, adult sized, state sanctioned slide has been accounted for.

The video below covers the idea behind the slides, and the reaction of the people of Newcastle to the idea.