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The Public Transport Thread

I probably won't use the Sheffield bus tbh. When I go to Towers I want to get there as quickly as possible to maximize the amount of time I have in the park, so I'd rather not sit on a slow bus for 90 mins or so when I can get someone to drive there in just over an hour. :p
Plus you then have a strict time limit as the buses tend to depart before ride close.
 
Is it easy to get a taxi from The Star campsite to Towers and vice versa? Thinking of getting a caravan soon and wouldn’t mind a trip. However we would like a few bevvies in the park.
 
Done a few campsites around the Towers, they all have a local firm number for fair prices.
Lower Micklin Farm site is quiet and basic, and that one is walking distance to the very nice Alton pub crawl.
Can't remember it well, if you know what I mean.
 
Ethan said:
No no that bus is still running I was saying I use that one normally so if x52 isn't back by the time of my visit it won't be a problem
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Trent Barton stopped running that bus to close to Alton because their sister company nottsderby runs the x52.
However when the x41 d&g bus ran I used the swift then changed onto that.
 
Thameslink Rail said:
The timetable won't open for me, can anyone else open it?
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The timetable for the x71 has now been confirmed.



The X32 from Stoke and the X41 from Stafford/Uttoxeter also start running again from 12th April.

Timetable links:

X32
https://www.dgbus.co.uk/assets/32x_2021-04-12.pdf

X41
https://www.dgbus.co.uk/assets/x41_2021-04-12.pdf

And finally, the X52 from Nottingham/Derby runs Mon-Fri from 12th April
https://www.nottsderby.co.uk/app/download/33550179/X52.pdf
 
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AT86 said:
The timetable for the x71 has now been confirmed.

Click to expand...

Whilst this will be useful, I think they should run the bus going to Alton Towers half an hour earlier to maximise time available in the park, they might also gain from looking at the Alton Towers opening times and adjusting their timetable accordingly. If the park closed at 4pm then passengers have an 80 minute wait for their bus.
Edit: just saw the plans for the Stoke and Stafford buses, now this is good news (although again the Stafford bus is a bit late into the park)
Would it be worth adding this to the Towers Street travel guide?
 
I'm just looking at how these buses could be used if a tourist wants to go to Alton Towers from London.
The Stoke bus doesn't go near the station so probably isn't useful
The Stafford bus leaves three minutes after the Avanti London train arrives (if you take the previous Avanti train then you have a 63 min wait at Stafford)
The Derby bus is probably the most useful as you could catch the 8:02 from St Pancras and have 25 minutes at Derby (annoyingly this means that you arrive at Alton Towers at 11am).
 
I guess if Merlin didn't also own the SW London parks then Alton Towers would probably consider links to London more. Shame though as Alton Towers has a far higher capacity (if run right) and better Trip Advisor reviews than the other Merlin parks.
 
Although it's good to see some bus links - let's not beat about the bush.

The services are dreadful: poorly timed, overpriced and infrequent.

Embarrassing actually.

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AstroDan said:
Although it's good to see some bus links - let's not beat about the bush.

The services are dreadful: poorly timed, overpriced and infrequent.

Embarrassing actually.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk
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Even when the park had their own operation the timing issues existed. The problem there is that bus services have to run to a regular timetable, published quite far in advance, and it's very difficult to align that timetable to park openings - even if such alignment was possible you have to fit the service in with a regular rota.

The better alternative would be to have some sort of regular shuttle, but all the places you could shuttle to are way too far to be economically viable.
 
It doesn't help that the rail service through Uttoxeter is dreadful too with limited connections. There was, at one point, 4 or 5 daily buses to Stafford station from ATR at a variety of times - and slightly more buses to Stoke station. These services were, crucially, operated by Alton Towers Transport - which was largely cut-back post 2015. Fares were around £5 return.

The resort are now wholly reliant on the goodwill of local operators to get guests to the park.

The D&G service to Alton Towers from Stafford station is £12.00 return. £10.00 return from Uttoxeter station. A return from Hanley is £9.00 - less overpriced but still high. Largely Ridiculous prices for public transport when guests have already paid for the train and their park ticket AND given the fixed timings of the buses. For these prices D&G should commit to operating a service that departs Alton Towers at ride close + 30 minutes (with exception to Scarefest/Fireworks, as fair enough that would be too late to make train connections).
 
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Me again, your public transport correspondent.

In addition to the above bus between Buxton and Alton Towers, there is actually a connection from Manchester Airport via Stockport that forms this new service. Meaning that there will be a bus from Manchester Airport via Stockport and Buxton to the park on Sundays and Bank Holidays starting this weekend.

https://www.highpeakbuses.com/news/x99-alton-towers/
 
AT86 said:
Me again, your public transport correspondent.

In addition to the above bus between Buxton and Alton Towers, there is actually a connection from Manchester Airport via Stockport that forms this new service. Meaning that there will be a bus from Manchester Airport via Stockport and Buxton to the park on Sundays and Bank Holidays starting this weekend.

https://www.highpeakbuses.com/news/x99-alton-towers/
Click to expand...
Is Manchester airport some sort of local transport hub like Heathrow acts like? Else seems a bit odd
 
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