Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
It’s not quite that simple, unfortunately.Leek as in the vegetable
On this thread, very simple solution - copy the Thorpe Park Shuttle Bus and implement it for Towers from Stoke for the west and Derby for the east
This would solve the age long debate about Alton Towers public transport links (which is one of many desires for the park along with more flat rides, a splashdown water ride and SW9)
Staines railway station is merely 2-3 miles and less than 10 minutes from Thorpe Park. It also receives 6 trains per hour to and from London Waterloo, a major London terminus, off-peak (more run during peak hours). This makes running a service every 15 minutes quite cost-effective for the park (or the bus operator; I’m not certain on whether the 950 is officially affiliated with Thorpe or not); the London commuter belt nature of Staines station and its frequent services allow quite a lot of people to easily access it by train, and the park is close enough that running a bus every 15 minutes in each direction does not require that many buses.
With Alton Towers, on the other hand; Stoke is ~30 minutes and ~15 miles from Towers, and Derby is ~40 minutes and ~25 miles away. That is no small journey, and would require a number of buses to attain the same sort of bus frequency even from one station, let alone two. Uttoxeter is closer, but even that is ~20 minutes and ~9 miles away, and it has significantly fewer people passing through it, being served by infrequent local services.
It’s just not economically feasible to run a service with any kind of flexibility or service frequency, unfortunately.