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The Public Transport Thread

As said several times, there used to be a more frequent service, but it was underused outside peak times, and uneconomic overall.
Universal will not make them change a thing...why would they?
Other public transport facilities would be nice, but nobody wants to fund them, and Merlin certainly won't when the car parks are rarely full, and a complete cash cow.
 
If they could do the stretch of canal from somewhere beyond Alton Station down to Crumpwood Weir that would be pretty cool. Not for transport, just for pleasure and aesthetics. Might be a bit pointless without connecting it to the rest of the existing canal network first though.
 
Lots of canal trust work is done in bits though, hoping to join them up...including that canal bridge over the M6 toll at Lichworth...got the bridge, just need the canal back...
I will turn up with my big spade if you do Mr Zola.
Just to discuss your barefoot runner fetish.
 
BarryZola said:
If they could do the stretch of canal from somewhere beyond Alton Station down to Crumpwood Weir that would be pretty cool. Not for transport, just for pleasure and aesthetics. Might be a bit pointless without connecting it to the rest of the existing canal network first though.
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That’s their plan.

Alton to Denstone | Caldon & Uttoxeter Canals Trust

www.cuct.org.uk www.cuct.org.uk

A lot of the old canal infrastructure is still in place down that way, even up the railway track towards oakamoor and in oakamoor itself you can see remnants of it.

If you sit in the Cricketers beer garden for example you can see the old bricked up canal tunnel
 
rob666 said:
As said several times, there used to be a more frequent service, but it was underused outside peak times, and uneconomic overall.
Universal will not make them change a thing...why would they?
Other public transport facilities would be nice, but nobody wants to fund them, and Merlin certainly won't when the car parks are rarely full, and a complete cash cow.
Click to expand...
the problem was that as far as I can tell it was rarely advertised, and when speaking to people without cars a lot of them want to come to AT but can't because of how much of a pain it is to get there, their options are essentially pay out the nose for a taxi, or don't go.

also people don't like driving down country roads, I know a few people who have only ever driven down city style roads and never even gone on the motorway for them going to the centre of the country in a car is a very scary idea.

if it was advertised, with price discounts (most people going would be on a sunday, an often very quiet time for trains) I would look to see if deals could be made with train fares, it could be made easier as the train companies get renationalised (e.g 2 for 1 train tickets going to AT, etc)

Universal may change things because you will have a very good park close to a lot of AT market (such as Bham) currently AT are missing out completely on the public transport guests, when universal opens you will have a lot of themepark fans visiting, most won't have cars, that market of public transport guests will grow much larger (especially if the people want to visit more of the UK, they could take a trip up to manchester, etc.

I said AT would need it Sooner rather than later, as their market gets eaten into by uni, they could have the opportunity to expand their market, attracting more guests, they could sit back and continue to collect car parking but as guest numbers drop as more people go to uni.
 
It’d just be easier to trial coaches from Milton Keynes/Bedford itself wouldn’t it really. It’s not difficult to get to Alton Towers from those locations as it’s straight up the M1 to East Midlands Airport then along the A50 to Towers
 
flyingguitar said:
... people without cars a lot of them want to come to AT but can't because of how much of a pain it is to get there, their options are essentially pay out the nose for a taxi, or don't go...
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Or, again, they go on coach trips in the school holidays, as day trippers, or on overnight coach packages...like a couple of hundred thousand others.
Including me.
Giving up on this one now, I can only go on repeat so many times since the skyride refurbishment...
 
rob666 said:
Lots of canal trust work is done in bits though, hoping to join them up...including that canal bridge over the M6 toll at Lichworth...got the bridge, just need the canal back...
I will turn up with my big spade if you do Mr Zola.
Just to discuss your barefoot runner fetish.
Click to expand...

Lichfield...😉
 
Blackrock said:
It’d just be easier to trial coaches from Milton Keynes/Bedford itself wouldn’t it really. It’s not difficult to get to Alton Towers from those locations as it’s straight up the M1 to East Midlands Airport then along the A50 to Towers
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It already exists, every other Sunday in the summer can get the coach from London, via Milton Keynes and Bedford. £52 for an adult including park admission.
 
Ten years ago it was nearly possible. You could take a trip along the Caldon canal to Froghall and then get the 14 or 15 bus to the park (only one of them though, I don't remember which). The problem with this idea was that I foolishly asked the driver when the last bus was and he told me the time of the one that DIDN'T go near Froghall. Turns out that whilst Froghall is technically walkable from the park, you don't really want to do it after a full day.
 
rob666 said:
Yeah, they moved the whole bridge from Lichworth on the back of a big lorry didn't they?
(Help if the bloody place existed...but I knew there was the weird bridge though...somewhere.
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Oh yes, apologies they did, I had a blonde moment there.

Squiggs said:
Have we reached the stage of suggesting canal excursions to Alton Towers yet?

If so, I'm in!
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We can get a lock system built by voulenteers, not to dissimilar to the photo below. The perfect solution to tackle the hill next to the back of the park. It should only take a day or two to traverse. Lovely.

1000007926.jpg
 
On a more vaguely on topic note (apologies).

I did public transport to the Towers a couple of weeks back when I did the House and Garden Tours.

It all works pretty smoothly so long as you can get to Uttoxeter station by 9:15 (or Stafford/Stoke by 8:30, I guess). The X41 potters through the countryside and deposits you at the park entrance about ten minutes before park opening.

So long as everything is running on time it's pretty straightforward. And given it was a pretty lazy Wednesday when I did it, the bus was full.

The main issue is the lack of choice, one bus there, one bus back pretty much. It definitely felt like at least a second time option should be economically viable, and would encourage additional usage.
 
John said:
Ten years ago it was nearly possible. You could take a trip along the Caldon canal to Froghall and then get the 14 or 15 bus to the park (only one of them though, I don't remember which). The problem with this idea was that I foolishly asked the driver when the last bus was and he told me the time of the one that DIDN'T go near Froghall. Turns out that whilst Froghall is technically walkable from the park, you don't really want to do it after a full day.
Click to expand...
Especially if you haven't got a decent map or smartphone with you and end up angering local farmers and ending up on the wrong side of the Churnet Valley Railway...
 
Squiggs said:
On a more vaguely on topic note (apologies).

I did public transport to the Towers a couple of weeks back when I did the House and Garden Tours.

It all works pretty smoothly so long as you can get to Uttoxeter station by 9:15 (or Stafford/Stoke by 8:30, I guess). The X41 potters through the countryside and deposits you at the park entrance about ten minutes before park opening.

So long as everything is running on time it's pretty straightforward. And given it was a pretty lazy Wednesday when I did it, the bus was full.

The main issue is the lack of choice, one bus there, one bus back pretty much. It definitely felt like at least a second time option should be economically viable, and would encourage additional usage.
Click to expand...
That is something I completely agree on, a second or a few more time options.

I would also add a Sunday and Bank Holiday service and dynamic return times depending on park closing time is also crucial for such a service.

A once a day service isn't good enough for Alton Towers and isn't reachable by people from the South on time.

I'm not meaning to complain but what we have isn't acceptable at all for today's day and age with climate and how big Alton Towers is.
 
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