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Norwich Bus Station | |
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General information | |
Location | Surrey Street, Norwich, Norfolk, England |
Coordinates | 52°37′27″N1°17′34″E / 52.6243°N 1.2929°E |
Operated by | Konectbus |
Bus stands | 14 |
Bus operators | Megabus, First Eastern Counties, Konectbus, Sanders, Simonds, City Sightseeing Norwich, Norse, National Express and Neaves |
Connections | Norwich (approx. 1 mile) |
History | |
Opened | 2005 |
Norwich Bus Station is situated off Surrey Street and Queen's Road, Norwich, Norfolk, England. It is served by a number of bus operators, such as Konectbus, Norse, First Eastern Counties, National Express, Megabus and City Sightseeing Norwich.
The land between Surrey Street and Bull Lane was acquired in April 1934 by the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company. The huge garage and station were designed by architect H J Starkey and it was opened in 1936 by the Lord Mayor Walter Riley. The garage had the biggest unsupported roof span in the country with no pillars or supports in the 52,000 sq ft of floor space. The garage structure was said to have weighed 220 tonnes and 650,000 bricks and nine miles of electric cable went into its construction. [1]
The Norwich PT Major transportation project, identified the need for a new bus station as the catalyst for the regeneration of an important social and commercial area of Norwich which was previously neglected. Funding was awarded in November 2002, Planning consent granted in December 2003, Demolition and Construction commenced in February 2004, partial opening of the through road for the Park & Ride was achieved April 2005. [2]
The new Bus Station opened on 30 August 2005 at a cost of £5 million and two months later than planned, with its distinctive steel roof it won the 2006 SCALA Civic Building of the Year Award. [3] The roof though has caused problems and in June 2012 the bus station had to be closed for two weeks to allow contractors to replace much of the roof to fix leaks. [4]
On average the bus station sees 7,800 bus movements, 200,000 passengers boarding, and the information centre helps 21,000 people per week.
Most local bus operations in Norwich depart from either Castle Meadow, near Norwich Castle, St. Stephen's Street or from Theatre Street, near Norwich's Theatre Royal, with the bus station reserved for long-distance express services, coach services or Park and Ride services, with a few local services operating out of the terminus.
Most notable routes which operate from the bus station, include First Eastern Counties flagship X1 and excel (Buses display “XL”) services. The X1 runs between Norwich and Lowestoft, via Great Yarmouth and the excel between Norwich and Peterborough, via Dereham and King's Lynn. Since 2013, modern, state of the art, double deck buses have been used on the route, offering passengers free WiFi, leather seats and air conditioning.
Competing with this, is Konectbus 'KonectExpress' service 8, operating between the bus station and Dereham and Toftwood.
First Eastern Counties service X2 also departs for Lowestoft, via the A146 road, calling at Loddon and Beccles.
The travel centre contains a waiting area that can seat up to thirty people, male, female and disabled toilets, plus baby changing facilities as well as a café.
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Buses in Lowestoft in the English county of Suffolk provide public transport in and around the town. Buses were first introduced in the town by Lowestoft Corporation Tramways in 1927 and replaced original tram services by 1931.
Norwich Park and Ride is a park & ride bus service in the English city of Norwich, East Anglia. The first of the park and rides was opened in the early 1990s at Norwich Airport in Hellesdon, while the sixth site was opened in Thickthorn in 2005. With the addition of the final site, the Norwich Park & Ride became the largest park and ride services in the United Kingdom, and provided the scheme with over 5,000 permanent parking spaces – at the time the highest number for a park and ride scheme in the country. The scheme was awarded the British Parking Association Park and Ride award in 2004, and in the 2006/2007 financial year, 3.3 million people used the service, keeping 940,000 cars out of the city centre.
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The Wymondham to Wells Branch was a railway built in stages by the Norfolk Railway, Eastern Counties Railway and Wells and Fakenham Company between 1847 and 1857. The railway ran from Wymondham in the south, through Dereham and Fakenham to the coastal town of Wells-next-the-Sea; more specifically, the line ran from Wymondham South Junction, where it met the present-day Breckland Line. Passenger services along the line lasted until 1969; the railway continued to be used for freight until 1989. The southern section of the railway now forms the Mid-Norfolk Railway, with part of the northern section serving as the narrow gauge Wells and Walsingham Light Railway.
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