Founded | November 1988 |
---|---|
Service area | Preston |
Service type | Bus services |
Destinations | Preston & Walton-le-Dale |
Fleet | Optare Solo SR |
Operator | Preston Bus & Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire |
Website | Information for both routes at Lancashire County Council |
Preston park and ride is a park-and-ride scheme in the city of Preston in Lancashire, England, operated by both Rotala subsidiary Preston Bus and Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire.
The park and ride system consists of two car parks at Portway (off the A59 road) and one at Walton-le-Dale, connected by bus routes to the city centre; the Portway route also serves Preston railway station. The services do not run on Sundays, and a reduced service operates on bank holidays. The car parks are free, with users paying for the bus journey.
Before 4 March 2013, the Portway and Walton-le-Dale sites were served by separate routes:
The park and ride service was introduced in November 1988, operated by Ribble Motor Services, and after acquisition by the Stagecoach Group in May 1989, its successor Stagecoach Ribble.[ citation needed ] In September 1991, Preston Bus took over operation of the service. [1] [2] It originally consisted of one site, at Portway in the Riversway Docklands area. The second, at Capitol Way in Walton-le-Dale, was opened on 1 December 2002.
In June 2009, a third site was opened at Bluebell Way in Fulwood. Served by the "Orbit" routes 88A and 88C rather than having its own dedicated service, it was unpopular due to higher fares and infrequent bus service and was closed in January 2011. [3] [4] In February 2013, it was announced that the two park and ride routes would be combined from 4 March, to create a route (Route 1) through the city centre. [5]
The through route was affected by congestion along Fishergate, when the street was being made into a shared space, and in May 2016, the routes were separated again to improve reliability. Most journeys from the site on Portway (which became Route 2) were replaced by a diversion of Route 89. [6]
In July 2019, Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire were awarded the service PR1, Jacson Street to Walton-le-Dale Park & Ride and return. [7] This route is currently active with Stagecoach, retaining the Lancashire County Council route branding and has formally replaced the PrestonBus operation of this route.
In July 2021, PrestonBus merged their service 89 (serving Portway park & ride) and service 16 to Farringdon Park to create a CrossCity service 100.[ citation needed ] This service was given the number 100 to celebrate 100 years of buses in Preston. The year after they had 2 buses commissioned in 2 separate heritage liveries to also celebrate this. [8]
As of July 2019, The Walton-le-Dale Park and ride service (PR1) operated by Stagecoach M&SL is run using Optare Solo SR buses, retaining the Lancashire County Council Park and Ride route branding. The Portway park and ride service (part of 100 CrossCity) operated by Rotala is run using their standard fleet allocation with PrestonBus livery.
In 2011, hybrid Optare Versa buses were introduced on the Walton-le-Dale service, but these were transferred to other services, when the park and ride was run as a through route. Preston Bus was the first operator of Optare Solo SR buses, as eight were acquired for the Park & Ride routes, [9] five of which entered service in May 2008. They have leather seats. [10]
These were replaced by Optare Versa buses on the Walton-le-Dale route but continued to be used on the Portway service, and on both routes since withdrawal of the separate service Portway, due to the layout of the site on Portway. [11] Previously, Ribble used Iveco minibuses;[ citation needed ] vehicles used by Preston Bus have included Dodge minibuses, [2] and Optare's MetroRider, [1] Solo and Versa.
Preston is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston local government district. Preston and its surrounding district obtained city status in 2002, becoming England's 50th city in the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. Preston has a population of 114,300, the City of Preston district 132,000 and the Preston Built-up Area 313,322. The Preston Travel To Work Area, in 2011, had a population of 420,661, compared with 354,000 in the previous census.
Walton-le-Dale is a large village in the borough of South Ribble, in Lancashire, England. It lies on the south bank of the River Ribble, opposite the city of Preston, adjacent to Bamber Bridge. The population of the South Ribble Ward at the 2011 census was 3,792. To the west of Walton-le-Dale is the residential area of Walton Park.
Stagecoach North West was a major operator of bus services in North West England. It was a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, and had its origins in the purchase of Cumberland in 1987 and Ribble Motor Services in 1988 from the National Bus Company. The head office of Stagecoach North West was in Carlisle. Although the cities of Liverpool and Manchester are in the North West of England, Stagecoach Manchester and Stagecoach Merseyside were run as separate divisions.
Preston Bus is a bus operator running in the city of Preston, England, and surrounding areas. It is a subsidiary of Rotala. It gained some notoriety in 2009 when the Competition Commission ordered Stagecoach to sell it.
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Gregson Lane is a village in Lancashire, England. It is situated between Bamber Bridge, Higher Walton, Coupe Green and Brindle, and is within four miles of the city of Preston.
Ribble Motor Services was a large regional bus operator in North West England based in Preston.
Stagecoach in Preston was a network of bus routes running within the city of Preston, Lancashire and into the surrounding area. It was founded in 2009 after Stagecoach Group acquired Preston Bus that was founded in 1904. The company operated from the main depot on Deepdale Road and their other depot on Selbourne Street. In January 2011, the company was sold to Rotala, which now operates the services under the Preston Bus brand.
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Preston is a city in Lancashire, around 50 kilometres (31 mi) north-west of Manchester.
Cumfybus is a bus company based in Southport, Merseyside. Its operations were small scale throughout the 1990s, but it has expanded significantly since its incorporation as a limited company in 2002, and in 2010 had a fleet of nearly 100 buses.
Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire is a major operator of bus services in North West England. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, and has its origins in the purchase of Ribble Motor Services in 1988 from the National Bus Company and Glenvale Transport in 2005. The head office of Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire is in Liverpool and was formed in 2011 following the merger of Stagecoach Merseyside and Ribble Motor Services which was the Chorley and Preston operations of Stagecoach North West.
Wessex Bus was a bus operator in the West of England that operated from June 2007 until September 2018.
The Bristol Park & Ride is a park & ride system operated by Bristol City Council in Bristol, South West England.
The Mellor Strata is a minibus body manufactured by Mellor Coachcraft since 2016 on Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis. It is available as the Mellor Strata HF 16, a step-entrance version aimed at the access bus market, so named for its maximum seated passenger capacity of sixteen; or as the Mellor Strata LF, a low-floor variant targeting the service bus market, with a capacity of up to 21 seated passengers.
Route 280 is a bus route in England that operates between Preston and Skipton.
Public transport in the Fylde is available for three modes of transport—bus, rail and tram—assisting residents of and visitors to the Fylde, a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England, without their own vehicle, to travel around much of the area's 64 square miles (170 km2).
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