The National Trust and its attitude to transport and modal shift

[py_megapixel]

Mod Note: Posts #1 - #2 originally in this thread.

In a way, it's a real shame because it the Park and Ride could have been so much more - but it always seems to be under-utilised. They also tried to use it for shuttle buses for Lyme Park but alas that never seemed to take off, which was sad given how much congestion Lyme Park has on a nice day.

I was just going to is a nightmare for the volumes of traffic it attracts. I think the reason the park and ride shuttle never took off is because parking in the grounds remained free for National Trust members, who are probably a significant proportion of the visitors, and so they saw no reason to switch. A better solution would have been to introduce parking charges but make the bus free to NT members instead. Unfortunately the shuttle bus eventually fell victim to Covid, and the post-Covid NT seem uninterested in this sort of idea, instead preferring the idea of digging up a huge area of grassland to replace it with more parking spaces - a proposal which thankfully was withdrawn in the face of significant public opposition.

I also think the bus service could have been more viable if it ran somewhere beyond just the P&R, most obviously Stockport. That might actually attract more visitors to the park, who wouldn't ordinarily find it feasible to visit on the grounds of not having a car. Chatsworth House in Derbyshire has a reasonable bus service from Sheffield, Bakewell, Chesterfield and Matlock for example.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I was just going to is a nightmare for the volumes of traffic it attracts. I think the reason the park and ride shuttle never took off is because parking in the grounds remained free for National Trust members, who are probably a significant proportion of the visitors, and so they saw no reason to switch. A better solution would have been to introduce parking charges but make the bus free to NT members instead.

I can't see that working because free parking is core to the NT offer. Some people even are members simply for the parking - I am, I use the car parks for going walking rather than visiting the stately homes, and parking a few miles away isn't an acceptable substitute.

 

[py_megapixel]

I can't see that working because free parking is core to the NT offer. Some people even are members simply for the parking - I am, I use the car parks for going walking rather than visiting the stately homes, and parking a few miles away isn't an acceptable substitute.

I know it is, but if the NT is serious about encouraging people not to visit its sites by car - which I think it should be - then that will have to change.

There are plenty of very rural car parks that just happen to be on NT land, where I don't think offering free parking is a huge issue in principle. But there are also plenty of NT sites that are major attractions where parking capacity is an issue, and not charging for it there is ridiculous.

(If you are going on a rural walk and parking a car, it's presumably a circular one, and I don't see why parking somewhere close to a different point on the circuit shouldn't be an acceptable substitute, but I digress).