Buses serving Norton Parkway

[DD12]

I had overlooked the possibility, which has been suggested by willr7, that some 45's could get extended to the Parkway.
I had only considered it only as a "destination" along the route of existing Worcester - Pershore - Evesham services.

As it's a parkway station, is it not intended mainly for car owners ?

Despite the ongoing unwillingness of the county council to subsidise bus services, does anyone think they might subsidise some extra ones that will serve the new parkway ??

(Partly to make it "look good" for a year or two, perhaps ?)

Will the businesses involved in building and promoting the parkway offer a subsidy for some extra buses ?

I would like to hear from forum members regarding what they think about this ....

[bringstybeast]

The main purpose of the Parkway is parking for London bound travellers. For people without cars they will find the existing Worcester/Pershore stations more accessible. So there isn’t going to be much benefit from a bus service (that’s not to say council won’t fund as part of it’s vanity project).

If the aim was to provide north-south connectivity with the cross country trains, things might be a bit different - but stopping those trains breaks the timetable, and they’re already too full hence won’t be stopping.

[MattW]

Completely agree. The whole thing is a massive white elephant.
I recently looked at going to Gunnislake, Cornwall on the train to pick up a car. To get a journey time under five hours, I would had to have had a lift to Cheltenham or Gloucester stations, no point trying to start from Malvern. Then the XC trains all seem to get to Plymouth just after the Gunnislake train has left, so then 50 minutes wait for the next.

If I drive a car down with a mate and get him to drive one back, we could virtually do the round trip in that time.

[TimBrown]

Agree with all the comments, and seem to have read in the local press a few years back that Worcestershire County Council were hoping to recover the infrastructure building costs from revenue generated by the car park. It currently costs £6-50 to park at Shrub Hill all day so I would anticipate a similar or slightly higher daily fee. as the X50 bus service is little more than 9 to 5 these days I doubt whether the County Council would subsidise buses to meet the 6 am to midnight train service. Anyone who is disabled or infirm in Worcester City is stuffed without a car!

[DD12]

Thanks for your comments gents !

[DD12]

https://www.firstgroup.com/uploads/upda ... X50-TT.pdf

https://www.firstgroup.com/uploads/upda ... X50-TT.pdf

Well here's the revised T-T !!

[Charliedaffin]

maybe, they will consider branding two of our new double deckers for the x50 to increase capacity

[MattW]

I assume that means they will actually enter the site, as the nearest stop otherwise is Woodbury Lane, about 300 yards over the railway bridge with no pavement.

[Adam V]

There are 2 bus stop shelters within the station grounds and a electronic bus departure display board (not much to display on that though!)

[willr7]

I don't know if anyone else was aware of this (I have only just found out myself) that as of Today the X50 runs on Sunday's! And oddly the Sunday TT runs until much later than the Monday-Saturday TT!
It runs hourly between Worcester & Pershore - via Parkway of course!) It does not continue to Evesham so this means only 1 bus is required. BusTimes.org currently shows 66692 in operation.

I only just saw this information on the First Website! And I'm sure it has not been on there for long!
https://www.firstgroup.com/worcestershi ... -monday-24

So it looks like this has been very poorly advertised & It is not even on the main timetable's page! I can only guess that the Sunday Timetable was a last-minute decision with support from the council...