In message .com, at
00:24:44 on Thu, 6 Jul 2006, Rupert Candy
remarked:

Roland Perry wrote:

iirc, the Cambridge P&R runs on the basis that the car parking is
provided by the council (and not charged for), and the bus company keeps
all the fares. York's scheme felt much the same. Nottingham is slanted
more towards paying per car, to park, and getting a free bus ride
(although you pay the "parking" fee to the bus driver).

and the latter, IMHO, is much more sensible since the cost doesn't rise
based on the number of passengers in your car.

From the driver's point of view, yes. But if the "deal" is that the
Council does the subsidising by building and maintaining the car park
(without cost to the bus company), and the bus company keeps the fares;
an input cost to the bus company is the number of passengers, not the
number of cars. Interestingly, the Nottingham buses are run by the City
Transport company.

(In Canterbury, for example, parking costs L2, paid at the site, and
you and your passengers ride for free - making it better value if you
are a large group. In Cambridge, Maidstone and many others, you park
for free and each of you pays around L1.50,

£2 now in Cambridge.

making it quite an expensive medium stay cost for a group of 4.)

York was also £2 a person (return). In both of these kids are free.

Oxford, meanwhile, seems to combine both systems, making you pay a
token fee (50p last time I was there) for parking *and* a bus fare. But
I think it's otherwise the best example on the country - the buses
don't stop at the end of shopping hours!

The closing time has always been a bone of contention at Cambridge. They
did try opening later, but it's back to 8pm now. York claimed to run
till midnight. Nottingham only manages 7pm
--
Roland Perry