"Rupert Candy" wrote in message
oups.com...

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. (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.

Of all the Park & Ride systems i've used (Oxford, Canterbury,
Maidstone), I much prefer the Canterbury system. Paying before or
after the bus journey is easier and you don't have to worry about
paying the driver... .although interestingly the canterbury Park &
Ride buses do now accept normal paying passengers, costing 2 pounds
for the ability to travel on any of the citiy's 3 P&R services all
day.


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!


That depends on the car park you use. For instance, Thornhill (on the
A40 into Oxford from London), and, I think Water Eaton, car parks are
free, and its just the others that charge.
Also, for Oxford, some of the operating hours on some of the services
has been cut back recently, so although they go beyond "shopping
hours" its not by much.
For instance, the Thornhill site has its last Oxford bound service at
8pm and the last bus to the site is at 8pm, after that passengers can
return to the site on certain specified "Oxford espress" coaches that
operate through on the way to London. In fact, of Oxford;s 5 sites,
the "pear tree" site is the only one with a reasonable evening service
in both directions. Water Eaton finishes at 7, and the other two
finish the same time as Thornhill and then require you to catch a
local bus to get back to the site later on (but again, no city bound
buses listed).