£1.6m investment as NCT takes over Queens Drive P&R

Queens Drive Park & Ride

Nottingham City Transport invests £1.6m in New Buses as it takes over Queens Drive Park and Ride Service

Queens Drive Park and Ride site will be served by Nottingham City Transport’s Navy 49 service from 23 June 2019, with its existing diesel buses on the route replaced by a £1.6m investment in brand new biogas buses.

The environmentally friendly fleet of biogas buses, which meet the latest Euro VI emissions standards, will provide a 15 minute Monday to Saturday daytime service between Queens Drive Park & Ride, Nottingham Station and the city centre.

In the city centre, customers will benefit from more convenient stops, with buses returning to the ‘City Loop’ and new stops added on Fletcher Gate (for Lace Market), George Street (for Victoria Centre), Elite and Angel Row (for Old Market Square), as well as existing stops at Broadmarsh.

Nottingham City Transport will operate the Park & Ride service by diverting its existing Navy 49 bus into the Park & Ride site. The 49 will continue to serve businesses on the Boots site, Thane Road, Electric Avenue and Queens Drive, and the park and ride element will replace the Nottingham City Council funded Centrelink service, which will be withdrawn.

NCT will be operating the 49 Park and Ride service on a purely commercial basis, which reduces costs for the City Council, which is making changes to its tendered Linkbus network due to budgetary pressures.

Queens Drive P&R route

David Astill, NCT Commercial and Operations Director said, “We are excited to be introducing brand new bio-gas buses onto this popular park & ride service and are confident they will be well received by customers. As Nottingham’s principal public transport provider we are pleased to reinstate our range of discounted city-wide ticketing options for Queens Drive Park & Ride customers. We have a special role as the city’s municipal bus company, and are proud to have devised a solution in partnership with the City Council that enables our shareholder in these difficult times, to save the considerable subsidy that was necessary to sustain the contracted service provided to date. It is a win-win scenario for the people of Nottingham.”

The Park and Ride car fare – which covers up to six people – will remain at £4.

With Navy 49 being an NCT bus service, the full range of NCT day tickets, Easyrider and mobile tickets will now be accepted, enabling commuters to travel for £58 per month (compared to £76 currently), with the bonus of being able to use every other NCT bus in the city too.

Robin Hood Pay as You Go and Season tickets will continue to be accepted and holders of older persons and disabled concessionary cards will be able to travel from the Park & Ride site again too.

A Nottingham City Council spokesperson said: “We’re looking forward to seeing even more cleaner biogas buses replacing diesels on our roads as NCT take over the running of this popular route, freeing up our electric Centrelink buses for use elsewhere. They will be replaced by NCT buses that are already passing the park and ride site. This will have dual benefits in improving air quality along the route and saving the council money at a time when significant budget savings are required”.

“We’re confident passengers will enjoy the same quality of service with NCT, and pleased our long term investment in park and ride has paid off in creating a valued service that can be operated on a commercial basis.”

Businesses along Queens Drive, the Castle Marina and Riverside Retail Parks will benefit from an enhanced Saturday service as a result of the new Park & Ride facility, with buses every 15 minutes instead of the small number of buses currently operated around shift times. Saturday buses to/from the Boots Site are also retimed, following requests from Boots.

For more information on fares and timetables visit NCT’s website.