A park and ride scheme is due to start in Brighton next month, Brighton and Hove City Council said today (Friday 25 July).
The scheme has been set up in partnership with Sussex University to cater with extra visitors to Brighton during the busy summer holidays.
The council said: “The new service will operate on four weekend dates in August and the whole of the August bank holiday weekend to move people in and out of the city during the busy summer period.
“Using car park space for at least 500 vehicles at the University of Sussex campus in Falmer, dedicated park and ride buses will take people into the city centre and back again for £7 per vehicle, including all its passengers.
“The new Park and Ride will run every 15 minutes from 9am to 9pm on the following dates:
- Sunday 3 August
- Sunday 10 August
- Sunday 17 August
- Bank Holiday weekend of Saturday 23 August, Sunday 24 August and Monday 25 August
- Saturday 30 August
“Payment will be via the PaybyPhone app, phone number or website.
“It will take people between the University of Sussex campus in Falmer directly to Marlborough Place in central Brighton.”
Labour councillor Trevor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport and city infrastructure, said: “Introducing a new park and ride scheme was one of the top priorities for this council and I’m delighted we’re going to have this service for the summer holidays.
“Summer weekends are a busy time in Brighton and Hove. The new park and ride will give people travelling into the city an easy and affordable option to park up and take dedicated buses into the city centre, hassle-free.
“The new scheme will also give us the chance to monitor, learn and improve, with a view to developing a permanent park and ride after the summer.
“I’d like to thank the University of Sussex for helping us to deliver this. Partnership working is the key to us being able to unlock the city’s potential.
“Park and ride has been a vital component of our city-wide strategy to give our residents and visitors affordable and sustainable travel options and I’m excited to say we’ll be delivering on our promise very soon.”
Sussex University vice-chancellor Sasha Roseneil said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Brighton and Hove City Council to provide both residents and visitors with an easy hassle-free connection straight to the colourful and vibrant heart of our city.”
Professor Roseneil added: “Our campus is just a short bus ride away and we hope that starting the new park and ride scheme this summer will ease congestion in the city and offer a more sustainable travel option for exploring all that the city has to offer.”
Just sounds like a desperate attempt by the council to hoodwink residents into believing they have “delivered” a park and ride when all they’ve actually done is use an existing car park on a temporary basis.
Until the council (and government!) properly invests in public transport the city will remain congested and a nightmare to navigate. Their lack of ambition is depressing.
What’s wrong with using an existing car park that would othersise be empty?
Not everything requires new infrastructure at great cost.
Yes it would be better if it ran daily during August rather than just on Sundays and the BH weekend but it’s start.
But there is investment in public transport with grants made to B&H buses to buy new electric buses for example.
But any attempt to imtroduce things like red routes and bus gates to speed up bus trips is met by an avalanche of ‘but my car!’ criticism.
It’s a good first step in delivering a full park and ride service.
Very good news and at £7 will be cheaper than paying to park in a city centre car park for a few hours.
However, to incentivise greater use and to turbo charge the drive to clean up Brighton’s bad air quality which is causing so much harm to people’s health, I would recommend that the park and ride scheme is fully subsidised so that there is no charge to use it. When people discover they do not have to drive all the way into Brighton and can park their car for free, many more people will be attracted not only to visit Brighton and spend their money here but also to use the park and ride option and leave their cars outside the city centre.
Someone with a good business brain could, I’m sure, persuade private companies to pay to have their business advertised on the side of the buses and that could be done at a level that would enable the park and ride to be free to users.
An additional factor to throw in the mix is that this facility will be hopeless on Albion home match days and the season starts in under a month’s time.
There’s no way they will be running a park and ride from Falmer if the Seagulls are playing at home on a Saturday afternoon.
I wonder if the so-called big brains behind this initiative have considered that spanner in the works.
Perhaps you should have used your big-brain and checked the Albion fixtures and crossed checked them against the Park and Ride dates before commenting …
Ironically this undercuts the existing Park & Ride at Withdrawn that now costs £3.00 to park and then another £5.50 for a CitySaver. Since they started to charge for parking the place is near empty. Who introduced the charges, Labour or the Green administration?
I think I meant Withdean but the predictive text thought it knew better.
The two services aren’t comparable.
This new service is a dedicated P&R with no intermediate stops.
The current service relies on the 27 service with all the intermediate stops and other people using the bus.
This is only a summer thing – while the Uni campus is empty – but I guess it’s a start.
My question would be how are people supposed to know about it, and that it’s only for the short term? I guess it’s just two months before the students return.
What we actually want, in the longer term, are three park and ride sites – on the outskirts of the city, to the east, north and west of the busier parts – and each with a workable (regular and affordable) bus service.
If subsidy funding is needed, then this would be a good use of the transport’s department huge budget, currently frequently wasted.
Yes, these Park and Ride schemes should be FREE to encourage people to visit the city, spend money and boost the local economy and local businesses.
You’re right to point out that there should be three, one on each side of Brighton. The one on the east side of Brighton should be at Newhaven where there is a lot of industrial land and it should be completely free to be taken into Brighton and back.
Althiugh I’ve got a seniors’ rail card which gives me a third off rail fares I don’t yet qualify for a free bus pass so such a facility would save, even me, money and encourage me and many others to go into Brighton more often which would provide a big boost.
The park and ride to the East, should surely be at the Marina, or at Black Rock?
Although it’s a reasonable price, I still think it needs to be much cheaper, for us, as a family of 4, it’s more about convenance and that’s what the council don’t get. They should put the bus lanes to better use and invest in more regular smaller electric shuttle buses, with few stops. Especially along the coast road, going as far as Shoreham or Lancing and Peacehaven or Newhaven.
As a visitor to Brighton for two days in November, I found the roads chaotic with many road closures. I just hope I don’t find a penalty notice when I return home. I would have preferred to use a secure park and ride to use.
My home city of Canterbury has three park and rides available and has made a huge difference. The buses are frequent and free, you just pay £4 for parking. I can’t imagine why Brighton hasn’t adopted something similar. I don’t think I can return to your beautiful city unless there are alternatives to the current bedlam.