Park and Ride Doing Well.

PARK AND RIDE HAILED A SUCCESS
11:00 - 15 August 2005
Brixham's new park and ride service has been declared a success by Torbay Council. It was set up towards the end of July to help ease pressure on parking and traffic congestion in the area.During its first week in operation 128 cars with 350 passengers took advantage of the facility.In the second week, the figures increased to 249 cars with 702 passengers.Cllr Chris Lomas, executive member for community, said: "We are very pleased with the figures for the first fortnight."We were confident the service would prove a success and the statistics have confirmed this."There was initially some concern when we launched the service because a group of travellers had moved on to the land we had leased at Churston."Thankfully, they and their vehicles occupied an adjoining field and their presence did not affect the operation of the park and ride."The service being run by Stagecoach with its number 12 buses will continue to operate throughout the peak summer period until Sunday September 4 and we hope many more people will make use of it."


So far I have had little trouble with this set up. People are getting on in Brixham and telling us they want the Park and Ride and apart from one driver who got bogged down in the mud on the first day it seems to have gone well. It could do with a slightly bigger turning circle for the buses if the scheme is to be extended or used again next summer.
There was one man who got on in Brixham and wanted a ticket to the Park & Ride which we can't do. His reason was that it only cost £1.00 return to Park & Ride but £1.85 return to Churston. When I explained that the ticket machine would not issue a ticket from Brixham to P & R he called me a Job's Worth. I suggested he try the next bus which he did. With the same sort of luck he got from me.