Every route 100. 25 of 26.

Saturday 7th December 2024

As this fortnightly series moves ever closer towards its terminus today’s penultimate route 100 to be featured is Cheltenham’s Park and Ride operation.

And if that sounds familiar, you’ve got good recall as I half featured the route back in June while on my 7-day All Line Rail Rover and stopped off in the Gloucestershire Spa Town to check out construction progress on the new Arle Court Transport Hub located on its western edge.

At that time work was nearing completion and Matthew Parker, Transport Operations Manager at Gloucestershire County Council kindly commented on the blog that the Hub was expected to open at the end of July (which it did) and a new Park and Ride contract would commence in November, so I made a note to make a return visit that month (which I did last Friday) and see what £33 million buys when constructing an edge of town Transport Hub with 860 car parking spaces over four levels that’s also a terminus for a Park and Ride service numbered 100.

Stagecoach retained the contract for route 100 which was running every 20 minutes when I had a ride up and down the route last week, but the good news is the frequency increased to every 15 minutes from Monday making for a more convenient arrangement for motorists parking in the car park, although it’s still only every 20 minutes on Saturdays and no service on Sundays.

The route picks up and sets down in a convenient central point in Cheltenham at a bus stop with shelter on the town centre’s popular shopping street known as The Promenade…

… and then it’s a 12 minute journey time with just two stops via the A40 to the terminus at Arle Court.

And that’s about it in terms of the route. There’s not much more I can add. It runs from 07:15 from Arle Court (08:05 on Saturdays) to 19:05 from the town centre. When I travelled in June, in the early afternoon, there were half a dozen other passengers on board in both directions but this time there was just one outbound and one inbound over lunch time…

… although I did see a journey depart with 12 on board.

There’s a rather complicated payment and ticket system at the car park which involves motorists entering their registration into a machine in the car park and obtaining a ticket with a QR code….

… which is then scanned by a tablet screen positioned in the front section of the bus which qualifies the car owner for free parking. This QR code can be reused on future visits without needing to obtain another one each time.

There are notices explaining the arrangements in the car park but it left me somewhat confused.

One of the two members of staff at the Information desk (wrongly) told me the bus is free to use by motorists parking in the Transport Hub. But the leaflet I picked up in the waiting area…

… had details of fares of £3.50 return (or £6 for two adults).

I’d arrived with no car and a concessionary bus pass and had to pay £1 for a return ride. It all seemed very confusing. Once I got home I looked online and found an explanation…

…and a link to a YouTube explanatory video which is out of date – referencing the bus service as numbered 93 rather than 100 and not showing the new Transport Hub. And just to add more confusion, the leaflet refers to the old 20 minute frequency rather than the new 15 minute one.

That aside, the Transport Hub is quite something to behold. As explained when I wrote about it in June, the architects have gone all “award winning” in designing the car park’s exterior while inside there’s a nice waiting area…

… with seats, an information desk, plenty of room to circulate…

… electronic departure screens…

… leaflets racks…

… including printed bus timetables…

… a diagram showing the layout of the Hub…

… toilets, refreshment machines…

… and café incorporated into the building.

Not surprisingly the café has yet to find a tenant, as I wrote in June, I can’t see it becoming a viable proposition, and I was amazed to see the information desk was manned by two members of staff although it looked as though they may have been multi tasking by also answering telephone enquiries.

I asked one of the staff members how it was going and whether the car park was being well used only to be told in no uncertain terms it was a Transport Hub and they mustn’t refer to it as a car park but explained the ground floor and much of the first floor were being well used but not so much on the third and fourth floors yet.

Work was continuing on the adjacent former site of the Park and Ride car park which Matthew explained back in June will be available for 24 hour parking (there was a planning condition restricting opening times of the Hub) as well as long stay coach parking and “kiss and drop off”.

In addition to the four buses an hour on route 100, also calling in at the Hub are buses on Pulhams’ half hourly route 99 between Cheltenham and Gloucester (serving hospitals in both towns), which is subsidised by the NHS to encourage staff to use it.

Matthew also explained the aim was to get some of the many express coaches which pass by on the M5 to use the Hub and National Express will begin diverting some journeys to use the Hub from next Thursday including, it was reported by one commentator on social media, one numbered 100. Just to confuse things.

The five drive on, reverse off bays in the bus station area are a bit of an overkill for the current number of bus departures – just eight an hour on the 99 and 100 so there’s obviously been significant future proofing for expansion built into the design.

Boarding or alighting is through self closing gates at each stand and there are picnic tables and chairs dotted around the surrounding area…

… to make for a very pleasant outdoor relaxed waiting area.

Aside from use by express coaches another reason the Council are keen on the Transport Hub branding is there are also cycle stands and lockers…

… but I’m not sure how cyclists are being encouraged to use it. Is it to cycle from surrounding towns and villages and then leave the bike at the Hub to continue into the town centre by bus (but I’d have thought most would continue cycling into the town) or is it aimed at cycling from the town centre and then take the 99 to Gloucester?

Either way no one was using the facility after the first four months as all the stands were empty.

As I explained in June the £33 million cost of the Transport Hub has come from the last Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund as it’s linked to significant house building planned for the western side of Cheltenham and the Council itself has put money into the project.

The design is certainly eye catching and the ambiances created in the surrounding public realm very welcoming. Here’s hoping it gets the use to justify its construction and £33 million price tag.

Roger French

Did you catch the other twenty-three ‘Every route 100’ blogs so far? Here’s 1 of 26 (Stevenage-Hitchin) 2 of 26 (Crawley-Redhill), 3 of 26 (Lincoln-Scunthorpe), 4 of 26 (Glasgow-Riverside Museum), 5 of 26 (Campbeltown local), 6 of 26 (Guildford’s Onslow Park & Ride), 7 of 26 (Warrington-Manchester), 8 of 26 Chatham-St Mary’s Island, 9 of 26 St Paul’s-Wapping, 10 of 26 Syston-Melton Mowbray, 11 of 26 Wellington-Telford Sutton Hill, 12 of 26 Hanley-Stone, 13 of 26 Burgess Hill-Horsham, 14 of 26 Aylesbury-Milton Keynes, 15 Pontypridd-Royal Glamorgan Hospital, 16 Barry circular, 17 Farringdon Park-Larches (Preston), 18 Hastings Conquest Hospital-New Romney, 19 Morecambe-Lancaster University, 20 Wakefield-Eastmoor, 21 Clydebank Parkhall-Linnvale, 22 Airlink Edinburgh Airport-Edinburgh Waverley, 23 Basildon-Lakeside, 24 Blackbird Leys-John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.

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