Seafront park and ride service set to return for summer
Southsea service "valued" by day-trippers, visitors and locals
The park and ride service to Southsea is due to return this summer under plans being considered by Portsmouth City Council.
A review of three routes brought in last year was carried out over the autumn and found two – service 50, the open top route between The Hard and South Parade Pier and PR3, between the park and ride and the D-Day Story museum – had ‘performed relatively well’.
In December, First Solent revealed it would operate a similar service to the 50 on a commercial basis while the council’s cabinet member for transport, councillor Lynne Stagg, will be asked to allocate £60,000 from reserve funds to continue the other.
The recommendation has been made ahead of her decision-making meeting on Thursday, March 23.
She said: ‘The Portsmouth Park and Ride is really important to our community, and is valued by day-trippers, visitors and locals alike, who all want to avoid driving into the city centre and struggling to find a parking spot.
‘We know the park and ride has huge benefits including reducing congestion and air pollution in the summer.’
The service ran for a total of 40 days last year and carried 7,391 passengers at an average cost per trip to the council of £4.52. Meanwhile, service 50 was used by 5,209 people over the same number of days, but only cost an average of £1.82 per person.
The council said low patronage on the other summer route – the evening operation of the 25 service – would not return having only carried 543 passengers over 63 days at an average cost of £11.02 each.
Tickets for the park and ride service will cost £4 for up to five people and is targeted particularly at summer visitors.
The first bus of the day will start an hour later than last year at 10.35am due to low usage earlier in the day and the final return service will also be moved an hour later to 7.30pm to meet evening demand.
Portsmouth’s park and ride station can be found off junction 1 of the M275, to the east of the motorway. It’s situated on the edge of what will become the new Tipner East development, which was granted planning permission earlier this month.