Park_and_Ride_bus_in_Magdalen_Street,_Norwich_-_geograph

Norwich Park and Ride is a

park & ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (rap ...

bus service in the English city of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

, East Anglia. The first of the park and rides was opened in the early 1990s at

Norwich Airport Norwich Airport is an international airport in Hellesdon, Norfolk, England, north of Norwich. In 2017, Norwich Airport was the 28th busiest airport in the UK and busiest in the East Anglia region. Norwich Airport has a CAA Public Use Aero ...

Hellesdon Hellesdon is a village and suburb of Norwich in the District of Broadland in Norfolk, England. It lies approximately north-west of Norwich city centre and has a population of 11,132, according to the 2011 Census. Norwich International Airport is ...

, while the sixth (and currently final) site was opened in Thickthorn in 2005. With the addition of the final site, the Norwich Park & Ride became the largest park and ride services in the United Kingdom, and provided the scheme with over 5,000 permanent car parks – at the time the highest number for a park and ride scheme in the country. The scheme was awarded the British Parking Association Park and Ride award in 2004, and in the 2006/2007 financial year, 3.3 million people used the service, keeping 940,000 cars out of the city centre.

Thickthorn Park & Ride

Thickthorn Park & Ride is located near Thickthorn services in

Hethersett Hethersett is a large village and electoral ward in the county of Norfolk, England, about south-west of Norwich. It covers an area of and had a population of 5,441 in 2,321 households at the 2001 census, increasing to 5,691 at the 2011 cen ...

(NR9 3AU). The site first opened in 2005, making it the newest

Park & Ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (rap ...

site in

. It has 726 car parking spaces and is the only site to open 7 days a week.

Harford Park & Ride

Harford Park & Ride is located on Ipswich Road, Norwich (NR4 6DY), and is accessed via an exit off the Harford Interchange where the

A140 The A140 is an 'A-class' road in Norfolk and Suffolk, East Anglia, England partly following the route of the Roman Pye Road. It runs from the A14 near Needham Market to the A149 south of Cromer. It is of primary status for the entirety of ...

meets the A47. The site has 1088 car parking spaces, including electric vehicle charging points, cycle parking and

recycle Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

facilities. A car boot sale is held at the site on a Sunday, when no services are in operation. In 2015,

First Eastern Counties First Eastern Counties is a bus operator providing services in Norfolk and Suffolk in eastern England. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. It has seven depots which are part of five operating areas spread out across East Anglia. The five operatin ...

began to operate service 600 which travelled between the site and Norfolk County Hall on weekday mornings and evenings. This service was taken over by Konectbus when the new park and ride contract began in September 2015.

Airport Park & Ride

Airport Park & Ride is located on Buck Courtney Crescent, next to the entrance to

. The site has 620 spaces and is open Monday to Saturday. The site also has facilities for recycling and electric vehicle charging.

Costessey Park & Ride

Costessey Park & Ride is located next to the Royal Norfolk Showground in Costessey, Norwich. It has 1,100 spaces and is open Monday to Friday. From September 2015, it became the only site which has no service to the City Centre at all. Services instead run from the site to the

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) is a large National Health Service academic teaching hospital in the Norwich Research Park on the western outskirts of Norwich, England. The university hospital replaced the former, Norfolk and ...

and The

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

only.

Postwick Park & Ride

Postwick site is located on Yarmouth Road at the junction with the

A47 road The A47 is a major road in England linking Birmingham to Lowestoft, Suffolk. Most of the section between Birmingham and Nuneaton is now classified as the B4114. From Peterborough eastwards, it is a trunk road (sections west of the A1 road ha ...

NR13 5NP. It's open Monday to Saturday. It has 552 car parking spaces (Services currently suspended as site is currently being used as a drive through COVID testing site)

Sprowston Park & Ride

Sprowston site is located on Wroxham Road. It opens Monday-Saturday and has 792 spaces. A boot sale takes place there on Sundays.

2005-2010 contract

Between 2005-2010 the sites were managed and operated by three companies: *

operated the Harford Park & Ride with blue livery

Dennis Trident 2 The Dennis Trident 2 is a 2-axle low-floor double-decker bus chassis originally manufactured by Dennis, which was unveiled in 1997 and replaced the Dennis Arrow. It was built by TransBus after Dennis was incorporated into the group in 2001, t ...

double deckers and Sprowston with purple

Wright Eclipse Urban The Wright Eclipse is a low-floor single-deck bus body that was built by Wrightbus between 1999 and 2019. The second-generation Eclipse 2 was launched in 2008, followed by the third-generation Eclipse 3 in 2015. The Eclipse, and its sister desig ...

single deckers * Konectbus operated the Thickthorn Park & Ride with pink liveried

Wright Eclipse Gemini The Wright Eclipse Gemini is a Low-floor bus, low-floor double-decker bus body that was built by Wrightbus since 2001, based on the single-deck Wright Eclipse design. The second-generation Eclipse Gemini 2 was launched in 2009, followed by the ...

bodied double deckers and Costessey with green

Optare Tempo The Optare Tempo is an integral low-floor, full-size rigid single-deck bus manufactured by Optare and was launched in late 2004. It is marketed and sold as the replacement for the Optare Excel. It is designed as a lightweight bus, to use less ...

single deckers *Norse operated the Airport Park & Ride with yellow Irisbus Agora Line single deckers and Postwick with red Irisbus Agora Line single deckers

2010-2015 contract

From 2010 until September 2015, the Harford, Thickthorn and Costessey sites are operated by Konectbus, and Sprowston, Postwick and Airport by Norse. Konectbus purchased a fleet of Alexander Dennis Enviro400 double deckers painted in a blue livery to operate the Harford contract. Pink livery

double deckers operate the Thickthorn service, while ex

London General London General is a bus company operating in Greater London. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group and operates services under contract to Transport for London. The company is named after the London General Omnibus Company, the principal ...

articulated

Mercedes-Benz Citaro The Mercedes-Benz Citaro is a single-decker, rigid or articulated bus manufactured by Mercedes-Benz/ EvoBus. Introduced in 1997, the Citaro is available in a range of configurations, and is in widespread use throughout Europe and parts of Asia ...

buses run between the Costessey site, the

and the city centre. Norse operated a fleet of

Plaxton President The Plaxton President was a low floor double-decker bus body built at Northern Counties plant in Wigan, England and branded as a Plaxton product for its main production run. It was first unveiled in 1997 on the longitudinal Volvo B7L chas ...

bodied double deckers to operate all their services, with Airport having a light blue livery and Postwick and Sprowston sites being merged, operating via the city centre and Norfolk County Hall.

2015 contract

On 7 September 2015, Konectbus commenced a contract to operate all six park & ride service for a five-year period. A fleet of 18 Alexander Dennis Enviro400s painted in a new green livery were purchased.

Current Routes

*Service 5 **Postwick Park & Ride **City Centre **County Hall *Service 501 **Thickthorn Park & Ride **City Centre **Airport Park & Ride *Service 502 **Harford Park & Ride **City Centre **Sprowston Park & Ride *Service 510 **Costessey Park & Ride ** N&N Hospital *Service 511 **Costessey Park & Ride **

UEA UEA may stand for: Universities * University of East Africa, established in June 1963 and split, in 1970, into: ** Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda ** University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania ** University of Nairobi in Kenya * University of ...

Proposed development

Expansion of Postwick site

It is proposed to add 500 places to the Postwick site as part of the Postwick Hub development which is associated with the Norwich Northern Distributor Road development.

Incidents

In May 2011, a Norse double decker operating on the Postwick park and ride service, caught fire on the A47. The bus was completely destroyed by flames after suffering an engine failure. Passengers were evacuated by the driver after stopping the vehicle on a roundabout, before the Broadland Business Park. Nobody was injured. Bus operator Norse, found the rest of the fleet to be in good working order In January 2013, passengers on board an Airport Park and Ride bus operated by Norse were evacuated while at the Airport Park and Ride site after the double decker bus caught fire. According to witnesses, black smoke was seen billowing from a vent above the drivers seat. Fire crews had extinguished the blaze within ten minutes and the bus remained in a decent condition.

References

External links

Norfolk County Council
{Dead link, date=May 2019 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
Flickr gallery
Bus transport brands Park and ride schemes in the United Kingdom Transport in Norfolk Transport in Norwich