Cairnshill Park & Ride now open

tightasaduck's

Or Park & Share as they are now calling it.............no bus organised yet to take car drivers into town. How long have they had to organise a bus? Absolute joke and a possible waste of £10m, if somebody doesn't get the finger out on this. I passed it today and there were four cars in the car park that can hold 730.

Only in Ireland!

:mad:

Honkycat

I always find the windows get steamed up anyway..

Golden_Anemone

A piece on this by NI Direct.

Personally I travel by car from the Downpatrick area every day and can't see myself using this. It's too close to Belfast to be of any real benefit to me and although it's free at the minute will have to be very cheap to to represent better value for money than using my car. For someone who has to pay for parking it may represent a saving.

How much are the other park and ride schemes?

elvis_girl

They're descibing the bus stop as " within a five minute walk" but I would say it would be closer to 10! Also theres only a 7a about every 15 mins. Like you say only in Ireland!

Smart_commuter

Unfortunately the previous comments are out of date and misleading.

The facts are that parking at Cairnshill Park and Ride is free.
The bus fare to Belfast is between £1.05 [40 multi journey ticket] up to £1.70 cash fare single
The journey takes from 18 -25 minutes to Bedford Street 30-45 mins by car, a distance of 4.2 miles
The bus departs from the dedicated terminal building every 15 minutes.

So rather than knock it, why not try it. 150 motorists per day so far and nearly an equal number of drop offs or walk ins can't all be wrong.

Sitting in traffic bumper to bumper is a no brainer when you have a facility like this and fuel prices are escalating. You can also Park and share for free club together with some colleagues or friends.

D.A.

They were only out of date and misleading due to the fact that, at the time the car park was opened, the DRD hadn't got around to appointing someone to run a dedicated bus service from it.

Golden_Anemone

I have used the park and ride since I posted last August and at certain times of the morning it does mean a time saving for me but only when I'm running late and don't get to Cairnshill until 8ish or later. If I'm on time to be in town before 8 as I usually am then there is no time saving and an additional cost.

Smart_commuter

I would like to get a couple of things straight. I had no intention of causing offence or to patronise anyone. Apologies for any misunderstanding This is a money saving forum and I thought the information needed updated because I think it not only offers good value but a realistic alternative mode [for me] to the private car, especially if you have to pay for your car parking. Perhaps if you don't then there is a fine line between the cost of fuel and the cost of the bus ticket.

D.A.

No worries, no need to apologise.

Smart_commuter

Based on 4.2 mile trip from Cairnshill Park and Ride to Bedford Street at 30mpg [urban] and at £1.41 per litre my fuel costs would be 90p

It is £1.05 by bus [40 journey ticket] and don't then have to find somewhere to park and to pay for it.

If you add in servicing costs, depreciation etc this must be a bargain especially if you travel alone.