Swindon’s bus companies showed they were just the ticket at the weekend when they carried almost half of all BBC Radio One’s Big Weekend festival-goers to and from Lydiard Park.
Over the two days a total of 40,000 people were due to make their way to the site, and with Swindon Borough Council’s traffic management plan prohibiting car parking in the vicinity Thamesdown Transport and Stagecoach were asked to run a free Park & Ride shuttle service.
On Saturday 9th May almost 10,000 people used the buses to the site and more than 10,600 used them to come back. The better weather on Sunday meant that the passenger numbers fell slightly as more people walked or cycled to the event, but at the busiest point in the evenings, five double-deckers were being loaded simultaneously, carrying a total of around 400 people in one go.
Two free bus services ran to Lydiard Park. One went from the bus station in central Swindon and the second from the Wroughton Park & Ride site.
The shuttle buses used a specially-reserved terminus in Whitehill Way, about three quarters of a mile from the festival site, and each evening a long line of double-deckers stood ready at Whitehill Way to convey the festival-goers home.
Paul Jenkins, Thamesdown Transport’s MD, said: “The services ran without a hitch and the passengers were really pleased. Of course a tremendous amount of preparation goes into running such an operation and I would like to pay tribute to the team effort put in by our staff and colleagues from Stagecoach and Kinch’s. It just goes to show the valuable role that public transport has to play in the traffic management plans for major events such as this.”
