New A38 park and ride plan for Plymouth
Plans for a new park and ride service to serve Plymouth and the new town of Sherford remain on track. The scheme is part of the refreshed Plymouth Bus Service Improvement Plan which is under scrutiny this week.
The plan aims to deliver bus services that 'people need, can be proud of and enjoy using'. The vision is to create a thriving bus network with services that are frequent, reliable, fast, affordable, safe and clean, which will also help Plymouth to achieve its net zero goals by 2030.
As part of that plan, an expansion to the existing park and ride provision serving Plymouth is in the cards. In addition to the existing sites at Coypool, The George, and Milehouse, a fourth site, to the south of the A38 and west of Deep Lane junction, is planned.
Outline planning permission for the scheme was granted in 2013 as part of the Sherford new community. This site will initially have 500 spaces, increasing to 1000 spaces later during the development, with the initial phase due to be complete ahead of 1,100 occupations
In relation to park and ride, the Bus Improvement Plan says: “Whilst the level of service currently provided meets demand, given the planned expansion of the George Park and Ride site, and our longer term proposal to expand the Coypool Park and Ride site, as set out in our delivery plan, we want to improve our park and ride offer to a seven day week operation at a 10 minute frequency so that passengers know they can just turn up and go.
“Alongside this, we also want to extend the opening hours of the terminal building at the George Park and Ride site to ensure that the facilities on offer are available to everyone at all times when these services are operating. To help deliver this ambition we will be establishing a park and ride task force.
“A further P&R site, to the south of the A38[1] and west of Deep Lane junction, was granted outline planning permission in 2013 as part of the Sherford new community. This site will initially have 500 spaces, increasing to 1000 spaces later during the development, with the initial phase due to complete ahead of 1,100 occupations.”
The proposed creation of the public transport hub in and around Sherford would help to unblock roads around the eastern corridor and serve commuters living in Plympton[2], Chaddlewood and new town Sherford, offering them an alternative way to get to work that doesn't cause gridlock.
The outline plan for the Deep Lane Park and Ride site added: “The potential for a Park and Ride site at Deep Lane on the A38 has been identified as a core requirement in association with the Sherford development. No constraint has been placed on the capacity at Deep Lane within the modelling exercises, with the forecasting being used to determine the likely demand for the site.
“This resulted in approximately 320 vehicles using the service in the AM peak period. This would lead to a recommended capacity of 1000 to accommodate all day demand excluding demand for locations other than the city centre.
“The site would have access from the A38 at Deep Lane for both westbound and eastbound traffic, with a new access road constructed as part of the Sherford development process. The Park and Ride site would also be promoted as a public transport interchange, and should be discouraged as a Park and Ride service and the eastern Corridor service can be used from the city centre for residents of Sherford.
“The site will also represent the initial terminus for the high quality public transport service in the eastern corridor, retaining the potential to extend services to Langage. However, the site should not be promoted as a service for employees of Langage,when more conventional bus services already exist to this site.”
It continued: “The BRT service assessed within this study operated at a frequency of 12 buses an hour, with a return journey time of 50 minutes. This would require a bus fleet of 11 vehicles.
“The proposed route would include the following bus stops and interchanges within Sherford: � Sherford north; � Sherford Central; and � Sherford south (secondary school). These sites tie in with the proposed neighbourhood centres within Sherford, following the most recently available Masterplan.”