How to Travel Into Bath City Centre (Without Paying for Parking)
Whether you live or work in Bath, or regularly
travel to the city centre, you’ll know that our beautiful city isn’t the best
for public transport.
With the arrival of the Clean Air Zone, it’s
become a little trickier for travellers (particularly businesses) who need to
get to Bath but aren’t keen on paying inflated parking charges or emission zone
penalties.
Now, we’re clearly going to favour our
innovative, budget-friendly Swoop ride-hailing service, but to give you an
informed view of the options, we’ll cover here all the ways to travel to Bath!
Why Is Bath
Parking and Public Transport So Bad?
There are two big questions here (which we
hope to have answered!), but the reality is that Bath, as great a city as it is
to live in, simply isn’t large enough to warrant a comprehensive public
transport system or any real expansion on the city centre roads.
Even though Bath is the second most visited
city tourist destination nationwide, there are only around 100,000 residents
when the summer has passed.
That’s about a fifth of neighbouring Bristol,
which makes it very hard to attract big-name ride-hailing apps or taxi firms to
the city, with such a lucrative, higher populated cousin right around the
corner!
However, if you need to get to college, uni,
work, or one of our world-famous attractions, there are several options.
Parking in
Bath City Centre
If you look hard enough, you might be lucky to
snag a free parking space, although they’re only available between 8 pm and 8
am (you’ll be very fortunate to find any free daytime parking!).
Visitors and workers can use Broad Street,
Avon Street, Charlotte Street or Manvers Street car parks for free, but that’s
only applicable if you work a night shift.
Street parking is even more unusual, but you
might be able to locate a space on Cleveland Walk (about 0.8 miles from the
centre) or Milton Avenue (0.9 miles) – that’s around a 20-minute walk, so fine
if you have comfy shoes, but not so suitable for many.
The issue with street parking is that it’s
equally only free during unsociable hours – mostly from 7 pm to 8 am or only on
Sundays; not quite so handy if you have a meeting to get to!
Otherwise, you’re stuck with a paid-for space during
the day, and you’ll pay as follows:
Bath Car Park |
Two hours |
Three hours |
Four hours |
Six hours |
Eight hours |
Twelve hours |
Avon Street |
£3.20 |
£4.80 |
£6.40 |
£9.60 |
£12.80 |
£15.00 |
Charlotte
Street |
N/A |
N/A |
£6.40 |
£9.60 |
N/A |
£15.00 |
Broad Street |
£3.20 |
£4.80 |
£6.40 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Manvers
Street |
£3.20 |
£4.80 |
£6.40 |
£9.60 |
£12.80 |
£15.00 |
Spending a day sightseeing gets pretty
expensive if you’re paying £15 or above for parking (plus fuel), and some of
the short-stay car parks don’t permit you to keep your car there for over four
or six hours, so choose wisely!
You can review all the up-to-date parking
charges via the Bath & North East Somerset Council website.
Travelling
to Bath by Train
Our next option is to take the train – almost
certainly your go-to if you are visiting from further afield!
The downside is that you have one choice and
one only – Bath Spa.
Only one railway travels here (Great Western)
although you can travel from London Paddington, Portsmouth Harbour and Cardiff
Central.
There are also tons of connections with
Bristol, so Bath acts as a stop-gap because you can be in Bristol in about ten
minutes, delays and cancellations notwithstanding.
Unfortunately, train travel is only possible
if you’re coming from elsewhere outside the city; there are no intra-city
trains or metros, connection routes or tubes, so it’s impossible to get into
Bath by train without needing an onward solution.
If you’re interested in walking, it’s only
about half a mile into the centre, which takes around ten minutes depending on
the weather and where you’re heading.
Coach Travel
Into Bath
The other potential option is to use the
National Express coach system, with the bus station relatively close to the
train station, but the same limitations apply.
You can take a coach from Bristol, Reading,
Exeter, Plymouth or London Victoria, but it’ll take several hours longer than a
train, and you’ll still need to take a walk or taxi to get to the city centre.
Booking a
Cab Into Bath City Centre
Our most convenient option is to order a taxi,
but there is a huge demand for a small number of cab companies (you won’t find
the likes of Uber or Lyft in such a small city!).
The Fare Car service is a great choice for
budget-conscious travellers.
Still, it is massively limited, with bookings
required by a cut-off and only one route and drop-off and pick-up point, which
makes it suitable only for people who happen to live or work in the immediate
vicinity and along the route.
Over the last two years, a shortage of
experienced local drivers, closure of cab firms and ever-inflating prices have
made it difficult to take a taxi in Bath.
If you’re a regular visitor, you’ll be
familiar with the lengthy taxi rank queues that don’t bode well if you’re on a
time limit!
Swoop – the
New Bath Ride-Hailing System
We live in Bath and love everything about our
historic, laid-back city – but the transport situation needed something fresh!
Welcome Swoop Bath Taxi Services, a forward-thinking taxi app that works just
like those super-convenient services you’ll find elsewhere but specific to Bath
and the local Somerset area.
Why is Swoop better than another taxi company
in bath also public transport option?
·
You get a
verified, vetted driver, door to door.
·
Book your cab
line – no phone calls or queues to speak of.
·
Convenient
payments; pay with a card, PayPal or Apple Pay as suits you best.
Although Bath has long been a brilliant
destination, it’s also been a nightmare for travellers, and we’re proud to have
developed a solution suited to the needs of our small but mighty city.
Next time you’re comparing train fares,
scouting around for a pricey parking space or deciding whether to take the long
walk from the bus station, why not Swoop instead – we’re confident it’ll be the
best option going.
Original Source: - https://swoop.co.uk/how-to-travel-into-bath-city-centre-without-paying-for-parking/
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