Boots, Boats, Buses and Trains
A Tale of Two Parks
We hear a lot about integrated public transport these days. In Britain, much of this is aspirational rather than on-the-ground creational. The Foundation for Integrated Transport describes it as a human right and it is also – obviously, I hope – a big player in climate change issues, safety and improvements to local and national environments. It also requires political commitment, bigger budgets and, probably the hardest measure of all, a break-up of our love affair with the car.
Fossicking about on line, it is obvious that the big players, such as the World Economic Forum (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/12/top-10-cities-with-best-public-transport/) seem to concentrate on city transport, suggesting that the best examples are mostly in Europe: Zurich, Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo, Paris, Berlin and London take seven out of the top 10 places in the Forum’s world ranking. Other rankings mention places like Copenhagen and Edinburgh, but you get the basic idea.
Integrated rural transport, however, needs a wholly different approach (crudely, rural transport involves bigger areas and smaller populations). My research may be inadequate, but it seems that, despite a nod to Germany for some interesting new schemes, Switzerland gets most of the accolades.
So what brought on this polemic? A trip to the Lake District – the Switzerland of England!
Travel to the North Lakes by train, with a friend who knows how to read a bus timetable, and you are in for a pleasant surprise. There is a regular bus from Penrith station to the centre of Keswick (right), a town situated deep in the Lake District National Park and a gentle stroll from Derwent Water.
The bus leaves Penrith about 50 minutes after the London train arrives, but this inconvenience may just be a cunning ruse to ensure increased use of Penrith cafes for a refreshing cuppa or lunch, or to allow time for you to claim your delay repay from Avanti, when the train runs late. If you are coming from Glasgow, the connection is in the order of a mere 20 minutes, allowing less wriggle room. But, as there are also long distance buses to Keswick from Newcastle and Carlisle, this competition may suggest that it is higher priority to connect with train services from the north, than from the south.
As it happened, our London train was on time but our lunch was so enjoyable that we missed the first bus and had time for coffee before catching the bus an hour later.
Once in Keswick, there are buses to a number of locations, including Borrowdale and Buttermere, Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere and Thirlmere. Some are double-deckers and provide stunning views but even the single deck buses give you a far better prospect than you would get from a car. Apart from scenery, these buses also provide access to lowland and upland walks, to stately and humble homes and gardens, to excellent cafes and, of course, to the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop. It was delightful to be car-free.
Below: the stately Grade II* (both house and garden) Rydal Hall (left) and formal garden (right) designed by Thomas Mawson
Above: the ‘humble’ Grade I listed Dove Cottage (the Wordworths’ Grasmere home); the cottage and garden (left) and the modern museum building (right).
To be honest, access to Scafell Pike (England’s highest peak) is tricky by public transport, so no chance of ticking off this one on our recent trip. But, of course, Switzerland solves this access issue with the Tramway du Mont Blanc (not to the actual top)!
Cars and uplands are a tricky mix. Issues of parking and summer traffic jams can ruin any mountain experience. The Lake District was one of the first areas to tackle the problem, in the 1970s, when traffic made the Langdales virtually impassable, with serious consequences for emergency vehicle access. In Snowdonia, now known as Eryri, and Wales’ oldest National Park, this problem became headline news during the Covid epidemic, when cars were towed away from narrow roads and tracks to ensure emergency vehicles could get through.
In the Lake District, and in Snowdonia, a new form of public transport was established to enable visitors to leave their cars in car parks or even at home. In the Lake District, the Mountain Goat bus service commenced in 1972, using 12 seater minibuses which could ‘access all areas’. It was not without controversy, however, but the Goat service grew rapidly, as did the number of visitors with cars and the potential market. Locals also added to the problem, with increased car ownership among residents, but also benefitted from the expanding route network.
Today Mountain Goat company run a sizeable tourism operation, and Terroir suspects that they have even given up their public service bus routes to Stagecoach, who currently run the other Lake District routes. Accessibility is also improved by the current English flat fare of £2 a trip or, for the more mature, the use of an English bus pass.
Boats are also a facet of Lake District transport thanks to the 16 large lakes which complement the mountains in the scenery department. Only one - Bassenthwaite – is actually called a lake, but I suppose that naming the area the ‘Water District’ might not have the same cachet as the ‘Lake District’. One of our expeditions involved a boat trip partway down Derwent Water, a pleasant hike to a handy bus stop and a very long wait for the Buttermere bus. No doubt if we had downloaded the App, we would have realised that the late running was due to a closed road, but a return trip through Seatoller, past the Honister Slate Mine (which, of course Terroir found fascinating) and down to Buttermere (the lake not the village) was well worth the effort.
Above left: the bus stop shows a slightly dated ‘flag’, maybe from a time when homing sparrows were used to carry bus timetable updates (© G Harding), but (right) the Derwent Water launch, is bang up to date.
Although made famous during Covid, the Snowdonia/Eryri car problem was developing around the same time as that in the Lake District. Snowdonia’s answer to the Moutain Goat was the Sherpa’r Wyddfa, a delightful mix of Nepalese and Welsh, which translates as the Snowdon person from the east, although I’m happy to settle for the Snowdon Sherpa. As with the Lake District, the service started in the 1970s and provided a network of routes which complemented a more traditional bus service.
The problems were basically the same and the two parks are very similar, not necessarily in terms of landscape, but in size and popularity. The Lake District is just 186 sq km bigger than Snowdonia, but Snowdon itself, at 1,085 m, caps Scafell Pyke by just over 100 m. But in Wales, things are done differently. Transport for Wales was established in 2016 to ‘change the way Wales travels’, with a specific remit to encourage both active and sustainable travel. There is a chance that integrated transport may actually mean something here, with a mix of Sherpa’r Wyddfa, TrawsCymru bus services and funding available for improvements.
And, although boats don’t feature much in the Snowdonia transport mix, one should not forget the importance of big and little trains in the Welsh landscape. ‘Big trains’ (images below) serve the National Park well, via the North Wales Coast Line (Crewe to Holyhead), the Conwy Valley Line, which runs through the park to Blaenau Ffestiniog, and the Cambrian Line (Shrewsbury to Pwllheli). Snowdon itself, of course, has its very own mountain railway and the heritage and ‘little’ trains of the Welsh Highland Line (right) and Ffestiniog Railway, compete more than adequately with the Lake District’s monopoly on boats and large water bodies.
I would suggest, however that if Eryri/Snowdonia has the edge on integrated and sustainable transport, the award for best cake and cafes must go to the Lake District.
All Welsh images © TerroirNorth/T Thompson/R Thompson