How on earth can anyone think about limiting the time that
someone can park for or request them to park further from their destination,
when there is NO public transport in the area.
I spent over an hour stood in pouring rain, thankfully with a little
wind, waiting for one of these busses that are supposed to run between the
Pen-y-Gwrd hotel and Capel Curig, after a few days out on the Moelwyns, only
to find the the first timetabled bus did not arrive, the next possible bus
did not even enter the bus stop area. As a result when a bus finally did
arrive I and my partner where stamping feet and rubbing hands just to keep
warm. That was on a late spring day (4/6/2003). When in Gwynedd CC and the
SNPA going to get their butts into the 21st century and realise that they
already get taxpayers money to provide services for both the locals and
tourists, and that in order to get more money from tourists they need to
provide services that those tourists will use, not by potentially trying to
kill those tourists!
- Sort out the car abandonment at Ogwen Cottage by
moving the walls and
pavement around, so that the cars cannot be parked on the pavement on either
side of the bend, otherwise there is more than enough parking there! Fine
the owners that do park dangerously at that location.
- Sort out the non-existent bus and train services!
- Offer a guided bus service as a means of decreasing some of the cars
touring the region.
- Change the appearance of some of the outlying towns, so that people want
to stop in them.
This trip I had to change my plans twice, once because I could not get
public transport from my home to Chester railway station, and a second time
because I was informed that I could not park a car safely in Blaeneau
Ffestiniog for more that 24hrs, and that if I had to complete my route
before 5pm if I wanted to use public transport! Daylight is 4:30am to
9:30pm, public transport 7:30am to 7:30pm and that is just about winter
walking times!
To make public transport usable it needs to be accessible
and available,
and unfortunately with the best will in the world that just in not going to
happen, as no company is going to operate a route just in case one person
wants to use it, they are only going to operate routes that a profitable!
If the local busses only operate at peak times to a village with a
population about that of most of the towns in the area of the national park
and only 4 miles from the city centre, how are you going to get a service to
operate usefully with no real passenger numbers?