Plymouth’s visitor coach plans revealed

Visitors arriving by coach will be dropped off and picked up at the bottom of Royal Parade as well as on the Barbican as part of the Council’s plans to improve coach services for the city.

The Council will re-engineer the area around the pavements at Derry’s Cross to provide two dedicated locations for coaches to pick up and drop off passengers. There will also be a shelter built for people to wait in on the rare days it rains in Plymouth.

Cabinet Member for Strategic Transport, Councillor Mark Coker said: “The redevelopment of Bretonside offered us a chance to look at what services are provided for visitors coming by coach and where we could improve them.

“We worked closely with the trade representative body, the Confederation of Passenger Transport, to make sure both passengers and the coach companies are catered for.

“The Barbican has always been a popular drop-off point, but it is fair to say the provision was not particularly user friendly. We also wanted to make sure they can step off into the city centre and straight into the shops. By offering time restricted pick up and drop off locations there will be more of a turnover of coaches.”

The road design at Derry’s Cross will involve creating lay-bys by removing part of the wide pavement, while new road markings will create safe space so that continental coaches, which have passenger doors on the off side, will be able to disembark safely.

An area of land at the junction of Lambhay Hill and Commercial Road on the Barbican will be re-engineered to enable coaches to turn into it from Lambhay Hill to reduce the number of coaches driving along the narrow Southside Street.

This area will also be monitored for the first time so that coach companies are limited to dropping and picking up passengers rather than staying there all day.

Coach parking and driver facilities will be offered on a commercial basis by Citybus and Stagecoach at their depots at Milehouse and The Ride.

The new stops and a new long distance coach hub operated by National Express on Mayflower Street are being installed ahead of Bretonside coach station closing in the summer to enable a huge transformation of the site into a £42 million leisure complex.

John Burch South West Regional Manager of the Confederation of Passenger Transport said: “I have been impressed with the consultative approach and keenness of Plymouth to get the right result."

Chief Executive of Destination Plymouth Amanda Lumley added:  “Plymouth receives many visitors who come by coach, especially tours from places such as Germany and there is a real opportunity to grow this market by providing better drop off and lay over facilities close to key tourist attractions and amenities including shopping and restaurants.

“We are delighted that the Council is continuing to support growth of the visitor economy in the city by leading on significant infrastructure projects and have been working closely together on this over the past year.”