A wide range of travel options and offers are available to people visiting Nottingham over the festive season.
As Nottingham is poised to switch on its Christmas lights and open the Winter Wonderland on Friday (November 20), the City Council is promoting its public transport and car park offers to festive shoppers, while also scaling back roadworks to make it as easy as possible for visitors to get in and out of the city.
Everybody likes a bargain – so why not use the Park & Ride services (C1 Queens Drive and C2 Racecourse) for just £3 per car? The C1 runs every 10 minutes into town, Monday to Saturday inclusive and the C2 every 15 minutes, Monday to Saturday. The last buses back from town run to both sites at 7.10pm.
From December 14 public transport users will also be able to use the new pay as you go travel ticket. This smartcard will make sure that customers always get the best deal for their daily travel and will be available to use on the tram and the major bus services including trentbarton and Nottingham City Transport. If you would like to be one of the first to get your hands on the new smart ticket, pre-loaded with £10 for travel, just share a photo and a few words with us to tell what you like about Nottingham’s transport on social media, using #toptransport so that we can find you.
And the extended tram system makes a further 2,300 Park & Ride spaces available at Clifton and Toton, on top of the 4,500 bus and tram Park & Ride spaces motorists can already use around the city.
Both NET and Nottingham City Transport are offering great group travel prices. Groups of two adults and up to three children can travel together for £5 return on the tram, with the offer extended to run from 4pm on weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday. And if you’re attending a ticketed Christmas event, such as panto at Nottingham Playhouse or the Theatre Royal, why not take advantage of the special £2 return event ticket offer?
Nottingham City Transport will allow groups of two adults and up to three children to travel together for £4.50 return on their buses, with the offer extended to run from 4pm on weekdays and all day during the Christmas holidays (not Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day).
Drivers can benefit from special festive car parking offers, too. Nottingham City Council on-street parking in zones 1, 2 and 3 will be just 50p from 4pm to 8pm and free after 8pm, Wednesday through to Saturday. Drivers need to use the RingGo app and the code 18906 to redeem this offer. Meanwhile at car parks, you can park at Broadmarsh after 5pm, Monday to Sunday, and stay until 10am the next day for just £3. At the Lace Market car park, parking between 3pm and 5pm from Monday to Sunday and pay £5 for 5 hours parking. These offers end on Boxing Day.
From November 25 to December 23 intu have a free parking offer at the intu Victoria Centre car park and at NCP Mount Street car park you can park on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for £3.80 when you enter between 11am and 2pm and leave before midnight.
The City Council will be helping to keep traffic moving, as from November 23 to January 11 programmed road works by the City Council and other agencies will be managed to keep the impact of works as low as possible. So on the run up to Christmas and in to the New Year, whether festive shopping, travelling to stay with family and friends or attending social and leisure activities the Council will be looking at key locations and will be either scaling back or suspending works.
Councillor Nick McDonald, Portfolio Holder for Growth, Jobs and Transport at Nottingham City Council, said: “A range of travel offers and options are aimed at making it as easy and appealing as possible for people to choose to come to Nottingham over the Christmas period to enjoy their shopping trips and experience all the other festive treats the city has to offer.
“As ever, we are also looking to reduce the impact of works to help keep traffic moving at this time of year which is crucial for local people and businesses. Christmas is a key sales time for retailers in particular, so we are doing everything possible to help. Urgent repairs and dealing with safety issues will continue but otherwise activities will be scaled down as much as is possible during this time. This applies to all our major schemes, including the Ring Road improvements and the Nottingham Cycle City Ambition Programme, such as those works being carried out on Castle Boulevard now.”
Neil Fincham, director of the Nottingham BID added “We are really pleased to be working in partnership with Nottingham City Council and public transport offers to provide such great deals. Nottingham has a tremendous range of national chains and independents and many retailers will be opening longer during the Christmas run up, particularly for late-night shopping on Wednesdays.”
Please check transport company websites to confirm Christmas deal offers. Click here for up to date information about traffic and travel or here for shopping information.