Attraction Source Forum

Hello all. Long time reader, first time poster. In 2013 as part of a look into public transport in the UK. I will be spending 12 months without car or motorbike! I live near York, and work is fine with trains and things. Does anyone know if it is possable to visit Alton Towers just on public transport? I cant spend the night in the hotel. Any ideas? Part of my journey may be filmed by a production company.

I have heard its a mission on the busses. I have always travelled by car coming from the south coast!

http://www.altontowers.com/events/how-to-find-us/

Might be a fun journey with a film crew!!!

Omg lol your going to have fun around here (I live very near the towers), it is actually pretty viable to get to AT using public transport but that's on paper. In reality it's a nightmare to get anywhere using our local public transport. Firstbus run a bus called the 32A from Hanley to uttoxeter via alton towers, that runs both ways 1 per hour. If you wanted to get to alton using public transport only I would say get the train to uttoxeter train station and catch the 32A to alton towers. But you will be very lucky if its running anywhere near on time!!!!

Hookman2007 wrote: Hello all. Long time reader, first time poster. In 2013 as part of a look into public transport in the UK. I will be spending 12 months without car or motorbike! I live near York, and work is fine with trains and things. Does anyone know if it is possable to visit Alton Towers just on public transport? I cant spend the night in the hotel. Any ideas? Part of my journey may be filmed by a production company.

Train to Stoke and, in peak times, they have signs up at the station directing you to the bus stop for the AT bus. I've not done it before but I know it's not far from the station. It's mostly windy, country roads though, so it may be delayed / take a while / etc and traffic can be bad. I have only done the journey in a car from Clayton as I have relatives there but we drive a very similar route.

Public transport is a nightmare. For example Staines is on my railway line which makes getting to Thorpe easier, but I can do Thorpe by car in 30 mins or by train in an hour (including shuttle bus and walk to the station.

I can do Alton in 2.5 hours by car, I would expect it would be near 5-6 hours by public transport. This would be the difference between being able to do the park in one day or having to go up the night before stay over in the hotel, do a day in the park, stay over and go home the following day.

do it all in 1 day or nearly 3 days if you want a full day in the park, there really isn't an option for me.

Plus when you have two or more people in a car, public transport works out to be way more expensive... and the Government wonder why people use their cars....

Hmv wrote: Omg lol your going to have fun around here (I live very near the towers), it is actually pretty viable to get to AT using public transport but that's on paper. In reality it's a nightmare to get anywhere using our local public transport. Firstbus run a bus called the 32A from Hanley to uttoxeter via alton towers, that runs both ways 1 per hour. If you wanted to get to alton using public transport only I would say get the train to uttoxeter train station and catch the 32A to alton towers. But you will be very lucky if its running anywhere near on time!!!!

PMT, once every two hours until their service timetable changes. Last year, they changed the timetable 3 weeks after towers opened and 4 weeks before end of season.

Lead Piping wrote:

Hmv wrote: Omg lol your going to have fun around here (I live very near the towers), it is actually pretty viable to get to AT using public transport but that's on paper. In reality it's a nightmare to get anywhere using our local public transport. Firstbus run a bus called the 32A from Hanley to uttoxeter via alton towers, that runs both ways 1 per hour. If you wanted to get to alton using public transport only I would say get the train to uttoxeter train station and catch the 32A to alton towers. But you will be very lucky if its running anywhere near on time!!!!

PMT, once every two hours until their service timetable changes. Last year, they changed the timetable 3 weeks after towers opened and 4 weeks before end of season.

Lol shows how much I know, I only go college and back on it 4 times a week :P

Its a shame that there isn't alot/that much transport to and from alton towers. This is one thing in the near future that they should work on as teenagers, such as myself, and some adults who cannot drive need to make sure they have someone to take and bring back. For me this is a huge problem as I like to try and visit as many times as I can therefore I'm sure alot more people would visit if there was better transport links or more frequent timetables.

Mentioning public transport though Virgin trains are restricting advance fares  to crew from Scotland
Sadly this is making public transport to stoke very hard,
I am trying to get some answers as we speak on this

Best way via Virgin Trains from Scotland at the moment is from Glasgow Central to Crewe then a connecting service to Stoke from Crewe.

Im working on a little something while the teams are working towards TT V3.

Please bear in mind this a work in progress and if this is successful I will do a Main season pfd too.



If you can think of any major hubs (Manchester, London, Nottingham) areas, post them in here and I will investergate them and include in the finalised main season version. This version is just for feb half term 2013

During the summer, well school breaks, West Midlands travel usually operate a specific daily service from Birmingham city centre, I think they also do one for the firework weekend aswell.

Pauly wrote: During the summer, well school breaks, West Midlands travel usually operate a specific daily service from Birmingham city centre, I think they also do one for the firework weekend aswell.

travel West Midlands have in recent years really reduced their service it used to be  every weekend  and then daily during the summer holidays. They now DON'T do a fireworks service. The used in up until 2006 but since the fireworks were brought back they don't run this service any more. I went into a shop to ask them if they were running the fireworks service and the woman looked at me like I'd gone mad.  Also they stopped travel only tickets...... Which meant I had to pay £40 to travel .........bad times as I have my annual pass.....

They used to be good pre 2007.

I get the metro tram into Wolverhampton and then catch the train from Wolverhampton to stoke on Trent £14 day return  and then get the 15 Bus from Stoke to Alton towers through Alton Towers Transport £6 day return It's amazing how many Alton Towers staff use that bus 

I've been doing this now for 3 years .............. Which reminds me I need to see if they have announced their travel price for 2013

I am planning a trip here in the Feb Half Term and I was wondering what would be the best way of getting to the Towers from north wales, any reply would be great, thanks.

When I go to Alton Towers from Scotland I usually try and book earlier and get cheap advance tickets.
My April trip is:

• £1 megabus to Edinburgh from Dundee
• £6 train to Stoke on Trent.
• £16 train from Edinburgh to Manchester

Return leg is roughly the same price as well.

I usually stay over 2 nights however and have never had a day trip. The next day I then get the bus from outside the train station to Alton Towers for the day(which I can't remember the price of just now).

Cheapest way I've managed to do it from Scotland for an overnight stay without spending all day on a bus.

Alton Towers is possible by bus.  We have a small caravan park, Lower Micklin Touring Park (www.lmtp.co.uk) and holiday cottages, Lower Micklin Farm (www.lowermicklinfarm.co.uk) just two mile from the park just outside the village of Alton.  We have worked hard with the local authority to get some bus stops installed so our guests can take the bus to AT.

The great advantage of the bus is it drops you at the entrance so you do not need to spend time queueing and waiting for the monorail from the car park.  Also at the end of the day you just get on the bus  to get back.

Check out the bus timetable here: http://www.lowermicklinfarm.co.uk/faq.html

need a best route to alton towers from nottingham as the x52 bus is no longer running this year