As someone who doesn’t drive, when I visit Theme Park’s I always need to look at how to get to them using Public Transport. Ideally by Train / Bus where suitable.
Alton Tower’s is one of these one’s which for me is most awkward to travel to using Public Transport and I have always felt that they let themselves down in this respect.
When I travel to Alton Towers, I always need to go by two trains, changing at Nottingham to then get the train that will stop at Uttoxeter, which for me always works out as the best option.
However, this is where it falls down! During the past year there has only ever been 1 bus that will go to Uttoxeter Station which is at 09:14 which also makes it difficult to actually get the bus depending on where you are travelling from.
Not only this, there is only 1 bus that will take you back to the train station which leaves the park at 17:30 and will get you to the station at 18:02 which means a long wait until the next train! This also remains at the same time when the park is open until late at night as well, meaning you don’t get to take advantage of later closing times!
Now of course, there is always plenty of taxi’s at the station ranging up to £25 for one way.
When you look at other parks such as Thorpe Park which have regular bus services from Stains to the Theme Park, it always is a bit of a surprise that Alton Towers has such a poor service for those who are traveling by public transport.
For me, I don’t see this changing sadly, as much as you would hope it would as it’s been this way for a long time now and it’s something which puts me off more regular trips to Alton Towers, purely due to the poor connections for public transport.
Founder of ThemeParkRM. Spending most of his time at Thorpe Park and loves The Runaway Mine Train at Alton Towers (choo choo!)