(06 Dec 2021, 12:22 pm)Adrian wrote Freeports aside, I wonder if its lack of demand or lack of initiative from councils and transport operators?
Amazon at Follingsby has a bus every 7-8 minutes at shift times to Heworth, yet Amazon at Bowburn (which was quoted as also having 1,000 permanent jobs in the press release) has nothing but fresh air serving it. I don't believe the make up of employees will be much different between the two sites, so it seems to be that one operator has had the initiative, but the operator serving the other hasn't.
Darlington have a bus, but I understand that is funded by time-limited section 106 money from planning. In Bowburn's case, the s106 money went towards education provision iirc. I think the Follingsby operation is fully commercial too.
Yep, GNE and Amazon Follingsby is a superb example of how partnership should work in my opinion, but like you say, hopefully this becomes the norm and not the exception.
The pick/up drop off point at Bowburn is absolutely packed at shift change, to the point where it can take a good 15-20 minutes to actually get to it. I wonder how many of those people would use the bus if they could?
They've also just extended the car park, presumably because people have no choice but to drive!
When my brother started there last year, there was a bus service provided by Amazon. It was tight, but he could make it there on time. Now it's impossible for him.
My mother actually bought a second, smaller car just to take him to work because the other car is a big heavy 4x4 and it was costing a fortune.