(22 May 2026, 9:16 pm)Jimmi wrote Seemed woefully under resourced, appeared as if the vast majority of the stuff on was having to be pretty flat out as kept seeing the same bits around every 40 minutes, so was likely load and go then drop and go and repeat - were still having to send buses out after 6pm as people were still waiting at Park Lane, queues at Heworth were supposedly bad too.

Operators I observed this afternoon:
A&A Coach Travel
Coatham Coaches (3 coaches)
City Transport (ALX400)
Delta Coaches (one coach)
DM Motor Services
JH Coaches (3 Omnis and an E400MMC)
M&D Travel (2 coaches)
Shaws of Durham (ALX400 and double deck coach)
SMT Travel (1 OmniCity DD:  https://flic.kr/p/2sesvwk)
Stanley Travel (2 B9TLs)

Unsure how many deckers A&A and DM provided, hard to tell who's was who's especially as it was mostly ex London tat and an ex Brighton/GNE bendy Merc from DM:  https://flic.kr/p/2sexecv

There was a silver preserved Solar Fusion bendy pottering around too (working for City Transport) but unsure as to exactly what that was doing as was appearing very frequently with full loads on.

Also saw an ALX400 with HC Travel but think this may have only done trip on one of the longer distance runs rather than the Park & Ride services, same with a few TNS Travel coaches, one of which did the trip from Billingham & Hartlepool with at least one from Coatham Coaches doing pick ups in Skelton, Marske, Redcar and Middlesbrough before dropping onto a P&R service

Sounds like a complete shambles - loads of complaints online about 2 hour plus queues at Park Lane and people commenting how poorly organised it all seems compared to other Big Weekend ops.  Closing the main access road and having the regular services operating non stop to force people onto the Park & Ride is all well and good if you can be sure you have a competent P&R operation.  Embarrasing really.  And £13 return for the privilege of enduring the P&Rs!