Coaches from the drop off point

[Keva]

Last year I got to the Bath and west show ground at 6AM. But at that time, the queue for the shuttle buses was already MASSIVE. It took me at least a couple of hours to get onto the only single bus that was operating.

In previous years. I've arrived there at about the same time or later and there's been very little queue and I've been at the festival and set-up with an hour or two.

I heard mumors that coaches (national express etc) were no longer dropping people off at the festival. But were instead dropping them there where they were required to get a shuttle bus to get to the site.

Does anyone know if this is true? And does anyone know if they will be using this system again this year?

Was much smoother before IMO.

[incident]

1 minute ago, Keva said:

I heard mumors that coaches (national express etc) were no longer dropping people off at the festival. But were instead dropping them there where they were required to get a shuttle bus to get to the site.

Does anyone know if this is true? And does anyone know if they will be using this system again this year?

No, that's not true and never could be. All of the official public transport (Shuttles / Seetickets / National Express and a few others - basically the stuff listed on the Festival web site) goes to the Festival Coach Station next to Gate A, and has done so for as long as that Coach Station has existed.

The closest that happened is that private coaches & large minibuses were directed to the Drop Off Point at B&W last year to avoid them getting in the way of the official transport, but that's changing this year - they're now required to register ahead of time and have been given a dedicated (second) coach station also near Gate A.

[Keva]

10 minutes ago, incident said:

The closest that happened is that private coaches & large minibuses were directed to the Drop Off Point at B&W last year to avoid them getting in the way of the official transport, but that's changing this year - they're now required to register ahead of time and have been given a dedicated (second) coach station also near Gate A.

Ah that explains it. Glad its changing back this year. The wait last year seemed to go on forever!

[musky]

Actually this did happen last year, albeit accidentally. It seems a few of the NE coach drivers were unaware of where they were supposed to be going and headed for the drop off point. There was a post on here last year by someone who was on one of these coaches, and they were telling the driver in no uncertain terms that he was heading to the wrong place!

The upside to this would be that it's unlikely to be repeated this year.

[Keva]

I hope so... was agony last year as the normally short queue at 6AM was already half way down the field

[Perks]

Our See Tickets coach driver took us there by mistake too. We all had to tell him when he headed off the bus to unload our bags. He took us to the right place after that, but was a right delay, as took him ages to get to the show grounds and away from it, queue there was massive, this would've been about 9am.