Lake District launches £7 million sustainable transport pilot
An exasperated Guardian Travel writer once condemned the Lake District as "a car park with puddles."
Said writer had breezed his way up the M6 only to be halted by lashing rain and red brakelights backing up between Windermere and Ambleside.
The Lake District's roads were, as locals like to remind visitors, built for horses and carts, which is one reason why that long, long queue is still with us. Statistics tell us the other. Ninety two percent of visitors drive to the Lake District. That's 92 percent of an estimated 16 million people a year.
The challenge of how you wean this overwhelming majority out of the car and on to public transport has occupied the minds of environmentalists, national park executives and tourism leaders for years. If you look hard enough - as too few visitors do - sustainable transport schemes do exist, but they struggle for attention in our era of instant information. Visitors are reluctant to risk a soaking by trusting a yellowing bus timetable at the top of Dunmail Raise.
Travel partnership schemes have also gone quietly about their business for years, but very few get on to the tourist radar in the way that Windermere Lake Cruises' link-up with attractions around England's longest lake have done. They are usually limited to narrow geographic areas and have little marketing clout.
All this could change over the next three years, however, thanks to the Go Lakes Travel initiative. 'Drive Less, See More' is its slogan and it has an ambitious goal: a unified 'boats, bikes, boots and buses' network throughout the national park.
Boats such as the National Trust's steam yacht Gondola on Coniston are also part of the scheme. Photograph: Alamy
Popular walking routes are being connected to public transport services. Cycleways and footpaths are being brought together. New electric cycle networks are springing up and tourism businesses are co-operating in ways that simply haven't happened in the past. Behind the scenes, Cumbria county council, the national park authority and Cumbria Tourism, are in charge.
And they finally have the financial clout to make them happen and to engage the serious interest of commercial tourist concerns. Government funding of £7 million has been secured for a three-year scheme which will double as a pilot for other national parks.
Individually, the initiatives are modest – a new route here, a new bus there - But it's this tightening of the nuts and bolts and a mending of the bald patches, that collectively has great sustainable travel potential.
The initiative is concentrated on the visitor honeypots of Bowness, Windermere, Ambleside, Coniston and Grasmere, with an additional target of cutting carbon emissions in the park by 11,000 tonnes between now and 2015. New bus routes are coming on stream and services and timetables are being extended. A bike-friendly bus has been launched. The dots are being joined on the electric bike networks and a possible hire scheme for electric cars with a network of charging stations.
There's also a new app which puts 20 comprehensively researched car free day itineraries directly into your hand, and work is well under way on a Lake District version of London's Oyster card. Hotels are preparing concessions for visitors who arrive, and travel around, sustainably.
The initiative takes another step forward shortly with a 'Drive Less, See More' week from July 22, based in Staveley and starting with a one-day festival. It will be well worth calling in - and if you do, remember that Staveley is a stop on the Oxenholme to Windermere rail line (the one which William Wordsworth famously abominated).