Scarborough residents call for reinstatement of Coastliner bus service to Alpamare water park

They have called on Transdev, the company that runs the Coastliner 843 bus, to reinstate its bus service up to the water park.

Residents criticised the company for “taking advantage of the Alpamare water park being closed to terminate the bus route in Peasholm Park and not come up the hill to Burniston Road”.

The cuts to the service are understood to have taken place this week and the company’s timetable no longer shows Burniston Road as a stop.

The Alpamare leisure centre closed last year as the developer, Benchmark, went into administration, still owing the council £7.8m.

North Yorkshire Council has taken control of the site and said that the remainder of the loan would be written off.

The authority also said it hoped the park could reopen later this year but no date for a reopening has been announced.

“[We] hope measures will be in place to open the facility in time for the main summer tourism season this year,” a council spokesperson said.

Commenting on the loss of the bus service, residents said that while “it may seem a very small matter that Coastliner 843 will terminate by Peasholm Park, it has quite a few consequences”.

They said that despite the closure of the leisure centre, the bus provided “an all year round, direct service into town, to the shops, to connect with buses to the hospital, and the railway station”.

It was noted that guests staying at Premier Inn’s North Bay hotel could also be impacted.

Scarborough and Whitby MP, Sir Robert Goodwill, is also understood to have contacted Transdev about the cuts to the service.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, one woman said: “Scarborough has many elderly residents.

“Many of those living in the Burniston Road area who use the 843 service, would not be able to navigate the distance and incline down to the Peasholm Park bus stop.

“More significantly having shopped in town, carrying food shopping by hand or in a trolley back up the steep incline would be too much for most of them.”

A Coastliner spokesman said: “Our Scarborough route was originally extended to serve Alpamare when the attraction opened: however, since its closure, customer numbers travelling from there have fallen to the point where very few people are travelling from there.

“In addition, with congestion and roadworks on the A64 and in York causing increasing delays, we have returned our Scarborough terminus to Peasholm Park roundabout to give extra running time across the whole route, helping us to run more reliably for the majority of our customers.

“Alternative bus services into Scarborough are currently available from stops at or near to the former Alpamare site, including Arriva’s X94 which calls there and follows the same route as our buses to and from town, and East Yorkshire route 11 which serves Cross Lane.”