Portsmouth Park and Ride: I tried it and found it was a fantastic - so long as you have some emergency change

Traffic, problems finding a parking spot and then the cost of parking can be very off-putting for many who then either feel the need to travel at the crack of dawn to beat the traffic or find the best parking spot (or both).

Buses are of course an option, but even at £4 for a round trip per person the cost of that can soon add up when it comes to a family - and the same for a train as well. So at £4 for up to five people the park and ride is a great alternative to try.

Now first of all let’s address the point made by many in the city - that the location of the park and ride site off the M275 at Tipner is not convenient for everybody living in Portsmouth itself to make it a good alternative, and they are right. If you live in Baffins or Copnor then making your way across the city to use it is not really the most useful way to spend your time.

But for those living in Cosham, Hilsea, Stamshaw and even North End it is easy to get to from the Rudmore Roundabout and head a very short distance up the motorway. And of course for everyone else who lives outside the city (who let’s face it this is largely aimed at) you can easily access the site from Junction 1 of the M275.

I’ll admit it has been a while since I last used the park and ride. This is mostly because when I head towards Southsea I take a boot load of supplies with me which means I need my car, or we are heading into Gunwharf to watch a film and grab some food in an evening and the service does not really run late enough to be a viable option.

But on the day of our visit it is a busy weekend and we were heading for a daytime trip to Portsmouth’s wonderful historic dockyard - so it seemed to be the perfect opportunity to try the park and ride again.

We headed along the motorway to the very well signed-posted park and ride site and easily managed to find a parking spot very close to the terminal where a green PR3 bus heading towards Southsea was already patiently waiting for its remaining passengers to load.

Now, if that was my destination then I would have thought to have checked the times beforehand to make sure I arrived in plenty of time. Otherwise I would have felt rushed because those buses currently run every 30 mins at weekends and there is no way I would have been able to herd by family towards the bus and get my ticket in time without breaking some kind of world record. So hanging around in Tipner for half an hour because we had missed the bus by mere minutes would not have been ideal.

However, the cyan-coloured PR1 to The Hard Interchange is every 15 minutes so I didn’t feel the same urge to check (well that is my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it). When we arrived I instantly went to the wrong place to get a ticket because the machine in the car park I had used in the past is no longer there. So that shows how out of practice I was with it! But we found the machines are all now right next to the bus stop itself, so it wasn’t a crisis.

Unfortunately the machine I was using really didn't like my card - as an aside I find I have the same issue with the few of the other city’s parking machines from time to time too (cashless society anyone?!). But luckily I had £4 in emergency change in my purse so I was able to easily pay by cash to secure myself a ticket. Our bus pulled up as I was paying and we got in straight away, and a mere moment or two later we were off!

Now, at this point my teenager and pre-teen then immediately turned their attention to the most important test of the day, seeing if the bus had wi-fi. The answer - despite promises the contrary - was ‘no’ with none of us able to connect, much to their disappointment (though certainly not mine!). And so they had less of an excuse to ignore the world around them and actually look out of the window as we began our journey.

And I have to say it was fantastically without fuss as we sailed past the cars queuing on the M275 and Mile End Road and into the city centre. With no-one on our bus requesting stops at either the ferry port or outside Charles Dickens’ birthplace we were into Commercial Road at a rapid pace for our first stop outside Victoria Park where a few groups of passengers with their shopping bags at the ready.

As a driver you don't really get a chance to enjoy any views as you are too busy watching the road, so being able to switch off and see what cruise ships were in and spot Spinnaker from afar was a real novelty for me!

After a few minutes we were off again and in no time at all were approaching The Hard Interchange - the service’s final destination and that of the vast majority of the people on the bus.

And then quick as a flash we were there - with most passengers immediately heading towards Gunwharf, though we went in the opposite direction towards the historic dockyard for our day out.

The return journey was also simple, with the times of the next bus advertised for those who need them at the terminal, which is remaining open while works to the bus apron in front of it are carried out. There is also currently a temporary bus stop in place just in front of Hartgills - so make sure you go to the right place to be picked up. We waited a grand total of three minutes before our bus arrived before we showed our ticket to the driver and hopped on for another simple and easy trip out of the city.

Perfection - and a really great way to get into the south of the city with the least amount of fuss (and stress). Just make sure you have some emergency change for those pesky parking machines!

For full details of the park and ride service visit https://parkandride.portsmouth.gov.uk/