Well, I have had a mixed set of results with the Sherpa Bus this week. Of course the Bus not turning up was a gem. We then parked in Nant, and quickly got a bus up on Wednesday, then yesterday I was meant to go to work at Pen Y Pass, and looked up the timetable on the the Internet, and genius there was a Bus Scheduled to leave the llanberis international bus intercahnge and 15.30, which would get me to work just before my 4pm shift.
Having walked down the high street to the interchange the timetable was totally different to what they advertised online. In particular the 15.30 bus had been scratched from the service, so I had to walk back to the other end of the village to then drive up. How hard can it be for an umbrella organisation like the Snowdonia Green Key to have the correct information online and on the ground?!
Someone seems to be sat in an office with there head up there arse, the Green Key and Sherpa Buses are ‘Essential’ for the tourist in North Wales, and making sure they run smoothly should be a top priority for Gwynedd Council and the National Park (I know there are more councils involved but for Snowdon and the Pass it is these two organisation where the buck should stop.
There is an interesting article by Elfyn Jones from the BMC, I like Elfyn, but I find his article rather political and quite restrained. The Sherpa Bus service is barely fit for service, I was up at Pen Y Pass working and the number of walkers having to wait an hour for a lift back to there car, and not to mention the cafe still getting customers till about 8pm.
The green key scheme is even worse, as despite a transport group predicting a rise in visitors and cars to the park, rather than increase parking the scheme has effectively reduced it. At what point that became a good idea, I will never known. The parking has been ridiculous this week. With car overflowing out of llanberis, parking along the verges of Nant Peris and overflowing out of the park and ride, despite there being a field that looks more than suitable for an overflow car park.
As for the Pen Y Grwyd area the recent works has effective just move the parking problem down the hill to where the road is narrower and less able to cope with verge parking, and on more than one occassion it has turn this major artery to a single lane.
Elfyn is also stuck to a BMC line, where we as climbers don’t want to be the group that upset the apple cart, however the suggestion that we pay up £10 a day for parking is tantamount to daylight robbery. Interesting unless there is a notice displaying the Bye-law that covers the car park, to allow charges thenany parking charge is voluntary, and any fine illegal. Certainly Pen Y Pass £10 charge is just taking the piss, illegal and I urge people not to pay it. Similarly the roadside machines at Pen Y Gwyryd don’t seem to have a Bye-law displayed, and Ogwen Cottage is also a ‘voluntary’ pay and display. You might get a sticker on your vehicle, but any fine should be seen as illegal, and worth contesting.
I also have to disagree with Elfyn that the Sherpa bus is in his words ‘Quite Good and cheap’. Yes £1 is cheap but I am not sure that quite good is a valid description. Try and catch a bus from the centre of llanberis and the service is limited and poor, yet at the far end at the interchange the service is totally different. The timetable is a total mess, with contradiction between the real world, what is advertised at the bus stop and what is advertised online.
My advice from having tried to use the service is to park in nant to climb in llanberis pass and get off at the cromlech boulders, as the the number of buses is even higher than those available from llanberis. Surely all the buses should simply do a big loop from pen y pass to llanberis high street and back again.
Anyway, working a 4 to 9 shift at Pen Y Pass, I can’t actually get to work and back on the Buses!