First Travel Solutions (FTS) were approached by Hull City Council to operate a Park & Ride service to support the transport requirements at this year’s Radio 1 Big Weekend.
This year’s event took place on the 27th and 28th of May at Burton Constable Hall in Hull and on hearing some of the stars in the line up – Little Mix, Katy Perry, Kings of Leon, to name a few – we were only too happy to help.
Liaising with Hull City Council we firstly estimated how many concertgoers we thought would descend on Hull that weekend and worked from there. The team at FTS recruited 70 vehicles and drivers to support the planned Park & Ride service as well as additional FTS staff to assist with on the ground operational requirements.
The first Park & Ride shuttle service operated from Normandy Barracks in Leconfield, which is still a live MOD site. That in itself brought challenges from a security perspective! However, we successfully transported 4,500 concertgoers every day from the barracks. In addition to this FTS operated a drop off and pick up shuttle service from Grove Hill in Beverley. This site was for people who had pre-booked their cars prior to the event and from here we moved approximately 3,250 passengers daily.
Mick Coombes, Operations Planning Manager at First Travel Solutions comments; “This was yet another high profile event that the team at FTS worked hard to deliver for our client, Hull City Council.
It’s always a pleasure being part of these types of events as they’re all about transporting people safely to and from fun venues. People are out to have a great time and their day normally starts and finishes on board our transport so it’s really important that we provide them with a great experience.”