Transport

Over 97% of our visitors pre-book tickets. This means we can clearly understand and model our visitor traffic flows. Our visitors travel behaviour is closely aligned with show times, which differ between weekends and weekdays, term times and school holidays. Extensive data from our French and Spanish parks have been used to inform our visitor modelling.

When the park is open, April – October, the majority of visits to Puy du Fou will occur outside peak travel times, particularly during school holidays and weekends when road and rail usage is lower.

Opening times and show finishing times will be set to avoid the morning and evening peak periods on public transport and local road networks. Our modelling shows that the majority of visitors arrive after 1000 hrs on a weekday and 0900 hrs on a weekend. Departure times are more varied, with the majority being widely spread throughout the 1600-2300 PM period, with a more concentrated departure after the night show.

We are in discussion with Oxfordshire County Council, the local highways authority, to determine the extent of road junction improvements and non-car enhancements that will need to be made to ensure our impacts are minimised.

Walking and cycling

There are currently four public ‘rights of way’ that cross the site which are unmanaged and often not in great condition. These will be diverted creating a new, high quality continuous route around the boundary of our site. The route will be built to modern standards, i.e. a 5m usable path suitable for horses, pedestrians and cyclists. By linking to existing and proposed routes north and south of our site, we will open up a continuous link between Ardley and Bicester.

We will also add an additional new segregated pedestrian and cycle route adjacent to the B4100 between our site and the Elmsbrook eco-village south of our site, which already has a link to Bicester. This will provide an alternative car-free option for staff and visitors travelling to/from Bicester.

Cycle parking will be provided for up to 440 bikes. Additional cycle parking will be provided for staff.

Public transport

We are already extensively engaged with Chiltern Railways, East West Rail, Oxford Bus and Stagecoach. With excellent existing rail services to/from Bicester North and Bicester Village stations, and with rail capacity into Bicester set to be expanded with (a) the delivery of East West Rail and (b) Chiltern Rail’s current bid to Government for new, longer trains, there are significant opportunities to encourage visitors to use public transport.

Our aim is to deliver an average of 50% of daytime visitors to the park by public transport and active travel modes. We plan to achieve this by:

Having digital ticketing packages with links to transport options and tickets
Creating promotional ticket options, with the aim of making sustainable travel options more cost effective than arriving by car
Providing a free shuttle bus service linking the site to local rail stations and park and ride sites. If the proposals for a new station at Ardley become reality, we will also link to that as well
Improving local bus services to Bicester and Banbury, including contributing towards new buses to serve the routes

Operating a staff shuttle service to/from Oxford, Bicester and Banbury

Road vehicles

All vehicles will be routed into the park via the M40 Junction 10, A43, B4100 route. This will be managed by:

Directions on our website
Directions on our tickets
Pre-agreed routes prompted on Waze, Google Maps and others
Roadside signage

When considering traffic impacts it is important to note that:

The park is only open April – October
There are busy periods (weekends/holidays) and quieter periods (weekdays), and
We are aiming for an average of 50% of our daytime visitors to travel by public transport

The table sets out the percentage of days each year when the park is projected to be busy and the typical amount of parking that will be required, both at opening and once the park is fully developed.

Average daily park visitors	Occurrences at opening (146 days pa)	Occurrences at completion (176 days pa)
No park visitors	61%	52%
<5,000	29%	1.6%
5-10,000	10%	19%
10-15,000		15%
15-20,000		9.3%
>20,000		3.5%
Parking demand
- Cars	1,140	2,664
- Coaches	17	60

Note: average coach loading is 50 people, average car loading is 2.6 people

Access

We will create three new vehicle accesses from the B4100 to the site:

The main access for most visitors will be from a new roundabout near the northern edge of the site, leading straight into the car park. The B4100 will be widened at this point to avoid queuing causing any disruption on the road
A secondary access further south on the B4100, also from a new roundabout, will serve the hotels and conference facilities
A staff/servicing access to the southern end of the site, linked to the service route which runs around the boundary of the site

Parking

Parking will be provided at the northern end of the park. Once fully developed, our proposals include space for around 4150 cars and 150 coaches (including capacity for overspill), as well as pick-up and drop-off spaces for public transport and taxis. A further 700 parking spaces will be separately provided for the hotels and conference centre. In addition, there will be proportionate staff parking located in the back of house area adjacent to each show.

Construction traffic

Construction traffic will be routed via the M40, A43 and B4100, minimising the number of vehicles on local roads. A full Construction Transport Management Plan will be required for any planning permission.