Information about Winster in the Derbyshire Dales
for residents and visitors
Information about Winster in the Derbyshire Dales
for residents and visitors
Winster has a pretty good bus service - about 8 trips per day each way (Monday-Saturday) but no Sunday or Bank Holiday Monday service. (Nearest Sunday buses: Darley Dale and Youlgrave)
Some Winster buses serve Matlock's new Rail/Bus station, but not all. All Winster buses call at Matlock's old bus station behind Somerfields, now shown on the timetable as "Bakewell Road".
Most buses on route 172 are run by Hulleys of Baslow: see the printed timetable dated 18 May 2009 (PDF format). Beware that it is not unknown for buses to leave two or three minutes before the printed times.
Note for ramblers fancying a one-way walk: One late-afternoon bus from Bakewell comes via Middleton-by-Youlgreave and Youlgreave, and it is even possible to get back from Hartington by combining this bus with the twice-a-day link between Youlgreave and Hartington (part of the Bakewell-Youlgrave-Middleton route 171).
Bakewell and Eyam Community Transport run services for “local elderly and/or disabled residents and to visitors to the area”. They operate Dial-A-Bus services from Winster to Matlock, Bakewell, Alfreton, Buxton and Chesterfield on certain dates each month, as well as a series of day trips further afield with pickups in Winster. They also hire 16-seat vehicles to community groups at reasonable prices (Secret Gardens use them for their Park & Ride service, for example).
There are two reasonably good online journey planners. Traveline is pretty accurate, but you may run into limitations when you cross the border outside Derbyshire. The national TransportDirect planner is slower but more complete.
There is a good-value "Derbyshire Wayfarer" day ticket (Jan 2009: £8.30 per adult but only £13.10 for up to two adults and three children) covering most buses (and the Transpeak coach) and trains in Derbyshire.
There is a useful bus map available in PDF format.
The Transpeak service runs hourly for much of the day on the route Nottingham-Derby-Matlock-Darley Dale-Bakewell-Buxton and sometimes on to Manchester. The timetable notes which services are normally run by coaches, and which by low-floor buses. But be warned that punctuality can be very poor.
National Express run a daily coach from Matlock to London - leaving around 10am and taking about 5 hours. The return trip leaves London around 4pm.