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 6 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 the Co-op, now shown on the timetable as "Bakewell Road".
Buses on route 172 are run by Hulleys of Baslow: see the Interactive Timetable. Beware that Hulleys take quite a relaxed view to timekeeping: buses can leave two or three minutes before the printed times.
Hulleys' website does not show service interruptions (eg in snow), but they reckon to notify these on their Facebook page. They also say they inform Traveline as early as 0630 each day: these updates should show in the Traveline results. When I tried this out (3 December 2010: heavy snow), neither was up to date. You can always try calling Hulleys on 01246 582246.
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).
To/from Sheffield, there are often two buses an hour from Matlock (214 via Darley Dale and x17 via Chesterfield) and one from Bakewell (218). Bakewell is considerably faster (approx 45 minutes vs 75 mins). The two Matlock services (214 and x17) are often timed very closely together, and despite taking very different routes, take about the same time.
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. They are fairly conservative, so won't offer close connections (eg train arriving Matlock 1824, bus leaving station 1832).
There is a reasonable-value "Derbyshire Wayfarer" day ticket (Aug 2011: £10.50 per adult but only £18.90 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.