swooptaxi

[swooptaxi]

How to Travel Into Bath City Centre (Without Paying for Parking)

Whether you live or work in Bath, or regularly travel to the city centre, you’ll know that our beautiful city isn’t the best for public transport.

With the arrival of the Clean Air Zone, it’s become a little trickier for travellers (particularly businesses) who need to get to Bath but aren’t keen on paying inflated parking charges or emission zone penalties.

Now, we’re clearly going to favour our innovative, budget-friendly Swoop ride-hailing service, but to give you an informed view of the options, we’ll cover here all the ways to travel to Bath!

Why Is Bath Parking and Public Transport So Bad?

There are two big questions here (which we hope to have answered!), but the reality is that Bath, as great a city as it is to live in, simply isn’t large enough to warrant a comprehensive public transport system or any real expansion on the city centre roads.

Even though Bath is the second most visited city tourist destination nationwide, there are only around 100,000 residents when the summer has passed.

That’s about a fifth of neighbouring Bristol, which makes it very hard to attract big-name ride-hailing apps or taxi firms to the city, with such a lucrative, higher populated cousin right around the corner!

However, if you need to get to college, uni, work, or one of our world-famous attractions, there are several options.

Parking in Bath City Centre

If you look hard enough, you might be lucky to snag a free parking space, although they’re only available between 8 pm and 8 am (you’ll be very fortunate to find any free daytime parking!).

 Visitors and workers can use Broad Street, Avon Street, Charlotte Street or Manvers Street car parks for free, but that’s only applicable if you work a night shift.

Street parking is even more unusual, but you might be able to locate a space on Cleveland Walk (about 0.8 miles from the centre) or Milton Avenue (0.9 miles) – that’s around a 20-minute walk, so fine if you have comfy shoes, but not so suitable for many.

The issue with street parking is that it’s equally only free during unsociable hours – mostly from 7 pm to 8 am or only on Sundays; not quite so handy if you have a meeting to get to!

Spending a day sightseeing gets pretty expensive if you’re paying £15 or above for parking (plus fuel), and some of the short-stay car parks don’t permit you to keep your car there for over four or six hours, so choose wisely!

You can review all the up-to-date parking charges via the Bath & North East Somerset Council website.

Travelling to Bath by Train

Our next option is to take the train – almost certainly your go-to if you are visiting from further afield!

The downside is that you have one choice and one only – Bath Spa.

Only one railway travels here (Great Western) although you can travel from London Paddington, Portsmouth Harbour and Cardiff Central.

There are also tons of connections with Bristol, so Bath acts as a stop-gap because you can be in Bristol in about ten minutes, delays and cancellations notwithstanding.

Unfortunately, train travel is only possible if you’re coming from elsewhere outside the city; there are no intra-city trains or metros, connection routes or tubes, so it’s impossible to get into Bath by train without needing an onward solution.

If you’re interested in walking, it’s only about half a mile into the centre, which takes around ten minutes depending on the weather and where you’re heading.

Coach Travel Into Bath

The other potential option is to use the National Express coach system, with the bus station relatively close to the train station, but the same limitations apply.

You can take a coach from Bristol, Reading, Exeter, Plymouth or London Victoria, but it’ll take several hours longer than a train, and you’ll still need to take a walk or taxi to get to the city centre.

Booking a Cab Into Bath City Centre

Our most convenient option is to order a taxi, but there is a huge demand for a small number of cab companies (you won’t find the likes of Uber or Lyft in such a small city!).

The Fare Car service is a great choice for budget-conscious travellers.

Still, it is massively limited, with bookings required by a cut-off and only one route and drop-off and pick-up point, which makes it suitable only for people who happen to live or work in the immediate vicinity and along the route.

Over the last two years, a shortage of experienced local drivers, closure of cab firms and ever-inflating prices have made it difficult to take a taxi in Bath.

If you’re a regular visitor, you’ll be familiar with the lengthy taxi rank queues that don’t bode well if you’re on a time limit!

Swoop – the New Bath Ride-Hailing System

We live in Bath and love everything about our historic, laid-back city – but the transport situation needed something fresh!

Welcome Swoop Bath Taxi Services, a forward-thinking taxi app that works just like those super-convenient services you’ll find elsewhere but specific to Bath and the local Somerset area.

Why is Swoop better than another taxi company in bath also public transport option?

You get a verified, vetted driver, door to door.

Book your cab line – no phone calls or queues to speak of.

Convenient payments; pay with a card, PayPal or Apple Pay as suits you best.

Although Bath has long been a brilliant destination, it’s also been a nightmare for travellers, and we’re proud to have developed a solution suited to the needs of our small but mighty city.

Next time you’re comparing train fares, scouting around for a pricey parking space or deciding whether to take the long walk from the bus station, why not Swoop instead – we’re confident it’ll be the best option going.

Resource URL: - https://swoopbathtaxis.blogspot.com/2023/10/how-to-travel-into-bath-city-centre.html

[swooptaxi]

How Much Does a Taxi Cost in Bath?

It’s no secret that Bath isn’t often one of the cheapest cities to travel around!

While much of our city centre is relatively small, there are some serious hills to contend with, and a mile of walking isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

Swoop is the newest, most cost-effective taxi firm to open in Bath, inspired by the convenience of ride-hailing digital apps that make city transport so much easier.

Today we’ve compiled facts and figures to help you budget for your Bath transport (and demonstrate why the Swoop app offers such incredible value for money!).

General Taxi Tariffs in Bath

Although these are only rough averages, Bath has fixed taxi fares (to a point), which rely on regional regulations to ensure that licensed cabs aren’t charging over the odds.

Genuine cab companies should also be happy to provide a price estimate before you book or get into a taxi at a cab rank, so never be afraid to ask!

The general taxi rates are: We’d also suggest checking whether a cab accepts card payments, as it can be a nightmare if you find out that they don’t and can’t pay in the correct cash.

In most cases, a driver should only charge per minute when they have been asked to wait – perhaps if you are collecting another passenger or need to nip into a shop along the route.

Prices per minute are also applied in heavy traffic when it takes longer than expected to travel the usual distance.

Please verify the charge if you need to travel on a Bank Holiday since these prices aren’t governed by the local taxi tariffs and may vary.

How Are Taxi Prices in Bath Calculated?

Cab prices sometimes seem much higher than anticipated, but that’s usually because of an additional cost, which could be waiting time, extra passengers or the amount of luggage you have (pretty impossible to avoid if you’re heading to their airport!).

Here’s a quick rundown of the reasons your taxi cost might have been bumped up:

Journeys of less than five miles incur an extra £0.20 for every 140 metres you travel, past the first 300 metres.

Passengers pay an extra £0.30 for every minute of waiting time after the first minute and 38 seconds.

Trips of over five miles still incur an extra fee but are calculated at £0.20 for each further 116 metres.

You can see why prices vary so considerably and why it can be very confusing for visitors in Bath to determine how much they’ll need to pay for a short cab ride!

Additional Taxi Charges

Below we’ve summarised the circumstances where a taxi is allowed to add another additional fee, regardless of how long the journey or what time of day you are travelling:

£0.50 for every passenger over two people.

£0.50 for every item of large luggage.

£0.50 for a dog – although cabs cannot charge for assistance dogs.

£100 for any food or drink spills.

While children pay less for buses and trains, the only discount on a taxi is where you have two children under 12, in which case they will pay the same tariff as an adult between them.

Average Bath Taxi Costs by Distance

With all the above in mind (and acknowledging that some drivers will be keener to add extra charges where permitted!), we’ve compiled some indicative costs to show you what it might cost to complete your journey.

You might also find that your Bath taxi costs vary depending on the type of vehicle you require.

A standard car with space for up to three passengers in the back and one in the front costs around £1.59 a mile, whereas a larger car with extra seats will usually charge around £2.40 for the same distance.

Costs for Bath Taxi Travel to Popular Destinations

Next, we’ve put together a quick guide for visitors to Bath to show what you’ll pay on average for a cab from one destination to the next, based on our most popular requests!

Average Taxi Costs From Bath Spa Train Station

These prices are only indications but should give you an idea about how much your onward trip will cost if you arrive in Bath via train and need to take a taxi from the cab rank to your final destination.

We hope this guide to Bath taxi prices helps you plan your journeys!

We aim to make transport in and around Bath and Somerset faster, less stressful, and a lot more competitive, in line with the service levels available in nearby Bristol.

While Bath isn’t the biggest city around, it’s certainly one of the most-visited places in Britain and a location we’d like our visitors, locals and businesses to be able to navigate with ease.

Swoop is a digital app where you can call a driver on-demand or pre-book your planned journeys and get to where you need to be quickly and affordably.

If you’d like to see how Swoop compares and book a local driver to your door, please download the app to access Somerset’s most efficient taxi service bath.

Resource url: - https://swoopbathtaxis.blogspot.com/2023/09/how-much-does-taxi-cost-in-bath.html