The Hay Festival needs to sort out its transport situation

The Hay Festival, in the small Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye, is a major global attraction. But its transport is archaic - unreliable buses, a sustainable mode share of 1.5%, price hikes, service cuts, giant car parks and, worst of all, a shrugging of responsibility, all whilst lecturing everyone else on how they need to make "significant lifestyle changes that are needed urgently"... unless it involves transport, of course.

Imagery, in rough order of appearance. All non-attributed images should either have an obvious source or are my own:
Aerial view of Hay - Wye Valley Bunkhouse

Festival sign - Hay Festival

News cutting - Sunday Times Digital Archive

Bill Clinton - Bob McNeely, The White House[1], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Report - Hay Festival Sustainability Report 2023

Timetables and maps - First Bus/Hay Festival

Music:
Back to the 80s - Dyalla

#hayfest #sustainability

[MaverickHunterDaniel]

There's something equally entertaining and frustrating about a festival bus that drops people nowhere near the festival. It feels slightly symbolic about how much the Hay Festival truly cares for public transport despite the huge benefits if offers.

[jammiedodger]

The British railway network needs restoring to the scale of 1960.

[Andrewjg_]

Shame that Hay-on-Wye railway station is permanently closed and long forgotten. And the nearest railway station is Hereford which doesn’t seem too far but yes it can take ages. If there’s lots of traffic and if there is an accident or broken down bus. Overall it’s nice to see you back on YouTube.

[Eric_Hunt]

"Why doesn't the Hay Festival do more for public transport?"

Because the Hay Festival is almost exclusively an event for the chatterring classes who care more about looking like worthy environmentally-conscious people that actually being genuinely considerate. Buses are for the poors, though such people would never phrase it in such terms. Genevieve and Tarquin couldn't possibly take the bus, they need their Range Rover to carry their large picnic hamper filled with Waitrose vegan sausage rolls, and to take all their signed James Martin cookbooks (hardback, of course) home again afterwards.

[tridentfire]

Great video! As a Herefordshire local who loves the festival, it is sad to see such neglect for one of few attractions that brings people to the county.

[TransportGeekery]

The First buses come from the Worcester garage so it makes sense to run some journeys to and from Worcester so passengers can potentially subside what would otherwise be dead mileage.

[firestarter]

I would put good money on the organiser of said festival being a land rover owner.

[trainworms]

this is one of the reasons i think that we should be restoring rail service to at *Least* every 1000+ population centre busses just don't have the reliability, capacity or
the ease of electrification for a sustainable future.

[TransportGeekery]

As a lot of visitors come from London, a shuttle bus (albeit less frequent) to Newport-Casnewydd would be a good idea as well. Hereford is slow to Paddington.

[mattevans]

Why fix public transport when you can have a captive audience, that you can berate and rinse for everything they are

It all goes far deeper than anyone would care to admit