Nottingham Transportation

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Just a short bus ride from Nottingham and the Bonio's favourite airport - close to home and easy to get to.
Most of the low cost carriers can be found operating from here and the large package firms too.

see the website for up to date details.

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East Midlands Aiport isn't really in or very near Nottingham, to be honest. It's nearer to Derby. But it has good onward transport links to both places (and to Leicester). The airport website will give you details.

There is plenty of parking, but it's best to book online in advance for best prices. UK airport parking is always expensive.

The airport serves budget airlines as well as mainstream, so it's a good choice if you want to visit the East Midlands area.

It's very small with just one terminal. There are places to eat/drink/shop, although most of these are after security. There's only one cafe in the departures area.

One big advantage of using such a small airport is that there are rarely long queues for security (other than at times in the UK school holidays) or for immigration/baggage reclaim.

When traveling into major cities or towns in the uk, use the Park and Ride facilities to avoid getting caught up in traffic congestion and parking nightmare scenarios. This is also a green and environmentally friendly form of travel. A list of park and ride sites around the country can be found at www.parkandride.net the National Park and ride Directory. Here you'll find timetables price information there is also an interactive map and route planner, to help plan your journey.

There are two large bus stations in Nottingham for local and out of area buses. There are also lots of stops around the city and outlying areas. The city centre is now much more pedestrianised than it used to be and some bus stops have moved. The cost of a ticket is about £1.30 one way. Some buses have lowered floors to make it easier for pushchairs and wheelchair users but not all so check before you use. There's still a lot of double decker buses.

The green buses are for the city of Nottingham and the orange ones tend to go to Mansfield. There's also the Red Arrow which goes mostly direct to Derby quite quickly.

Some parts of Nottingham now have a new form of transport - the Tram. It runs from Hucknall upto the train station via the main centre of Nottingham and costs £2.20 for an all day ticket (other fares available - see the website). The trams are frequent (mostly every 10ish minutes in peak times and 10-30 minutes off peak) and clean. There's limited seats but plenty of handles to hold whilst standing. Each stop is mentioned by a computerised voice so you know where you are.

Getting a ticket is usually via a conductor on the tram but some busy spots (park and ride etc) have a ticket machine or a person selling the tickets before you get on to save time (and make sure no-one avoids the fare!!)

I think there's plans to extend the tram system but don't know where.

In Spring 2004 the first line of Nottingham's tram system (NET) opened, taking passengers from the railway station, through the heart of the City Centre and out to the suburbs of Hyson Green, Bulwell and Hucknall. The Park and ride systems at Phoenix Park (off j26 of the M1) and the Forest recreation ground are also served with tram stops.
Visitors can buy a "Kangaroo" ticket to make journeys all day on the tram, buses and trains in the City area.

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Trams were reintroduced to Nottingham in 2004. There is currently one line, which runs from Nottingham Station, through the Lace Market and old Market Square, then northward to Bulwell and Hucknall. There are plans to extend the network. The trams run from around 6am to midnight. You can travel all day on the trams for £2.20, but it is better to buy a CityRider ticket for £2.50, which entitles you to travel all day on Nottingham's buses as well as trams. You can buy the tickets on the trams.

East Midlands airport was supposed to be the regional airport for Nottingham, Leicester and Derby. After some argument it was recently re-named Nottingham East Midlands Airport despite the fact there is already (very small) Nottingham airport. Apparantly foreign vistors had trouble recognising the existence of 'East Midlands' but found 'Nottingham' much easier to place.

With the growth of low-cost airlines such as Easyjet and BMIbaby it is now quite a busy place. Gone are the days when Jasper Carrot could reasonably describe East Midlands Airport as the only airport he knew 'With a cattle Grid on the runway'.

Despite all the development transport links are still not great. The 'Rainbow 5' bus into Nottingham from the aiport is certainly cheap - but is also quite slow taking about an hour.

UPDATE NOV 05 - Rainbow 5 still exists, but there is now a much faster direct service operating 24hrs a day called 'airlink 777' or something similar. Details on the airport website