Preston park and ride

Optare Solo bus in the previous Preston Bus park and ride livery in December 2007
Service area	Preston
Service type	Bus services
Destinations	Preston
Fleet	Optare Solo SR
Operator	Preston Bus
Website	Preston Bus Park and Ride

Preston park and ride is a park-and-ride scheme in the city of Preston in Lancashire, England, operated by Rotala subsidiary Preston Bus (formerly Stagecoach in Preston).

The park and ride system consists of two car parks at Portway and one at Walton-le-Dale, connected by bus routes to the city centre; the Portway route also serves Preston railway station. The services do not run on Sundays, and a reduced service operates on bank holidays. The car parks are free, with users paying for the bus journey.

Before 4 March 2013, the Portway and Walton-le-Dale sites were served by separate routes:

Preston Bus took over operation of the park and ride service in 1991; services had previously been provided by Ribble. It originally consisted of one site, at Portway in the Riversway Docklands area. The second, at Capitol Way in Walton-le-Dale, was opened on 1 December 2002.

In June 2009, a third site was opened, at Bluebell Way in Fulwood. Served by the "Orbit" routes 88A and 88C rather than having its own dedicated service, it was unpopular due to higher fares and infrequent bus service and was closed in January 2011.

In February 2013, it was announced that the two park and ride routes would be combined from 4 March, to create a route (Route 1) through the city centre.

The through route was affected by congestion along Fishergate when the street was being made into a shared space, and in May 2016 the routes were separated again to improve reliability. Most journeys from the Portway site (which became Route 2) were replaced by a diversion of Route 89.

The park and ride service is run using Optare Solo SR buses. In 2011, hybrid Optare Versa buses were introduced on the Walton-le-Dale service but these were transferred to other services when the park and ride was run as a through route. Preston Bus was the first operator of Optare Solo SR buses, as eight were acquired for the Park & Ride routes, five of which entered service in May 2008.