Getting Around, Derby Travel, Transport and Car Rental
(Derby, Derbyshire, England, UK)
A relatively central English city and therefore easy to reach by road and rail transport, Derby also provides good travel connections to the East Midlands Airport. Shopaholics will be pleased to learn that there is free bus transport known as the 'Shopper Hopper', which provides a handy way to travel between the Westfield Derby shopping mall and the more centrally located Cathedral Quarter.
Derby operates excellent Park and Ride schemes, although there are a good choice of car parks in the city centre if required. For long-distance travel, rail transport offers the best selection of destinations, although cheaper National Express buses may be the preferred option. In the city centre, Derby is highly suitable for pedestrians, with most places of interest being easily walkable.
East Midlands Airport (EMA) / Arriving by Air
Address: Ashby Road / A453, Castle Donington, Derby, DE74 2SA, England, UK
Tel: +44 0871 919 9000
East Midlands Airportserves the cities of Derby,
Leicester and
Nottingham, being located at Castle Donington and just 9 km / 6 miles to the south-east of the city. The airport now serves over four million travellers annually and currently ranks as the United Kingdom's tenth busiest airport. Scheduled and chartered airlines at Derby's East Midlands Airport include BMI, Eastern Airways, EasyJet, Jet2.com, Ryanair, Thomas Cook and Thomson Airways, with the most popular destinations being
Aberdeen,
Antalya,
Belfast,
Bodrum,
Brussels,
Cancun,
Cincinnati,
Cologne,
Dublin,
Edinburgh,
Exeter,
Frankfurt,
Gran Canaria,
Jersey,
Larnaca,
Leipzig,
Luton,
Madrid,
Malaga,
New York,
Newcastle,
Orlando,
Paphos,
Paris,
Rome and
Sharm el Sheikh. In the summer months, seasonal flights from the East Midlands Airport travel to holiday destinations such as
Alicante,
Corfu,
Crete,
Faro,
Fuerteventura,
Ibiza,
Kos,
Lanzarote,
Mallorca, Malta,
Menorca,
Naples,
Rhodes,
Tenerife and
Thessaloniki.
Car Rental
Due to its relatively central location, Derby enjoys excellent road connections throughout
England, being close to the M1 motorway, which links the city with
London to the south, and
Leeds and
Sheffield to the north. Further prominent roads include the A6 to
Leicester and
Manchester, the A38 to
Bristol and
Birmingham, as well as both the A52 and the A61. Those with their own car will find that although this is a convenient way to travel outside of the city, parking in central Derby can be quite pricey, and often prefer to use the park and ride services available at Pride Park and the Meteor Centre. In you are looking to hire a car for the duration of your stay, then the best choice is to be found at nearby East Midlands Airport.
Buses and Coaches
Local bus transport in Derby is operated by several different companies, with the most obvious being Arriva Midlands and Trent Barton. Although there are some long-distance buses and coaches, the choice of routes is fairly limited, with National Express buses stopping off in Derby as they travel between Manchester and London, and the South West and Yorkshire. Some buses also travel to Nottingham, which is a particularly popular route with a journey time of around 45 minutes. The city's glitzy new bus station is part of the controversial Riverlights development, which also comprises hotels, restaurants and a casino, and cost more than £100 million in total.
Taxis
Taxis are on hand close to the train and bus stations, being ideal for short journeys to central hotels. If you are planning a night out at the Guildhall theatre or similar, then you may like to telephone ahead and arrange for a taxi to pick you up after the performance.
Trains
The city's railway station is to be found on the south-easterly side of central Derby, off Station Approach and the Pride Parkway, and is served by CrossCountry trains and East Midlands Trains. From here, trains travel to London on an hourly basis, with this journey lasting approximately two hours and ultimately reaching Chesterfield, Sheffield and also Leeds. Small railway stations are situated close by in the suburbs of Spondon and Peartree, although the services here are quite limited.
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