HW: Hawkfest, public transportation

[Henderson Keith]

Hey...

With it just being a week away, I've started to (finally)
look into how exactly I'm going to get to the fest from
Preston Bahnhof via public transportation.

Uh...anyone else come up with anything?  I struck out.

'Commuter-type' trains seem useless...the one to Blackpool
stops at Salwick VERY occasionally, but that's not much
closer than Preston itself, so a waste of time there.
The one to Lancaster is completely worthless 'cause it
never stops *anywhere* in between, not even Garstang itself;
which seems like a decent-sized community worth an occasional
pause, but then that's coming from a Swiss-perspective where
trains accomodate individual dairy farms.

Buses?  No good either, I'm afraid.  The city buses from
Preston hardly go outside the nearest suburbs, so Cottam
is the end of the line there.  (Still well too far for a
comfortable hike w/ backpack.)  The regular 'inter-city'
bus (40/41) from Preston to Garstang (and Lancaster) *would* be
nice as it stops in Catteral, just to the east of St. Michaels.
But it says it only runs when 'school' is in session, and
I'm guessing that the first week of August is exactly the
wrong time for this to be available.  Garstang itself has
this 'Super 8' bus that goes from the center of town out west
toward the festival, and you can even call up and request
that they take you exactly where you want to go.  But there's
no way even to get to freaking Garstang in the first place,
so what good is that?  Now, I also found a timetable for
a mythical Bus 180/182 run by "Stagecoach in Lancashire"
that goes between Preston and Blackpool via a NW route that
goes near the festival along the Inskip-Great Eccleston stretch.
And it (would) run every hour.  BUT...the busline's own
website has absolutely no information about this particular
line, suggesting that the timetable I saw (on ukbus.co.uk)
is out-of-date (?), and that this bus has been eliminated.

So...I'm assuming that I'm not the only one coming without
their own means of local transportation in the area.  Did
anybody else manage to find something that they can confirm
*does* exist?

BTW, what time is the festival supposed to 'start' on Friday?
Both as far as music is concerned, and also when we're allowed
to set up camp and such.  I didn't see a time or anything at
hawkwind.com.  I guess I'll be arriving in Preston at around
2:15 in the afternoon Friday.  Is there any interest/possibility
of (a) group(s) getting together there and sharing some sort
of chartered transportation out to the grounds, such that
we all don't have to individually taxi out there at the expense
of many English (or Scottish) pounds?

Just wondering...Grakkl (FAA)

P.S.  My train-connection layover in Manchester is 10 minutes.
What is the likelihood of such a connection being missed due to
the lateness of the first train?  (Just so I know whether to plan
for that extra hour of travel time...like I do now coming from
Germany-to-Switzerland...although never the other way around.)