In what must be seen as a vote of confidence in Lancaster’s night-time economy, the return of university students this week brings an upgrade to the city’s only late-night bus service.
The N1, linking the city centre to Lancaster University’s campus during term time, has a new timetable from 28th September. The full early morning service now runs on four mornings a week (Thursdays to Sundays) with Tuesdays and Wednesdays seeing a single trip in each each direction.
Route extended
The route of the service has been extended in the city to take in stops at Parliament Street, St. Leonards Gate and opposite Sainsbury’s to cater for passengers from the Sugarhouse and Kanteena night-time venues, whilst on campus it now extends beyond the Underpass to the Graduate College to bring sgtudents closer to the residential areas of the university.
Extra resources
The new service requires an extra vehicle and driver and represents a significant investment by Stagecoach in the service, although the cost of this is mitigated somewhat by the cancellation of the free “Sugarbus” service that the Students Union commissioned from Stagecoach twice a week. Unlike the Sugarbus however, the N1 caters for all passengers and is not resricted either to students or patrons of any particular establishment in the city.
Late night/early morning bus services are very rare outside major cities and extremely so in towns and cities the size of Lancaster and the city is fortunate to be able to benefit from this one.
