After a gap of many years, the county council has again published a map of bus services in Lancaster and Morecambe. Funded through the Bus Service Improvement Plan (now known as Local Authority Bus Grant), the map is one of a series that will eventually cover the whole of the council’s administrative area.
The map shows all bus services in the area, irrespective of operator, in a common style and has been produced with input from the Bus Users’ Group. As well as a network map there are local area plans for Lancaster, Morecambe and Carnforth town centres as well as Lancaster University.
A section of the map showing services to the north-east of the city.
Such maps were once common throughout the country, usually produced by county councils or unitary authorities, but most, including Lancashire’s previous series, fell victim to austerity cut backs and continuing underfunding of local authorities. Even now, with the additional Local Authority Bus Grant funding available most councils have yet to re-start map production.
Copies of the map will be available free of charge at all libraries in the District and, hopefully, at Lancaster bus station, where an enlarged version is already on display in the Bus Users’ Group’s display case at the Cable Street entrance. We will also have some available at our meeting on March 19th in Lancaster library.
Unusually, the county council has not made the map available online, although a copy can be viewed on our website via these links:
The Summer 2026 Lake District timetables have been published
Stagecoach has published details of the summer 2026 timetables for services in the Lake District that start on 23rd March, including the 555 Lancaster – Keswick and 755 Heysham – Bowness buses. Most of the changes are for the better. The new Guide can be downloaded here.
Service 555
The big news on the 555 is that there will be more journeys running via the motorway, which saves almost 40 minutes between Lancaster and Kendal compared to the standard route via Carnforth and Milnthorpe.
“Motorway” buses will leave Lancaster at 0810, 0914 and 1214 on Monday to Saturday throughout the season, which ends on 1st November. These will be supplemented by departures at 1014, 1114, 1314, 1414 and 1514 that will run every Saturday and on Monday to Friday between 29 June and 18 September. All these journeys continue to Keswick.
Fast buses will return from Kendal 1340 (1200 from Keswick); 1640 (1500 from Keswick) and 1740 (1600 from Keswick on Mondays to Saturdays throughout the season, with additional journeys at 1240 1440 1540 and 1840 on all Saturdays and Monday to Friday between 29 June and 18 September. All these buses will start at Keswick 1h 40m before the Kendal times. However, the existing fast buses at 0633 and 0720 from Keswick to Lancaster are withdrawn.
On Sundays and Public Holidays there will be fast motorway buses at 0814 and 1014 from Lancaster to Keswick, returning at 1600 and 1800 from Keswick (1735 and 1930 from Kendal). The “winter” journeys at 0820 from Kendal and 1845 from Lancaster are withdrawn.
The Bus Users’ Group has previously called for more, faster buses between Lancaster and Kendal and is pleased to see that our pleas have not gone unnoticed.
The changes to the 755 are more modest and are designed to provide a more regular timetable. On Saturdays, the 1840 Bowness to Morecambe bus is extended to Ocean Edge arriving at 2035. There will also be evening journeys from Ocean Edge to Morecambe, Euston Road at 2005 on Monday to Friday; 1830 on Saturday and Sunday and 2040 on Saturday only,
Not included in the new Guide, although hopefully it will be in the future, is service X8, which runs on summer Saturdays from Chorley to Keswick that runs fast via the M6 and A591 to Windermere, then Keswick. For the 2026 season the service will call at Lancaster Bus Station at 1005 for Keswick and at 1820 for Preston and Chorley. As this is an express service, the £3 fare cap will not apply and concessionary bus passes are not valid, although passholders can buy a discounted North West Explorer ticket at £9 (full price £12). This ticket gives a days travel on all Stagecoach buses in Lancashire and Cumbria and you can buy it on any bus that you need to catch into Lancaster to connect with the X8.
The full X8 timetable and dates of operation aren’t available yet, but will be posted on our site as soon as they are..
Lancaster Bus Users' Group 