Lancaster Bus Users' Group

Lonsdale Buses is to extend its 85 service, which currently runs between Carnforth and Morecambe, through to Lancaster. The revised route and timetable will be introduced on 6th July, following requests from passengers according to the company’s website.

The revised service will provide through buses to Lancaster from stops along the Coastal Road and Marine Drive between Bare and Hest Bank. It is not clear from the website what route buses will take between Morecambe and Lancaster, nor has the actual timetable been announced, although the website promises a “regular service” six days a week.

Better spacing of buses?

At present, the 85 is timed to run just a few minutes ahead of Stagecoach’s long-established service 5 between Morecambe and Carnforth. The service revision is an obvious opportunity to correct this anomaly and give passengers a better choice of buses between these points, as well as the advantage of a through service to Lancaster from those sections of the route that do not currently enjoy this facility and we hope this will be the outcome.

The new route and timetable will be posted on this website as soon as they are available.

Bus passengers travelling north and west from Lancaster bus station are finding their journeys getting off to an easier start with a change in priority at the Damside Street exit.

Every one of the County Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plans of the last few years has promised various bus priority measures on the city’s streets, although all of them seem to have been delayed or quietly abandoned following objections or lack of capacity to implement them. But suddenly, a scheme that hasn’t featured in any of them has appeared at the heart of the city’s bus network.

Buses leaving the bus station via Damside Street have previously had to give way to traffic coming from their right. Damside Street isn’t the busiest of the city’s roads but buses have always had to approach the exit with the expectation that they would have to give way, which frequently they would be required to do.

Now, however, “Give Way” markings have appeared on Damside Street and buses leaving the bus station now have the priority.

The actual time savings may be small (and buses using Damside Street to enter the bus station from Cable Street actually lose the priority they previously enjoyed) but as the saying goes: “Every little helps” and hopefully this is just the first of many measures to make life easier for the city’s bus drivers and passengers alike.