Real Time Information at the bus stop

by Jim
The display at Heysham Towers (c) Graeme Austin

Reports are coming in of the new real-time information displays that are being erected at bus stops in a number of places in the Lancaster District.

Being provided with funding from the government through the county council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan, the displays show forthcoming departures from stops and the actual time at which the buses can be expected to arrive.

So far, they have been seen at Heysham Towers, Euston Road, Morecambe and in Carnforth.

The displays show the name of the stop and the current time, followed by details of the next six buses due to arrive. Each line shows the service number, destination, arrival time and bus operator for the journey.

Common sense

It is unclear as to how far AI (“artificial intelligence) has played a part in the system, but it is good to see that “common sense” has been employed and the screens correctly describe the 755 as going to “Carnforth and Bowness”. This service has to registered in two parts, either side of Carnforth, to get round comply with the rules on working time for drivers, which are different for long-distance services. Many systems can’t cope with this and would erroneously show “Carnforth” as the destination, treating the extension to Bowness as a separate service and causing confusion to anyone expecting a bus to Bowness.

The bottom line of the display currently confirms that the system is still being tested, but presumably could be used for messages to be displayed to passengers in times of major disruption. As things are still under test, the county council would welcome any feedback and we will be happy to pass on any observations left in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

Meanwhile…

Lancaster’s earlier real time information display, at the bus station, has been out of use for some time, but we understand that moves are being made to get it operational again, hopefully before too long,

New bus map for Lancaster

by Jim

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 this link:

Lancaster & Morecambe Bus Network Map