The arrival of two yellow buses from Manchester’s Bee Network in the city has underlined the increasing age of Lancaster’s buses. The eighteen-year-old buses were previously part of the Stagecoach Manchester fleet, which holds the franchise for part of the Bee Network. Transport for Greater Manchester, which manages the franchise, is known to be keen to reduce the age of buses operating on its network and to replace older, diesel buses with new electric ones.
As well as introducing yet another livery variation to the city’s fleet (we make it eight different ones now!)* the move highlights how old the fleet has become. The average age of Stagecoach buses based at Morecambe depot is now around 11.6 years, with more than a quarter being over 15 years and only 25% less than eight years old.
Where did they go?
The last significant influx of new buses came in 2018/19 with a total of 32 double-deckers arriving in two batches and put to work on services 1/1A and 100. At the time, Stagecoach said this represented an investment of £6.8m. The investment was welcomed by the City Council as the city centre is an Air Quality Management Zone where pollution levels exceed legal limits and the cleaner-engined new buses would help to correct this. A further sum of £288,000 was provided by the council to retro-fit older buses with new engines at the time.
It appears from the website Bus Times.org that of the 32 buses delivered in 2018/9 only 26 now remain at Morecambe depot, the rest having been transferred elsewhere. To replace them have come a motley collection of sixteen, eighteen and even nineteen year old buses.
Exception to the rule
Last July, Stagecoach’s Commercial Director told the Bus Users’ Group that there were no plans for new buses to be delivered to Morecambe as the Group was focussing its vehicle-replacement policy on electric buses, which Morecambe isn’t equipped to run.
There has been one exception since then, with the arrival of three recent smaller buses that are required to work the 88/89 service to Knott End, as Lancashire County Council imposes an age limit on buses used on its contracted services and none of the available existing fleet met that limit.
Electric?
Lancashire County Council and Stagecoach are keen to see electric buses operate from Morecambe, but a bid to the government’s “ZEBRA” scheme for the necessary funding was unsuccessful. The county council is believed to be still interested in pursuing the matter and is hopeful of identifying alternative funding.
*The eight different Stagecoach liveries to be seen in Lancaster are:
The new “we’ve got you” dark blue
The previous standard “local bus” livery
The standard livery before that (the “beach ball”)
The Lakes blue/green
The Lakes with 555 branding
The British Legion blue (1 bus)
The Ribble historic livery (1 bus)
Bee Network yellow (2 buses, presumably temporary)
Lancaster Bus Users' Group 