Author: Jim

The county council has announced how it intends to spend the £7m “Bus Service Improvement Plan 3” (BSIP3) funding it has been awarded by the Department for Transport. The bulk of the cash, £5.5m, will fund a Young Persons Discounted Fares Scheme whereby those aged 16-21 will be get a one-third discount on single, return and day tickets on all buses in the council’s administrative area.

The current “Weekender Ticket”, whereby day tickets bought on Saturday can be re-used on Sunday is being scrapped and the £995,000 allocated to this, together with £500,000 for fares initiatives in last year’s Plan, will be used to extend the £1 evening fare offer to all-day on Sundays. The Weekender offer was difficult to explain to passengers and not particularly well promoted, so the simpler “£1 single fare, any bus, all day on Sundays” should prove more attractive. The Young Persons Scheme is still being discussed with bus operators, but the Sunday £1 fare will start on 26^th May.

Service Enhancements

£1.32m will be allocated to improving bus services. For Lancaster this means that an hourly evening service (Monday to Saturday) will be introduced on service 10 to Ridge and 11 to Marsh as well as to Halton, Caton, Brookhouse and Hornby on service 81 or 82.

There are also plans to double the frequency of buses between Lancaster and Morecambe on service 100 via Bare on Sundays.

All three of these improvements were requested by the Bus Users’ Group following suggestions from members.  It is hoped by the council that the evening services at least will be introduced “for the summer”. There will also be a small improvement to the weekday morning timetable on service 42 Lancaster-Blackpool.

Bus Priority

Sadly, there has not been as much progress on the various bus priority schemes proposed under BSIP1. There have been further objections to the revised parking restrictions on Bowerham Road meaning that they will have to be reviewed, whilst the seemingly straightforward (to a layman’s eyes) improvement to bus priority at the junction of Scale Hall Lane and Morecambe Road has been referred back to the traffic signals team to “revise the initial proposal”, which rather suggests someone got it wrong first time.

The improvements to the junction of Bowerham and Barton Roads to make it easier for buses to negotiate need further survey work as “the gradient means further investigation is needed on how best to lay the junction out”. (The gradient is, of course, the principal reason why the junction needed improving in the first place!)

Bus priority at traffic signals on the city centre gyratory has been outsourced to contractors, but will have to wait until they have finished working of various projects in the Preston area before anything happens locally.

Blackpool is notorious for its lack of a bus station, with passengers – locals and visitors alike – having to work out which of several town centre shopping streets their bus might leave from.

Stagecoach’s service 42 to Lancaster leaves from one of two bus stops located on Abingdon Street, although until recently the only indication of which of those stops it might be was a tiny “42” sticker attached to the bus stop flag.

There was no indication as to where this “42” might go, still less when one might expect it to depart. With bus stop infrastructure in the town controlled by Blackpool Council there wasn’t much that Stagecoach could do about it – and even the “42” added to the sign looks to have been done so surreptitiously.

Change of Heart

But a recent visit to the resort by BUG’s roving reporter uncovered a development – and one which seems to have been authorised at a “high level”!

The previously empty display case now has a nice, clear departure list of buses on service 42 apparently provided by Blackpool Council.

Note, however, just how high up on the pole it has been fixed. The top of the case is at the same height as the top of the adjacent shelter, whilst the information on departures is placed right at the top of the case, putting it at a higher level than the top of the bus door!

Anyone tall enough to be able to read the display would have to bend double to get on the bus!

A common problem

This problem is not unique to Blackpool, as all vertically-challenged bus passengers will know. The BUG suspects it’s because the cases are fixed to the poles by staff who position them where it is most comfortable for them to do the work, without bending or stooping, whilst the computer software that produces the displays themselves is programmed to start at the top of the page irrespective of how much information needs to be provided on any particular display. (Anyone reading this from the bus company or the council please note!). Both these issues are fixable, but until then we can only suggest passengers carry one vital piece of equipment!