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Dales Bus is back this weekend.
DalesBus service 80 passes the iconic Ribblehead viaduct on its journey from Lancaster to Hawes (c)DalesBus The Summer Saturday DalesBus service from Lancaster to Ingleton, Ribblehead and Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales National Park is making a welcome return from this weekend.
DalesBus 80 will run every Saturday throughout the summer from 4th April between Lancaster, Hornby, Bentham, Ingleton, Ribblehead Station and Hawes. Buses leave Lancaster Bus Station at 0900 and 1530 returning from Hawes National Park Centre at 1105 and 1725
The timetable allows plenty of time to explore Hawes and the surrounding countryside, including the famous Hardraw Force waterfall at the Green Dragon Inn in Hardraw, the Dales Countryside Museum and Wensleydale Creamery. Onward connections to Leyburn on Wensleydale Voyager minibus 156. DalesBus 80 also provides a useful service for trips to Lancaster and other places along the route.
DalesBus 80 is operated by Lonsdale Buses as part of the DalesBus network managed by Dales and Bowland Community Interest Company with support from Lancashire County Council and York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority.
The maximum single fare on the route is £3, under 19s travel for just £1 each way and concessionary bus passes are now valid too.
Full details of the service are available online at www.dalesbus.org/80 and in leaflets available at Lancaster bus station, Lancaster library and other local outlets
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Welcome Aboard?
If you’ve been waiting at the stop on a cold, wet and windy night. there’s nothing more welcome than the sight of a warm and brightly-lit bus coming to pick you up and whisk you off homeward-bound.
But that wasn’t the experience of passengers on Stagecoach’s 1A yesterday evening around 10pm, who having boarded at Common Garden Street found themselves on a very different sort of bus….
A bus where:
The heating was either not working or had been switched off
Condensation was running down the windows
The “Next Stop” audio/visual system wasn’t working
There was litter and plastic bottles on the floor and some of the seats
The nearside lower-deck lights were switched off and the offside ones dimmed by 50%
The photo, taken on a mobile phone, if anything exaggerates the amount of light there was on the lower deck and the atmosphere on board was at best unwelcoming and at worst, to a vulnerable person or someone travelling alone, quite threatening.
No doubt there are excuses (or even valid reasons) for each of these failures, but put together they reflect poorly on the service offered to passengers, who we feel deserve better. If this had been the first time a passenger had used a bus they would be unlikely to make a second journey.
And this was on one of the newer buses, not one of Manchester’s cast-offs!
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Real Time Information at the bus stop
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 roundcomply 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,
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New bus map for Lancaster
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:
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Summer 2026 Buses to the Lakes
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 new 555 timetable is here.
Service 755
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,
The new 2026 Lakes Guide can be downloaded here.
Even Faster to the Lakes on the X8
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 X8 will operate on Saturdays from 28th March until 31st October 2026 and the timetable is on this link.
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Dales Bus back at Easter
Lancaster’s link to the Dales Bus network of summer weekend bus services in the Yorkshire Dales returns in 2026 with an extended season that begins on Saturday, 4th April – Easter weekend.
Operated by Lonsdale Buses, Dales Bus service 80 will link Lancaster to Ingleton, Ribblehead and Hawes every Saturday until 17th October. Two round trips will be provided, with buses leaving Lancaster at 0900 and 1530, returning from Hawes at 1105 and 1705. Connections will be made at Ribblehead station with the Yorkshire Dales Explorer trains from and to Rochdale and Manchester and at Hawes with the “Wensleydale Voyager” service 156 to Leyburn.
Passengers from Hawes and Ingleton will be able to use the service to visit Lancaster for a three-hour stay in the afternoon.
Bus Passes accepted and fares capped
In a change of policy, both the York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority and Lancashire County Council are providing financial support for the service, which has helped to extend the operating period to cover the full summer. Also, following representations from the Bus Users’ Group in previous years, another policy reversal will see English National Concessionary Bus Passes (“NoW Cards”) valid on the service for free travel. For passengers without passes, single fares will be capped at £3 per journey.
The service 80 timetable is here.
Attractions
Follow the links below for attractions to visit along the route of service 80 include
Ingleton and the Waterfalls Walk
Leyburn (change at Hawes to service 156) (Service 156 times)
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Wakey, Wakey!
Service 49 in Halton. Some children will have to get up earlier to get to school on time! Children travelling to Ripley St. Thomas Academy in Lancaster by bus, as well as adults going to the city centre from Carnforth, The Kellets, Halton, Bolton-le-Sands and Hest Bank are going to have to get out of bed earlier when the schools go back after half-term on 23rd February.
On service 49, the 0655 from Silverdale (0729 from Carnforth; 0754 from Halton) will be retimed to run ten minutes earlier, departing at 0645 and arriving at the school at 0820.
On service 55, the 0740 from Carnforth to Ripley Academy is also retimed to run ten minutes earlier, departing at 0730 and arriving at the school at 0820. The retimed journey replaces the existing 0727 Carnforth to Lancaster bus station, which is withdrawn, but there will be a new bus from Carnforth at 0710 arriving in Lancaster at 0743
No Late Night Shopping?
Service 6A at ASDA / Salt Ayre. Evening service will be withdrawn from this stop. In an unrelated change, also from 23rd February, the “attractions” of 24-hour supermarket shopping have evidently not proved strong enough amongst bus users, as Stagecoach will divert all service 6A (Lancaster – Westgate – Morecambe) journeys away from the ASDA Salt Ayre store after 19.00hrs each Monday to Saturday evening. Buses towards Morecambe will operate from Scale Farm Road via Ovangle Road and Morecambe Road to Homfray Avenue and then via Westgate and the existing route.
Buses towards Lancaster will operate from Westgate direct via Morecambe Road to Lancaster. The buses leaving Morecambe bus station at 1927 and every hour to 2327 will run two minutes earlier then now. There will be no changes to times from Lancaster bus station or to the Sunday service.
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Partnership brings success for Stagecoach
Service 555 taking on a good load at Windermere station Bus industry trade magazine Route One has an interesting article in which Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancs Managing Director, Tom Waterhouse, says that the company’s successful operations in the Lake District, including the iconic 555 service between Lancaster and Keswick, can be ascribed to working in partnership with local businesses, tourism boards and local authorities.
We were particularly pleased to note that he also feels that high-quality printed timetable information, distributed widely, has contributed to the success as well as the provision of modern, high-specification buses with appropriate branding!
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Any Old Iron?
A Manchester cast-off at work in Lancaster 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)
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Confusing Christmas Times
Passengers expect timetables to change at Christmas – it’s an old tradition after all. But can they reasonably expect to be able to find out when their buses will be running?
Not necessarily, at least if they rely on the internet and Stagecoach’s journey planner it seems!
Christmas Day
One thing that everybody knows is that there are no buses on Christmas Day. But if you were a visitor from Mars, or perhaps Edinburgh https://www.lothianbuses.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/LOTHIAN-XMAS-2025.pdf or, of course Switzerland where normal services are operated, you might want to check.
If, for example, you needed to travel to the University on Christmas Day you could make an enquiry on Stagecoach’s journey planner and would be happy to receive the following result:
Of course, having waited from 1258 until after 1358 (or any similar period throughout the day) without seeing either a 41 or a 100 you wouldn’t be very happy at all, as there are NO BUSES on Christmas Day, which everyone, except the people who run Stagecoach’s journey planner seem to know.
Christmas Week
Having been disappointed on Christmas Day, you might decide not to risk it on Boxing Day, which would be a shame as there is a limited service and the above JP result is correct, even though the times given are from the Infirmary stop, which is where the journey planner considers “Lancaster” actually is.
But surely the following day, Saturday, 27th December, won’t be a problem. Stagecoach is providing a Saturday service on the days between Christmas and New Year so that should be straightforward, shouldn’t it? Well, not exactly. A complication is that services to the University have different timetables depending on whether it is term time or vacation at the university. In particular, whereas in term time services 1 and 1A combine to provide a ten-minute frequency along the A6, during the vacation the 1 is withdrawn, leaving the 1A to run every 20 minutes along this stretch.
But make an enquiry to the Journey planner and what do you get?
A service 1 at 1233 (from the Infirmary, naturally) followed by a 1A at 1243 in a pattern repeated throughout the day giving the impression that there are twice as many buses to the campus as there actually are!
Strangely, the journey planner seems to know that in the vacations the 1A extends to the Graduate College (although it tells you to alight at the stop called “Lonsdale College” and walk, possibly because this is nearer to the actual Graduate College than the stop that has that name!), but it doesn’t know that during this time service 1 doesn’t serve the campus at all!
More confusion
Just to add to the confusion, the journey planner thinks that at least some service 100 buses (which in the vacation terminate at the Underpass) actually continue to the Graduate College as with the following enquiry concerning the 1254 (from the Infirmary of course) to the campus:
The online and printed timetables agree that service 100 terminates at the Underpass on 27th December and all other days during the vacation.
This post is being written on 14th December, by which time it is reasonable to expect passengers to be able to get correct information about services on Christmas Day and during Christmas Week. As far as the change of routes between the 1A and the 100 is concerned this happens every vacation and is not peculiar to Christmas so it ought to be in the journey planner automatically.
The Bus Users’ Group understands that Stagecoach’s website and journey planner are controlled centrally and not by our local Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancs staff, but someone, somewhere needs to sort this out – and in the case of Christmas Day (non) operation has eleven days to do it.
Lonsdale Buses
In the interest of balance, we looked to see what our other local operator was saying about Christmas and as long as you think to look under the “News” pages of its website the information seems clear enough. https://klch.co.uk/blog/article/christmas-operations/
JOIN US
Membership is open everyone and the subscription is £5 per annum (£2 for Bus Pass holders and students).
You can join either by
- Sending a cheque made payable to Lancaster Bus Users Group to Steve Clarke, 75 Spruce Avenue, Lancaster LA1 5UB together with your full name and contact details
- E-mailing office@lancasterbususers.com and asking for details of how to pay us directly by bank transfer
- Coming along to one of our meetings and paying there by cash or cheque.
- Meeting dates are shown on the left hand sidebar of this site.
Lancaster Bus Users' Group 