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Passengers at Hest Bank wishing to travel to Lancaster or Carnforth on service 55 will have a long walk to a bus stop from next week when Stagecoach introduces a further diversion on the service.

Problems began earlier in the month when overhanging trees on Peacock Lane caused difficulties for the double-deckers resulting in at least one broken window. The recent heavy rain has exacerbated the problem. Buses were initially diverted via Shady Lane, meaning that stops at the Memorial Hall, Peacock Lane and Sunningdale Avenue could not be served. Whilst recognising the inconvenience to passengers, Stagecoach say that they felt that safety was paramount.

Unfortunately, further problems were encountered and so from Saturday, 13th June a further diversion will see buses using Throstle Grove instead. This means that unless some temporary stops are provided at Hasty Brow, the only stop on the Hest Bank loop off the A6 still being served will be Beech Grove, which is only just off the main road anyway.

Tree Lopping

The diversion is said to be “until further notice”, but the Bus Users’ Group understands that Stagecoach is holding urgent discussions with Lancashire County Council, with a site meeting being held to identify the problem trees being held next week. The situation is potentially complicated by it being the bird nesting season. Tree work is only possible between April and August providing that it can be shown that nesting birds are unaffected. Our Group will be supporting Stagecoach by stressing to Lancashire County Council the serious affect that the diversion is having on passengers.

Single deckers?

Only double-deck buses are affected, but these are standard for the 55, at least during the daytime. Stagecoach tell us that they have only a limited number of single-deckers and these are needed for routes such as the 4 and 49 that have to negotiate low bridges. Some of the smaller single deckers might not have the capacity for the 55. The company also feels that having the diversion operating only at certain times of the day would prove confusing for passengers.

Alternatives

Everyone concerned hopes that the situation can be resolved quickly, but if it drags on we would hope that Stagecoach will reconsider the use of Shady Lane and/or single deckers. We also suggest that a temporary stop could be erected at the Hasty Brow junction, which is at least a bit nearer to the village.

Passengers from Peacock Lane do have the alternative of walking to the Coastal Road to pick up service 5 if going to Carnforth and should the problem persist beyond the 6th July they may find that Lonsdale Buses’ revised 85 service a means of getting to Lancaster as well.

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.

Our website now contains a link to Bus Times.org, a website containing

• Real Time Locations of all buses in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man
• Timetables for bus services throughout the British Isles
• Locations, names, photographs, and departure lists of all bus stops
• Website links to all bus operators.

Bus Times is an independent and unofficial site, but it surpasses in the breadth and quality of its information anything yet produced by bus operators, local authorities or government departments. It is free to use.

It is the only website that shows buses of every bus operator, in real time, on a single map and contains links to timetables for every bus route in the UK, plus Ireland and the Isle of Man. On a working day it usually tracks over 25,000 buses of almost 1,000 bus operators calling at around 420,000 bus stops!

Its bus tracking service is thought by many to be more reliable that those provided in bus companies’ own apps and websites.

This map – a screenshot from a Sunday morning centered on Lancaster – shows what to expect, with buses from Stagecoach, Lonsdale Buses, Blackpool Transport, Archway, Preston Bus, Blackburn Bus Co and others all shown together on one map. Clicking on a bus icon tells you which service it is operating, where it is, and whether it is on time. There are links to the full timetable for the service and, for those who are interested, details of the bus itself complete with photographs. Zooming in on the map will show the exact location of bus stops, again with photos, and departure lists of buses from the stop with scheduled and real times.

You can access Bus Times from the menu on this website’s header or from this link: Bus Times.org

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 4^th 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

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 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!