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No Dales Buses from Lancaster in 2024
Dales Bus service 830 at Reeth in Swaledale No summer Sunday buses to the Yorkshire Dales are likely to run from Lancaster for a second successive year as no local bus company appears to be in a position to operate them. After a two-year break due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the service returned in 2022 with two routes: the Northern Dalesman 830 to Richmond via Swaledale and the 881 to Malham Tarn and Malham village via Settle.
No service ran in 2023 due to changes to the the times of trains to and from Ribblehead, which meant it was impossible to provide attractive connections for the substantial proportion of the passengers that interchange with the Northern Dalesman there and without which the viability of the service would be called into question. The Malham Shuttle had also failed to attract sufficient passengers from the Lancaster end of the route to justify its operation that year.
The Dales & Bowland CIC, which commissions the services receives no public funding for any part of the network of services it provides and relies on donations and sponsorship to supplement income from fares. Neither Lancashire not North Yorkshire Councils will accept these services in their concessionary fares schemes or provide subsidy to bridge the gap between costs and fares income.
Hope for 2024
Following some progress on raising sponsorship funding for the 2024 season, it had been hoped to run both services from Lancaster between early May and the end of October and timetables had been drawn up. However, Dales & Bowland CIC has been unable to find a bus operator prepared to take on the work and has reluctantly concluded that it will not be possible to provide a service again this year.
All bus operators are known to be struggling to find sufficient staff to cover their normal day-to-day operations and both Stagecoach and Lonsdale Buses (as Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire now increasingly styles itself) now have additional service commitments on Sundays. Lonsdale Buses is operating an all-year round Sunday service between Lancaster and Knott End-on-sea for Lancashire County Council, whilst Stagecoach appears to have transferred some work on the 555 Lancaster-Keswick service to its Morecambe depot to provide extra fast journeys via the M6 on summer Sundays as it does on Saturdays and during high summer.
Alternatives?
Anyone looking for a day out in the hills by bus at the weekend may now need to consider the Lake District instead. Stagecoach’s Limited Stop X8 service from Chorley to Keswick will call again at Lancaster’s Caton Road Park & Ride site every Saturday from 30th March to 26th October. Buses will leave Caton Road at 1030 and return at 1801. A full timetable is on our website here X8 Chorley-Lancaster-Keswick
And as mentioned above, the summer Sunday timetable on the 555, introduced on 24 March, will see new express journeys from Lancaster at 0814 and 1014 running via the M6 to Kendal and continuing to Keswick, returning from Keswick at 1600 and 1800. The full timetable is here 555 Lancaster-Keswick
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Better Sunday Buses to the Lakes
Service 555 will have extra Sunday journeys via the motorway Stagecoach’s Summer 2024 Lakes Guide timetable sees a number of improvements to services in and to the Lakes from 23 March.
Better Sunday buses
Following a suggestion by the Bus Users’ Group to the Lancashire Enhanced Partnership (of bus operators and the county council) there will be improvements to the Sunday service on the 555 between Lancaster, Kendal and Keswick. The Sunday frequency remains two-hourly, but will be improved by the addition of new journeys that operate via the M6 Motorway. Two extra buses will leave Lancaster at 0814 and 1014 and, running fast to Kendal, will offer arrivals at Kendal (0901 and 1101), Windermere (0925 and 1125), Ambleside (0947 and 1147) and Keswick (1038 and 1238) up to 90 minutes earlier than at present.
Extra return buses will leave Keswick at 1600 and 1800; Ambleside at 1649 and 1847; Windermere at 1708 and 1905 and Kendal at 1735 and 1930 to arrive in Lancaster at 1816 and 2011. These buses will continue until the end of the summer timetable on 3rd November.
By using the first and last of the new journeys Lancaster passengers can spend over 7 hours in Keswick (previously just 2½ hrs) or 9 hours in Ambleside (instead of just under five) on Sundays.
Weekday changes
Changes to the weekdays timetable will see most buses leaving Lancaster five minutes earlier than at present, at 05 past the hour (with “motorway” journeys at 14 past the hour), although late afternoon and early evening times are unchanged. The first few southbound buses of the day run at different times (up to the 1015 from Kendal) but unfortunately co-ordination with the 55 between Carnforth and Lancaster is no better – just different!
Service 755 (Heysham (Ocean Edge) to Bowness-on-Windermere remains unchanged.
The X5 will see extra journeys thanks to funding from Westmorland & Furness Council Changes in the Lakes
Other significant changes in the Lakes include:
- Additional journeys for hospitality workers between Windermere and Barrow, thanks to funding support from Westmorland & Furness Council
- Advance confirmation of the Buttermere shuttle service 77C on peak weekends thanks to funding by the Strategic Visitor Management Group
- Enhanced Ullswater Hopper (UB1) timetable with new service 509 thanks to financial support from SITU.
- Increase in frequency on service 516 between Ambleside and Langdale to every 60 minutes
- Extra journeys on service 554 between Carlisle and Keswick
- Increase of frequency on services X4/X5 to every 30 minutes between Penrith and Keswick thanks to funding from Westmorland & Furness Council
The Summer 2024 Guide to The Lakes by Bus can be read or downloaded from Stagecoach’s website via this link: Lakes by Bus Summer 2024.
Printed copies will also be available from many outlets, including Lancaster bus station and Lancaster Library as well as on most buses in the Lakes.
The new 555 timetable is here: 555 Summer 2024 timetable
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Smile Please at the Bus Station
One of four new cameras at the bus station In a bid to improve security at Lancaster bus station, the city council has installed four CCTV cameras aimed at combating anti-social behaviour (ASB).
The cameras, mounted on the columns down each side of the station, have been placed there following concerns about the bus station becoming a hot-spot for ASB. The council’s records show that there were 152 recorded “incidents” in 2023 of which 37 were categorised as ASB.
The installation comes at a time when Lancashire County Council is developing a pilot project toi combat anti-social behaviour on buses and at bus stops and stations, funded through the Bus Service Improvement Plan, which will employ a task force of six “transport safety officers” across the county council’s area and Lancaster City Council is believed to be making a case for Lancaster to be included.
The Bus Users’ Group welcomes both these initiatives because although in a recentr survey by Transport Focus 81% of Lancashire bus passengers rated safety and security as “fairly or very good” anything that makes the remaining 19% of passengers feel safer must be a good thing.
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Electrics to the Battery (and beyond)?
The new buses could be similar to this one recently delivered to Stagecoach in Cambridge. (Photo: (c) Andrew Stoppard) A fleet of 31 new battery-powered electric buses could be coming to Lancaster if a funding bid by Lancashire County Council is successful.
The County Council is seeking £15.75m from the government’s ZEBRA (Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas) Fund, set up under the National Bus Strategy of 2021 to help bus operators transition away from diesel-powered vehicles to cleaner and greener buses. The bid also includes provision for similar buses to convert some Stagecoach and Preston Bus services in and around Preston.
The new buses would be used on services 1/1A, 2X and 100 on the University – Lancaster – Morecambe – Battery -Heysham corridor. The bid is supported by Lancaster City Council as a contribution towards its aim to reduce air pollution in the city centre Air Quality Management Zone, where pollution levels are significantly higher than they ought to be. The grant would be passed on to the bus operators and would meet 75% of the difference between the price of an electric bus and its diesel equivalent. The balance of the cost will be met by the bus operators and the funding will also meet 75% of the cost of installing the necessary equipment to re-charge the buses at White Lund depot. None of the costs of either the buses or the charging infrastructure will fall upon the council.
The total available in what is the second round of ZEBRA funding is £129m, with at least 25% reserved for rural areas, for which Lancaster does not qualify. The council’s bid is therefore in the second priority group (out of three), which is “non-rural authorities that did not receive funding in the first round”.
Interest amongst local authorities has been higher than expected. Matthew Moll, Enhanced Partnership Manager for the County Council said: “Almost every Local Transport Authority in England seems to have submitted a bid to the ZEBRA fund, so there is going tobe a high level of competition. However, I feel that we have put in a good-quality bid”
Of course, the new electric buses would not be the first to grace the city’s streets. Lancaster Corporation Transport was an early pioneer in electrically-powered buses, with its first examples being put into service as long ago as 1916. It has to be said that these primitive vehicles were not a huge success, being unsuited to Lancaster’s hills and they spent most of their lives on the relatively flat Caton Road service. Nevertheless they lasted until 1929, which was just as long as many motor buses of the time.
A decision on the bid is due to be announced in March and buses funded under the scheme are expected to enter service no later than January next year.
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Shake-up on the Sixes
The New Year will see a re-organisation of Stagecoach services 6 and 6A that link the Westgate area with Lancaster and Morecambe, which will see service 33 replaced by two new routes to give an improved service and new links to Bare and Branksome.
Service 33 will disappear under the new arrangements Here is a summary of the changes, which will come into effect on 14th January 2024
6A Lancaster – Westgate – Morecambe
The through journeys between Lancaster and Morecambe will continue as service 6A with only minor changes to timetables, the biggest being the retiming of late evening journeys to run five minutes earlier than now and of Sunday trips to run eight to ten minutes later.
6 Morecambe – Westgate
One of the two service 6 journeys each hour between Morecambe bus station and Westgate will be renumbered 6B and will continue to Branksome, Lancaster Road, Sainsbury’s, Burlington Avenue, Beaufort Road, Strickland Drive, Lonsdale Road, Bare Lane, Oak Avenue, Princess Crescent and Marine Road East and the promenade to Central Drive for the Festival Market and Morecambe bus station.
The new service 6B route will be an anti-clockwise circular. 33 Morecambe – Bare Circular
Service 33 will be replaced by new service 6C which will run from Morecambe bus station via Central Drive, Euston Road, Thornton Road, Lord Street, Marine Road East, Bare, Princes Crescent, Oak Avenue, Bare Lane, Lonsdale Road, Strickland Drive, Beaufort Road, Burlington Avenue, Lancaster Road, Sainsbury’s, Branksome, Westgate and then as the existing service 6 route to the Festival Market and Morecambe bus station.
The new service 6C route will be a clockwise circular The new pattern retains the two buses an hour between Lancaster, Westgate and Morecambe as well as the four buses an hour between Westgate and Morecambe during the day time, although passengers will have to get used to the Westage bus being either a 6, 6A, 6B or 6C!
Passengers on most of the current 33 route will see the number of buses more than doubled (although the two buses an hour from the bus station will leave at similar times). They will benefit, however, from later departures on service 6C at 1734 and 1834 to Bare and Branksome, whilst the current 160-minute gap in the service on schooldays between 1400 and 1640 is eliminated, with only the 1539 service 6B journey running “school holidays only” and new 6C journeys at 1434,1534 and 1634 throughout the year.
The first bus of the day will be at 0908 from Branksome and 0913 from Bare (currently 0929 and 0935) and the last bus from Bare to Morecambe at 1808 (1813 from Branksome).
Altogether, the number of buses to Bare and Branksome increases from 8 on schooldays / 11 on Saturdays and school holidays to 18 on schooldays and 19 on Saturdays and school holidays.
New Links
The new services open up a number of new journey possibilities for passengers such as
Bare and Branksome to Westgate and the West End and vice-versa.
Westgate and Branksome to the full length of Morecambe promenade between Bare and Regent Road.
Buses in both directions between Sainsbury’s and Westgate, Branksome and Bare.
Commercial or Contract?
Not that it will bother the passengers, but the new services are an interesting mix of commercial and contract operation. The 6 and 6A are fully-commercial services, provided by Stagecoach without any assistance from the county council. The 33 on the other hand was a fully-supported service paid for by Lancashire County Council and which until 2021 was operated by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire. Stagecoach won the contract on retendering in March of that year with an expiry date of October 2023 and it is not clear whether the contract has been extended or whether Stagecoach is now to run the whole service commercially.
The new timetable can be read and downloaded here:
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Christmas and New Year Buses 2023/4
Stagecoach has published details of bus services operating over the Christmas and New Year period. The timetables are similar to those that have applied in previous yearsOn Christmas Eve, Sunday, 24th December, a normal SUNDAY service will operate until approximately 1900hrs. The times of last buses are shown in the leaflet available by clicking here.
There is no service on Christmas Day, Monday 25th December
On Boxing Day, Tuesday 26th December, a special timetable will operate on services 1A, 2X, 6A, 41, 55 and 100 Full timetables are shown in the leaflet available by clicking here.
On Wednesday 27th, Thursday 28th and Friday 29th December a SATURDAYtimetable will operate on all services.
On Saturday, 30th December a normal Saturday service will operate.
On New Year’s Eve, Sunday, 31st December, a normal SUNDAY service will operate until approximately 1900hrs. The times of last buses are shown in the leaflet available by clicking here.
There is no service on New Year’s Day, Monday 1st January 2024
On Tuesday, 2nd January 2024 a SATURDAY timetable will operate on all services
Normal service resumes on Wednesday, 3rd January 2024
For full details please see the special Christmas & New Year Bus Service leaflet available via this link or pick up a paper copy from Lancaster bus station.
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.
