From last week, passengers travelling on Lonsdale Buses’ service between Lancaster and Skipton (picture above) suddenly found that the £3 fare, capped under a government scheme, no longer applied throughout the route and they were being asked to pay again if their journey took them across Kirkby Lonsdale and/or Settle. This was said to be because the through journeys were registered as separate services either side of those points.
Following discussions between the operator and the Bus Users’ Group, the fare cap has been reinstated for journeys across Kirkby Lonsdale, such as Lancaster to Ingleton or Lancaster to Settle, but passengers continuing to Skipton will have to pay again from Settle onwards. We are awaiting further clarification regarding the effect on through journeys to Ingleton and Bentham on service 583 that were initially also affected.
Cheaper on the app?
Some passengers may find it cheaper to take advantage of special tickets now available on Lonsdale Buses’ new app. all of which give unlimited travel on all the company’s services (excluding special school buses) for the period covered.
Day Ranger Ticket – £9
Lonsdale Network Weekly – £25 adult; £20 under 19s
Stagecoach has published the Summer 2025 edition of its Guide to bus services in the Lake District, which includes services 555 and 755 to and from Lancaster and Morecambe and which comes into effect on 31st March.
Service 555 Lancaster – Kendal – Keswick
Service 555 in Kendal
Motorway Extras
As usual, the summer timetable sees the introduction of extra journeys between Lancaster and the Lakes running via the M6 motorway. Northbound buses will leave Lancaster at 09.14 and hourly to 15.14 complementing the all-year round service and taking 39 minutes off the journey time between Lancaster and Kendal.
Southbound journeys via the M6 will leave Kendal at 10.40, then Keswick at 12.00 (Kendal 13.40) and hourly until 18.00 (19.35 from Kendal). All the above journeys will run on Monday to Friday between 30th June and 26th September and ALL Saturdays until 2nd November, which is when Stagecoach’s very generous interpretation of “summer” ends.
New peak-hour buses
New for this year are additional peak-hour buses between Lancaster, Kendal and Keswick via the M6 that will run on Monday to Saturday throughout the period of the summer timetable. These will leave Lancaster at 08.10 arriving in Kendal at 08.51 and Keswick at 10.38, returning from Keswick at 16.00 and Kendal at 17.40 to arrive Lancaster at 18.22
Sundays
The Sunday and public holiday timetable is largely unchanged from last summer. The extra motorway journeys leaving Lancaster at 08.14 and 10.14 and returning from Keswick at 16.00 and 18.00 that were introduced last year following a suggestion from the Bus Users’ Group return for another season and as usual the 08.20 Kendal-Lancaster and 18.45 Lancaster – Kendal are withdrawn for the summer.
Service 755 Heysham – Carnforth – Bowness-on-Windermere
Service 755 at Carnforth
After several years of a remarkably static timetable, service 755 gets its second revamp in as many years for the new season.
The biggest changes are on Monday to Friday, especially in the peak, when the long-standing journey at 08.05 from Ocean Edge to Kendal, which only operated in school holidays south of Carnforth, is replaced by a journey starting in Lancaster at 07.20 that runs via the Bay Gateway to Combermere Road (07.35) and then continues through to Bowness-on-Windermere and runs throughout the season.
A return facility is provided by a bus leaving Bowness at 15.50 to Combermere Road (17.42) and Lancaster, bus station at 18.04. This replaces the 16.05 from Bowness to Ocean Edge that ran only in School Holidays north of Morecambe.
There are changes to times of most other Monday to Friday journeys on this service.
Saturday
On Saturday, the timetable is largely unchanged, but there is a small improvement to the evening service with a new journey departing Ocean Edge at 20.40 to Euston Road, utilising a bus that currently runs “not in service” to the depot.
Sunday
On Sunday and public holidays the 16.30 Ocean Edge to Carnforth journey is extended to Kendal, arriving 17.59 and returning from Kendal at 18.07 through to Ocean Edge at 19.25 It provides a connection at Kendal from the 16.30 service 555 journey from Kendal and offers a later facility for visitors to the central Lakes from Morecambe on Sunday.
The X8 Returns
Not included in the Lakes Guide, probably because it is operated by a different part of the Stagecoach group, service X8 provides a fast, motorway service from Chorley and Preston to Keswick and The Lakes, calling at Lancaster’s Park & Ride site at Caton Road. For the coming season the service will operate every Saturday between 5th April and 1st November, calling at the Park & Ride at 10.20 to arrive Keswick at 11.50 and returning from Keswick at 16.30 via Grasmere, Ambleside and Windermere to arrive Caton Road at 18.01.
Service 567 Kendal – Kirkby Lonsdale – Ingleton
Slightly outside the Lancaster area, but probably of interest to local bus users, this service is shown in the Lakes Guide for the first time, being the last of Stagecoach’s interurban services from Kendal to be included.
The move co-incides with the return of the service on a regular basis to Ingleton, with five journeys in each direction between Ingleton and Kendal every Saturday complemenmting the college days-only service currently provided.
Full details of the above and all Stagecoach Lake District services can be seen and downloaded via this link to the Lakes By Bus Guide 2025
As ever, Stagecoach is to be complimented on producing such a high-quality publication that is comprehensive, widely distributed and which has both a “start” and an “end” date that allows the certainty and stability that is so important, especially to new or casual users that must make up a large part of its target market.
Lancaster Bus Users' Group 