Lancaster Bus Users' Group

Lancaster Bus Users’ Group has published a new leaflet with ideas to tempt people to get out and about on the buses this spring and summer and take full advantage of the cap on bus fares to a maximum of £2 per journey.

Although Stagecoach and the county council do a good job in making basic timetable information available to the public, in both digital and printed formats, neither appear to do much to encourage local people or visitors to use the buses or to make trips to places that they may not have realised were easily accessible by bus.

This is in complete contrast to the Lake District, where Stagecoach produces a 72-page full-colour booklet, twice a year, packed full of timetables, maps and details of local attractions.

Although the Group doesn’t have Stagecoach’s resources to replicate that publication for north Lancashire, it has, with generous financial assistance from transport watchdog Travel Watch North West, been able to publish a more modest leaflet that aims to do the same job of encouraging more use of local buses.

Lancaster Bus Users’ Group Chair, Jim Davies said:

“With bus fares frozen at a maximum of £2 per journey for the rest of the year, now is the perfect time to get out and explore north Lancashire and neighbouring counties without a car.

“We hope existing bus passengers will take the opportunity to try a route or find a destination that is new to them, whilst those new to buses will find our guide helpful in choosing where to go.”

Local attractions

The leaflet itemises seven local attractions that can easily be reached by bus from Lancaster, ranging from short-distance trips to Williamson Park Crook o’ Lune and Glasson Dock, to longer, more adventurous rides to Silverdale, Kendal, Kirkby Lonsdale and Blackpool with details of which bus to catch and where to get timetable information.

Professionally-produced by marketing consultants, PB Bus Marketing Ltd, the leaflets can be obtained free of charge, from Lancaster bus station (at the carousel outside the Stagecoach office and at Nefis’ Tea Bar at the Damside Street entrance), Lancaster Library and other local outlets.

For those who prefer a digital version, or are able to print at home, the leaflet can be viewed or downloaded from this link: Days out by bus from Lancaster Leaflet

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