Tag: buses

Lonsdale Buses announces new services and new buses!

by Jim
Three of the new Volvo buses that have joined the fleet. Photo (c) Lonsdale Buses

Lonsdale Buses has announced two new bus services that will start on 27th October.

Service 83 will link Brookhouse, Caton, Halton, Skerton, Torrisholme and Morecambe every hour, six-days-a-week. The new service restores the link between Brookhouse and Morecambe that disappeared during the County Council’s cutbacks in 2016. It also brings back the longstanding and much-missed link between Skerton and Morecambe, which Stagecoach broke when it diverted service 2 via Scale Hall Lane to avoid the railway bridge following its conversion to double-deck operation in 2019.

Service 83 will restore a service along Torrisholme Road withdrawn when service 2 was diverted after being converted to double-deck operation and renumbered to “100” in 2019.

Between Halton and Skerton the new service will run via Whalley Road, thus restoring a bus service to yet another stretch of road abandoned in recent years by Stagecoach. The Bus Users’ Group was pleased to have been invited to submit ideas as to how the service could best benefit local residents.

Service 85, which we understand will be linked operationally to the 83, will run from Morecambe Bus Station to Carnforth and will also have an hourly frequency on Monday to Saturday. This service will complement – or compete with – Stagecoach service 5, which runs from Overton to Carnforth via Morecambe.

The Bus Users’ Group has not been involved in the development of this service and its’ utility wil very much depend on how the timings of individual journeys relate to those provided by Stagecoach.

No Subsidy Involved

Both services are commercial operations and receive no subsidy from the county council or anyone else. Their success therefore very much depends on how much use local people make of them. Lonsdale Buses says on its website that the new services have been made possible by the arrival of four new buses in its fleet, although the Bus Users’ Group feels that the loss of the contract to operate services 88 and 89 between Lancaster and Knott End from the same date may also have been a factor.

New Vehicles

The four new buses, three of which were put on the road at the beginning of September, are all Volvo B8RLE’s equipped with the latest low-emission diesel engines and fitted with the “Next Stop” audio-visual announcement systems that are now required on all new buses. They join seven similar buses to have been delivered in the last couple of years that have given the company’s fleet a modern image.

The company is promising “new ticketing options” and more information about times and routes of the new services, which will be posted on its website (and on ours) as soon as they are available.

You can read what Lonsdale Buses has to say about the new buses and services here.

LONSDALE BUSES REMOVES THROUGH FARES

by Jim
Buses will continue to run through to Skipton, but passengers must re-book

Some passengers using bus services between Lancaster, Settle and Skipton will see an increase in their fares from 1st September. Here’s why.

Complicated.

The cross-country bus service between Lancaster and Skipton, run by Lonsdale Buses, is operated in a curious way. Legally, it is three separate services: Lancaster-Kirkby Lonsdale / Kirkby Lonsdale – Settle / and Settle – Skipton, with each section having a different service number, either 81/82, 581 or 580. One reason for this is that by keeping the services separate in this way they can be operated under the less-restrictive rules on the hours that bus drivers can work that apply to bus routes less than 50km in length. It also means that the buses themselves do not need to be fitted with tachographs. This is a common practice throughout the country with longer bus routes, although in most cases the same service number is used on each section.

The financial arrangements are complicated too. Lancashire County Council provides support for the 81/82 north of Hornby, the Kirkby Lonsdale – Settle service is supported by North Yorkshire Council, whilst the remaining sections are run commercially by the bus company.

Through Fares

Despite these complications, the buses have continued to run a through service between Lancaster and Skipton and to all intents and purposes it has been regarded as a through route. Lancashire’s timetable and the Dales Bus website market the route as the “Craven Connection” and at one time this branding was carried by at least one bus used on the service.

The “Craven Connection” at Settle in 2016

Fares

From its inception as a through service there were through fares. In 2018, for example, a single ticket from Lancaster to Skipton cost £9.90, with a return just 10p more at £10. However, in recognition of the fact that it is legally three separate routes, holders of concessionary bus passes were required to re-present their cards to the driver at Kirkby Lonsdale and Settle on every journey.

When the government’s English National Fares Cap was introduced in January 2023 it reduced the fare to £2, which was increased to £3 in January this year. A journey from Lancaster to Skipton then cost just 30% of what it did in 2018.

Everyone to re-book

The £3 fare cap means that bus companies cannot increase most of their fares to meet rising costs and must rely on compensation payments from the government for participating in what is a voluntary scheme.

Lonsdale Buses has now decided that the economics of operating these services means it must now treat them as separate as far as the fares cap is concerned, just as it does with concessionary passes. From 1st September, passengers making through journeys will have to re-book at Kirkby Lonsdale and/or Settle and pay a maximum of £3 each time. A journey from Lancaster to Settle will cost a total of £6 and to Skipton £9.

In a statement on it’s website the company explained that it is developing a “Day Saver” ticket that will reduce the cost for passengers making longer journeys, although it is unclear whether this will be launched before the changes take effect.