Tag: transport

“Confusing Times”: The Council’s Response

by Jim

A roadside timetable display

Earlier this month we published a post criticising the style, content and accuracy of some of Lancashire County Council’s roadside information displays. (Read again here).

The Council was offered the right to reply, which we are happy to publish here.

There are currently around 8,000 bus stops within the Lancashire County Council area, approximately 40% of which have timetable information though the council is expanding this facility.

The basis of the printed displays are the registrations that are received from the operators, in this case, the network serving Lancaster University is significant. As such, the levels of service do change significantly, and the destination of services are impacted. This is not a unique case across the county council, but the volume of journeys impacted in Lancaster is more substantial. Unfortunately, in this case, when using the registration provided by the operator, a higher number of codes for impacted journeys are being generated. As a result, the displays produced have a considerable number of departure times with notes.

Once the stop displays are produced, they are sent to print internally. The team of inspectors then take them out to the site with a 6-day window to try and complete the posting of the information. It is important to note, that when there are a significant number of changes being made, this can take longer and therefore not all stops will be update within the window.

We understand that the current arrangement doesn’t always produce the best possible outcome for passengers. We have reviewed the data, as a result of LDBUG raising the issue, and have produced some test displays. It has required a reworking of the registered journeys; we have split the journeys by university term time and holidays so that they are treated as separate services by the system. This has greatly reduced the number of departure times with codes. We will look to introduce these to the roadside as and when resources permit.

There are several impacts in doing this, one is the amount of time taken to rework the registration. The second one is the size of the cases on the route and the increased size of the displays with some now requiring two or even three pages. We will only be able to assess the impact once the revised displays are produced and inserted in the cases. We can assure LDBUG, going forward, we will mark the registrations for services 1/1A and 100 as requiring the extra work, to make sure we make the displays as clear as possible. In the longer term we are looking to update the software used to be able to create a more bespoke display for those stops that require them.

Additionally, Lancashire County Council has committed funding from the Bus Grant from HM Government to introduce brand-new Real Time Information displays throughout Lancashire. The initial tranche of signage is scheduled to commence in September 2025. Within Lancaster district this includes Carnforth town centre; key stops in Heysham and Morecambe and the Lancaster Infirmary stops.

Lancashire County Council

Contract tendering brings changes of operator to two local services

by Jim

The results of the tendering process for local bus contracts to start on 26th October, recently published by Lancashire Council Council, reveal some changes to Lancaster area services. The council is required by law to seek fresh tenders for contracted bus services from time to time and as a result two local routes will see a change of operator later this year.

Service 18, the “East City Circular”, currently operated by Stagecoach, will be run by Lonsdale Buses on Monday to Saturday, although the Sunday service will remain with Stagecoach. The Bus Users’ Group has a particular interest in this service dating back to 2015, when Lonsdale, then trading as “Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire” reduced its commercial service over the route to just five journeys a day. The County Council at the time claimed that it had no money to pay for the full service to be continued, but the Bus Users’ Group, working with local city councillors, uncovered a fund of over £500,000 in “developer contributions” paid by the developers of new housing in the area that was intended to not only support the bus service, but actually to enhance it.

Members of the Group, together with Stagecoach managers and local councillors at the launch of the revived service 18 at Williamson Park in 2017

Mich of the funding had been diverted to other projects and it was only after a lengthy campaign, involving Lancaster City Councillor Tim Hamilton-Cox and County Councillors, Gina Dowding and Lizzi Collinge and with the help of Cat Smith MP that the County Council could be persuaded to put what money was left to the purpose for which it was intended. The contract for the revived service, which began in 2017, was awarded to Stagecoach, which has operated it successfully ever since.

Services 88 and 89 Lancaster to Knott End

Stagecoach buses will return to Glasson Dock when the new contract starts in October

These services change hands in the opposite direction, with operation passing from Lonsdale Buses to Stagecoach. Co-incidentally, Lonsdale Buses (then Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire) took over the route from Stagecoach at about the same time as service 18 changed hands, although the “Stagecoach” involved was actually Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancs, which ran the service from its Fleetwood depot. This time round the service will be run by Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancs from its Morecambe depot.

Service 89 is the long-standing route between Lancaster and Knott End, with service 88 being added in 2023 using Bus Service Improvement Plan funding to provide a link to Garstang from the villages served.

Other services

The tendering exercise included new contracts for service 8 and 9 in Lancaster, service 51 between Carnforth and Silverdale, the evening service on the 81, and the Sunday services on the 7, 10, 11, 18, 81, and 82 although none of these contracts has changed hands.

Two services will be split between operators. Service 18 will be run by Stagecoach on Sunday and Lonsdale Buses the rest of the week, and Stagecoach will continue to provide the evening service on the 81 to supplement the daytime journeys run by Lonsdale Buses.

What does it all cost?

The county council is required to publish the results of the tendering process from which it is possible to gain an idea of how much money is required to sustain non-commercial bus routes in the county.

The annual value of the six contracts comes to just over £1,000,000, ranging from £37,000 for the Sunday service on the 7,10,11 and 18 to £588,000 for the Lancaster to Knott End service. The actual cost to the county council is lower than this, as in most cases all income accruing to the services from passengers’ fares and concessionary pass reimbursement is deducted. The Council also receives Bus Operators’ Support Grant for contract services from central government, which in 2025/6 totalled £1.87m for the whole county.

The document “Tender Results for Local Bus Services 2025” is available on this link.