Tag: travel

Stagecoach Fares to Rise

by Jim

In what appears to be a co-ordinated move across much of the Stagecoach Group, bus fares are set to rise in July.

The government’s national £3 fare cap restricts bus companies’ ability to increase fares, but it does still allow some scope, especially with daily and weekly tickets that are not covered by the cap.

Locally, Stagecoach says that its £2 fare will rise to £2.10 and journeys priced at £2.30 will rise to £2.40 but that there will be no other changes to single fares and the £3 cap remains in place.

The company claims that most customers will not see a change to the fare they pay, but the popular Bay Area DayRider ticket, which currently operates as a surrogate day return for many passengers, will increase from £5.70 to £6 and will no longer offer a discount over two capped single fares. The Lancashire Day Ticket, which covers a wider area, remains at £10 and the North West Explorer , covering Lancashire, Cumbria and into Scotland and Northumbria has also been frozen at £12.

Child and Young Person Fares

Child and Young Person (under-19) fares are also going up, with slightly higher increases in percentage terms to bring them up to 2/3rds of the Adult fare. The £1.30 and £1.50 child fares both increase by 10p

Despite the steadily diminishing number of passengers paying in cash, bus companies still feel the need to round-up fares to the next 10p to reduce the need to handle change, which inevitably means higher percentage increases for some fares. A major victim this time is the Child and Young Person DayRider, which rises from £4 to £4.30 – a 7.5% increase compared to the 5.3% applied to the adult ticket, both increases being above the prevailing level of inflation.

Weekly Tickets

The 7-day Bay Area MegaRider is increased by £1 to a new rate of £22 but still offers a substantial discount over paying day or single fares. The North West Gold MegaRider also goes up by £1 to £37.

When?!

In a move that makes it look as if Stagecoach desperately needs the money, the increase comes into effect on 16 July – a Wednesday! It appears that the days when new fares were introduced on a Sunday, to give drivers and passengers a chance to get used to them on a quieter day of the week, are long gone and perhaps, in the days of payment by card, phone or app, no longer necessary.

The Strange Case of Service 80

by Jim
Service 80 at High Bentham

Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire’s service 80 was always a rather strange beast, consisting of just one journey a day in one direction from Kirkby Lonsdale to Lancaster via Ingleton and Bentham on Monday to Friday only.

Leaving Kirkby Lonsdale at 1650 it provided a connection from Lancaster to Ingleton and Bentham in the afternoons to take home passengers who had travelled to Lancaster earlier in the day. It bore the same service number as Stagecoach’s Lancaster to Ingleton via Bentham service and was introduced as a partial replacement when that service was withdrawn in April 2022.

In practice, it was a through bus from Lancaster, at least on schooldays, being one of the two buses that arrived at Kirkby Lonsdale at that time, one on each of services 81 and 82. The 82 bus continued to Settle as service 581 and operated throughout the year, whilst the 81 was left to continue from Kirkby as the 80.

What happened in school holidays was always unclear. The 81 from Lancaster ran on schooldays only so presumably a bus was sent out empty from Lancaster to run the 80, which left Kirkby Lonsdale at 1650. However, any passengers from Lancaster had to use the 82 in the holidays to reach Kirkby Lonsdale, which wasn’t due to arrive until 1653, three minutes after the 80 was supposed to leave!

But all this became academic, as following the introduction of new schedules and rosters at Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, now Lonsdale Buses, service 80 suddenly disappeared! Following complaints and enquiries from passengers the company claimed that the journey had never been properly registered and as it saw very little use it was withdrawn without notice.

The Bus Users’ Group has seen documentation that suggests the service was registered, as part of the service 81 and 82 registration made in July 2022 and it appears that North Yorkshire Council shares this view.

The Council has reportedly asked Lonsdale Buses to re-instate the service at least until the proper, legal, 70-day notice period of withdrawal has been given. Meanwhile the service continues to be shown online on Bus Times, Traveline, Google Maps and other apps as well as on the company’s own website!