Stagecoach's guide to its bus services in The Lakes has been re-issued for Summer 2019. This year the season runs from 6th April until 27th October.
The Guide has been redesigned in a cleaner and less cluttered format, although it appears that some economies have been made to reduce production costs. Still in the familiar "1/3rd A4" format the new edition has 68 pages as opposed to 72 in the Winter 2018/9 Guide and a number of services have been removed. Tellingly, it is described on the website as a "brochure" rather than a "guide" and there has certainly been a change of approach.
Gone is the comprehensive index that showed which services ran to 48 major destinations in the Lakes. Replacing it is a less comprehensive, but easier-to-use series of "Explore beyond...." pages listing the most attractive destinations that can be reached from the six principal Lakeland centres of Windermere & Bowness, Ambleside, Keswick, Kendal, Penrith and Cockermouth. The old index worked on the basis that you knew where you wanted to go and then told you, for example, that Grasmere was served by 555 and 559 but then left you to look up the timetables to see from where you could catch one of those buses. The Explore beyond pages work on the basis that you are starting from a particluar town and looking for places that you can easily visit. Grasmere is therefore offered as a destination from Windermere, Ambleside and Keswick but not from Penrith or Cockermouth. However, due to the limited space available Grasmere isn't offered from Bowness or Kendal despite it being just as easily accessible from those places. The more determined traveller can, however, work it all out from the map, which remains.
The area of the map has been adjusted to take in the whole of the route of the X6 from Kendal to Barrow at the expense of a small area to the north of Maryport and Penrith. The map has always shown a number of services that weren't included in the timetable section, such as local routes in Kendal and West Cumbria. School services are excluded but the new edition has had service 7 between Millom and Barrow added to the map for the first time, despite the service consisting only of one journey in each direction at school times and on schooldays! Needless to say, the timetable itself is omitted.
However, from the Lancaster and Morecambe point of view the biggest change is the omission of the
service 755 timetable from the guide. Instead, there is a separate "Fabulous Days Out in the Lakes from Morecambe" leaflet, consisting solely of timetables for that service.
Despite the 755 having seemingly being designed to cater for leisure traffic in both directions and enabling visitors to the Lakes to spend a day or half-day in Morecambe the new leaflet appears to have been designed solely with journeys from Morecambe to the Lakes and back in mind. All the promotional material is concerned with the attractions of Windermere and Bowness, with nothing to tempt visitors to, or residents of, the Lake District to consider a day out in Morecambe, which is a shame and will have an impact on revenue.
The separation of the 755 from the main Lakes guide also has a more practical effect. Despite its limited service of 3 to 4 journeys a day, the 755 allows passengers from Lancaster to do things that the 555 doesn't. Other than in high summer, the first 555 of the day on which a concessionary pass is accepted from Lancaster is the 1015, which doesn't reach Windermere until 1204 or Ambleside until 1220. However, by getting a service 2 bus (soon to be service 100) at 0930 to Morecambe Promenade at Bare and changing there to the 755 passholders (and others) can be in Windermere for 1123 and with a further change to the 599 reach Ambleside at 1145, thirty-five minutes earlier.
Similarly, on Sundays the last southbound 555 to Lancaster leaves Ambleside at the rather early time of 1619, Windermere at 1638 and Kendal at 1715. But by using service 755 the daytripper can depart Windermere over an hour later at 1750 and Kendal at 1813 and with a change at Carnforth, Bare or Euston Road still get back to Lancaster. It may be a bit complicated for the first time user, but if passengers are not even made aware of the 755 then they are unlikely to be able to work it out.
And talking of concessionary fares despite ALL the timings in the guide being in 24-hr clock, as most bus and train timetables have been for over 50 years, why-oh-why does Stagecoach tell passholders that passes are valid "after 9.30am up to 11pm"? (and by the way: surely that should be "FROM" 0930, not "AFTER")
Meanwhile in the Dales. . .
Services from Lancaster to the Yorkshire Dales are not as extensive as those to the Lakes, but the wonderful "Dales Bus" - a voluntary organisation dependent upon sponsorship and crowdfunding contributions, continues to provide at least a Summer Sunday service to the Dales from our area.
This year two new services start at Easter. A Sunday service is added to Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's 580/581/582 service to Ingleton, Settle and Skipton, whilst the same operator will be running a revised and rebranded 881 "Coast & Cove" route from Morecambe and Lancaster to Malham via the Trough of Bowland and Settle. Timings on the two services are co-ordinated to allow a round trip between Lancaster and Settle via both routes.
Later in the year, from 19th May, the Northern Dalesman service from Preston and Lancaster to Hawes, Swaledale and Richmond returns and offers a number of options for circular trips also taking in Wensleydale. We will be featuring these on our website later in the year.
The Lakes leaflets are now available from Stagecoach's Travel Shop in Lancaster bus station and probably from Lancaster and Morecambe Visitor Information Centres or you can see an online version here. The Dales Bus 881 timetable is available online here and BUG members will shortly be distributing the Dales Bus leaflets to the Visitor Centres and libraries in the two centres as well as to the Stagecoach Travel Shop, where in all probability they will be kept "under the counter" meaning you will have to ask for them! (Please do!)