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| Stagecoach service 81 at Kirkby Lonsdale Market Place |
To aid punctuality from Monday 3rd June the 07:45 departure from Lancaster to Kirkby Lonsdale QES via Gressingham will depart 10 minutes earlier at 07:35 and operate 10 minutes earlier throughout
Lancaster bus station 07:35
Lancaster Holiday Inn 07:42
Caton War Memorial 07:48
Brookhouse Black Bull 07:51
Hornby Wenning Stores 08:01
Hornby Lunesdale Sch 08:02
Gessingham Church 08:08
Arkholme Bay Horse 08:14
Whittington 08:20
Kirkby Lonsdale QES 08:30
Kirkby Lonsdale Booths 08:33
ENDS
"QES", for the uninitiated, is "Queen Elizabeth School", an educational establishment in Kirkby Lonsdale that is popular enough with people from Lancaster and the Lune Valley to justify no fewer than three buses each morning from Lancaster. Stagecoach operates two of these: one via Wray, Wennington and Melling and the other, as shown above, up the other side of the valley through Gressingham and Arkholme. The third bus, also via Gressingham and Arkholme, is provided by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire. The majority of the passengers will have been on their half-term holiday this week so it is hoped that they were told of the change beforehand, otherwise some of them might be in for a shock on Monday morning!
Nevertheless, the BUG hopes that the change will indeed "improve punctuality", although as the overall running time is unchanged at 55 minutes between Lancaster and the School it is hard to see how. The "other" 81, up the other side of the valley, has an identical overall running time and this, apparently, doesn't need its punctuality improving. Nor does it seem that Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire see the need to change its service 582 bus, which has only 53 minutes for an identical journey.
Of course, Stagecoach's 81 will now run ten minutes in front of Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's 582, but when one is carrying children to school that's not necessarily a competitive advantage!
