Service 582 Developments

Leaving Lancaster Bus Station

Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's (KLCH) bus service 582 between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale has been with us since March 2018 following a campaign by the Bus Users' Group and passengers in the Lune Valley to get Lancashire County Council to restore funding for services to the villages of Gressingham, Arkholme and Whittington that were withdrawn in April 2016. When a contract to provide a service linking these villages to Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale was awarded to KLCH the company opted to link the new service with its existing routes from Kirkby to Settle and Skipton to provide a through service approximately once every two hours.

Improvements

Since 2018 the service has been improved by the addition of a 1700hrs departure from Lancaster, to cater for workers and students, whilst buses due to operate between Kirkby Lonsdale and Skipton only have been run in service to and from Lancaster providing valuable early morning and evening services to the Lune Valley villages.

For 2019 a Sunday service of two round trips a day through to Skipton was added, which was promoted as part of the Dales Bus network of recreational services that run through the National Park. 

Further Changes

A Skipton-bound service at Settle

October sees some further changes.

From 26th October the journeys between Kirkby Lonsdale and Lancaster that extend to and from Ripley St Thomas School will be diverted between Gressingham and Hornby to run via Melling, Wennington and Wray. Although the objective here would appear to be to provide a service for schoolchildren, KLCH will follow its usual policy of keeping services as simple as possible by running them this way whether it is a school day or not.

The Sunday service will run for the last time this year on 20th October.  The Sunday buses were always intended to be seasonal and their withdrawal coincides with the introduction of the winter timetable on all Dales Bus services. This year's service was a bit of an experiment, for which the operator took on all the revenue risk. If that revenue has been insufficient to cover operating costs then a source of funding will need to be found to bridge the gap between revenue and cost to allow the service to return in 2020.

Future Threats

But a much greater threat hangs over the future of the service, due to the complexity of the funding arrangements. Buses between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale are part-funded by LCC. Between Kirkby Lonsdale and Settle the service is funded by North Yorkshire County Council, whilst KLCH run a "commercial" service between Settle and Skipton.

A short-working to Settle at Skipton Market Place

The 581 is obviously key to the viability of the whole arrangement. KLCH only took on the commercial operation to Skipton after they had been awarded the contract for the 581 and it is difficult to see how a stand alone Settle to Skipton service would be viable for a Lancaster-based operator. Similarly, the need to get buses to and from Kirkby to run the 581 makes it easier to justify operating the 582 and reduces the need for county council support.

Lancashire has not published an end-date for the 582 contract, but North Yorkshire's contract for the 581 comes to an end in March next year.  That County Council has already confirmed that the contract will be re-tendered and, in a fit of enthusiasm, has apparently already concluded the "consultation period" for local people to have their say on the future of the service.

This period ended in June - ten months before the end of the contract - but NYCC has not yet announced what any replacement will look like, much less who any contract will be awarded to.

Unless the 581 is retendered exactly in its current form it will inevitably mean changes to the 580 to Skipton and the 582 to Lancaster. Any significant change to the specification could make the 582 inoperable, at least as a through service, and could also significantly increase the cost of operating the existing timetable between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale. But if KLCH are not awarded the 581 contract, where will that leave the Skipton and Lancaster services?

Presumably, NYCC will take into account the possible effects on the Settle to Skipton service when awarding the 581 contract, but it is extremely unlikely that they will consider any similar effect on the 582. That Council isn't known for considering the needs of passengers outside its borders and the BUG, despite attempts on several occasions, has yet to get it to even reply to any correspondence from us!

Fortunately, our friends in Dales Bus keep a close eye on what NYCC gets up to and we hope they'll be able to alert us to any changes as and when they are announced.