Keeping Up With the Times: The Council's Response

In our last post the Group made some unfavourable comparisons between the performance of bus operators and Lancashire County Council when it came to keeping passengers informed of changes to timetables during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Following the continuing prescence of out-of-date information in roadside bus stop displays and a failure to keep its website fully up-to-date we awarded the Council a measly 2-out-of-10, whilst awarding our local bus comapnies a more generous 8.

The Council was invited to comment before the post was published, but we have only just received a response that gives the Council's point of view.

Out of Date Timetable Cases 

Out of Date Display at Queen Square

It appears that the main reason the timetable cases have not been updated is that with public transport staff now working from home it has not been possible for them to access the specialist equipment used to produce the displays. In addition, the small number of staff normally employed in this work have been redeployed to what the Council describes as "Covid-19 duties", such as delivering food parcels and PPE-equipment, which the Council feels has a higher priority, especially at a time when most people should not be travelling.

The scale of the necessary work should also be borne in mind. The County Council is responsible for timetables throughout a large part of Lancashire, not just the Lancaster District. Between 27th March and 24th April there were 933 service changes in the county, with each service having between 2 and 8 timetables depending on the days of operation, Mon to Fri, Sat, Sun and Bank holidays.  On many occasions, the Council had less than one day's notice, the maximum notice being 7 days. The Council, however, has continued to send data to Traveline to ensure the national journey planner has been as accurate and up to date as possible. The county council's website has referred customers to operators' websites and social media channels, which have been well maintained, as you have noticed.The BUG says: It appears that the Public Transport staff have done their best in the circumstances, but the organisation as a whole does not appear to feel public transport information is a priority.

Timetables and Departure Stands at Lancaster Bus Station

A very quiet Lancaster Bus Station

Regarding Lancaster Bus Station, as this is owned by Lancaster City Council and managed by Stagecoach the County Council says it was not aware of the changes to stands. The BUG noted that local Stagecoach staff had made some attempt to update the information there but without having access to the timetable cases themselves the result was less satisfactory than it could have been. The Council now says it "may have considered giving access to the cases to Stagecoach, for this limited time, had we been made aware of these changes". (The BUG says "It's never too late", so why not make the offer now...?)

The Council denies any responsiblility for the electronic departure screen and the fact that it has been switched off at a time when it would have been most useful.The BUG says: "Unfortunately, so does everyone else...."

Future Plans

The Council says that "Going forward, our plans are to start to update bus stop information, but only when service levels stabilise and it is safe to allow staff to undertake this role, using appropriate PPE and following the latest government advice and guidance.

(The BUG says, and the council admits, that service levels in Lancaster are stable. We fully agree that the staff undertaking the work should be kept safe, but feel that updating cases is a job that can  be carried out whilst maintaining social distancing and needs only a minimum of PPE).

The Council, however, is anticipating further changes and therefore has no set dates in place to begin updating displays due to expected increases in service levels based on the phasing of the lifting of lockdown.

The BUG says: "It is, of course, exactly the anticpated changes to services that make it important that timetable information is kept up to date.  The bus industry is receiving a large amount of public money to keep services operating and much of this will be wasted if even those needing to  make essential journeys are having difficulty in finding out about services. The public generally has lost confidence in the idea of using buses during the pandemic and will need every encouragement to start travelling again as the situation improves. Difficulty in finding out when buses run will not help."

The Council Website 

The Council admits that it has been a struggle to update the timetables on its website to the standard it would like due to the large volume of changes and the short notice it has received. It also feels that there will have been changes made by bus operators that it has not been told about. (The normal rules requiring bus companies to give advance notice of changes to county councils have been suspended).  The BUG says: The errors the BUG brought to the Council's attention have now been rectified, for which we are grateful).

In a message to the Group, Andrew Varley, the Council's Public Transport Manager said: 

"I do hope this helps explain the current position and I can ensure you we will start to update bus stop and station information, across the county, as soon as we are able to".