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| Ridge is one of a number of Lancaster estates to regain a Sunday service. |
Sunday buses are to return to Lancaster estates and the Lune Valley from 19th July 2020 after a gap of four years as the county council starts to spend the £750,000 it has received under the government's "A better deal for bus users" programme.
Although trumpeted as a "boost" for buses and as a servies of "improvements" most of the new services restore cuts made by the council in 2016.
Sunday buses will now return to Vale (service 7), Ridge (service 10) and Marsh (service 11) as well as to "Lancaster East", by which we assume is meant service 18. This route has not had a Sunday service in recent years, but it would be particularly welcome for passengers seeking to visit Williamson Park - a popular city attraction.
Sunday buses will also return to the Lune Valley, with a service to be provided between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale. Full details of times and routes are not yet available, but we will bring them to you as soon as we can.
Consultation
The BUG contributed to a consulation excercise on how the grant should be spent earlier in the year (although we weren't acutally invited to) and the return of Sunday buses to these routes was one of the things we asked for. At the time, the council said that the main focus of the extra funding would be on services for employment and would therefore be concentrated on Monday to Friday daytime links, but in what appears to be a change of approach several of the improvements throughout the county are to Sunday services. Lancaster appears to be the only part of the county to see improvements to local routes, with most of the new journeys elsewhere being added to longer-distance and interurban services.
Whilst it might seem strange to announce enhanced services at a time when, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most existing buses are running almost empty, the council points out that it has maintained its existing contracted services (such as the 33, 51 and 89 in the District) at a Saturday level of service and as lockdown eases the numbers of people travelling can be expected to rise. The BUG very much hopes that this is the case.
Promotion
To be successful, the new services will need to be promoted and we hope that the council and the operators chosen to run them will be pro-active in doing so. We hope that the County Council will at least manage to update the timetable cases at bus stops and in the bus station to show the changes - something it has not been able to do since lockdown began.
For our part, the BUG will do our best to keep passengers informed via this blog and our Facebook page.
A full list of the new services can be seen via this link https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/news/details/?Id=PR20/0177
