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| Service 581 will continue to provide the link between Lancaster, Settle and Skipton |
Following our post on forthcoming changes to bus services between Lancaster, Kirkby Lonsdale and Ingleton from April (read again here) we have more news to report.
School Buses to Wray and Wennington
The initial proposed timetable for services 81 and 82 meant that there would be no bus available to take children from schools in Lancaster home to Wray until 16.45 leaving them with the option of waiting over an hour for a bus in the city or walking the 2.6km along the narrow and twisty B6480 to get home. Under the current service, the 1525 service 82 from Lancaster is diverted to meet that need.
Following an approach by the Bus Users' Group to the County Council, which determins the route and times of these services, the service 81 bus from Ripley School will now be retimed to 1eave at 15.30 and run via Lancaster Grammar School at 15.40 and Lancaster bus station at 15.50 before continuing to Kirkby Lonsdale via Wray and Wennington. Children from the Grammar School wishing to travel to the villages on the north-western side of the valley will be able to change to a service 82 bus, that also starts at Ripley, at the Bus Station. This quick solution by the County Council and bus company not only restores the service to Wray but also means that children at the Grammar School will no longer have to make their own way into the city centre to catch the bus home.
The revised version of the NEW 81 and 82 TIMETABLE is on this LINK
Fares and Tickets
With all buses on the 81 and 82 being operated by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, passengers, except those from Halton, will no longer have to choose between operators to get the best value fares for the journey they are makin. Those buying a return or a weekly ticket will be able to use it on every bus, meaning they will no longer have to let one bus go by because their ticket is only valid on the other service.
Single and return fares will be broadly the same as those charged by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire on service 582 at present, and the following Day and Weekly ticket prices will apply
DAY TICKET - Services 81 and 82 whole route
Adult £7 Under 19 £4.70
(Current Stagecoach prices for 80 and 81: Adult £7.10; Under 19 £4.80 )
WEEKLY TICKET - Services 81 and 82 whole route
Adult £22 Under 19 £17
(Current Stagecoach prices for 80 and 81 Adult £23 Under-16 £17.40 (Note that 16 to 18 yr olds currently pay adult fares, but will be eleigible for the Under-19s ticket at £17)
WEEKLY TICKET - Valid between Caton Green and Lancaster only
Adult £18 Under-19 £13
There is no current equivalent Stagecoach ticket, so for most passengers the whole route ticket would apply,
The above tickets are valid for an unlimited number of journeys within the period of validity.
Unfortunately, passengers who currently use Stagecoach tickets to travel beyond Lancaster city centre on other Stagecoach services will no longer be able to do so. The County Council recognises that this will involve them in additional expense and that is will be a deterent to new users, but the Bus Service Improvement Plan that will start to be implemented later this year will have integrated ticketing as a top priority, so hopefully this problem will be solved before too long.
Buses to Bentham and Burton in Lonsdale
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| Bentham and Burton will be served by a circular service from Ingleton |
The withdrawal of service 80 leaves Low and High Bentham and Burton-in-Lonsdale without a direct service to Lancaster following North Yorkshire County Council's decision not to make a joint arrangement with Lancashire to fund it.
Instead the Council has made an arrangement with Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire to utilise buses from the 81 and 82 routes to provide a basic link to the villages from Ingleton. The Bus Users' Group recognises that all local authorities are strapped for cash, but we do wonder if this is the best use of any money that may be available.
The new service, to be numbered 583, is very much "production-led" rather than customer-focussed. That is to say it is designed around what buses hapen to be availble at the lowest cost rather than what needs and wishes potential customers may have.
The service 81 buses from Lancaster that arrive at Kirkby Lonsdale at 09.43, 11.43 and 13.43 will continue to Ingleton and then run a circular service via Burton-in-Lonsdale and Bentham before returning to Ingleton and Kirkby Lonsdale. In addition there will be a bus from Bentham via Ingleton and Kirkby Lonsdale to get people to Lancaster for 08.17 on Monday to Friday or 09.32 on Saturday. There will also be connections to Bentham and Burton from the afternoon school buses from Lancaster again via Kirkby Lonsdale.
This service facillitates travel between the villages and allows a stay of either 55 minutes or 2hr 55 minutes in Kirkby Lonsdale. Passengers heading for a morning's shopping in Lancaster will find that not only do they have a much-extended journey via Kirkby, but unless they catch the 06.40 from Bentham they can't arrive until 12.22 and are faced with a choice of bus back at 12.35 or 15.50!
Due to a late change in the timings of the Lancaster school buses, the service 583 timetable is still being finalised, but we will post it HERE as soon as we have it.
