Stop Press!The M6 closure has been cancelled for this coming weekend due to the higher than usual number of people expected to be travelling to London.
Also, following last weekend's problems the future planned closures are "under review".
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| Passengers travelling to Preston and Blackpool at the weekend can expect delays. |
Passengers planning to travel between Lancaster, Preston and Blackpool on services 40, 41 and 42 over the next few weekends can expect major disruption to their journeys if last weekend's experiences are anything to go by.THe southbound carriageway of the M6 will be closed to all traffic between Jc 33 (Hampson Green) and 32 (Broughton) between 21.00hrs Friday and 05.00 Monday each weekend until 3rd October.
The closure allows work to renew the waterproofing and surface on the bridges that carry the motorway over Whittingham Lane and Stubbins Lane. At the same time the central barrier is being replaced and beams under the bridge that have been damaged by vehicle strikes will be repaired.
Diversion via A6
Southbound traffic is being diverted at junction 33 onto the A6 and based on last weekend's experience this will have a major impact on the reliability of services 40/41 to Preston and 42 to Blackpool.
Stagecoach was aware of the problem in advance and has taken measures to mitigate the effect of the extra traffic as explained on its website.
Due to the M6 Southbound closure, there will some disruption to our 40, 41 & 42 services.
On Saturdays:
40 services from Lancaster will terminate at Catterall Brockholes Arms, the return journeys will start from Catterall Brockholes Arms. Passengers for points further south should use service 41 (see below)
41 services will continue to run through to Preston mainly but start and finish at Lancaster Bus Station, not serving Morecambe.
42 Services will NOT Serve the University Underpass or Alexandra Park campus and will operate via A6 in both directions
On Sundays:
The 40 Services will operate to Preston, but will mainly start and finish at Lancaster Bus Station not serving Morecambe.
The 40 & 42 services will NOT Serve the University Underpass or Alexandra Park campus and will operate via A6 in both directions.
Passengers are advised there may be considerable delays to services and there may be short notice cancellations across the network. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Drivers were making every effort to provide a reliable service, but the disruption is indeed "considerable". Last Saturday, early morning journeys were able to keep to time, but by mid-morning buses were arriving at Caterall 25 - 40 minutes late.
Delays got much worse as the day wore on with buses on services 40 and 42 arriving at Garstang around 80 minutes late. Those buses that did continue to Preston suffered even greater delay with the service 40 that left Morecambe at 1810 and Lancaster at 1830 not getting to Preston until 21.17, an hour and thirty-seven minutes late!
Northbound
Although the northbound M6 remained open and there was no delay to northbound traffic on the A6, the late running of southbound buses obviously spilled over on to the northbound journeys leaving the whole service disrupted.
Caton Road
Traffic from the closed section of the M6 backed up well beyond junction 34 to the north of Lancaster, which led to traffic leaving the motorway and heading into the city along Caton Road. This in turn delayed buses on Caton Road, including the Park & Ride. At one point, buses were running via the Bay Gateway and Morecambe Road in an attempt to keep to time.
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| The X8 wins the prize for the longest diversion! |
One service took an even greater diversion, which despite its length appears to have paid off. Stagecoach's X8, which links Keswick and Chorley, with a call at Caton Road Park & Ride for Lancaster passengers actually diverted from Kendal via the A65 and A59 to Preston.
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| The route taken by the X8 to avoid the congestion. It normally runs via the M6 and calls at Caton Road. |
The diversion meant that the service arrived in Preston and Chorley 43 minutes after its advertised time, but based on the experience of buses on service 40/41 the delay was significantly less than it would have been if the registered route had been followed. Presumably there were no passengers wishing to travel to Lancaster last weekend!
Much as it pains a bus users group to say so, if you really must travel to Preston or Blackpool at the weekend for the rest of the month, you would be well advised to take the train, although with the number of cancellations Trans Pennine, Northern and Avanti West Coast have been making lately, that option too might not be trouble-free!
