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Christmas and New Year Buses 2023/4

 

Stagecoach has published details of bus services operating over the Christmas and New Year period. The timetables are similar to those that have applied in previous years

On Christmas Eve, Sunday, 24th December, a normal SUNDAY service will operate until approximately 1900hrs. The times of last buses are shown in the leaflet available by clicking here.

There is no service on Christmas Day, Monday 25th December 

On Boxing Day, Tuesday 26th December, a special timetable will operate on services 1A, 2X, 6A, 41, 55 and 100    Full timetables are shown in the leaflet available by clicking here.

On Wednesday 27th, Thursday 28th and Friday 29th December a SATURDAY timetable will operate on all services.

On Saturday, 30th December a normal Saturday service will operate.

On New Year's Eve, Sunday, 31st December, a normal SUNDAY service will operate until approximately 1900hrs. The times of last buses are shown in the leaflet available by clicking here.

There is no service on New Year's Day, Monday 1st January 2024

On Tuesday, 2nd January 2024 a SATURDAY timetable will operate on all services

Normal service resumes on Wednesday, 3rd January 2024

For full details please see the special Christmas & New Year Bus Service leaflet available via this link or pick up a paper copy from Lancaster bus station.

Just Another Day on the Buses...

Bus driving can be a very rewarding job, especially if you prefer not to work in an office or factory and you like getting out and about and meeting people; but it can also come with many frustrations, as one of our local bus drivers explains. After reading this you might realise that when your bus is late, or even doesn't show up at all, it's not necessarily the driver's fault!

Monday on the buses

The school run

Sign on at 0730, get bus ready and run empty to start of school run, involves going through temporary traffic lights (slight delay) then doing a three point turn to face the right way, illegally parked builders van makes the turn difficult and requires a bit of shunting to get round.

School run, back through the roadworks, otherwise all OK except for cars parked

in the bus layby as usual

Run empty to Milnthorpe, then as service 552 to Arnside, all OK today, last Monday

Smithy Lane was shut for roadworks so I had to miss some bus stops out.

Morning Shoppers Diversion?

Service 552 at 0930 Arnside to Kendal.  I like doing this run as I know the friendly

passengers. At a road junction in Sedgwick, normally I go straight on to Natland, 

but I know that road is due to be closed about now (probably in connection with

new housing development). I can go right via Crosscrake as a diversion if necessary.

At the junction there is a ‘Road Closed’ sign clearly visible, but lying down. Is that

deliberate and mean the roads are open, or has it blown down and one (or both) of

the roads is closed?  If so, I have no way of knowing which road is closed.

I realise that once on either road there is no way of turning a bus round if it is shut.

I decide to divert via Crosscrake, the longer journey making the bus a few minutes

late into Kendal, despite not having to go via the hospital as nobody requests the 

stop there.

Whilst the passengers go off and do their shopping I  enjoy a nice break in Kendal, 

have a bit of a stroll and lunch, homemade vegetable broth from my food flask.

The return from Kendal to Arnside is a problem free pleasant run and I discover

that both of the roads mentioned earlier were open: I arrive on time. 

However, I did spot signs in Arnside saying the road past the railway station will be

closed Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday next week.  That is going to cause difficulties

for people in Arnside as the bus will not be able to get to the two stops on the Prom

and it's a huge hill that people will have to walk up to the nearest stop that the bus

can get to.  Plus next week, the Sedgwick-Natland road is closed according to signs,

so that’s two diversions on one journey; no chance of running to time.

The afternoon school run

Empty to Carnforth High School, no problem.

There is a lay-by outside the school which is marked with zig-zags and ‘keep clear’ 

so the four school buses can pick up safely.  As usual, there are cars parked in the

lay-by. The red car pictured earlier when I dropped the schoolchildren off in the 

morning is still there and has probably been there all day.  The cars are right in the

way and two of the four school buses can't get into the lay-by to pick up the children.

This is a problem we have virtually every day as the parking restrictions are never 

enforced.

Afternoon school run: the last of the school children get off just before the 

roadworks in Brookhouse which saves me having to go through the roadworks

twice, as I can turn right instead.  But it takes two shunts to turn, as a car is parked

on the junction, with driver in it who just sits there while everyone gets held up as

I shunt the bus back and forward to get round.

Back into Lancaster's traffic

Empty into Lancaster for a break and a little stroll for exercise, after which the fun

begins. Our scheduled running times do have a bit of leeway built into them to allow

for traffic congestion, which in Lancaster can happen at any time of day or night, but

it's not always enough 

On the Ryelands Estate (service 8) the locals normally allow enough space for the

buses to get through - but only just. Other drivers are no so considerate. Service 9

to Farmdale Road goes through  areas of housing where residents are not so 

considerate in parking and the Bowerham Road/St Oswald Street junction often

has cars parked on the double yellow lines forcing the bus to miss out part of the 

route causing great inconvenience to passengers, who are, of course, neighbours

of those causing the problem.

Challenges

The 1645 Ryelands/St Chads circular on the 8 is always a challenge.  Today, on the

very last turn there are five vehicles parked on the junction. ( it is an offence to

park within 10 meters of a road, although no car drivers seem to know this).  

Despite my best endeavours I am stuck. The bus is delayed 5 minutes while the 

car owner is found to move the car.  I give a wry smile when a child walking past 

also tells the car driver that she shouldn’t park there. 

The photo was taken just after the car with lights on had moved slightly.

Straight into the bus station, I should have  6 minutes layover before the next trip, 

but unload, load up and depart 2 minutes late because of the illegally parked car.

More challenges and more delays.

The 1710 to Farmdale Road on service 9.  Having set off late I then get held up by 

worse than normal congestion, which is caused by roadworks on a road I don’t use

forcing more traffic onto the A6.  At the top of St Oswald Street there is a car 

parked very close to the corner, on double yellow lines and with its driver on the

'phone, making it very difficult to get the bus through. The car engine is running,

so that driver could, and should, have got 6 points on their licence for commiting an 

offence.. I also notice cars parked on the Clarence Street/St Martins Road corner 

which could make it difficult or even impossible to get the bus through on the way

back.  Eight minutes late arriving at the terminus.

1729 back to Lancaster bus station. Set off 8 minutes late and still 8 minutes late 

arriving at the bus station. On that journey a car in front of me goes through a red

traffic light by the cathedral, while a different car goes straight through

the ‘Buses and Access only’ sign at Spring Garden Street; this restriction is never

enforced.

No time for a break

My next run is back on service 8 and the 1745  Ryelands/St Chads Circular. 

Departed 8 minutes late due to arriving late from Farmdale Road.  

Unbelievably, I get stuck on the same corner as last time on Ryelands, 

this time by a different car.  

The driver is still in it and moves it to a vacant space two car lengths forward - why

didn’t it park there in the first place?  Light traffic results in my arrival back in the 

bus station being only 5 minutes late.  By now I am in need of a P and a brew.  

Both the ladies and the  gents toilets in the bus station are out of order.

 I should have  a 15 minute break at this point, where I try and eat my sandwiches;

no time for that today.

Last run

The last run of the day is the 1820 service 81 to Kirkby Lonsdale. I have difficulty 

getting through Newton Estate (yet again) by a 4x4 parked on the Langdale Road 

junction and blocking the bus stop with another car parked opposite.  

Just squeeze my bus through.  Through the Brookhouse roadworks yet again. 

These roadworks are gradually moving towards Lancaster and closing off bus stops

to passengers, resulting in some having long distances to walk.  I let a passenger 

off at a bus stop no longer affected by the roadworks, but it still had a ‘bus stop out

of use’ sign up. (This is a common problem, although fortunately most drivers and

 passengers use their common sense and ignore the signs.Ed) Fortunately, the

running time for this route is generous and I arrive at Kirkby on time.

Empty run back to depot.  Checked live traffic maps before deciding which way to 

go: choose A65 and M6. It is dark and very wet on this twisting and undulating 

road.  A red van overtakes me on a blind bend, approaching a blind summit on a

’no overtaking’ section.  Totally reckless. No wonder there are so many accidents

on the A65.

At the depot it's fuel the bus, take it through the washing plant and park it up.  

But spare a though for the lady who cleans the inside of the buses, she gets soaked

pushing her trolley to each bus in the torrential rain.

So excluding the school runs, 8 passenger carrying journeys, 5 delayed by 

congestion and illegally parked vehicles, no delays due to the driver or the bus

company.

A bus driver's plea

"Hopefully now you’ve read this you will appreciate that for buses to be able to 

provide a good service for passengers, what is needed is for the appropriate 

bodies to sort out the congestion, roadworks and illegal parking that means the

buses are unable to run on time". 

A long day

The Editor adds:

 Our driver doesn't make the point, but observant readers will have noted that the 

day began at 07.30, whilst the last run of the day doesn't arrive at Kirkby Lonsdale

until 19.28 after which the bus still has to be taken back to the depot in Lancaster. 

Whilst there will have been plenty of break time during this period and the actual

driving time won't have exceeded the ten hours limit, nevertheless almost thirteen

hours will have elapsed between the driver starting work and booking off. 

This is quite legal, in fact the working day can be spread over sixteen hours

and such conditions of work are common throughout the bus industry.

ReplyReply to allForward

Cancelled HS2 to fund more buses in Lancashire

High-Speed 2. Not coming to a station near you!

The recent announcement by the government that it was cancelling the HS2 railway line north of Birmingham was accompanied by a statement that the money saved would be redirected to other transport projects in the Midlands and North of England.

It appears that much of the money will go on building yet more roads to increase car traffic, although the promised money for repairing potholes and damaged road surfaces will at least be welcomed by many bus passengers, particularly in Lancaster and Morecambe.

More money for buses

Some money was promised for buses and now the government has announced a £1 billion fund to improve bus services in the north and midlands.  The first tranche of the money will be £150m to be distributed to local councils in the next financial year starting in April 2024: Lancashire County Council's share will be £7,025,000.

The money is to be spent on providing more regular and reliable services, or  cheaper fares initiatives and price caps. As the national £2 fare cap will remain in place until at least December 2024 it is unlikely that many authorities will want to use the money for this purpose.  Instead, the Department for Transport (DfT) suggests it could fund the reintroduction of evening services, improve frequencies, add new routes or facilitate demand responsive transport.  Crucially, it appears that for once, the DfT is prepared to allow councils to spend the money on things that they feel will be most beneficial, rather than being micro-managed by civil servants in London as has been the case with Bus Service Improvement Plan funding. The only stipulation is that it cannot be used to maintain existing services, which means that local authorities won't be able to cut their own budgets for bus service support and use the new funding instead.

You wait ages for bus funding. . .

The announcement is just the latest on bus funding in recent times, following on from Bus Service Improvement Plan funding in 2022, by which Lancashire received £34.2m over three years and "Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus" funding earlier this year of £2.4m for Lancashire for this year and next.  Although the latest funding is just for 2024-25 it does come with a promise that the remainder of the £1bn will be rolled out over the next five years, something that is essential if any new or improved bus services are to be maintained.

The Bus Users Group welcomes the new money - Lancaster was never going to benefit much from HS2 anyway - and will be discussing how we think Lancaster's share should be spent in our meetings over the next few months.

Praise where praise is due

 

A Stagecoach bus to Heysham that wasn't cancelled!

It is part of the role of a group that represents the interests of bus passengers to be critical of operators and councils when they get things wrong, but Lancaster Bus Users' Group also makes a point of letting them know when they get it right.

Many passengers have been inconvenienced by the cancellation of journeys on services between Lancaster and Heysham due to Stagecoach's inability to recruit and retain sufficient drivers and people are right to complain. However, we feel its important to acknowledge that such cancellations are not the fault of the local staff in the bus station or behind the wheel. Indeed sometimes such people go the extra mile to help passengers affected by the staff shortage.  The following comment was posted on our Facebook page recently and illustrates the point:

 I HAVE TO GIVE A GREAT SHOUT OUT TO THE DRIVERS AND INSPECTORS AT LANCASTER BUS STATION. Lancaster District Bus Users' Group I live in Heysham requiring the Heysham Towers bus.

 The past 2 nights after I have finished work, Stagecoach had cancelled all 3 buses between 8pm and 9pm. On both evenings, when my usual 20.19 to Heysham was cancelled, an inspector sorted a willing driver to take a Heysham Towers bus so we all could get home.

 Thanks to the Inspectors and the drivers concerned, who on the first evening had just arrived from Preston and on the second evening the driver who came off his break to take us home. 

The work colleagues are a credit to you Stagecoach and I think you need to remember who pays you the big bucks. The passengers and your work colleagues who go above and beyond their roles. 

The Bus Users' Group felt that this comment deserved a wider audience so that the work of the staff concerned was recognised.

Lancaster Bus Station Closed Again

 

STOP PRESS:  The repairs have been completed and the bus station is now fully open.

For the second time in six months half of Lancaster bus station has had to be closed due to problems under the concourse seemingly connected with the drainage system. The latest incident took place on Saturday when Stagecoach put out the following announcement.

Due to a collapsed manhole on Cable Street  which is at the exit of the Bus Station.

Highways have closed the road off as a result, we are operating the following:

LANCASTER BUS STATION STAND CLOSURE

 

With immediate effect, stands 1 through to 11 will be closed, until further notice.

 

From FIRST BUS, to 19:00, Monday to Saturday, the following will apply:

 

Services 1, 1A, and 100 will NOT serve Lancaster Bus Station in both directions, unless a driver changeover.

 

University bound services will serve Parliament Street, then the next stop will be George Street.

 

Morecambe and Heysham bound services will serve George Street, then the next stop will be Lancaster Sainsbury's.

 

Morecambe bound 40 and 41 services will NOT serve Lancaster Bus Station, unless a driver changeover.

 

Service 2X and 4 will use the bus stop on Chapel Street.

This is all it takes to close half the bus station

Buses can't enter the station due to the road closure.

The collapsed manhole actually takes up very little space and perhaps buses could, with care, get by, but the Highways Department has closed off Wood Street at its junction with Damside Street so that buses can't actually get into the bus station in the first place.

The Bus Users Group has been in touch with the county's Highways Department but all they have done is to confirm that the road is closed!  They have now been asked to find out from their contractor when the work will be done and the BUG will also use our contacts to try and get the work expedited.

Council Plan to Increase Traffic at Christmas

Free buses could bring Christmas shoppers to the city

 Lancaster City Council has announced a plan to encourage many more motorists to bring their cars into the city centre in the run up to Christmas. The proposal will apparently bring a "business boost" to the city whilst adding to congestion and pollution.

Councillor Jean Parr, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Planning and Placemaking said:

      "We have been offering free festive parking at our main car parks for some years now and this       festive season is no different. The aim is to encourage people to support local businesses and to shop in our town centres".

 Free parking will be available on Thursday evenings and Sundays from November 30th until Christmas Eve.

In previous years the Bus Users Group has attempted to get the council to match its offer to car drivers with a similar plan to give free bus travel to everyone in the District. We feel that this would provide a similar "business boost", without the associated congestion and pollution, whilst providing a choice to car drivers as to how they travel. It would also be a fairer scheme as everyone living on a bus route would benefit from it, whilst those without access to a bus service could still take advantage of the free parking.

The Council has always refused to contemplate free bus travel as it says that it "could not afford to provide it" whereas free car parking "costs us nothing".  The economic illiteracy of this approach should be obvious to everyone as giving away car parking spaces at a time of maximum demand for them has clear implications for council income. 

The Bus Users Group is disappointed that a council that has declared a climate emergency, has known air quality management issues in the city centre and has recently had to close its visitor information centres to save £250,000 can apparently afford to turn down income, whilst providing an incentive for shoppers to forsake bus services and use their cars instead.

Lancashire County Council has long had a reputation for a completely car-centric transport policy and its disappointing that Lancaster City Council is taking the same approach.

New Image for Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire

 

One of the buses that has the new livery 

Lancaster's local bus operator, Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, is getting a new image. The company is rebranding as "Lonsdale Buses", with the fleet adopting a new green-and-white livery.

The company has come a long way from its roots and the changes reflect that. It is no longer based in Kirkby Lonsdale, with buses now operating from a base on White Lund Trading Estate. Although it still runs a small number of coaches, its main business is no longer coach hire, but the operation of a growing network of commercial and tendered local bus services.

The new fleetname

The choice of green as the main ingredient of the new colour scheme will distinguish the buses from those of Stagecoach, which since its own rebranding a couple of years ago has been using a colour scheme that from the front at least, which is what most passengers notice, looks remarkably similar to the current Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire livery.

The rebranding is expected to be a gradual process. Only two of the company's twenty or so service buses have received the new livery to date and there has been no change to the website. For the time being, therefore, we will continue to list the  company under its old name on our maps and timetables pages,

Improvements at the underpass

 

The underpass bus stops at the University

Students and others returning to Lancaster University next month will find big improvements to the main campus bus stops at the underpass after a major refurbishment was completed over the summer. The underpass, which functions as the University bus station is very busy during term time and so summer is the best time for such projects.  

• The refurbishment works undertaken include:
• clearance and repair of carriageway and pavement drainage 
• installation of a new dark red tarmac pavement and waiting area
• improved lighting, refreshed road markings 
• replacement of wall boarding and painting of underpass and stairwell walls
• as well as installation of new seating and noticeboards.  

The works also include University and Lancaster themed ‘welcome’ graphics adjacent to the waiting areas and seating.  This project builds upon the changes made in 2019, when the capacity of the underpass for both pedestrians and buses was significantly expanded through removal of the lay-by and widening of the pavement waiting area.   

 Whilst by its very nature the underpass can never be a particularly pleasant place to wait for a bus, the works have brought about an improvement and the Bus Users Group welcomes this investment in one of the busiest bus stops in the city It's just a shame that Lancaster bus station can't be given an upgrade as well.

A big step backwards for bus information

 

The Visitor Information Centre in Lancaster

The Visitor Information Centres (VICs) run by Lancaster City Council in Lancaster and Morecambe are closing  - or as the city council prefers to say: "going digital" -  from next Monday, 11th September.

This represents a serious setback in the availability of information about bus services (and, of course, many other aspects of the city's life).  The VICs were the only place where one could obtain information by speaking face-to-face with a real person and with staff who were very knowledgeable about the bus service and keen to help.

Pick up a timetable

Following the closure of the Travel Shop in the bus station in 2020, they were also the only places where one could guarantee being able to pick up a timetable leaflet for almost any bus service and the Bus Users' Group knows that the staff went to considerable efforts to maintain supplies of these, sometimes in the face of apathy and lack of help from the bus companies themselves.

The display of bus and train leaflets in Morecambe VIC in 2018

Options

So following the closures, what now are the options for obtaining bus information in Lancaster? 

Pick up a timetable

Following pressure from the Bus Users' Group, Stagecoach has agreed to provide a leaflet rack at Lancaster bus station, to be positioned outside the former Travel Shop, where the inspectors can keep an eye on it.

Stagecoach's leaflet display at the bus station

Despite the fact that bus operators now supposedly work together with each other and the county council as part of an "Enhanced Partnership", the display contains only leaflets for Stagecoach services (give-or-take the occasional Bus Users Group leaflet than somehow sneaks in!) and indeed it is of such a design that it is unsuitable for the "A4 folded to A5" leaflets that the county council produces for supported services run by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire to not insignificant destinations such as Knott End or Skipton and which have been available in the VICs.

 It also has to be said that the rack is not always in place, but whether this is because someone forgets to put it out or whether its because they have run out of leaflets  is unknown.

At one time Lancaster library was another reliable source of leaflets, but recent visits have shown only a handful of seemingly random leaflets on display and certainly none for any recent changes to services.

The Internet

There is, of course, the internet. Not everyone is comfortable with that or even capable of using it, but even those who are are likely to experience difficulty at times. Computers are only as good as the information fed into them and our recent post on publicity for services 88 and 89 to Knott End explains what can - and what has - gone wrong.  Even when everything is working you won't find anything about Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire services on Stagecoach's website - or vice versa - whilst the County Council's timetables are buried deeply within a huge council-wide website that is not the easiest to navigate.  Yiur best bets are therefore Traveline or Google Maps.

The telephone

If you still want to speak to someone in person, you could always try the telephone. Stagecoach offer a telephone enquiry service for local buses based in, er..., Perth (we think that's Perth in Scotland, not Australia, but you never know)

Stagecoach's call centre for Lancaster bus enquiries - in Perth!

The Bus Users' Group has no doubt that the staff in Perth do a good job of answering questions about Lancaster's buses - as long as they are asked in such a way that they can find the answer on their computers and that enquierers don't use too many local names for places that the computer knows only by their "official" ones.  We know from experience however, that if you ask them about something that they can't find online themselves  - and which requires up-to-date, local knowledge - they can't really help.

Our other operator, Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, will have that detailed local knowledge and will be able to tell you just about everything you need to know about the company's buses - but of course they won't be able to tell you anything about Stagecoach services.

  

The City Council suggests you use its special website to find out everything that the VICs will no longer to able to help you with. It's called www.visitlancaster.org.uk and we gave it a try to see how easy it will be to find out about buses after the VICs close.

Assuming you can work out under which of the subject headings bus information is likely to fall...

It actually comes under "visitor information" , which local people may not feel appropriate, but there you will find a section called "Getting Here" (even if what you are actually trying to do is to find a bus to get somewhere else). This then tells you:

Basically it says, "don't bother us...go and ask someone else".  The information on how to get here by car takes up three times as much space and even details on how to get to Lancaster "by air" (via Manchester or Liverpool airports if you were wondering) takes up just as much room.

Digital Screens

The Council says that the services of these specially trained staff at the VICs will be replaced by a number of "digital screens", of which we can only say that we hope they work better than the one at Lancaster railway station, which has been unable to display bus service information ever since it was installed

The seemingly permanent "connection problem" that results
 in a lack of bus information at the railway station

We understand that closing the VICs will save the council £250,000 a year or 0.8% of its £20M+ budget. A classic case of decisions made by people who know the price of everything but the value of nothing!

Why does the bus industry find it so difficult?

 

Service 89 to Knott End - or is it Service 88?

Why does the bus industry (and in this instance, the county council) find it so difficult to advertise and promote its services, or even to inform its passengers of what is going on?

From today, Sunday, 27th August, Lancashire County Council, working with Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, has amended and improved the bus service between Lancaster and Knott End-on-Sea, increasing the the number of journeys, changing the route to provide new services to a number of villages and re-introducing a Sunday service after a seven year gap; all of this being paid for out of a pot of over £34m Bus Service Improvement Plan funding.

You would think that the council and the bus company would be falling over themselves to promote the new timetables, especially given that one of the aims of the Bus Service Improvement Plan is to increase the use of buses over that of other modes of transport,

But what do we find and how might passengers find out about the new service?

Try the Bus Company

Most passengers, or would-be passengers, seeking information on a bus service would naturally turn to the bus company's website, where they might expect to find a copy of the new timetable, perhaps with some promotional material explaining the benefits of the new service and how it might be of use to them.

The service between Lancaster and Knott End is numbered 89 and this has a new timetable, whereas the extra journeys to places such as Winmarleigh, Garstang, and Nateby are numbered 88. Nevertheless, the two routes have a lot in common and many, if not most, passengers could make use of either route.

 So what would such a passenger have found today on the website of Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire?

The 89 is there (third row from the top) but there is no mention of new service 88 (which started today) and clicking on the link to the 89 brings up the old timetable that finished yesterday! No point in looking any further.

Try the Council

People in the know, which is by no means everyone, might realise that the services are operated under contract to Lancashire County Council and might therefore turn to that body's website for information.

Should they eventually navigate their way through that necessarily huge website to the public transport pages they would find a section headed "Bus Timetables" and a search box to find the service they need.

IF our would-be passenger is already aware of new service 88, perhaps by reading the local press or, indeed, this website, they might enter "88" into the search box, only to get the following result.

Four services to choose from, none of them the 88

If our passenger doesn't give up at this stage they might notice that there is a "search by location" facility, but should they be wishing to travel to or from Cockerham for example, just one of the communities served by the 88 and 89, they would find:

Cockerham, apparently, doesn't exist! But it's not just Cockerham. Searches for "Glasson", "Garstang" "Knott End on Sea" and even "Lancaster" throw up the same result!

Clearly something seriously amiss with LCC's website there.

Success (sort of)

After much searching, the Bus Users' Group eventually tracked down an online timetable for the 88. It's actually quite simple>  After finding your way to "Roads, Parking and Travel", then "Public Transport" then "Bus Timetables" you just need to go to "Interchanges and Bus Stations" then click on "Lancaster Bus Station" where you will find a link to the new 88 timetable!  

SIMPLES!

(although we don't seem to hear much from Sergei the (Russian?) meerkat these days for some reason).

But even then your troubles are not over. The county's inflexible system insists on showing the 88 and the 89 as completely separate services with no cross-referencing between them on its site, so to get the full picture of buses between Lancaster and Knott End, or even Lancaster and Glasson or Lancaster and Cockerham you have to know that there are two separate services and then make two separate enquiries!

Paper Timetables?

But not everyone relies on the internet, so how might those who still prefer the traditional ways of finding bus information be getting on?

Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire appears to have given up producing paper timetables. All its passengers are obviously completely tech-savvy and wouldn't dream of reading anything the company might produce on paper. (They obviously don't read newspapers, TV listing magazines, tourist brochures, or any of the promotional literature from supermarkets, fast-food outlets and charities that regularly drops through their letterboxes either).

The county council, to its credit, does still produce information on printed leaflets, albeit only for services operated under contract to it. We understand there is a new leaflet for the 88/89, but there were no copies to be had in Lancaster library by Saturday afternoon (usually a reliable source for county council leaflets), whilst  passengers on two of the first journeys on the 88 this morning reported that none were available on the buses either. They are, however, available at the Visitor Information Centre at The Storey in Lancaster, at least until it closes the week after next!

They also reported that despite the Sunday journeys being numbered "88" the buses were showing "89"! It sometimes seems that the bus industry deliberately sets out to confuse its customers!

Some Praise!

The Bus Users' Group is quick to criticise (we take it as part of our role), but we will also give credit where credit is due, so "well done" to the County Council for at least updating the roadside departure lists along the route in advance of the change, even if the addition of an "88" to the bus stop flag in Common Garden Street will apparently have to wait until all the other timetable changes in the county have been dealt with.

Plenty of Notice

In case you were thinking that the change was brought in at short notice and that that might be the reason for the lack of information, the Bus Users' Group obtained a copy of the new timetables in mid-July, over a month before they came into effect and they have been on our website since then - still, apparently, the only place on the web where one can find the full service between Lancaster and Knott End on one single page. If you haven't already found them,  Click here

Bus Service Improvement Plans and the so-called "Enhanced Partnerships" between bus companies and local councils are supposed to usher in a new era of public transport, making it more attractive and helping to entice motorists out of their cars and on the buses. Sadly, it's hard to see how that will happen whilst it is still so difficult to find out when and where the buses run.

Buses diverted in Warton for two weeks

 Passengers to and from Warton face disruption for two weeks in August following a road closure in the village.  A notice on Stagecoach's website explains:

From 09:00 on Tuesday 15th August, to 17:00 on Wednesday 30th August (Or until completion of the works within this period) Warton, Main Street, between Borwick Lane and Sand Lane,will be closed for Utility works to be carried out.

During the works, Service 51 will proceed from Carnforth (Haws Hill) then will divert via Market Street, Scotland Road, A6, and Borwick Lane to continue the normal route to Silverdale in both directions

Service 49 will terminate at Carnforth

For Service 51,Customers are advised to use the bus stops in Carnforth (Haws Hill) or Warton (Borwick Lane End)

The map shows the current route, that will not be served, in black and the replacement route in orange.

The section of route between Carnforth and Warton, Borwick Lane via Millhead will not be served, with buses following the diversionary route via the A6 (The numbers in boxes have no significance).

Presumably, the return journey on Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire service 550 (Morecambe - Levens) will also be affected.

Please note that as stated on Stagecoach's website the diversion may be lifted at an earlier date if the work is completed.