Winter Lakes Guide Published

Stagecoach has published its Winter guide to buses in the Lakes that takes effect on 7th November and runs until 26th March 2023. 

There are the usual seasonal changes to the 555 with the additional journeys that operate via the M6 motorway being suspended for the winter. The late evening buses between Kendal and Keswick will run on Friday and Saturday nights only, whilst on Sunday there are additional journeys at 0830 from Kendal to Lancaster and at 1845 from Lancaster to Kendal, both of which run via the M6.

For the first time in recent history there will be a service between Kendal and Keswick on New Year's Day with four journeys in each direction complementing the 599 that runs between Kendal and Grasmere.

There are no changes to the 755 between Heysham and Bowness-on-Windermere, with the extension to Ocean Edge Holiday Park being continued into a second winter.

A copy of booklet is already available on line.

Click here to download

Printed Copies?

As regular passengers will know, the printed version of the Guide is much easier to use, especially when out and about. Since the closure of the Travel Shop on the bus station Stagecoach seems to struggle to distribute its printed timetables in the Lancaster area, with both regular outlets - the library and the Visitor Information Centre -  reporting difficulties in obtaining stocks. The company meanwhile has failed to respond to requests from the Bus Users' Group to improve matters.  The Lakes Guide, however, is apparently distributed by a professional publicity company on Stagecoach's behalf, so hopefully stocks will be available soon both in the library and VIC and on service 555 buses.

STOP PRESS: Printed copies of the Guide have been reported as available at Carlisle railway station and Booth's in Keswick, and presumably they are more widely available.

Is this the stop for the war memorial, please?

 It's only in relatively recent times, since the advent of the internet, that any sort of formality has been brought to the process of naming bus stops.  The stops have always had names of course, but these developed through custom and practice and were chosen, informally, by local passengers and bus crews.

Apart from those stops that were timing points or fare stages, the names never appeared anywhere in print, or on the bus stop signs themselves.

When bus timetable information began to move online and it became possible to identify individual stops and show them on online maps a national database of bus stops was established with details of location and name of each one.  Responsibility for populating the database was given to County Councils and they used a variety of means of naming the stops. The best of them attempted to establish the names that were already in use informally, albeit with varying degrees of success. This was a sound approach, but occasionally it fell foul of the fact that over the years there had been no mechanism by which the informal "custom and practice" name of a stop could be changed, even when the feature after which it was named, such as a pub, post office or other landmark, was no longer there.

Take Forton, for example.  In this village, some 11km south of Lancaster and served by buses 40, 41 and 42, the principal stop is "Forton, War Memorial".  Here it is:

Forton War Memorial bus stop (northbound) (from Street View)

But here is the War Memorial Itself

Forton War Memorial (from Street View)

The memorial  is 450 metres - "a five minute walk" says Google Maps - off the bus route and in the village centre at the junction of School and Wallace Lanes.

Thirty Years Ago

So how does the bus stop come to have such a misleading name?

From some online research, the Bus Users' Group has established that the war memorial did indeed used to be situated near the current bus stop on the A6. However, following a number of incidents of it being hit and damaged by road vehicles it was removed in 1993 and reinstated on its present site three years later.

But despite this having happened almost 30 years ago, no one at the council or the various bus companies that served the stop appears to have noticed and the stop is still known as "Forton, War Memorial".

Does it Matter?

Given that most of Forton village lies off the A6, this stop is probably the only one most villagers use and they no doubt refer to it as  simply "Forton".  Strangers, however - and perhaps new residents - could spend a long time waiting for a bus at the actual memorial, having seen it mentioned in the timetable.  

Uncertainty as to what is on offer is a huge barrier to encouraging new users to try the bus and uncertainty as to where the bus will stop is a major factor. Misleading stop names don't help, so perhaps, after 30 years it's time the stop was renamed. The Bus Users Group will suggest this to Lancashire County Council and see what happens.