Real-Time Bus Information Planned for Railway Station

An image of how the display will appear, submitted with the planning application.

First Group, part-owners of the Avanti West Coast train operating company, has applied to install an electronic information display unit at Lancaster railway station that will help passengers making onward journeys by bus.

The touch-screen display, which will be sited at the foot of the stairs leading from the overbridge to Platform 3, will show details of onward bus connections and will include "real-time" information as well as scheduled times. It also incorporates a journey planner, although it is not clear at the moment whether this includes both bus and rail services.  The display also incorporates local visitor information.

Avanti West Coast, which operates trains between London, the West Midlands, Lancaster and Glasgow/Edinburgh, is required to provide such displays at twelve of the stations it manages as part of its franchise agreement entered into when it took over the service from Virgin Trains.

Previously, onward travel information was shown in the form of posters on the station, but the railway had great difficulty in keeping up with the frequent changes to bus services and the information was often out of date. The Bus Users' Group hopes that the new electronic display will not suffer from that problem, and also that it will not suffer from some of the problems experienced in its counterpart at Lancaster Bus Station.

No date has been given for the installation of the display, which is currently awaiting approval from Lancaster City Council.

BUG CALLS FOR BUS PASS RESTRICTIONS TO BE LIFTED TO SUPPORT VACCINATION ROLL OUT

 

Lancaster Bus Users' Group has called upon Lancashire County Council to implement a temporary relaxation on the use of English National Concessionary Bus Passes (NoW Cards) to support the roll out of the government's Covid-19 vaccination programme.

Three major vaccination centres have been established in the Lancaster District at the Health Innovation Campus at Lancaster University, Lancaster Town Hall and Morecambe Football Ground. All three sites are easily accessible by bus but the Group is concerned that older people, especially those living a distance from any of the sites, will be put off accepting morning appointments if they have to travel before 09.30 and pay high fares to reach them.  Reductions in bus service levels from Monday, 25th January will also hake it harder for people, with many services reducing to one bus per hour or less.

In a letter to Councillor Keith Iddon, Cabinet Member for Highways & Transport, the Group has asked that the ban on free travel before 09.30 be lifted at least until the end of the current phase of the rollout by when most older and more vulnerable people will have been vaccinated.

How to reach the vaccination centres

The Health Innovation Campus is served by buses 1A, 4, 40, 41, 42 and 100, which between them provide seven buses an hour from the city centre. Buses 1A 41 and 100 operate a through service from Morecambe. The nearest bus stops are on the A6 near the entrance to the campus site.

Lancaster Town Hall is served by all buses to the city centre bus stops in George Street and Common Garden Street. For other services, the nearest stop is Lancaster Bus Station.

Morecambe FC Football Ground (currently known as the Mazuma Stadium) is on Christie Way off Westgate and is served by bus 6A from Morecambe centre and Lancaster. The nearest stop is on Westgate near the junction with Christie Way.