Park & Ride Extended and Enhanced - at short notice!

The new southern terminus of the Park & Ride at Lancaster Royal Infirmary.
Because KLCH has only one route-branded bus for the service,
the extra journeys are being operated by an unbranded vehicle.

 In a surprise move, with little notice to either the operator or the public, Lancaster's Park & Ride service, which links the city centre with the car park at Junction 34 of the M6 at Caton Road, has been completely revamped.

From Monday, 17th May the service is boosted to run every 15 minutes (or every 20 when the traffic is expected to be busy!) and the route is extended to take in the Lancaster Royal Infirmary, where buses will use the existing bus stops on South Road.  The service also runs later in to the evenings, to cater for hospital staff and visitors.

However, the new route means that the stop in George Street in the City Centre is no longer served. For passengers coming into the city from Caton Road there are no drop off points between North Road (opposite Sainsbury's) and the Infirmary on South Road (see map below). Passengers may, however wait on the bus at the Infirmary and then alight at Queen Square, Cable Street or the Bus Station on its return trip.

The service has also gained a new route number - L1 - which partially restores an old Ribble Motor Services tradition of numbering local routes in the "L" series.

The new route and times are shown below.

The enhancement, which requires a second bus to operate, has been expected - indeed promised - for some considerable time and is intended as a means of combating the problem of restricted car parking space for staff and visitors at the hospital. Plans to build a bigger car park at the hospital have not been progressed and if and when they do go-ahead there will be a short term reduction in staff car parking space as the work takes place.

However, the trigger for this latest move appears to have been the move by the City Council to remove the concession during the Covid pandemic whereby certain NHS staff have been allowed to use council run car parks free of charge, with that concession now transferring to the Park & Ride. Funding for the enhancement has come from the NHS and is on a three-month trial basis.

Parking at the Caton Road site remains free and the bus fare into the city or the infirmary is held at £1.60 return, a bargain compared with fares for the same journey on parallel bus services.

More Room On the Buses as Social Distancing Rules are Eased

 Social-distancing rules on the number of passengers allowed on buses are being eased as more people are travelling and the coronavirus pandemic comes under control.

Current rules restrict buses to carrying only 40-45% of their authorised capacity, but with passenger numbers in England having recovered to 60% of pre-Covid levels last week, concern was mounting over how services would cope as more journeys were made after the lifting of more restrictions on 17 May.

Now, bus industry trade journal "Route One" reports that following what is described as a "risk-based case" presented the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), the government is to relax distancing rules on busy journeys.

From 17 May, new guidance will allow all forward-facing seats on buses to be occupied by passengers when buses are busy. Rear and sideways facing seats will remain out of use, but in most cases this will allow buses to use 90%+ of their available seating. It is not clear whether standing passengers will be permitted.

On less busy trips, passengers will still be expected to follow social-distancing guidelines that require one of each pair of seats to be left vacant, meaning that two passengers not travelling together should only occupy a double seat when no free single seats are available. (In practice, this has been standard "bus etiquette" amongst regular users for a long time).

CPT says that the 17 May change takes into account the low prevalence of COVID-19, the rapid rollout of the vaccination programme and a greater knowledge of on-bus ventilation. There has also been little, if any, evidence of virus transmission on public transport since the pandemic appeared.

The measure is welcome in Lancaster, where the return of face-to-face teaching at the city's universities will mean more students travelling. It will also be useful for passengers using the new Summer Sunday DalesBus services to Malham and Richmond where the chance of being left behind by a bus running only once a week might have otherwise put them off travelling!