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| Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire will be running all the buses in the Lune Valley from April |
The figure was announced following the completion of a tendering excercise to secure replacement services that actually attracted no tenders, meaning that the Council had to negotiate an agreement with Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire.
Stagecoach has operated services 80 (Lancaster - Ingleton) and 81 (Lancaster - Kirkby Lonsdale via Melling) without subsidy since April 2016, when previous support from the council was withdrawn. The comapny received just £9,000 a year from the Council to provide an extra early-evening bus from Lancaster.
Lancashire also pays Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire £61,000 a year to operate service 582 between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale via Gressingham and a further £35,000 a year to run Sunday buses on both routes.
It's not clear from the documents in the public domain whether or not the £278,000 replaces the payments currently being made, although the Sunday contract at least was due to continue until October 2023. The council therefore could be looking at additional costs of anywhere between £182,000 and £269,000 a year from April, when the new contracts commence, an increase of between 73% and 156%
No Tenders
It's not clear why no tenders were submitted for the work, although a number of factors may be in play. This part of Lancashire has very few bus operators capable of taking on services of this size and scope, requiring two buses running all day, seven days a week, with extra buses needed at school times. Competition for tenders is therefore limited.
Nor is it the best of times for bus operators to be taking on new commitments. Passenger levels were decimated by Covid and by the government's "Avoid Public Transport" campaign, which was unfortunately very effective. Ridership - and therefore revenue - has since recovered only to 80% of pre-Covid levels and journeys made by concessionary pass holders, who make up a large proportion of passengers on services such as these, are stuck at 50% because elderly people appear less confident in resuming normal travel patterns.
At the time that tenders were being sought, the government's emergency Bus Service Recovery Grant was due to end in April and its future was uncertain. (It has since been extended to October). Finally, all bus operators are currently suffering from a shortage of driving staff, brought about by a combination of Covid and Brexit and are understandably reluctant to take on new work, particularly work with a contractual commitment to continue.
Fortunately, the Transport Act 1985, which requires councils to seek tenders before awarding subsidies, also allows them to negotiate directly with operators should no tenders be submitted.
North Yorkshire
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| Stagecoach services 80 and 81 will cease in April |
Stagecoach originally gave notice of withdrawal to take effect in January and since then has been running the services under a temporary contract at a cost equivalent to £235,000 per annum. North Yorkshire County Council had been contributing 25% of that cost, meaning that if the temporary arrangements had been made permanent the cost to Lancashire would have been £177,000pa for services 80 and 81, plus of course the existing £96,000 for the 582 and the Sunday service making a total of £273,000 which is in line with the results of the tendering excercise and subsequent negotiation.
The new services, however, benefit from a more evenly-spaced timetable between Lancaster and Hornby and a regular two-hourly timetable up each side of the valley, with some buses continuing, as now, to Settle and Skipton, meaning that the link between Lancaster and Ingleton is maintained. North Yorkshire County Council, however, declined to continue its contribution (it had withdrawn its previous subsidy in 2014), meaning that service 80 will be discontinued.
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| Some buses will continue to run through to Settle and Skipton |
NYCC has made a separate arrangement with Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire to provide a limited extension of the route from Lancaster to serve Bentham and Burton-in-Lonsdale from Kirkby Lonsdale, but journey times to and from Lancaster are extended with a lengthy wait for Lancaster-bound passengers at Kirkby Lonsdale. Wennington and Wray also lose their service to their local shopping centre at Bentham as well as an afternoon workers' journey home from Lancaster on service 80.
Our Involvment
The Bus Users' Group first got involved in services in the Lune Valley in 2016, when the county council withdrew its previous support for the services. At the time, Stagecoach chose to continue to run some of the service without subsidy and we were successful in persuading the council to pay for the extra early evening journey from Lancaster that still runs and which will be included in the new contract.
Evening and Sunday buses and all services via Gressingham and Whittington were withdrawn at that stage and it took until November 2018 for the Bus Users' Group and local campaigners to get buses restored to that side of the valley. The imaginative campaigning by local residents went a long way to achieve this, with at least two campaigners getting coverage in the national press and on radio and TV
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| Bus Campainger, Duncan Foster, made the national press and TV with this stunt. |
In July 2020, Sunday buses returned to both sides of the Lune Valley when Lancashire increased its budget for bus service support and was also able to take advantage of the government's Better Buses Fund. A contract was awarded to Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, after four operators submitted tenders, at an annual cost of £35,226 (less revenue from fares). Once again, the Bus Users' Group was instrumental in securing this service having pressed the County Council to include it in its "Better Buses Fund" improvements.
