Buses to Wray - the fight goes on!

When in April 2016 Lancashire County Council reduced its financial support for buses by 70% the county, including the Lancaster District, was hit by a wave of cuts to services both in urban and rural areas. One of the worst affected parts of the county was the Lune Valley. Some villages lost all their buses, whilst others suffered a drastically reduced service.  Campaigning by the Bus Users' Group and local people eventually saw a service restored to the west side of the valley, whilst Stagecoach continued to provide a reduced service on the eastern side.

But he villages of Wennington and Wray were particularly badly hit; their overall service was cut in half and the link to Kirkby Lonsdale was lost completely when Stagecoach diverted all the remaining service 81 buses to run direct between Hornby and Melling, saving just 3.5 miles on a 20 mile journey and serving no additional communities on the new route.

Whilst the BUG has admittedly rather come to accept the situation, other people haven't.  Local campaigner Richard Scott from Wray has been particularly vociferous in the fight to restore services, especially the link to Kirkby Lonsdale - the loss of which has affected him badly. The latest episode in his campaign has been to achieve coverage of the issue in a national newspaper, the Daily Express, which featured Richard and his guide dog in a recent article on bus service cuts.(see above)

The Bus Users' Group congratulates Richard on his campaigning skills and on his perseverance in trying to restore an important link in the bus network. We fully support his work and call on Stagecoach to take another look at their service in the Lune Valley to see whether the small amount of mileage saved is really worth the loss of the revenue they would get if people from Wray could travel more often to Lancaster and at all to Kirkby Lonsdale.

BUG PUBLISHES NEW RURAL BUS MAP

Following the success of our Local Bus Map - the first such publication for many years to show ALL operators' bus services in Lancaster and Morecambe (click here to view) - the Bus Users' Group has now published a second map, this one showing rural and long-distance routes.

As to be expected, ALL operators' services are included and the map shows every rural bus route from Lancaster and Morecambe and all the towns and villages it is possible to get to on a through bus service.  The Carnforth to Silverdale service (51) is included as the popular destinations of Silverdale and the RSPB Reserve at Leighton Moss cannot be reached by any other bus.

The BUG hopes that the new map will help passengers plan day trips to nearby towns and attractons that they might not have realised were easily reached by bus. To assist them further a list of the principal destinatons and the number of buses per day to each is included. Timetables can, of course, be accessed from this website.

To view the new Rural Bus Services map, just click this link.

New timetables for University services and to Vale

From Sunday, 13th January Stagecoach is revising its services between Heysham, Lancaster and the University to meet increased demand for travel by students and staff. The changes will also affect passengers in north Lancaster, in particular on Torrisholme Road and the Vale.

Service 1  will have more time added to journeys in the morning peak to improve reliability. Busy journeys will have extra time allowed at Common Garden Street where large numbers of passengers board.

The late evening service to Heysham is improved on Monday to Saturday with the last journey leaving Lancaster at 23.59 and a later bus at 00.19 to the Battery

Eighteen new buses similar to this will carry route branding for service 1 
(c) C Thompson and L Wardle: Permsiion to reproduce applied for.

A fleet of brand new double-deck buses, similar to the one shown above in Carlisle, will be used and will carry route branding to clearly identify them.  Unlike standard Stagecoach specification these vehicles have white LED destination screens and also have fabric ADL smart seats as opposed to the usual E-Leather. These vehicles also carry stop-start technology and are, of course, fitted with wi-fi and USB charging points.

Service 2: 

Double-deckers will return to service 2

 Many of the double-deckers currently used on service 1 will transfer to service 2, adding much-needed capacity to the service through Bowerham and, hopefully, eliminating the over-crowding problems experienced since the changes in October. However, to allow this to happen the route of service 2 is being  changed to avoid Torrisholme Road railway bridge and buses will run via Scale Hall Lane and Morecambe Road instead.

This leaves Torrisholme Road without a service to Morecambe and the section between Noel Road and Scale Hall with only the infrequent service 8 operated by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire. The Bus Users' Group is in discussion with Stagecoach as to how this can be resolved.

As with service 1, morning peak buses will be given extra time for their journeys to improve reliability.

Service 4 on the quay.

Service 4  will have a later departure from the University to the railway station during the week and all journeys presently terminating at the station will continue to the Quay or to the Bus Station, following requests from passengers.

Service 7 will see a reintroduction of late evening buses as a replacement for the evening service along Torrisholme Road on service 2.

Service 7 crossing Greyhound Bridge en-route to Vale

Full timetables for all these services (and every other bus service in Lancaster and Morecambe) are now available on our Maps and Timetables Page.