Bus Station Matters

The Bus Users' Group has been involved in a number of issues concerning Lancaster Bus Station and how it can be improved.

Accessibility Audit

BUG Members Abi Mills and Mel Guilding
after the latest meeting at the bus station

BUG members and City Councillors Abi Mills and Mel Guilding have initiated an Accessibility Audit of the bus station.  This identified a number of areas requiring improvement to make the station safer and easier to use for all passengers.  The audit looked at lighting and flooring, which were found to meet current standards. However the timetable information (departure lists) was found to be too small and situated too high off the ground for some users. Similarly, although two public telephones are provided, both are at a height that makes it difficult for wheelchair-users and there is no inductive loop system to assist the hard-of-hearing.

The station as a whole lacks a public address system as passengers who find that their bus is leaving from the wrong stand will confirm would be useful.  Signage throughout the station also needs improvement, both in quality and coverage. There are, for example, no signs to indicate the location of the toilets and the toilets themselves lack an emergency call system.  Although an adequate number of litter bins is provided and they are emptied regularly they ought to be relocated as at present they can be in the way of wheelchair-users waiting for their bus.

Following further meetings, also involving other BUG members with an interest in accessibility issues, the City Council, which owns the station, has now promised the following actions:

1. The Council is looking at the installation of a new signage system, using a black/yellow format (to improve visibility) including new signs to indicate the location of the toilets and better indication of the location of emergency exits. 

2. Refurbishment of the toilets to bring them up to the standards of other public toilets in the city centre is now under consideration, although the installation of an emergency call system would only be considered if it became a legal requirement.

3. Although the design and condition of the flooring meets current standards and independent "slip-test" will be arranged.

4. The council will provide a defibrillator and is discussing possible locations within the bus station with Stagecoach.

5. Improvements to signing aimed at assisting visitors to the city arriving by bus are still being pursued.

Sticking Doors

The BUG has also, separately, been chasing the council to solve the problem of the doors to the bus stands, some of which have been stuck in the "open" position for many months, whilst one of the emergency exit doors onto Cable Street has been stuck "shut". Despite the obvious safety implications of these faults a number of promises of action have come and gone, whilst the estimated cost of repairs has increased.

The City Council latest dates for the work to be done are that it will start on 23rd April and be completed by "week commencing 17th May" although as 17th May is a Friday we are not quite sure what that means!

Wood Street Zebra Crossing

A third issue involving the BUG has been the condition of the Zebra Crossing at the Wood Street entrance to the station. The surface of the crossing having seriously deteriorated to the point where it became a safety hazard, the County Council eventually got round to resurfacing it. The new surface still left a lot to be desired, mostly that the "black and white" markings to indicate that pedestrians have priority, were not replaced!

BUG Member and local County Councillor, Gina Dowding has been chasing this up on the BUG's behalf as a number of "completion" dates have come and gone.  The condition of the crossing remains unsatisfactory, but the BUG is on the case!

APRIL SERVICE CHANGE ROUND-UP

(c) Stagecoach CNL         Service 2 is being renumbered 100 to celebrate the centenary of Ribble Motor Services.

New services, extra journeys and service re-numberings are all included in service revisions introduced by both bus operators in our area this April.

From Saturday, 6th April the extra Summer Saturday journeys on service 555 that operate via the M6 between Lancaster and Kendal then continue to Keswick are reintroduced for the season. The new journeys leave Lancaster at 0815, 0925 and hourly until 1525, returning from Keswick at 1100 and hourly until 1800. Monday to Friday operation of these journeys begins on 1st July. The journey between Lancaster and Kendal takes just 40 minutes rather than 74 minutes on the standard route so each "motorway" journey overtakes the preceding "stopper" to give an earlier arrival - or later departure - for points north of Helsington and Kendal. 

Monday 14th April sees a new timetable on service 1  University - Heysham, with journeys that operate via Heysham Road in Morecambe and Heysham being renumbered service 1A to distinguish them from those that run via Fairfield Road and Kingsway, which remain as service 1. This is something that the Bus Users Group has been asking for ever since the service was introduced in October last year and is therefore welcome.

From the same date, service 2 (University to Morecambe via Bowerham, Lancaster, Torrisholme and Bare) will be renumbered 100 as part of the celebrations of the anniversary of the founding of Ribble Motor Services in 1919. Ribble was a major operator of bus services throughout north-west England until it was bought by Stagecoach in 1989 although the "Ribble" name remained in use for a few years after that.

Service 582 at Settle, where the number changes to 580

From Easter Sunday, 21st April two seasonal Sunday services are introduced.  On Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's service 582 Lancaster to Kirkby Lonsdale (with through buses to Skipton) there will be two Sunday and Bank Holiday journeys leaving Lancaster at 0800 and 1400.  Buses return from Skipton at 1045 and 1645.  The timetable is integrated with the Dales Bus network of summer Sunday services and allows a number of round-trips to be made, particularly with service 881 (below)

Service 881 at Langcliffe (c) Dales Bus

Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire is also operating service 881 Morecambe - Lancaster - Settle - Malham. This service runs over the Trough of Bowland route between Lancaster and Slaidburn. Two journeys leave Lancaster at 0845 and 1425 with the first starting at Morecambe Bus Station at 0820. Buses return from Malham at 1120 and 1640 to allow either full or half-day visits to places en-route OR a circular tour between Lancaster and Settle travelling out on 881 and back on 582 or vice-versa.

Over the Easter Holiday a SUNDAY timetable will apply to all services on Good Friday, 19th April and Easter Monday 22nd April. Normal Saturday or Sunday service will be operated on 20th and 21st April 

Finally, Sunday 28th April sees the return of the University Term timetable on service 1/1A. The City to University section has its 10-minute frequency restored and its evening and Sunday service reinstated until the next vacation, which starts on 30th June.

New timetables for all these services are available on our Maps and Timetables Page.

Lakes and Dales Summer Bus Guides Now Available

Stagecoach's guide to its bus services in The Lakes has been re-issued for Summer 2019. This year the season runs from 6th April until 27th October.

The Guide has been redesigned in a cleaner and less cluttered format, although it appears that some economies have been made to reduce production costs.  Still in the familiar "1/3rd A4" format the new edition has 68 pages as opposed to 72 in the Winter 2018/9 Guide and a number of services have been removed.  Tellingly, it is described on the website as a "brochure" rather than a "guide" and there has certainly been a change of approach.

Gone is the comprehensive index that showed which services ran to 48 major destinations in the Lakes. Replacing it is a less comprehensive, but easier-to-use series of "Explore beyond...." pages listing the most attractive destinations that can be reached from the six principal Lakeland centres of Windermere & Bowness, Ambleside, Keswick, Kendal, Penrith and Cockermouth.  The old index worked on the basis that you knew where you wanted to go and then told you, for example, that Grasmere was served by 555 and 559 but then left you to look up the timetables to see from where you could catch one of those buses.   The Explore beyond pages work on the basis that you are starting from a particluar town and looking for places that you can easily visit. Grasmere is therefore offered as a destination from Windermere, Ambleside and Keswick  but not  from Penrith or Cockermouth. However, due to the limited space available Grasmere isn't offered from Bowness or Kendal despite it being just as easily accessible from those places.  The more determined traveller can, however, work it all out from the map, which remains.

The area of the map has been adjusted to take in the whole of the route of the X6 from Kendal to Barrow at the expense of a small area to the north of Maryport and Penrith. The map has always shown a number of services that weren't included in the timetable section, such as local routes in Kendal and West Cumbria.  School services are excluded but the new edition has had service 7 between Millom and Barrow added to the map for the first time, despite the service consisting only of one journey in each direction at school times and on schooldays! Needless to say, the timetable itself is omitted.

However, from the Lancaster and Morecambe point of view the biggest change is the omission of the 

service 755 timetable from the guide.  Instead, there is a separate "Fabulous Days Out in the Lakes from Morecambe" leaflet, consisting solely of timetables for that service.

Despite the 755 having seemingly being designed to cater for leisure traffic in both directions and enabling visitors to the Lakes to spend a day or half-day in Morecambe the new leaflet appears to have been designed solely with journeys from Morecambe to the Lakes and back in mind.  All the promotional material is concerned with the attractions of Windermere and Bowness, with nothing to tempt visitors to, or residents of, the Lake District to consider a day out in Morecambe, which is a shame and will have an impact on revenue.

The separation of the 755 from the main Lakes guide also has a more practical effect.  Despite its limited service of 3 to 4 journeys a day, the 755 allows passengers from Lancaster to do things that the 555 doesn't.  Other than in high summer, the first 555 of the day on which a concessionary pass is accepted from Lancaster is the 1015, which doesn't reach Windermere until 1204 or Ambleside until 1220.  However, by getting a service 2 bus (soon to be service 100) at 0930 to Morecambe Promenade at Bare and changing there to the 755 passholders (and others) can be in Windermere for 1123 and with a further change to the 599 reach Ambleside at 1145, thirty-five minutes earlier.

Similarly, on Sundays the last southbound 555 to Lancaster leaves Ambleside at the rather early time of 1619, Windermere at 1638 and Kendal at 1715.  But by using service 755 the daytripper can depart Windermere over an hour later at 1750 and Kendal at 1813 and with a change at Carnforth, Bare or Euston Road still get back to Lancaster.  It may be a bit complicated for the first time user, but if passengers are not even made aware of the 755 then they are unlikely to be able to work it out.

And talking of concessionary fares despite ALL the timings in the guide being in 24-hr clock, as most bus and train timetables have been for over 50 years, why-oh-why does Stagecoach tell passholders that passes are valid "after 9.30am up to 11pm"?  (and by the way: surely that should be "FROM" 0930, not "AFTER")

Meanwhile in the Dales. . .

Services from Lancaster to the Yorkshire Dales are not as extensive as those to the Lakes, but the wonderful "Dales Bus"  -  a voluntary organisation dependent upon sponsorship and crowdfunding contributions, continues to provide at least a Summer Sunday service to the Dales from our area.

This year two new services start at Easter.  A Sunday service is added to Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's 580/581/582 service to Ingleton, Settle and Skipton, whilst the same operator will be running a revised and rebranded 881 "Coast & Cove" route from Morecambe and Lancaster to Malham via the Trough of Bowland and Settle.  Timings on the two services are co-ordinated to allow a round trip between Lancaster and Settle via both routes.

Later in the year, from 19th May, the Northern Dalesman service from Preston and Lancaster to Hawes, Swaledale and Richmond returns and offers a number of options for circular trips also taking in Wensleydale. We will be featuring these on our website later in the year.

The Lakes leaflets are now available from Stagecoach's Travel Shop in Lancaster bus station and probably from Lancaster and Morecambe Visitor Information Centres or you can see an online version here. The Dales Bus 881 timetable is available online here and BUG members will shortly be distributing the Dales Bus leaflets to the Visitor Centres and libraries in the two centres as well as to the Stagecoach Travel Shop, where in all probability they will be kept "under the counter" meaning you will have to ask for them! (Please do!)