More New Buses for Lancaster and Morecambe Services?

A new Enviro 400MMC double-decker on service 1. Are there more on the way for service 100?

When the Bus Users' Group spoke to Mark Whitelocks, Stagecoach Cumbria & N Lancs Managing Director earlier in the year about the new double-deckers that had recently appeared on services 1/1A he told us that he "hoped" to be in a position to announce more good news when he came to speak to us at our meeting in May. In the event Mark was unable to attend but his replacement, Operations Director Tom Waterhouse, was similarly upbeat although he still wasn't able to make a definite announcement.

But the BUG casts its net far and wide when seeking information on the likely prospects for Lancaster's bus passengers and a little research following Mr. Waterhouse's talk turned up this announcement from Steven Knight Media, which describes itself as a "PR, media and publications business, specialising in the public transport sector" and therefore seems as if it ought to know what its talking about!

On May 20th, its website reported:

20/5/2019 Stagecoach UK Bus Stagecoach has announced details of its new bus orders for 2019/20.  The announcement was made this afternoon covers the provincial fleets and the order represents investment of £80m. The order comprises Details of the new orders are as follows... ​ 131 ADL Enviro 400MMCs 11139-11156 Morecambe [Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire] 11157 Carlisle [Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire] 11158 Carlisle but currently with Stagecoach UK Bus for IT cloud evaluation [Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire] 11161-11162 Elgin [Stagecoach North Scotland] 11163-11175 Macduff [Stagecoach North Scotland] 11176-11191 Aberhill [Stagecoach East Scotland] 11192-11201 Hull [Stagecoach East Midlands] 11202-11215 Morecambe [Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire] (17) Northampton [Stagecoach Midlands] (21) Witney [Stagecoach Oxfordshire] (18) Sharston [Stagecoach Manchester] (The post continued with details of further new buses for other areas) Buses 11139-11156 are the 18 new double-deckers that came into service in January on services 1 and 1A and were brought forward from this year's order.  But the  buses to be numbered 11202 to 11215 really are NEW and the BUG understands that they will be deployed on services 100 and 2X, which interwork across Morecambe. Of course, this still isn't an official announcement by Stagecoach and shouldn't be treated as such, but if it comes about then a fleet of no fewer than 32 new buses, all built to the latest ultra-low emission standards (Euro VI) will be in operation on the two most frequent services passing through lancaster and Morecambe. Apart from the difference they will make to air quality in the town centres this investment shows a high degree of confidence by the company in the future of its Lancaster operations and the BUG looks forward to seeing the new buses in service soon.

Something for the Weekend?

Ribble Motor Services, which once ran bus services in an area that stretched from the Mersey to the Scottish border, was founded in June 1919. In 1969 it became part of the state-owned National Bus Company, but continued to operate under the "Ribble" name.

It was broken-up into a number of smaller companies and privatised in 1988 and after a short-lived period of ownership by its former management the largest part  was sold to Stagecoach in 1989 following which the "Ribble" name disappeared.

But the company has never been forgotten and next weekend will see a number of events celebrating what would have been its 100th birthday.

Firstly, on SATURDAY  25th MAY, Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancs. will be holding an Open Day at the White Lund depot, with preserved Ribble buses in attendance as well as a number of other attractions:

FREE shuttle bus services, operated by "heritage" vehicles, will run to the depot from Lancaster and Morecambe bus stations as shown on the following timetable. 

Then on SUNDAY 26th  MAY, the Ribble Vehicle Preservation Trust will be holding its annual Bus Running Day in Morecambe.

This year's event will be on a larger scale, due to the anniversary celebrations, and will be centered on Morecambe FC's ground at the Globe Arena on Westgate, in addition to the usual vehicle display on Morecambe promenade.  The Globe Arena can be reached by buses 6 and 6A from Morecambe and Lancaster, but the event includes frequent FREE heritage bus services to the Arena from Happy Mount Park, Heysham, Morecambe Promenade and Broadway.

Full details of the Bus Running Day are available on the RVPT website (click this link)

Buses Allowed in Dalton Square? It Really Does Depend Who's Asking!

The Highest Point Festival Bus in Dalton Square       (c) Alex Dhawan

When, in late April, Lancashire County Council decided to close Common Garden Street for overnight roadworks, both Stagecoach and the Bus Users' Group were told that buses would not be allowed to use nearby Dalton Square for an alternative stop and that no temporary stop could be allowed on the A6 Thurnham Street either, meaning that passengers faced a lengthy walk to either the bus station or the RLI.  This was despite the fact that all sides of the square are public highway and that no prohibitions for use by PSVs or other vehicles apply.

A council spokesperson said at the time that this was to "prevent damage to the historic road surface of the square", whilst also admitting that buses "could" inconvenience drivers using the handful of car parking spaces there. (In other words they might have to wait a few seconds before the bus moved off).  All this despite the fact that the road closure wouldn't start until 21.00hrs and due to university holidays only a small number of journeys (about a dozen) would call there.

However, ten days later the Square was the official terminus (and not just a calling point) for a special bus service to the Lancaster Food Festival, held at the Leisure Park with buses using the stop every 30 minutes for three days!  At the time, the BUG speculated that this was because the Food Festival was seen as an asset to the city, which the normal bus service apparently isn't and that festival-goers somehow deserved a better service than ordinary bus passengers. (Read our report here)

The Food & Drink Festival Signs from the May Bank Holiday

Service were still in place and came in handy for the Highest Point bus!

The pole used to carry a bus stop falg and timetable case until this

was removed by the county council just before the closure of Common

Garden Street in April                                                   (c) Alex Dhawan

Another weekend - another festival, and last weekend saw the return of the "Highest Point" music festival to the city's Williamson Park.  Car parking at the park is very, very limited and so we were not surprised to see that a special bus service was being provided, particularly as the Park itself has only a half-hourly bus on service 18 with no evening or Sunday journeys and even that was only grudgingly provided after twelve months' campaigning by our Group.

What did surprise us though was the "Official Pick Up Point" in the City Centre. Yes, you've guessed it:  Dalton Square again!  And what surprised us even more was the bus operator providing the link:  Stagecoach!  The Food Festival service had been run by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, using small single-deck buses and we thought that either the use of small buses had been required by the council or that perhaps KLCH had not been made aware of the (unauthorised) prohibition.

But Stagecoach had been told back in April that they could not use the sqaure and as  the photo shows were using full-size buses.  The number of journeys using the Square over the two weekends was well into three figures and makes a nonsense of the council's view that the road surface is being damaged.

 

The service was very popular, but doesn't appear to have damaged the "historic road surface" too much.
Drivers of those few cars parked at the top end of the square might have to wait for a bus to move before
entering or leaving a space, but cars of course don't damage road surfaces - even those that weren't designed for them.   (c) Alex Dhawan

The council has some explaining to do, but then so does Stagecoach, who apparently acquiesced without thought for its passengers when service buses were involved, whilst being more than happy to use the square for a special service when a bit of extra cash would be coming its way.

This is just one of the questions we will be raising on Wednesday when the company's Operations Director, Tom Waterhouse will be at our meeting, details of which are on the left sidebar.