Back to the future on service 18

Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire will be operating service 18 for first time since 2017

 Passengers on service 18 between the bus station, Williamson Park and Lancaster Farms, would be excused for feeling they had fallen through a time warp when their bus comes along next week. Their usual Stagecoach bus will be replaced by one from Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, which last operated the route in 2017.

Stagecoach has been forced to introduce reduced "summer holiday" timetables on some of its own services due to a shortage of drivers, made worse by Covid-related sickness and a requirement to supply buses and drivers for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (read our previous post here). Transferring service 18 to another operator frees-up resources to continue operating the rest of the company's services, whilst Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire can accommodate the extra work due to lack of school services over the holiday. The arrangement will last for the next six weeks until the new school year.

The Bus Users' Group understands that Stagecoach fares will continue to be charged and that all Stagecoach pre-paid tickets will be accepted by the temporary operator.

We are pleased to see that our local bus operators are able to co-operate with one another in this way to ensure a service to the travelling public and that Lancashire County Council is allowing its contract with Stagecoach to be operated by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire temporarily.

KLCH last ran the 18 in 2017 at a much-reduced level to today's service, which was introduced following a lengthy campaign by the Bus Users' Group and local councillors to persuade Lancashire County Council to spend the money provided by property developers under a planning agreement to improve the service, but which the council appeared to have earmarked for alternative projects.

You can read more about that campaign via this link.

Stagecoach Announces More Cuts

Service 100 will be reduced to every 30 minutes

 As predicted in our previous post (read again here), Stagecoach has followed up its announcement of service cancellations for the week beginning 18th July with a further round of cuts starting the following week.

The cuts starting on Monday, 25th July are more structured than previous rounds of cancellations. Instead of withdrawing individual journeys based on drivers' duties (which led to random journeys being withdrawn on a large number of services), the company is introducing "Temporary Summer Holiday Timetables" on two services:  The 4 (University - Lancaster Railway Station) and the 100 (University - Lancaster - Morecambe - Heysham)

Service 4 is reduced from every 30 minutes to one bus per hour, whilst the 100 goes from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes during the daytime, with no change to evening or Sunday times. This leaves the 100 in the unusual position of having a higher level of service (every 20 minutes) in the evenings than during the daytime (every 30) on the section of route between the city centre and the University.  The new timetables are available on our Maps & Timetables Page here

Although any reduction in service is unwelcome, this structured approach will at least make it easier for passengers to plan their journeys, always assuming of course that no further ad hoc cancellations occur. 

The new times are described as "Summer Holiday" timetables, which is something that Stagecoach has never seen fit to introduce in this area previously. It might make sense to reduce the service to the University during the vacation, although this has never been done before on the services concerned and service 1 (every 20 minutes) between the city centre and the campus has already been withdrawn for the summer as it is every year.  It is also unusual, to say the least, for buses to the seaside at Morecambe to be reduced for the summer!

The BUG suspects that by calling them "summer holiday" timetables, the company is attempting the disguise the real reasons for the cuts, which are: staff shortage, staff sickness due to Covid, and, of course, a commitment to supply buses and drivers for a contract to provide transport during the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham that also start next week.

We also note that although described as "summer holiday" timetables, there is no indication given of how long they will apply for!

Services Cut as Stagecoach Wins Contract for Commonwealth Games Transport

 Stagecoach has announced  a further series of "temporary" withdrawals of buses throughout Lancaster and Morecambe from Monday, 18th July. As with previous reductions, the company has chosen not to reduce frequencies in a controlled manner, but is instead withdrawing individual journeys, presumably based on drivers' duties, which leads to an uneven service on the road.

Service 4 will see almost half its buses cancelled next week

Worst hit is service 4 (University - Railway Station - Lancaster Bus Station), which will see no fewer than 25 of its usual 45 journeys wholly or partly cancelled - a failure rate of 48%!

Services 1/1A (University to Heysham) are also badly affected with 48 trips either wholly or partly cancelled - 24% -   as is service 100 with 23 journeys affected.  All together, no fewer than sixty buses per day between Lancaster and Morecambe will not run next week.

There are also cuts on services 2X, 6, 6A, 40, 41, 49 and 55 and the full list can be seen HERE

Co-incidence?

It may, of course, just be co-incidence, but Stagecoach nationally has won the contract to provide "hundreds" of buses (presumably with drivers) for the Commonwealth Games, which take place in Birmingham this year. The Games themselves open to the public on 28th July, although the buses will need to be there earlier to provide transport for staff and athletes arriving in the city and, of course, to give time for route-learning by drivers.

History

Stagecoach has a long history of providing transport for major sporting events, including the British Grand Prix, the Open Golf Tournament and previous Games and such work is no doubt very profitable and well worth pursuing as long as you have the resources available.  But in the current climate of driver shortages and sickness it would be disappointing if the company were to be chasing short-term profits at the expense of its core business of providing transport for local people.

There are also knock-on problems to expect.  The Games contract requires double-deck vehicles, which means that local services may see more single-deckers operating. When a single-decker turns up on a service where the previous double-decker has been cancelled passengers will be penalised twice, by having to wait and then suffering a more crowded journey.  Single deckers have been reported on services 1A and 6A already this week, both of which are usually double-deck routes. 

And what about holidays?  One way of providing drivers for the Games would be to postpone holiday leave, but this just means that a backlog of holidays will build up, leading to more cancellations later in the year.

The current cuts are said to be "until 25th July", buttbefore when a further announcement will no doubt be made and the situation could get even worse.

The Bus Users' Group appreciates that decisions on whether to undertake event transport work, and how to resource it, are taken at national level, not locally, and that the level of staff shortage and sickness will vary throughout the Stagecoach empire, but local people have been suffering from cancellations for some time now and its disappointing that its about to get worse - whatever the reason.