COVID BUS FUNDING EXTENDED TO MARCH - BUT NO FURTHER

 

Coronavirus restrictions have led to fewer passengers.

The UK government has announced a further tranche of Covid Bus Service Support Grant to help keep England's buses running. However, the money comes with a warning that this will be the last payment operators can expect to receive, with the Grant coming to an end by April 2022.

Fears over services and fares

The end of funding raises fears for the future of service levels and fares.

After bus use plummeted and operators lost 90% of their passengers in March 2020, the government stepped in to provide emergency funding to keep services operating.  Initially expected to run for a twelve-week period, the funding had to be extended a number of times with the current installment ending in August 2021.

The latest announcement extends funding until April 2022, but at a lower level to reflect the recovery of passenger numbers in recent months. The government has also made it clear that there will be no further extensions.

The funding comes with government controls over service levels and fares, In the early days of the pandemic, bus operators were required to run no more than 50% of normal services. This was then gradually increased so that currently a 100% service level is expected. Meanwhile, fares have been frozen - and no dividends have been allowed to be paid - since April last year.

Fully Commercial

From next April, the government expects the bus industry to return to fully- commercial operation, albeit acting in "Enhanced Partnerships" with local authorities to deliver improved services under the National Bus Strategy for England. These Partnerships are supposed to be able to attract government funding from a different pot through the implementation of Bus Service Improvement Plans, although details of this and of the amounts that might be available, have not yet been made known. What is clear is that bus operators will still have to act commercially within the Partnerships and the end of Covid Bus Service Support Grant emphasises that fact. 

But how easy will it be for them to do so? The recovery of ridership,having risen gradually over the Spring, appears to have stalled at about two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels. Bus industry commentators don't expect passenger numbers to exceed 80% of pre-pandemic levels for some considerable time to come, so bus companies and local authorities will be anxiously awaiting the outcome of the submission of the Bus Service Improvement Plans and to hear how much funding they will receive.

Fares to Rise?

The onset of the pandemic came just before Stagecoach's  planned 2020 fares increase, which was therefore never implemented.  By next April, the company's fares will not have risen for three years, whereas in previous years there have been increases of between 5 and 10%

The National Bus Strategy contains an aspiration for lower and simpler fares, but with bus companies expected to act fully commercially and with fares three years out-of-date it is difficult to how this can be achieved.

The Bus Users' Group will be watching with interest.

SCHOOL BUS UNDER THREAT

 

Archway Travel school service S24 is due to finish at the end of term

Parents in the Marsh area of Lancaster, whose children attend Central Lancaster High School, have started a campaign to save their school bus.

The bus is under threat of withdrawal by Lancashire County Council because none of the children who use it are entitled to free transport to-and-from school and the revenue from those children who do use doesn't cover the cost of operation.

The Bus Users' Group doesn't normally concern itself with home-to-school transport buses, which are not available for use by the general public, but we feel the S24 Marsh to Central Lancaster High School service is different.  Despite its official status as a school contract service, in practice it is much more akin to a scheduled bus. Indeed, it's hard to see why it is a school contract in the first place.

Central Lancaster High School

Council Responsibility

The County Council has a responsibility to provide home to school transport for children attending their nearest school and living at least 4.8km (3 miles) away (less for younger children). The distance from the farthest part of the S24 route to the school is closer to 3.2km (2 miles) so most children wouldn't seem to qualify in the first place. The Council does make exceptions and will provide free transport for children from low-income families or for certain other reasons. It's possible, therefore, that at one time sufficient children from Marsh did qualify for free transport, although if that was the case then it's hard to see why it's not the case now.

Surprise

The announcement has taken the parents and the school by surprise, coming just a few weeks before the end of term. However, Lancashire County Council says that it gives at least one year's notice of school bus withdrawals and insists that this was done in the case of the S24.

The decision was originally taken in July 2019 and the service would not have resumed for the new school year in September 2020. However, early in 2020 the government stepped in with special funding to keep school buses running during the Covid pandemic and the county council took advantage of this to keep the S24 running for a further year.  That funding will not be continued for the coming school year so the council has decided to implement its earlier decision.

Campaign

Parents, led by local City and County Councillors, have started a campaign to save the bus, as the alternative would require the children to catch two buses to get to school and leave home up to half-an-hour earlier in the morning.  The Bus Users' Group is advising the campaign and wishes them every success.

The bus is one of ten such services proposed for withdrawal across Lancashire County Council's area and the savings expected would appear to be minimal - an average of £52.60 per bus per day. It also seems wrong that the council is proposing to axe bus services at the same time as it is preparing a submission to government under the National Bus Strategy for England for a share of £3 billion of funding to improve bus services and increase ridership!

The campaign has started a petition to save the S24, which you can sign here: Link to Petition

Further Improvements to the Park & Ride

 

Barely three weeks after the major enhancement of Lancaster's Park & Ride, that saw the service doubled in frequency and extended to Lancaster Royal Infirmary, comes news of a further enhancement. As with last time it's all a bit last minute with an announcement today about a service change on Monday (7th June)

The new timetable sees two additional evening journeys, leaving the Caton Road Park & Ride site at 20.35 and 21.05 and returning from the RLI at 20.45 and 21.15  catering primarily for NHS staff at the hospital but, like the rest of the service, available to all comers.

Here's a copy of the new timetable

National Express Returns to Lancaster

 

Birmingham is now served by National Express from Lancaster again

As the company continues its recovery from the pandemic, Lancaster is now reconnected to the National Express coach network with the introduction of service 181 between Birmingham and Glasgow.  At present, only the overnight coaches will serve the city, with the southbound service calling at the Bus Station at 02.40 closely followed by the northbound coach at 03.00.  The service also calls at Hamilton, Carlisle, Preston, Manchester and Manchester Airport and a refreshment halt is made at Tebay services in both directions.

Connections are available at Birmingham for London, Bournemouth and the West Country as well as Heathrow and other airports, although some of these involve lengthy waits.  A daytime service between Birmingham and Glasgow remains on the M6 and does not call at Lancaster.

According to the company's website the service runs "Monday to Sunday" or, as we would say: "Daily" and starts on Sunday, 23rd May. However, anyone attempting to book a ticket online will find that after today there appears to be a gap until next weekend until a daily service begins.

Megabus

Lancaster is also served by rival coach firm Megabus, although that company's coaches only call at Lancaster University and not the city centre. Megabus can't or won't publish actual timetables but extensive research on their website shows that Lancaster is served by a route running from London to Glasgow via Manchester, Manchester Airport and Birmingham. At least the Megabus service is a daytime run, with the coach to Manchester and London calling at the University at 14.05 and the northbound Glasgow coach departing at 15.15 every day.

Park & Ride Extended and Enhanced - at short notice!

The new southern terminus of the Park & Ride at Lancaster Royal Infirmary.
Because KLCH has only one route-branded bus for the service,
the extra journeys are being operated by an unbranded vehicle.

 In a surprise move, with little notice to either the operator or the public, Lancaster's Park & Ride service, which links the city centre with the car park at Junction 34 of the M6 at Caton Road, has been completely revamped.

From Monday, 17th May the service is boosted to run every 15 minutes (or every 20 when the traffic is expected to be busy!) and the route is extended to take in the Lancaster Royal Infirmary, where buses will use the existing bus stops on South Road.  The service also runs later in to the evenings, to cater for hospital staff and visitors.

However, the new route means that the stop in George Street in the City Centre is no longer served. For passengers coming into the city from Caton Road there are no drop off points between North Road (opposite Sainsbury's) and the Infirmary on South Road (see map below). Passengers may, however wait on the bus at the Infirmary and then alight at Queen Square, Cable Street or the Bus Station on its return trip.

The service has also gained a new route number - L1 - which partially restores an old Ribble Motor Services tradition of numbering local routes in the "L" series.

The new route and times are shown below.

The enhancement, which requires a second bus to operate, has been expected - indeed promised - for some considerable time and is intended as a means of combating the problem of restricted car parking space for staff and visitors at the hospital. Plans to build a bigger car park at the hospital have not been progressed and if and when they do go-ahead there will be a short term reduction in staff car parking space as the work takes place.

However, the trigger for this latest move appears to have been the move by the City Council to remove the concession during the Covid pandemic whereby certain NHS staff have been allowed to use council run car parks free of charge, with that concession now transferring to the Park & Ride. Funding for the enhancement has come from the NHS and is on a three-month trial basis.

Parking at the Caton Road site remains free and the bus fare into the city or the infirmary is held at £1.60 return, a bargain compared with fares for the same journey on parallel bus services.

More Room On the Buses as Social Distancing Rules are Eased

 Social-distancing rules on the number of passengers allowed on buses are being eased as more people are travelling and the coronavirus pandemic comes under control.

Current rules restrict buses to carrying only 40-45% of their authorised capacity, but with passenger numbers in England having recovered to 60% of pre-Covid levels last week, concern was mounting over how services would cope as more journeys were made after the lifting of more restrictions on 17 May.

Now, bus industry trade journal "Route One" reports that following what is described as a "risk-based case" presented the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), the government is to relax distancing rules on busy journeys.

From 17 May, new guidance will allow all forward-facing seats on buses to be occupied by passengers when buses are busy. Rear and sideways facing seats will remain out of use, but in most cases this will allow buses to use 90%+ of their available seating. It is not clear whether standing passengers will be permitted.

On less busy trips, passengers will still be expected to follow social-distancing guidelines that require one of each pair of seats to be left vacant, meaning that two passengers not travelling together should only occupy a double seat when no free single seats are available. (In practice, this has been standard "bus etiquette" amongst regular users for a long time).

CPT says that the 17 May change takes into account the low prevalence of COVID-19, the rapid rollout of the vaccination programme and a greater knowledge of on-bus ventilation. There has also been little, if any, evidence of virus transmission on public transport since the pandemic appeared.

The measure is welcome in Lancaster, where the return of face-to-face teaching at the city's universities will mean more students travelling. It will also be useful for passengers using the new Summer Sunday DalesBus services to Malham and Richmond where the chance of being left behind by a bus running only once a week might have otherwise put them off travelling!

DalesBus is Back!

 

DalesBus services from Lancaster last ran in 2019, when Preston Bus was the operator.
This year's service will be run by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire

Summer Sunday buses from Lancaster to the Yorkshire Dales return for the 2021 season on 16th May. Having been unable to operate last year due to Covid-19, this year's services follow a similar pattern to the 2019 operation.

Two services run from Lancaster.

Service 830 Northern DalesBus starts in Preston, picks up at Lancaster then travels via Hornby, Wray, Bentham and Ingleton to Hawes, then continuing over the Buttertubs Pass into Swaledale and on to Richmond.

Service 881 Malham DalesBus starts in Lancaster and runs via the Trough of Bowland to Settle, Malham Tarn and Malham village.

Both services consist of one journey in each direction over the full route, although the 881 has extra trips between Settle and Malham connecting with trains.  They will run every Sunday from 16th May until 17th October 2021 with service 881 also running on Bank Holiday Mondays. Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire will operate both routes on behalf of Dales & Bowland CIC.

Timetables can be seen and downloaded from the following links

830 Northern DalesBus                         881 Malham DalesBus

Paper timetable leaflets will also be available on the bus and, later in the year from Libraries and Visitor Information Centres.

From the same date, Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire will reintroduce Sunday journeys on services 580 and 581 between Kirkby Lonsdale and Skipton, connecting with service 81A/B to provide a link to and from Lancaster.

DALES ROVERS

The services are part of the DalesBus network, which allows a number of different circular trips to be made. Dales Rover Tickets can be used on all DalesBus services and cost £10 for adults, £18 from Groups (of up to 2 adults and 3 children). Due to the passenger-unfriendly policies of North Yorkshire and Lancashire County Councils, NoW Cards can't be used on the 830 and 881, but passholders can buy a Dales Rover ticket at the discounted price of £5.

For full details of all DalesBus services please follow this link to the DalesBus website.