Fare Rises Confirmed!

 In our post about the new Lakes Guide, we speculated that Stagecoach were planning a fares increase. Little did we know how quickly this would be confirmed!  Ironically, we were congratulating the company on how much advance notice it was able to give passengers of changes to bus services over the summer in the Lakes.  It appears that this has not been possible when it comes to the bad news about fares. Whilst some parties apparently received notice on 23rd February, with the change due to take effect tomorrow, details of the increases only appeared on the Stagecoach website in the last day or two.

Singles and Returns

Under the terms of the Bus Service Recovery Grant, which has been paid by government to compensate bus operators for the loss of revenue during the pandemic, fare increases are restricted to the level of inflation defined by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). In the twelve months to December 2021 the rise in CPI was 5.5%. It's not clear from the available information online but as Stagecoach last increased its fares in March 2019 its possible that the allowable increase would be based on the increase in CPI since then, which is 7.4%.

The new single and return fares apear to be on average roughly 8% above current levels, although due to rounding and other factors the increases vary from 5% to 12%

Here are some examples:

Lancaster Bus Station to:

Ridge or MarshCurrent: £1.70 single/£2.90 return.NEW £1.90 Single/£3.20 Return

Hala or University:Current: £2.20 single/£3.10 return NEW £2.40 single/£3.40 return

Hest Bank: Current £2.90 Single/£5 return*  NEW  £3.20 single / £5 return*

Morecambe : Current £3.80 single/£5 return* NEW  £4.10 single £5 return*

Heysham Towers:  Current £4.10 single £5 return*  NEW £4.50 single  £5 return*

* Day Rider ticket.

The new single and return fares can be checked by making an enquiry for the journey concerned on the journey planner section of the Stagecoach website, remembering to set the date of travel to on or after 1st March

Daily and Weekly Tickets

The average increase for tickets that give unlimited travel for a day or longer is lower, at about 6% with some prices being held.

Day Tickets

The Bay Area Day Rider price remains at £5, which means that the cost of longer distance return journeys within the area is also unchanged. The Under-19s version of the ticket however, increases from £2.60 to £2.80 (7.7%).  The "Family" version (valid for 5 people, who need not be related and  of whom two may be adults) goes up by 70p to £13

The Bay Plus Day Rider, which covers a wider area encompassing Kirkby Lonsdale, Forton and  Burton-in-Kendal is increaed from £7.10 to £7.50 (5.6%)

Another ticket not increaseing in price is the Lancashire Day Rider  All three versions of this tickets remain at their current prices of £4.80 (Under 19) ; £8.40 (Adult) and £17.50 ("Family") meaning that the cost of day trips to places such as Preston and Blackpool will not increase. As a reader of our Facebook page has pointed out, the price of these tickets is controlled by Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancs and was increased earlier in the year by a similar amount to the current rises.

For passengers journeying into the Lakes, the North West Explorer ticket rises from £11.50 to £12

Seven Day Tickets

For regular travellers, perhaps commuting to work or college, the seven day tickets offer significant savings over ordinary return fares and will continue to do so following the price rise.

  

The Bay 7 Day Megarider goes up from £15.90 to £17 (6.9%)

The Bay Plus 7 Day Megarider increases from £23 to £24.30 (6.1%)  Passengers who use this ticket to travel to and from Kirkby Lonsdale and the Lune Valley villages will, however, find that the price of a weekly ticket will reduce to £22 (whole route) or £18 (south of Caton Green) when Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire take over the service from 4th April.

Longer Period Tickets

Stagecoach currently offers 28-day versions of its mega rider tickets as well as continuous monthly subscription variants.  There is no mention of these in the notice on the website, but if they are not being increased in price they will offer even bigger savings over seven day tickets than they do now.

Student tickets, such as the Unirider, are also not mentioned in the notice.

The full notice on Stagecoach's website is here.

Commentary - and concerns

It is always disappointing when bus fares have to rise, especially as many passengers are at the lower end of the income range and can ill-afford to pay more. Bus operators are in a difficult position. The Bus Service Recovery Grant is due to finish at the end of March and although there have been hints that it might continue in some form this has not been confirmed.  Passenger levels have still not recovered from the hit they received during the pandemic - and the pandemic itself is by no means over - meaning there is a delicate juggling act between needing to replace lost revenue by putting fares up and encouraging the missing ones to return by keeping them down!

Fares were last increased in March 2019 and in normal times would have gone up twice since then, not including the current increase. At an average annual increase of 8% (which would have been on the low side) a £2.20 fare would, after the latest increase and after "rounding up" would have become £2.80, rather than the £2.40 being charged from 1st March.

What is concerning, however, is that the present increase may be constrained either by the restrictions placed on bus companies in receipt of funding, or by the need to retain and increase passenger numbers.  Once the restrictions are fully lifted and once sufficient passengers have returned, there may well be more rises planned, which is perhaps why the glossy and very professional "The Lakes by Bus" Guide contains details of ticket prices only accessible via a QR code, leading to an easily-updated web page!

Little Change in the Lakes This Summer - Except the Fares?

 

Bus companies are often criticised - and sometimes rightly so - for failing to give passengers sufficient notice of changes to timetables. That's a criticism that cannot be levied at Stagecoach however, at least as far as its services in and to the Lake District are concerned.

Despite the summer timetable not coming into force until 2nd April this year, the Summer 2022 edition of "The Lakes by Bus" - a comprehensive guide to Stagecoach buses in the Lakes, complete with timetables, maps and some details of tickets and fares, as well as suggestions for places to see using the bus, is already available online.  Printed copies will no doubt follow shortly.

The Lake District network is fairly stable and once again few changes are proposed. Two routes link the Lancaster District with the area:  Service 555  Lancaster - Kendal - Ambleside - Grasmere - Keswick and the 755 Heysham - Kendal - Bowness-on-Windermere, both running seven days a week.

Service 555

Service 555 in Kendal

As has become usual during the summer months, the standard hourly service that leaves Lancaster via the A6 is supplemented by hourly journeys that run via the M6 and consequently reduce the journey time to Kendal and places north by no less than 40 minutes, overtaking the buses on the standard route that leave Lancaster 10 minutes before them and arriving in Kendal and points north thirty minutes earlier. This year the extra journeys will run on Saturday throughout the summer until 6th November and on Monday to Friday from 4th July to 30th September, which is one week less than last year.  As has also come to be expected in the summer, the last two departures on Monday to Saturday from Lancaster, at 18.50 and 20.40, continue through to Grasmere all week (except Sunday) rather than just on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Sunday service from Lancaster remains at two-hourly, with buses leaving for Keswick at 0915, 1115, 1315 and 1715. Southbolund buses leave Kendal at 0915 and then Keswick at 0930 1130 1330 and 1530.  The extra motorway buses at 0830 from Kendal to Lancaster and 1845 return, which operated last year, are not in this summer's timetable.

Missing Link?

Whilst the 555 is a valuable service and a key part of Lancaster's bus network, the Bus Users' Group can't help but feel that one failing it has is the lack of a later return journey from Keswick on a Sunday, the day when most people are free to enjoy a full day out in the Lakes. The last bus south, at 1530 from Keswick, is a full two hours earlier than during the week, reducing the scope for our residents to enjoy a full day's walking or sightseeing in the Lakes.

Service 755

Service 755 at Windermere (with a confusing destination!)

Last year's extension of the service to start at Ocean Edge Holiday Park was obviously a success, as not only was it continued over the winter, but this year it enjoys extra buses. The 08.10 from Heysham, Combermere Road to Kendal, which runs whenever the schools are closed, is extended to start at Ocean Edge at 0805, whilst buses that currently run empty to take up service there will now run in service at 0902 and 1002 from Euston Road, with return trips at 1655 and 1955 to Heysham Towers, where connections are available on service 1A to Morecambe and Lancaster.

Copies of the Lakes GuideSummer 2022 can be read and downloaded here.

Fares Increase?

Until the Summer 2020 edition, the Guide included full details of the various Day Rider and Explorer tickets available, ranging in price from £4.30 for a Young Person's West Cumbria Day Rider to £65 for a North West megarider GOLD Group ticket, as well as a range of special "bus and boat" offers for travel on certain lake boat trips.  

One of the conditions of the government funding that all bus companies were offered to help them maintain services during the pandemic was that fares were frozen for an indeterminate period and perhaps because of this, Stagecoach removed all price data from the relevant sections of the Guide. Whenm the rule came into force, Stagecoach fares had not been increased since March 2019 and those fares still apply.

The future of government funding, and fares control, is still uncertain, with the latest round due to end in April, although it is likely that at some stage bus companies will regain the right to set fares. The 2022 Guide still contains no details of ticket prices, but does now include a QR code for readers to scan to see the ticket prices - a neat way for Stagecoach to increase fares without reprinting the Guide. A handy solution in the cufrrent situation, but we hope it doesn't become the new standard!

More Details on Lune Valley Changes in April

 

Service 581 will continue to provide the link between Lancaster, Settle and Skipton

Following our post on forthcoming changes to bus services between Lancaster, Kirkby Lonsdale and Ingleton from April (read again here) we have more news to report.

School Buses to Wray and Wennington

The initial proposed timetable for services 81 and 82 meant that there would be no bus available to take children from schools in Lancaster home to Wray until 16.45 leaving them with the option of waiting over an hour for a bus in the city or walking the 2.6km along the narrow and twisty B6480 to get home. Under the current service, the 1525 service 82 from Lancaster is diverted to meet that need.

Following an approach by the Bus Users' Group to the County Council, which determins the route and times of these services, the service 81 bus from Ripley School will now be retimed to 1eave at 15.30 and run via Lancaster Grammar School at 15.40 and Lancaster bus station at 15.50 before continuing to Kirkby Lonsdale via Wray and Wennington. Children from the Grammar School wishing to travel to the villages on the north-western side of the valley will be able to change to a service 82 bus, that also starts at Ripley, at the Bus Station.  This quick solution by the County Council and bus company not only restores the service to Wray but also means that children at the Grammar School will no longer have to make their own way into the city  centre to catch the bus home.

The revised version of the NEW 81 and 82 TIMETABLE  is on this LINK

Fares and Tickets

With all buses on the 81 and 82 being operated by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, passengers, except those from Halton, will no longer have to choose between operators to get the best value fares for the journey they are makin. Those buying a return or a weekly ticket will be able to use it on every bus, meaning they will no longer have to let one bus go by because their ticket is only valid on the other service.

Single and return fares will be broadly the same as those charged by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire on service 582 at present, and the following Day and Weekly ticket prices will apply

DAY TICKET -  Services 81 and 82  whole route

Adult  £7  Under 19 £4.70

(Current Stagecoach prices for 80 and 81: Adult £7.10;  Under 19 £4.80 )

WEEKLY TICKET - Services 81 and 82  whole route

Adult £22  Under 19 £17

(Current Stagecoach prices for 80 and 81  Adult £23  Under-16 £17.40 (Note that 16 to 18 yr olds currently pay adult fares, but will be eleigible for the Under-19s ticket at £17)

WEEKLY TICKET - Valid between Caton Green and Lancaster only

Adult £18  Under-19  £13

There is no current equivalent Stagecoach ticket, so for most passengers the whole route ticket would apply,

The above tickets are valid for an unlimited number of journeys within the period of validity.

Unfortunately, passengers who currently use Stagecoach tickets to travel beyond Lancaster city centre on other Stagecoach services will no longer be able to do so. The County Council recognises that this will involve them in additional expense and that is will be a deterent to new users, but the Bus Service Improvement Plan that will start to be implemented later this year will have integrated ticketing as a top priority, so hopefully this problem will be solved before too long.

Buses to Bentham and Burton in Lonsdale

Bentham and Burton will be served by a circular service from Ingleton

The withdrawal of service 80 leaves Low and High Bentham and Burton-in-Lonsdale without a direct service to Lancaster following North Yorkshire County Council's decision not to make a joint arrangement with Lancashire to fund it.

Instead the Council has made an arrangement with Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire to utilise buses from the 81 and 82 routes to provide a basic link to the villages from Ingleton.  The Bus Users' Group recognises that all local authorities are strapped for cash, but we do wonder if this is the best use of any money that may be available.

The new service, to be numbered 583, is very much "production-led" rather than customer-focussed. That is to say it is designed around what buses hapen to be availble at the lowest cost rather than what needs and wishes potential customers may have.

The service 81 buses from Lancaster that arrive at Kirkby Lonsdale at 09.43, 11.43 and 13.43 will continue to Ingleton and then run a circular service via Burton-in-Lonsdale and Bentham before returning to Ingleton and Kirkby Lonsdale.  In addition there will be a bus from Bentham via Ingleton and Kirkby Lonsdale to get people to Lancaster for 08.17 on Monday to Friday or 09.32 on Saturday. There will also be connections to Bentham and Burton from the afternoon school buses from Lancaster again via Kirkby Lonsdale.

This service facillitates travel between the villages and allows a stay of either 55 minutes or 2hr 55 minutes in Kirkby Lonsdale. Passengers heading for a morning's shopping in Lancaster will find that not only do they have a much-extended journey via Kirkby, but unless they catch the 06.40 from Bentham they can't arrive until 12.22 and are faced with  a choice of bus back at 12.35 or 15.50!

Due to a late change in the timings of the Lancaster school buses, the service 583 timetable is still being finalised, but we will post it HERE as soon as we have it.

All Change in the Lune Valley as Stagecoach Pulls Out

 

Service 80, seen here leaving Ingleton, with end in April

Bus services between Lancaster, Kirkby Lonsdale and Ingleton are in line for major changes which will see Stagecoach withdraw its services 80 and 81 and replacements being provided by another operator. 

The changes from Monday 4th April follow Stagecoach's decision to cease operating the services concerned on a commercial basis, leaving Lancashire County Council to step in to replace them through a contract with local operator, Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire (KLCH).

Service 582 at Kirkby Lonsdale   

KLCH already operates service 582 between   Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale via   Gressingham and Arkholme as well as the   Sunday services (81A/B) via both sides of   the  valley.  These services, as well as Stagecoach's 81 from Lancaster to Kirkby   Lonsdale and Ingleton via Melling will be   replaced by two new services operating   seven   days a week.

• 81  Lancaster - Halton - Hornby - Wennington - Melling -  Kirkby Lonsdale and 
• 82  Lancaster - Halton - Hornby - Gressingham - Arkholme - Kirkby Lonsdale

Each service will operate two-hourly and following a suggestion by the Bus Users' Group, the timetables have been adjusted to give a regular hourly interval service on the common section of route between Lancaster and Hornby as well as between the two terminal points. The new times are also better co-ordinated between Lancaster and Halton with service 49, at least in the southbound direction. 

Both the 81 and 82 will run via Halton, leaving the section of route along the A683 between Jc 34 of the M6 and Caton unserved.

The current series of no less than five different service numbers will be replaced by just two, whilst other improvements requested by the Group are the extension of the first Lancaster-bound journey on a Saturday morning to start at Melling rather than Hornby and the conversion of the last journey of the day to Kirkby Lonsdale on service 81 to run the whole route on a guaranteed basis rather than being "on request" beyond Hornby.  Not requested by the BUG, but nevertheless very welcome, is the addition of a later bus at 18.50 from Lancaster to Hornby which will continue on request to Kirkby Lonsdale via Gressingham making the last departure to that side of the valley over 90 minutes later than now.

Most KLCH journeys on service 82 will still continue to Settle and Skipton as at present.

A draft of the new timetable (excluding the extensions to Settle and Skipton) can be viewed or downloaded here.  81 82 Lancaster - Kirkby Lonsdale

Bentham and Ingleton

Things are not so rosy on the Yorkshire side of the border. Normal practice for non-commercial services that cross a county boundary is for the cost of providing the service to be shared between the authorities concerned.  Service 80 crosses from Lancashire into Yorkshire halfway between Wennington and Low Bentham with over 40% of the route being in the latter county.

North Yorkshire County Council is understood to have declined to contribute towards the cost of maintaining service 80 and as the vast majority of the Lancashire part of the service is duplicated by service 81 that council also feels unable to pay for a service that would be of very maginal benefirt to its residents. Service 80 will, therefore, disappear in its present form, although KLCH is understood to be in discussion with North Yorkshire about providing some form of service to Bentham and Burton-in-Lonsdale, which would otherwise be left without buses.

Bentham is served by trains between Lancaster and Leeds, which have had their timetable improved in recent years, whilst Ingleton will continue to be linked with Lancaster via Kirkby Lonsdale by KLCH buses on services 581 and 82.

Concerns over Fares

The documents the Bus Users' Group has seen contain no details of fares, which at present differ slightly between the two operators. Due to the high level of single and return fares, most Stagecoach passengers travelling beyond Brookhouse can benefit from buying a "Bay Plus Day Rider" at £7.10 even if only making a simple out-and-back journey.

Regular passengers can buy a weekly Megarider for £23, which allows savings to be made from as near to Lancaster as Caton if travelling five days a week can save money.  Day and weekly ticket prices from Halton to Lancaster are lower.

Passengers travelling betyond Lancaster city centre, perhaps to Morecambe or the University, can use Day and Megarider tickets to complete their journey at no extra cost, but these tickets are "Stagecoach only" and cannot be bought or used on KLCH buses except on the Sunday buses operated under contract to the county council.  KLCH advertises "great value day tickets" in its publicity without mentioning a price, but again these are operator-specific and of no use to anyone travelling on from Lancaster. The company currently offers a weekly ticket at a price of £22, also operator-specific and of no use to anyone travelling beyond Lancaster city centre.

The BUG notes that Lancashire's Bus Service Improvement Plan, produced under the "Bus Back Better" National Bus Strategy for England, promises a range of multi-operator tickets and an integrated fares and ticketing scheme for the council's area. Obviously this will take time to develop, but we hope that LCC and the operators concerned can introduce perhaps a pilot scheme or some form of joint ticket for Lancaster so that passengers from, say, Caton do not find it cheaper to travel to Kirkby Lonsdale or beyond than to Morecambe or the University

Contrasting Fortunes

A Pennine bus leaving Lancaster for Skipton on service 580 in 1984

Service 80 once formed part of a trunk service between Skipton and Morecambe operated  by Ribble Motor Services (who numbered it 580) and Pennine Motor Services of Gargrave, which was established as a joint service in 1931.  At the deregulation of bus services in 1986 it was split at Ingleton with Pennine running the eastern leg to Skipton and Ribble westwards to Lancaster, the Morecambe extension being abandonned. At this stage the service operated roughly hourly throughout the day with a limited evening ans Sunday service.

Ribble becambe part of the Stagecoach empire in 1989 but by then service 80 was in decline. Evening and Sunday buses disappeared sometime in the 1990s and the service became part-supported by the two county councils as passenger numbers fell.

North Yorkshire County Council withdrew financial support in 2014, but as Lancashire continued funding for the section within its boundary, Stagecoach opted to continue the full route. Lancashire's support ended in 2016 as part of a major cut back in funding for public transport, but again Stagecoach continued the service, albeit with a reduced timetable of just four journeys a day.

The services between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale are also long-established routes. A short-lived service between Lancaster and Brookhouse is believed to have been authorised in 1922 whilst County Motors of Lancaster, later taken over by Ribble, began running to Kirkby Lonsdale in 1928. The service, however, never developed to the same extent as the 80 and in 1970 there were just 5 journeys a day all via Melling, with the other side of the Lune Valley served by an equally infrequent service between Kirkby Lonsdale and Carnforth.

At deregulation in 1986 there were still 5 buses a day between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale but now shared between both sides of the valley, with no service to Carnforth. Some journeys ran via Melling  or Gressingham according to the day of the week and the Saturday service was reduced to just two round trips, one on each side of the Lune.

The Rural Bus Grant, introduced by the Government in 1997, brought many improvements to rural bus services throughout the country and the Lune Valley was no exception. In the years that followed the Lune valley saw the best service it had ever had, with hourly services, split evenly between each side of the river and, for the first time ever, a full evening and Sunday timetable.  It was too good to last and although Lancashire County Council managed to keep it going after the incoming government cut funding for buses in 2010, by 2016 it was struggling for funding itself and forced to make major cuts to the bus service support budget.

Service 81 in Halton. The service, along with the 80, was re-routed
in 2019  to provide a service to the Low Road area of the village.

Following the withdrawal of council funding, Stagecoach found itself able to continue a two-hourly service along the south-eastern side of the valley via Melling, albeit without evening or Sunday buses, but the route via Gressingham and Arkholme became a bus desert served only by a solitary school bus.

A change of administration in County Hall saw a change of approach and funding for buses was increased. The Gressingham side of the valley gained a two-hourly service operated by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, which continued to Settle and Skipton by being linked to services already operated on the Yorkshire side of the border.  Further funding from central goverment allowed the restoration of the Sunday service, for which the Bus Users' Group had been campaigning.

The proposed services 81 and 82, to be introduced in April, continue to provide a two-hourly service to either side of the valley, which will operate seven days a week and the service is still better than it has been at any time in its history apart from the heady days of the Rural Bus Grant.  Service 80, on the other hand, once by far the more important of the two services, will be no more!

Bus Station Report Brings Quick Results

 

Lancaster Bus Station

The Bus Users' Group's Annual Report, presented at our AGM on 18th January featured a number of issues affecting the condition and operation of Lancaster Bus Station.

• Cleansing and Maintenance.

The Group had noticed a deterioration in the standard of cleansing in recent months with litter taking longer to be removed and chewing gum residue on the flooring.

Maintanence also appeared to be being neglected with no fewer than four smashed glass panels in the doors and windows awaiting repair.

 Two damaged door panels and two smashed window panes in the bus station

• Electronic Departure Board

Bus station departure board

The meeting heard that the cause of the long-running problems of misleading and incorrect "destinations" being shown on the board had finally been identified and that Stagecoach and the County Council had resolved almost all the issues, but that since Christmas a number of former errors had reappeared!

• Accident and Incident Reporting

Following instances where BUG members had witnessed, or even been involved in, accidents involving passengers in the bus station it appeared that no one in authority knew to whom these should be reported. The bus operators were clear that "boarding and alighting" incidents, involving passengers entering or leaving buses were their responsibility, but the position with "slips and trips" on the concourse or accidents with the sliding doors was less clear. The City Council, as owners of the bus station, had promised to develop a protocol for incident reporting and share it with the BUG, but this had not yet happened.

Following the AGM, our member Gina Dowding, who is both a City and a County Councillor, followed up the damage and accident reporting issues with the Council, whilst our Chair got in touch with our contact at Stagecoach about the departure board.

We are pleased to report that the damaged doors and windows were swiftly repaired and that most, if not quite all, of the issues with the departure board have also been resolved.

We have also been invited to meet  with City Council officers to discuss the accident reporting protocol and any other issues around the bus station one day next week and will report further once this has been done.

Annual Report 2021

 The Bus Users' Group has now published its Annual Report for 2021.

                   Click here to read

The Report details the activities of the Group over the past twelve months as well as a brief look ahead for the coming year.  Highlights of the Report are:

• Membership of the Group has held up well and our online reach has expanded
• The preparation of a "Lancaster Bus Service Improvment Plan" to put forward proposals to the county council for inclusion in the Lancashire Bus Service Improvement Plan
• Work to improve safety and information systems in Lancaster bus station
• The return of "Dales Bus" and our work to help promote it.
• Helping local campaigners secure a solution to the withdrawal of the S24 school bus in Lancaster
• Improving bus stops and shelters
• Our work with the Lancaster Business Improvement District team on a pilot project for free buses for Christmas shoppers in Lancaster.

A copy of the report can be read or downloaded here.

If you are interested in our work and what we do to improve bus services in the Lancaster District why not join us?  Membership costs just £5 a year (£2 for students and bus pass holders) and the membership year runs from January to December, making now an ideal time to join!  Please email us at lancasterbususers@gmail.com for details of how to join.

Bus Funding Uncertainties Continue

 

Services to south Lancaster have been promised improvement

 

Fears that promised improvements to bus services will be delayed and reduced in scope appear to have been confirmed, whilst hopes have been raised that short-term emergency funding will continue.

Recent correspondance from the Department for Transport (DfT) to English local authorities has hinted that the soon-to-end emergency funding for bus operators will continue, whilst confirming a delay to the submission of plans to improve services and reduced funding to implement them.

Hope for short-term funding

A report by bus industry trade journal Route One  quotes a letter from the DfT admitting that the Omicron wave of Covid infections has increased uncertainty about the bus industry's ability to maintain services on a commercial basis after the current Bus Service Recovery Grant (BSRG) ends on 5th April.

BSRG compensates bus companies for the loss of income suffered during the pandemic, which has caused huge reductions in the numbers of passengers being carried. The government had anticipated that by April ridership would have recovered sufficiently to allow bus services to be provided commercially again, although in December buses were carrying only two-thirds of pre-pandemic passengers and the recovery had gone into reverse. At the same time, payments by councils to reimburse bus operators for carrying elderly and disabled passengers under the Concessionary Travel Scheme will be reduced in April and will be based on current levels of use rather than 2019 levels.

The government now risks embarrassment that just at the time its proposals to radically improve services under the "Bus Back Better" initiative are due to take effect, it will instead be hit by a wave of service reductions and fare rises as operators seek to adjust to the loss of emergency funding. "Route One" quotes a senior DfT official as saying that they are working with the bus sector to understand the problems and identify "what further action may be needed", leading to speculation that either BSRG will be continued or alternative funding provided.

Bus Service Improvement Plans

The DfT's letter also contains details of expected funding from April to the 79 "Enhanced Partnerships" of bus companies and councils that will deliver improvements to services set out in Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) published in June. These formed the basis for bids to the then £3 billion "Bus Back Better" fund promised to help implement them.

However, it now appears that the promised £3 billion has become just £1.4 billion. Still a substantial amount of money, but woefully inadequate to meet the cost of every local Partnership's plans, which are estimated at being between £7 and £10 billion in total. "Route One" says that it is not clear what has happened to all the remaining £1.6bn originally promised.

Delay

The government has also announced a delay to the introduction of "Bus Back Better" improvements. Originally, final detailled plans were to be submitted by the end of March 2022 and implementation to begin immediately.

Now, the deadline for submission has been pushed back to the end of April and then only draft plans are required. Partnerships are being advised to wait until they receive an indication of likely funding - promised "by February" - before finalising their Improvment Plans and and Schemes. No new implementation date has been announced.

The mis-match between the cost of meeting Partnership aspirations  (up to £10bn) and the available funding (£1.4bn) creates huge uncertainty in how the money will be allocated. Available funds could be shared out on a pro-rata basis, with each Partnership receiving a small proportion of its bid, or the DfT could decide to reward the more ambitious Plans with a higher allocation, which might mean some of the others receiving nothing.  Recognising that its money will not be enough to bring forward all the promised improvements, the DfT could even decide to instruct local Partnerships to prioritise their plans to meet its own preferred approach, removing the ability of local people to set their own objectives and priorities.

Cllr. Edwards

County Councillor Charlie Edwards, Lancashire County Council's Cabinet Member, told the Bus Users' Group that the Lancashire Partnership had submitted an "ambitious" bid totalling £170m and that he expected to receive "an element" of that amount, which when combined with exisiting and expected local funding would allow improvements to be made.