Stagecoach Tweaks Summer Holiday Changes Following Feedback from Bus Users' Group

 

An extra bus will run from Hala following a request to Stagecoach

The new "summer holiday" timetables on service 100 (University - Morecambe) have been tweaked following an approach from the Bus Users' Group.

Following publication of the revised timings on our website, the Group was approached by passengers who found that the new timetable made it harder for them to get to work.  Specifically, the changes had removed two consecutive journeys in the morning travel-to-work time between Hala, Bowerham and Lancaster, with no buses through Bowerham between 0640 and 0815.

However, when the Group approached Stagecoach, the company swiftly agreed to insert an extra bus into the timetable, leaving Hala Square at 0740, Bowerham Hotel at 0746 and arriving at Lancaster bus station at 0757 in time to make the connection for the 0800 journey on to Morecambe.

This is not the first time that Stagecoach has agreed to make last-minute changes to its timetables in response to requests from our Group and shows that it can be responsive to requests from the public. It would, of course, be better if there were a formal consultation process in place before changes were made and this might well happen under the proposed "Enhanced Partnership" between bus operators and the County Council, but in the meantime the Bus Users' Group is happy to bring any issues to the company's attention, although we can't guarantee success every time!

The revised temporary timetable is here.

Service 18

Stagecoach has also confirmed to us that during the six-week period that Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire will be operating service 18 on its behalf, the full range of Stagecoach tickets will be valid and passengers will be able to buy Day Riders and Mega Riders from KLCH drivers that will be valid on Stagecoach buses within the usual area of validity.

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.

A bus service at its best.

Excellent service on the 81!

 The Bus Users' Group has been criticised recently for being too negative in our coverage of the service changes in the Lune Valley. We hope we have been clear that our criticism related solely to the failures in publicising the changes and not to the way in which the services are operated or the buses are run.

As if to confirm this we have been made aware of an example of excellent service to a member of the public travelling on Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's service 81 just yesterday.

It seems that yesterday afternoon an elderly passenger was at Lancaster bus station wanting to travel to Ingleton.  The last service with a connection to the village had left an hour earlier, but the would-be passenger had no money for a taxi and had mislaid the phone number for the person being visited.

Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's service 81 was in the bus station, but at that time of day it goes only as far as Kirkby Lonsdale, with no onward connections.  Some drivers might have just said: "Sorry, we don't go there, I can't help you", but not this one.

We understand the driver made a quick phone call to the office, then told the passenger: "There's no way we are going to leave you stranded: we'll take you there", which after dropping off the other passengers he did!

The driver was rewarded by a round of applause from his passengers, which was well-deserved and the Bus Users' Group would like to add our own thanks for such sterling service, as well, of course, to the company's management for agreeing so readily to his actions.

Well done to all concerned.

Lune Valley Timetables - Almost Perfect!

 Regular readers will be aware of the somewhat shambolic nature of the way in which last April's changes to bus routes and times in the Lune Valley were conveyed to the travelling public.

Those unfamiliar with the situation may like to read our previous posts:

10th June 2022 Confusion Still Reigns Over Lune Valley Bus Times

24th April 2022  Lune Valley Timetables: You Couldn't Make it Up

5th April 2022  Buses: The Secret Service

Many of the problems seem have arisen from the Traveline National Data Set (TNDS) not having been updated when the new services began. This was eventually done towards the end of June, following which a number of improvements rapidly followed. So, THREE MONTHS after the changes came into force how are the various parties doing?

The Bus Operator

Since some time in May, Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire has had a timetable for the new services available on its website (the services started on 4th April). We believe this to be a record of what is actually operating apart from the single journey on service 80, which we (and Lancashire CC) think runs on schooldays only, not "Monday to Friday".

The operator appears, however, to have abandoned its attempt to produce a printed timetable leaflet.

Lancashire County Council

New leaflet being printed.

Lancashire deserves recognition for updating the timetable cases in its area promptly, ensuring that at least some information for the public was available from day one. It also had the new timetables on its website equally promptly, although this was marred by there being a number of discrepancies between them and those publicised by the operator. It also forgot to remove the old service 582 from its website which led to some confusion.  These matters are now resolved.

The good news is that the Council has now taken on the job of producing printed publicity for the new services and the Bus Users' Group was recently asked for our views on a new leaflet that is very shortly going to print and which will then be available in Lancashire's libraries and Visitor Information Centres.

Cumbria County Council

Cumbria, only marginally involved in the changes, has correct timetables for the 81 82 and 581 on its site. There is still no mention of the 80/583 (Kirkby Lonsdale - Ingleton - Bentham) service, but we understand that this is in hand.

North Yorkshire County Council

Despite the 581 (Kirkby Lonsdale - Settle) and 583 being operated under contract to the council, there is only an out of date copy of the former and no mention at all of the latter on their website.  North Yorkshire blames this on the failure to update the TNDS (see above) and also on the introduction of a new system for dealing with timetable information, which is causing difficulties.

We find it surprising that an authority that is paying to have these services provided for it cannot find a means to publicise them.

Traveline, Google, Bus Times etc

The various third party websites and apps that provide bus information rely largely on the TNDS for their information, so when this fails, they do too.  Now that the Data Set has been updated they are all showing the services properly (although we do still think that service 80 operates "schooldays only" and not "Monday to Friday")

A word here about the excellent website provided by the Dales Bus Organisation, which has managed to include the most up-to-date information throughout, as indeed have our own Timetable Pages

Lancaster Bus Station Display Board

The display board at Lancaster bus station has a complicated management system with a number of parties involved (including the Bus Users' Group on occasion!).  It continued to show the pre-April times for service 582 and to ignore the new 81 and 82 times after the services changed.

We had assumed that the updating of the TNDS would put an end to this error and that the system would somehow automatically pick up changes and apply them. But it appears it is more complicated than that!

The operating system distinguishes between majority operator "Stagecoach" services and "non-Stagecoach" ones and has to be told to look for "Stagecoach" or "public" data for each of the 20 stands in the bus station. When a service switches stands, as happened here when the Lune Valley services were standardised on stand 14, a manual adjustment has to made by staff at Lancaster University, which was involved in setting up the system.  

It seems that no one thought to tell the University that the services had switched stands and it was only after liaison between the University, the County Council and the Bus Users' Group that action was taken to put things right.  

So, after three months of operation, the public now has access to up to date information (except perhaps on service 80) on two of the four websites where it might expect to find it, with updates to the other two now promised. The various third-party sources should also be correct. The roadside displays have been updated and a timetable leaflet is about to go to the printers, whilst passengers in Lancaster bus station can now check their departures on the electronic board.

The reorganisation of services in the Lune Valley was one of the biggest such changes undertaken in Lancaster for a few years; we hope that lessons have been learned and that future changes will be handled better.

Buses Return to Higher Heysham - Exclusive!

 

Peel Avenue: One of the stops to regain its bus service.

You won't see anything on either Stagecoach's or the County Council's  websites about it, nor on Traveline or Google Transit, but buses will return to parts of Higher Heysham after a gap of over twelve months from next Sunday, 3rd July.

In February 2021, Stagecoach withdrew services 2X (Lancaster - Morecambe Fast) and 5 (Overton-Carnforth) from Heathfoot Avenue and Middleton Road in Heysham because the road surface had deteriorated to the point where it was damaging the buses. Here's what the company said at the time:

The Bus Users' Group also raised the matter with the Highways Department and with the County Councillor for the area, but although we were assured the work was included in the programme of works for 2021/2 (ending in March 2022) the road remained unrepaired.

Not All The Council's Fault?

We are not sure when the work was eventually completed, but a visit to the area sometime in late April/ early May showed that the road had been resurfaced and even the bus stop clearway markings freshly re-painted.

Given the level of disruption caused to passengers and the large area of Heysham left unserved, we were surprised that buses didn't return immediately. It was even more surprising that the change was not co-ordinated with the removal of service 1/1A buses from another part of Heysham in late May because the road surface there was causing similar problems!

Buses were withdrawn from Mossgate Park in May because of road conditions there.

Meanwhile, Stagecoach reprinted (and we do mean reprinted!) it's service 5 timetable (as part of the Carnforth area Guide) "effective May 2022" to show the service running via the normal route with the timing point at Peel Avenue reinstated. The timetable for the 2X however was last printed in December 2021 and has not yet been re-issued to show the return to the old route.

It's not clear why it has taken Stagecoach so long to put these services back to their proper routes. Nor is it clear why neither they nor Lancashire County Council are publicising the move in the "Service Changes" pages of their websites. The news hasn't filtered through to the likes of Traveline or Google Transit yet either. So, once again, the Bus Users' Group is proud to be first with the news!