Is this the stop for the war memorial, please?

 It's only in relatively recent times, since the advent of the internet, that any sort of formality has been brought to the process of naming bus stops.  The stops have always had names of course, but these developed through custom and practice and were chosen, informally, by local passengers and bus crews.

Apart from those stops that were timing points or fare stages, the names never appeared anywhere in print, or on the bus stop signs themselves.

When bus timetable information began to move online and it became possible to identify individual stops and show them on online maps a national database of bus stops was established with details of location and name of each one.  Responsibility for populating the database was given to County Councils and they used a variety of means of naming the stops. The best of them attempted to establish the names that were already in use informally, albeit with varying degrees of success. This was a sound approach, but occasionally it fell foul of the fact that over the years there had been no mechanism by which the informal "custom and practice" name of a stop could be changed, even when the feature after which it was named, such as a pub, post office or other landmark, was no longer there.

Take Forton, for example.  In this village, some 11km south of Lancaster and served by buses 40, 41 and 42, the principal stop is "Forton, War Memorial".  Here it is:

Forton War Memorial bus stop (northbound) (from Street View)

But here is the War Memorial Itself

Forton War Memorial (from Street View)

The memorial  is 450 metres - "a five minute walk" says Google Maps - off the bus route and in the village centre at the junction of School and Wallace Lanes.

Thirty Years Ago

So how does the bus stop come to have such a misleading name?

From some online research, the Bus Users' Group has established that the war memorial did indeed used to be situated near the current bus stop on the A6. However, following a number of incidents of it being hit and damaged by road vehicles it was removed in 1993 and reinstated on its present site three years later.

But despite this having happened almost 30 years ago, no one at the council or the various bus companies that served the stop appears to have noticed and the stop is still known as "Forton, War Memorial".

Does it Matter?

Given that most of Forton village lies off the A6, this stop is probably the only one most villagers use and they no doubt refer to it as  simply "Forton".  Strangers, however - and perhaps new residents - could spend a long time waiting for a bus at the actual memorial, having seen it mentioned in the timetable.  

Uncertainty as to what is on offer is a huge barrier to encouraging new users to try the bus and uncertainty as to where the bus will stop is a major factor. Misleading stop names don't help, so perhaps, after 30 years it's time the stop was renamed. The Bus Users Group will suggest this to Lancashire County Council and see what happens.

Bus Services on Monday 19th September

Bus services on Monday, 19th September, which has been declared a Public Holiday for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II will be as follows:

A Sunday timetable is expected to operate on all services, with the following exceptions:

Stagecoach service X8 Chorley - Lancaster, Caton Road - Keswick  will not operate.

Dales Bus services 830 (Richmond) and 881 (Malham), will not operate

Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire will operate a Sunday timetable on services 81/82 between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale.  No other Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire services will run.

Weekend Motorway Closures Bring Disruption to Bus Services

Stop Press!

The M6 closure has been cancelled for this coming weekend due to the higher than usual number of people expected to be travelling to London.

Also, following last weekend's  problems the future planned closures are "under review".

Passengers travelling to Preston and Blackpool at the weekend can expect delays.

 Passengers planning to travel between Lancaster, Preston and Blackpool on services 40, 41 and 42 over the next few weekends can expect major disruption to their journeys if last weekend's experiences are anything to go by.

THe southbound carriageway of the M6 will be closed to all traffic between Jc 33 (Hampson Green) and 32 (Broughton) between 21.00hrs Friday and 05.00 Monday each weekend until 3rd October.

The closure allows work to renew the waterproofing and surface on the bridges that carry the motorway over Whittingham Lane and Stubbins Lane. At the same time the central barrier is being replaced and beams under the bridge that have been damaged by vehicle strikes will be repaired.

Diversion via A6

Southbound traffic is being diverted at junction 33 onto the A6 and based on last weekend's experience this will have a major impact on the reliability of services 40/41 to Preston and 42 to Blackpool.

Stagecoach was aware of the problem in advance and has taken measures to mitigate the effect of the extra traffic as explained on its website.

Due to the M6 Southbound closure, there will some disruption to our 40, 41 & 42 services.

On Saturdays:

40 services from Lancaster will terminate at Catterall Brockholes Arms, the return journeys will start from Catterall Brockholes Arms. Passengers for points further south should use service 41 (see below)

41 services will continue to run through to Preston mainly but start and finish at Lancaster Bus Station, not serving Morecambe.

42 Services will NOT Serve the University Underpass or Alexandra Park campus and will operate via A6 in both directions

On Sundays:

The 40 Services will operate to Preston, but will mainly start and finish at Lancaster Bus Station not serving Morecambe.

The 40 & 42 services will NOT Serve the University Underpass or Alexandra Park campus and will operate via A6 in both directions.

Passengers are advised there may be considerable delays to services and there may be short notice cancellations across the network. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Drivers were making every effort to provide a reliable service, but the disruption is indeed "considerable". Last Saturday, early morning journeys were able to keep to time, but by mid-morning buses were arriving at Caterall 25 - 40 minutes late.

Delays got much worse as the day wore on with buses on services 40 and 42 arriving at Garstang around 80 minutes late. Those buses that did continue to Preston suffered even greater delay with the service 40 that left Morecambe at 1810 and Lancaster at 1830 not getting to Preston until 21.17, an hour and thirty-seven minutes late!

Northbound

Although the northbound M6 remained open and there was no delay to northbound traffic on the A6, the late running of southbound buses obviously spilled over on to the northbound journeys leaving the whole service disrupted.

Caton Road

Traffic from the closed section of the M6 backed up well beyond junction 34 to the north of Lancaster, which led to traffic leaving the motorway and heading into the city along Caton Road. This in turn delayed buses on Caton Road, including the Park & Ride. At one point, buses were running via the Bay Gateway and Morecambe Road in an attempt to keep to time.

The X8 wins the prize for the longest diversion!

One service took an even greater diversion, which despite its length appears to have paid off.  Stagecoach's X8, which links Keswick and Chorley, with a call at Caton Road Park & Ride for Lancaster passengers actually diverted from Kendal via the A65 and A59 to Preston.

The route taken by the X8 to avoid the congestion. It normally runs via the M6 and calls at Caton Road.

The diversion meant that the service arrived in Preston and Chorley 43 minutes after its advertised time, but based on the experience of buses on service 40/41 the delay was significantly less than it would have been if the registered route had been followed. Presumably there were no passengers wishing to travel to Lancaster last weekend!

Much as it pains a bus users group to say so, if you really must travel to Preston or Blackpool at the weekend for the rest of the month, you would be well advised to take the train, although with the number of cancellations Trans Pennine, Northern and Avanti West Coast have been making lately, that option too might not be trouble-free!

Government Confirms £2 Fare Cap from January

 

Cheaper Fares: Will they lead to more scenes like this?

No sooner had the Bus Users' Group reported that the government was making no progress on its promised move to cap bus fares at a maximum of £2 per journey than the Department for Transport announced it would be introduced early next year.

Rather than having been embarrassed by our comments, it appears that the announcement has been timed to divert attention from the introduction of fare caps in Manchester and West Yorkshire (both of which have Labour Mayors) from next week.  It's clear from what has been released so far that the scheme is far from complete and has certainly not been agreed by the whole bus industry, leaving more work to be done between now and the planned introduction date in January.

Not Like Manchester

Even the official DfT press release is short on detail. It states only that the £2 cap will apply to "adult single fares", with no mention of child or young persons' tickets that are normally sold at a discounted rate. Taken literally this could mean that a child fare at full rate could actually be more expensive than the £2 adult fare, although this is unlikely to happen.

 The reduced fares will apply from "January to March 2023" and the scheme differs from those in Manchester and West Yorkshire in two significant ways. 

• It is temporary

         It is time-limited for just three months, unlike those in Manchester and                 West Yorkshire, which are intended to be permanent, at least whilst the             funding lasts.

• It applies to single tickets only

        The cap applies only to single fares.  In Manchester and West Yorkshire                 there will also be a £5 cap (£4.50 in Yorkshire) on a full day's travel                     irrespective of how many journeys are made or how many different                     operator's buses are  used.   The situation on child and young persons'                fares is unclear.

Time to Build

Experience elsewhere has shown that initiatives on reduced fares or enhanced services take time to bed in and it can be quite a while before the public becomes aware of them and even longer before they change their travel habits.

In 2017, following a sustained campaign by the Bus Users Group, service 18 in Lancaster was enhanced from five buses a day to a half-hourly service.  Usage rose quickly from an average of 14 passengers a day to 83, although the average number of passengers per journey rose only by 33%

Service 18 showed that it can take longer than three months to build patronage.

Twelve months later there was an average of 111 passengers per day, but it took almost another year - and two years from the time the new timetable was introduced - for ridership to peak at 166 per day.

A three-month experiment on fares capping may therefore not be enough to show the full potential of the scheme.   The DfT, however, has also said that it will "consider future support to help passengers continue accessing reliable and affordable bus services after March". Given that the experiment is due to take place in the middle of winter, when the potential for attracting new passengers is at its lowest, we sincerely hope that this is the case.

No Daily Cap

The absence of a daily cap on fares, such as is being introduced in Manchester and West Yorkshire is a serious flaw in the scheme.  Locally, both our operators offer a Day Ticket on their services, but the tickets are not interchangeable.  The Bus Users Group is aware of passengers who buy a daily or weekly ticket from one operator but then still have to pay extra if they use the other company's buses. A £5 cap across the whole network would benefit them.

Who Will Benefit?

Perhaps we should start by saying who won't.  

Anyone who currently pays less than £2 for a single journey, such as those travelling from Marsh, Ridge or Bowerham into the city centre will not gain from the scheme.

Similarly those who currently buy a return ticket at £3.90 or less, such as between the City Centre and Lancaster University or Bare and Morecambe, will see no advantage.

Regular travellers who currently buy weekly or longer period Mega Riders will also find it cheaper to continue doing so rather than paying 2 x £2 per day, as can passengers who take advantage of Stagecoach's Flexi-Tickets that can reduce the cost of a day's travel across the Bay DayRider area to as little as £3.50, or 50p less than two journeys with a capped fare.

But surely someone must!

Obviously, anyone who currently pays more than £2 for a journey that they make in only one direction each day (perhaps getting a lift home?) will be in pocket - and the farther they travel the greater the saving.

Similarly, anyone who pays more than £4 for a return ticket and is unable to take advantage of the Flexi Day Rider Tickets, which can only be bought through the Stagecoach app, will stand to gain.

Interestingly, the DfT's press release says that on average a three-mile bus journey in England costs "over £2.80" and that passengers will therefore save 30% under the cap.  Research by the BUG on a selection of local journeys showed that our passengers currently pay £3.60 for a three-mile ride, making the saving 44% although neither figure takes return or day tickets into account.

The greatest beneficiaries will be those who travel the farthest.  A trip to Kendal, Keswick, Blackpool, Skipton or Preston for just £2 (plus £2 to get back) is an attractive offer and should encourage new riders as well as helping existing ones.

Who's Paying?

If fares are being reduced, then bus company revenues will also fall as passengers who previously paid £3, £6 or even £12 for a journey pay just £2.  Although the reductions should mean extra passengers travelling, it is unlikely, especially in the middle of winter, than enough extra journeys will be generated to make good the shortfall.

The government has therefore set aside £60m to compensate bus operators for participating in the scheme.  This might not seem a lot to cover the whole of England, but with the schemes in Manchester, West Yorkshire and Liverpool (set to follow from mid-September) being funded separately and bus fares in London set at a flat rate of £1.65 per journey already and therefore not affected, it has to cover a smaller number of journeys than it seems at first sight.

It's clear from the government's announcement that the actual details of how operators will be reimbursed are still being worked out and that full agreement with the industry has not yet been reached. So far, the government says that the scheme will apply to "almost every" bus and that bus operators providing "over 90%" of services support the scheme, participation in which will be voluntary.  It is, however, difficult to see how any individual operator could opt-out in practice, given the publicity the scheme will no doubt receive.

The Bus Users' Group welcomes the initiative, despite its flaws, and hopes that it will continue and will be enhanced to make it of benefit to even more passengers, both existing and new.

The £2 Fare Cap: What Would it Mean for Lancaster?

 

There has been much speculation in the media lately about the government introducing a compulsory cap on bus fares of £2 per single journey, although no official announcement has yet been made.

Things are, however, on the move in Greater Manchester, where the Mayor, Andy Burnham, is pressing ahead with his plan to cap fares from 4th September, in advance of the introduction of a bus franchising scheme next year. A similar fares cap will apply in West Yorkshire from the same date.

Under the schemes, adult bus fares for journeys wholly within Greater Manchester or West Yorkshire (but not between the two) will cost no more than £2 (child fares will be £1) for a single journey, whilst a one-day ticket for unlimited travel will cost £5 in Greater Manchester and £4.50 in West Yorkshire and will be valid on all buses. 

So how would a national cap modelled on the Manchester scheme affect the cost of travel around Lancaster and Morecambe?

Who benefits?

For many local journeys it would make no difference.  Single fares from the city centre to places such as Marsh, Ridge, Scale Hall and Bowerham are already below the £2 cap and would not be affected. Similarly, passengers making return journeys to or from Vale, ASDA, Lancaster University or Standen Gate  who do pay more than £2 for a single ticket can buy a return for less than £4 

Even passengers travelling farther afield, providing they make a return journey or use more than two buses to complete a journey, are unlikely to see a saving as Stagecoach's Bay Area Day Ticket at £5 is the same price as the proposed capped fare. Although the Bay Area ticket covers a smaller area than Greater Manchester it nevertheless allows travel as far south as Hampson Green and as far north as Silverdale at north of Carnforth as well as the whole of Lancaster, Morecambe and Heysham.

The only passengers likely to make very substantial savings are those travelling a very long way. A £2 cap would apply to journeys to places such as Blackpool, Preston, Kendal, Keswick, Kirkby Lonsdale and Skipton and even paying another £2 to come back would still be cheaper than the present-day return fares, which range between £8.40 and £12 for these destinations.

Daily Commuters

Passengers travelling five or more days a week in Lancaster would still be better off buying a Bay Mega Rider (£17) which works out at £3.40 a day if used five days a week and even less if the sixth and seventh days are used.

Even passengers who travel regularly but not every day can already travel for £4 a day by buying a Bay Flexi 5, which is a bundle of five Bay Area Day Riders costing £20 that can be used on any five days over a year.  The similar Bay Flexi 10 ticket works out at £3.50 a day for 10 days travel, which can also be spread over one year from date of purchase.

Once again, only those commuters travelling farther afield would benefit from a £2 fare.

Not Everyone Travels with Stagecoach

Stagecoach and Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire Buses. 
Could there be one ticket you could use on both?

Passengers who travel on services run by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire would also  benefit.  Anyone who currently buys that operator's £22 weekly ticket for the "Craven Connection" services in the Lune Valley and travels five days a week could instead buy ten £2 single tickets and save £2 over the week. On the other hand, passengers on the 89 service between Lancaster and Knott End who travel five days a week would still be better off with the £16 weekly ticket available on that service.

Of course, the passengers who would really benefit are those unfortunates who currently have to use BOTH operator's buses to complete their daily journeys as there is no ticket available at present that covers journeys on every bus in the District. For example, anyone travelling between villages in the Lune Valley and Morecambe, or the University has to pay both Stagecoach and Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire for their journey and would benefit by being able to buy a one-day ticket for £5 that could be used for their whole journey.

The Way Ahead?

It would seem therefore that most benefit would accrue to people making lengthy journeys to places outside the Lancaster District.  These services tend to run less often than the shorter urban routes, making them less able to cope with sudden increases in demand.

If the scheme was too successful in attracting extra passengers to these services, which surely must be one of its objectives, the prospect of a £2 journey to Blackpool or Keswick on a nice sunny day could lead to overcrowding on buses and even passengers being  left behind!  Unlike Greater Manchester's scheme, which is intended to be permanent, albeit subject to review, the government's scheme is expected to be time-limited, which raises the question of how many of the extra passengers gained will continue to travel when their £2 fare suddenly becomes £12 again and therefore what the long-term benefits of the scheme would be.

On the other hand, the introduction of a £5 Day Ticket that was usable on every bus in the District, irrespective of operator, would bring immediate and lasting benefits to those passengers whose journeys require them to use both our local operators' buses.  The Bus Users' Group called for this in our response to the consultation on Lancashire's Bus Service Improvement Plan, which is in the course of being implemented. 

The proposal for a national bus fare cap has gone very quiet recently and no decision is likely to be made until the new prime minister and his or her cabinet are in place. Unfortunately, neither candidate for the top job has expressed any interest in buses, unlike Boris, who for all is faults will at least be remembered by bus passengers, at least in London for the replacement buses for the iconic Routemasters that now (unofficially) bear his name.

Boris Johnson and the "New Routemaster" London bus aka the "Borismaster"

City-centre bus stops to close for two weeks.

 

The stops in George Street will be out of use for up to two weeks.

The city-centre bus stops in  George Street in Lancaster will be out of action from Tuesday, 30th August until Tuesday, 13th September as the long-running programme of works to renew electricity cables in south Lancaster is completed with the closure of Spring Garden Street. Some buses will also be unable to stop in Common Garden Street.

Stagecoach has issued the following statement as to how its services will be affected:

Southbound services towards the University / Garstang / Ridge will be diverted via Thurnham Street and King Street and will be unable to serve the stop on George Street. (They will, however, continue to call at Common Garden Street - LBUG)

Services travelling towards Morecambe will operate direct via King St between the Infirmary and bus station serving the stop at Queen Square. The stops at Common Garden St and George St will not be served

Services 2X (Heysham)  and 11 (Marsh)  will be diverted via Thurnham St and King St to serve the stop at Queen Square rather than George St.

Service 7 (Vale)  will operate to the bus station only and will not serve George St.

Service 18  (East City Circular) towards the Leisure Park will not serve George St or Common Garden St. A temporary stop will be placed on Nelson St. On the return journey it will serve Queen Square rather than George Street.

Service 55 due to depart George St at 15:45 on schooldays will commence from Queen Square.

Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire services 9 (Bowerham) and 89 (Knott End) will also be affected and will be unable to call at George Street.

Although the closure period extends to 13th September, it will be lifted as soon as the work is completed, which might be at an earlier date.

Bus Service Emergency Funding Extended into 2023

 

The extended grant will help operators maintain services such as
 Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's 550 from Levens and Arnside to Morecambe

Bus services across England will benefit from an extension of the government's Bus  Recovery Grant by a further six months.  Despite previous statements that the £150m grant, which covered the period from March 2022 until October "would be the last", the Department for Transport has now announced a further £130m in funding to cover an extension until March 2023.

Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport said:

This funding will ensure millions across the country can continue to use vital bus services, and brings the total we’ve provided to the sector throughout the pandemic to almost £2 billion.

At a time when people are worried about rising costs, it’s more important than ever we save these bus routes for the millions who rely on them for work, school and shopping.

Relief

The news will be greeted with relief by bus passengers, following announcements by many bus operators across the country that the end of the grant would result in service cuts because passenger numbers have still not returned to pre-pandemic levels.  Local authorities, who faced being asked to replace the withdrawn services with additional contract expenditure will no doubt share that relief.

Locally, Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancs MD, Rob Jones, recently told a Bus Users' Group meeting that passenger levels in Lancaster had returned to 90 / 95% of adult and student travellers, although concessionary bus pass holders were still only travelling at about 70% of pre-pandemic rates. He felt that this should help Stagecoach avoid making any "significant" cuts to services.  Hopefully, the new funding will remove any continuing doubts over the future of local routes.

The recovery of passenger levels following the pandemic and the associated lockdown in 2020 has been a long drawn out affair. After initially plummeting to just 10% of "normal" levels, ridership slowly recovered to about 80% by March of this year. Since then it has stabilised and even fallen back a little, with the figure for July being just 77%. (These figures are for England as a whole and do not necessarily reflect the position in Lancaster).

What Happens Next?

The news may have come too late for some bus operators who have already given the necessary notice to reduce services from the beginning of October and it will be interesting to see if these proposed cuts are now reversed. 

As to what will happen in March, this must still be very much up in the air. Even if passenger numbers have recovered to pre-Covid levels by then, high inflation will lead to cost increases for operators which will need to be reflected in increased fares. Experience during earlier periods of high inflation, has shown that increased fares can lead to passengers making fewer journeys, whilst the falling value of wages will leave people feeling worse-off and less inclined to travel. 

 That grant may need to be extended further still.