Lancaster BUG Seeks Passengers' Views Before Submitting Proposals to the County Council

Under the 3rd April service changes prompted by Lancashire County Council's termination of bus service contracts, a number of places are due to see large reductions in services or even to lose all their buses completely.

The County Council has set up a cross-party Working Group to consider how best to spend the £2M fund it has set aside to mitigate the effects of its own decisions.  The Bus Users' Group will be suggesting that the money is used to re-instate bus services in those areas worst affected. We will be putting detailed timetables to them for consideration on a number of routes as shown below.

Please have a look at what we are suggesting and let us have any comments or suggestions as to how they could be improved.  Please remember though that the £2M replaces a total of £7.5M currently spent and that it has to cover the whole of the county council's administrative area so there is little point in just asking for everything to be put back as it was. We feel that our proposals will cover the most people in the greatest need.

We realise that our suggestions will still leave a lot of people facing cuts to services they currently use, but once the county has made its decision we hope to work with parish councils and other groups to see how additional buses can be provided.

The Council is leaving very little time for suggestions to be made so please let us have your comments as soon as possible and by the Wednesday, 17th February at the latest.

Here are the suggested timetables.

33  Morecambe - Bare (Circular)

51  Carnforth - Silverdale (with Lancaster connections)

81  Lancaster - Kirkby Lonsdale (evening service to Wennington)

81  Lancaster -  Kirkby Lonsdale (Sunday service to Hornby)

81A Lancaster - Gressingham - Kirkby Lonsdale

89  Lancaster - Pilling

New Service Levels from April Revealed

Time is running out for the 5B

Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancs. has given details to the Bus Users' Group of its planned service revisions that will take effect on 3rd April 2016. There are large-scale reductions to timetables with some services disappearing altogether following Lancashire County Council's decision to cease all subsidies for local bus services.

Here is the effect the cuts will have, including those services provided by Battersby's and Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, which are also affected:

1. Silverdale Shuttle

Service withdrawn

5  Overton - Morecambe - Carnforth

The late evening service is withdrawn, with last through buses at 1840 from either end of the route and a 1940 from Overton and Carnforth as far as Morecambe. The Sunday service will continue but will close down one hour earlier than on weekdays.

5B  Brookhouse - Morecambe

Service withdrawn

5C  Carnforth - Crag Bank - Morecambe

Service withdrawn

7  Vale - City Centre - Marsh
Evening and Sunday journeys withdrawn. On Mondays to Saturdays buses from Marsh will run through to Ridge every 30 minutes via the Bus Station.  Vale will have a separate service to George Street running every 20 minutes. Journeys to Marsh will operate as service 9. Last buses to Marsh at 1855 and Vale at 1820

10  Lancaster - Ridge

Evening and Sunday journeys withdrawn. On Mondays to Saturdays buses from Ridge will run through to Marsh on service 9  via the Bus Station every 30 minutes. Last bus from Bus Station to Ridge at 1928

42  Lancaster - Blackpool

The evening journeys operated by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire will be withdrawn.  The situation over the Sunday service (which is subsidised during the winter) is unclear.
UPDATE: Stagecoach has confirmed that the Sunday service will continue during the winter months but that the last journey of the day in each direction will be withdrawn

33  Morecambe - Bare (Circular)

Service withdrawn

49  Lancaster - Halton

Off-peak journeys will be extended to Warton via the Kellets and Carnforth, replacing service 51.

Evening journeys on service 81 that run via Halton are withdrawn but Halton will keep a service on 49 up to 1900 hrs.  Sunday service is, however, withdrawn.

51  Lancaster - Carnforth - Silverdale.

This service is withdrawn. It is replaced between Lancaster and Warton by revised service 49 (see above), but there will be no service beyond Warton. Evening and Sunday service is withdrawn.

55  Lancaster - Carnforth

Late evening journeys operated by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire are withdrawn. Daytime journeys will run to a new timetable. Last Bus from Lancaster at 2200 and Carnforth at 2223

80  Lancaster - Ingleton

The 0655 from Ingleton to Lancaster will start at Hornby at 0741. There will be other changes to the timetable but a basic two-hourly daytime service will continue. Buses will return from Lancaster at 1015, 1215, 1415, 1525 (Hornby only) and 1715 (Not Saturdays)

81  Lancaster - Kirkby Lonsdale

Buses will run every two hours via Hornby, Melling and Tunstall (i.e. not serving Wray or Wennington, which are served by service 80). The only buses via Gressingham and Whittington will be those serving QE School in Kirkby Lonsdale.

There will be no evening or Sunday service. Last bus from Lancaster will be at 1730 and from Kirkby Lonsdale at 1715.

89  Lancaster - Knott End on Sea

Service withdrawn

The above changes have now been registered with the Traffic Commissioner to take effect on Sunday, 3rd April 2016.  We will make full timetables available on this site as soon as we receive them.

The Bus Users' Group will continue to press the County Council to make some funding available to maintain a service to those areas where all buses are to be withdrawn. The budget cuts are due to be approved by the full Council on 11 February but it has already announced that a cross-party Working Party will be set up to decide how best to spend the £2M per annum remaining funding that was initially allocated to support volunteer-led bus services under the Parish Bus Scheme.

Lancaster Bus Users' Group will put proposals to the Working Party in favour of maintaining a reduced conventional bus service instead of relying on volunteers.  The Group is also keen to work with parish councils or other interested parties to see if funding can be found to add to a basic service level or indeed to provide one, should the county council decide not to do so.

Bus Users Ask the County to Reconsider its Plans

The Bus Users' Group, whilst recognising the financial difficulties the County Council finds itself in, feels that the council does not plan to spend its remaining public transport  money wisely.

After April 2016 the Council intends to stop funding all subsidised bus services and to use what little funding it has to provide minibuses to parish councils that volunteers would drive on locally-organised routes.  Unsurprisingly, the Bus Users' Group has detected a complete lack of enthusiasm amongst parish councils or anyone else for this approach.

Therefore the Group has sent the following letter to the Cabinet Member for Transport at the Council asking that the planned "Parish Bus Scheme", which no parishes appear to want, be scrapped in favour of the county council working together with parish councils and others to maintain at least a basic bus service throughout Lancashire by means set out in the letter.

If you agree with the views expressed in the letter you may wish to tell your local county councillor

(addresses here on this link)  and perhaps send him or her a link to this post.

LANCASTER DISTRICT BUS USERS’ GROUP

Please reply to

98 Dorrington Road

LANCASTER

LA1 4TD

County Councillor J Fillis                                              lancasterbususers@gmail.com          

77 Southport Road                                                                                                                 

ORMSKIRK                                                                                                                            25^th January 2016

Lancs

L39 1LW

Dear Councillor Fillis,

BUS SUBSIDIES AND PARISH BUS SCHEME

Lancaster District Bus Users’ Group understands the reasons behind the reductions to the County Council’s budget and accepts that bus services must take their share of the cuts. We feel however that the proposed total withdrawal of all subsidies and their replacement by a “Parish Bus Scheme” that will rely heavily on volunteers for all aspects of its operation is not the way forward and does not represent best value for money.

Even were it to be successful the Scheme would lead only to a fragmented series of unrelated local services each with an uncertain future and with a lack of co-ordination between them or with commercial services and carrying far fewer passengers than the current subsidised routes.

We feel that the money allocated to the proposed scheme could be better spent elsewhere. In recent years Lancashire’s rural and suburban areas have enjoyed a generous level of bus service provision; in many cases the best services that some communities have ever enjoyed. There would therefore appear to be scope to reduce service levels, even quite drastically, and still maintain a basic level of provision. Your current proposals do not do this and will lead, in a number of instances, to communities moving from a seven-day-a-week, 07.00 to 23.00 hrs service to no buses whatsoever.

We would ask you to consider utilising the £2M that we understand is set aside for the Parish Bus Scheme in one of two different ways:

To maintain a basic level of service provision during the working week (excluding  evenings and Sundays) particularly on routes where communities would otherwise be more than two kilometres from an alternative service, the actual service level being the best that could be obtained for the money available. Parish Councils, or other interested groups could be invited to provide funding to enhance such services where they wished to do so.

Alternatively:  To encourage Parish Councils and others to procure their own services from commercial bus operators and to utilise the county’s remaining funding to match the parish expenditure by way of grants.

Our discussions with Parish Councils in the Lancaster District have uncovered no enthusiasm for the Parish Bus Scheme as proposed and we believe this is likely to be the case elsewhere. In any case, with subsidised services due to end on 2 April it is extremely unlikely that any new schemes could be put into effect in time to avoid a gap in provision. We would therefore ask you again to reconsider.

Please note that although this letter has been sent as “hard copy” I would be happy to receive your reply by email to the address above should that be more convenient.

Yours Sincerely,

Jim Davies

Chair

Stagecoach to Continue Some Services After Subsidy Ends

Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancs has advised Lancaster District Bus Users' Group of some of its plans for local services after 2 April, when Lancashire County Council withdraws all subsidies.

On Service 5  Overton - Morecambe - Carnforth, where evening and Sunday buses currently receive a subsidy, the company will continue to run a Sunday service until early evening and will also extend its commercial daytime service to include some early evening trips.

Service 80  Lancaster - Ingleton will continue to operate approximately every two hours in the off-peak, although morning and evening peak journeys will finish.

Service 81  Lancaster - Kirkby Lonsdale, where all evening and Sunday buses and most journeys north of Hornby are subsidised, will in future run approximately every two hours on Mondays to Saturdays with all journeys operating via Melling and Tunstall. Wray and Wennington wil be served only by service 80 (see above) whilst the only service through Gressingham, Arkholme and Whittington will be the school buses to QE School at Kirkby Lonsdale.  Services 80 and 81 will together provide an hourly headway between Lancaster and Hornby.

There will be no evening or Sunday journeys,

The company confirmed that it has no plans to continue any of the other subsidised services it operates, these being:

Service 5B at Caton: One more for the chop!

5B  Brookhouse - Morecambe

5C  Carnforth - Morecambe

7   Marsh - Lancaster - Vale (Evenings and Sundays)

10 Lancaster - Ridge (Evenings and Sundays)

51  Carnforth - Silverdale  (Daytime service between Lancaster and Carnforth will continue)

Service 89 Lancaster - Knott End on Sea is operated by Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancs, which has no plans to continue it after 2 April.  Following an approach by the Bus Users' Group Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancs has agreed to look into the possibility of providing a partial replacement.

Stagecoach is also planning some changes to commercial services from the same date.

Service 7  Marsh to Vale will be re-linked as a Marsh to Ridge service.  Vale will be served by a service every 20 minutes running through to George Street in the city centre.  Stagecoach says this is to improve reliability.  For the same reason the company will introduce new timetables on services 40/41 Morecambe - Preston and 555 Lancaster - Keswick, which will also necessitate re-timing of service 55 Lancaster - Carnforth to retain an even headway.

All the above is subject to being registered with the Traffic Commissioner on or before 4th February.

County Council Launches Bus Cuts Consultation

Despite already having given notice to bus companies that it will cancel all subsidy contracts with effect from 2 April the County Council has launched what it calls a "consultation" on the matter.

The topic has been covered very well by the Virtual Lancaster web site so rather than attempt to replicate it here is a link



Virtual Lancaster post on Bus Cuts Consultation

Leafleting at the Bus Station

The distribution of leaflets to passengers at Lancaster Bus Station to alert them to the service cuts proposed by Lancashire County Council that was postponed from December will now be held on Thursday, 14th January.

Meet at the Damside Street entrance to the bus station at 11.00 for a photo shoot and then stay as for as long or as little as you can manage to help spread the word and raise awareness of the impending cuts.

Christmas and New Year Buses

As usual, there are no buses on Christmas Day or New Year's Day and an early finish on Christmas and New Year's Eves. Boxing Day services are, however, increased this year with more buses on more services around Lancaster and Morecambe.

Here is an extract from Stagecoach's website with details of their services.

Thursday 24th December 2015

We will run a normal Thursday timetable  on all services  up to about 1900. View  Christmas Eve  last journeys   on your route here.  All other services will run their full timetable which would normally finish around 2000.

Friday 25th December 2015 and Friday 1st January 2016

No services will operate.

Saturday 26th December 2015 - WE'RE NOW RUNNING ON BOXING DAY!

We will run special Boxing Day timetables  with extra journeys in the morning to help people get to work  on Service     2/2A, 3A,  6A, 7, 10,  40 &  55.  No other service will run today. View Boxing Day timetables in Lancaster.

Sunday 27th December 2015

We will run a normal Sunday service.

Monday 28th December 2015

We will run a Sunday service on all services and have added extra early morning journeys on Service 3A,  6A, 7, 10, 40 and Service 55.   View  timetables in Lancaster with extra morning journeys.

Tuesday 29th & Wednesday 30th December 2015

A normal Monday - Friday timetable will operate
.

Thursday 31st December 2015

We will run a normal Thursday timetable  on all services  up to about 1900. View  New Years Eve  last journeys   on your route here.  All other services will run their full timetable which would normally finish around 2000.

Saturday 2nd January 2016

We will run a normal Saturday service. All services are back to normal from today.

Lancaster local services 8, 9 and 18 and journeys on services 42 and 55 run by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire will run to a similar pattern.

For services elsewhere in the Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancs network please see the link on the left sidebar.