New Stagecoach Timetables Available Online

Stagecoach has published online timetables for services changing on 3rd April 2016.  This has inadvertently exposed a flaw in the company's all-singing, all-dancing website in that, unlike the previous version, there doesn't appear to be an easy way to call-up timetables in advance of their introduction date.

The Bus Users' Group, however, has uncovered them lurking deep within the site and there is now a link in the "Service Changes" box on the left-hand side bar that will take you to them.

Service 42 (Lancaster - Blackpool) appears to be missing however and neither Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire nor Travellers Choice appear to have published anything for services 33, 51 or 89, all of which we will link to as soon as we can.

Lancashire County Council Removes NOW Cards from Dales Bus Service

Lancaster District Bus Users Group has learned that Lancashire County Council is to refuse to allow concessionary bus passes ("NOW Cards")  to be used on a Summer Sunday service to the Yorkshire Dales.

The Northern Dalesman service, which links Morecambe and Lancaster with Ingleton, Hawes, Keld and Richmond, is provided by the Dales & Bowland Community Interest Company as part of a network of bus services designed to allow people to visit the Yorkshire Dales without using their cars. The service is operated by Travellers' Choice of Carnforth.

Last year, North Yorkshire County Council took advantage of a little-known clause in the concessionary fares legislation to designate the service as being "primarily for tourism" which meant that concessionary passes could not be used, 

At the time, Lancashire decided not to go along with this, leading to the unusual situation that pass-holders boarding in Lancaster to travel into the Dales could travel free but had to pay on the return journey if they got on the bus in North Yorkshire.

For the 2016 season however, Lancashire - citing budget cuts and the need for savings - is following North Yorkshire's lead and has refused to admit the service into the Concessionary Fares Scheme, despite it being the only Sunday service in the Lune Valley following the council's withdrawal of subsidy for other routes.

Jim Davies, Chair of Lancaster District Bus Users' Group said "Lancaster Bus Users and Dales Bus fans will be very disappointed at the Council's action.  The savings that can be expected from excluding passes from a once-weekly bus, running only in the summer months, will be trivial and the county council is being petty as well as short-sighted in taking this action."

"The NOW Card scheme is highly valued by local people and the Group feels that this is the thin end of the wedge and will engender fears that passes may be withdrawn from other services in the future".

County Council Reprieves Some Local Bus Services

Service 89 has been saved!

Lancashire County Council has decided today to continue to provide a number of supported bus services that were set to be discontinued in April. The Council has allocated £2M to allow a number of bus services throughout Lancashire to escape the axe.  The services concerned will provide basic daytime services to areas that would otherwise have been left without any bus service and do not include any evening or Sunday services.



In Lancaster, services 33, 51 and 89 will now continue with reduced timetables and an extra early evening journey will be added to Stagecoach's commercial service 81 to help people get home from work. Stagecoach has already announced that it will provide commercial journeys on Sundays on service 5 and will extend service 49 beyond Halton to provide a service to the Kellets, Carnforth and Warton. The company will also run some extra early evening services on Lancaster city routes.

The Lancaster District Bus Users' Group welcomes the County Council's decision and agrees that this is the best use of the limited funding that the council now has available for bus services. Whilst we are naturally disappointed that many evening and Sunday journeys will be lost we would be interested in working with parish councils or local communities to explore ways of restoring these via alternative funding sources.


The following timetables will now be introduced on 3rd April 2016 

Please note that the documents are advance copies and are not prepared to the usual standards of presentation for public copies. As soon as these are available we will link to them instead. Lancaster District Bus Users' Group presents these timetables in good faith but cannot accept responsibility for any inaccuracies or changes made subsequent to the start of the services concerned. Passengers are advised to check nearer to the date of travel.

Services not listed below are expected to continue unchanged except services 1, 5B, 5C, 55C and 81A, which are withdrawn.

5  Overton - Morecambe - Carnforth
7  Lancaster - Vale
10 Lancaster - Ridge
11 Lancaster - Marsh
33 Morecambe - Bare (Circular)
42 Lancaster - Blackpool:  Journeys operated by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire in the evenings will be withdrawn as will the last journey in each direction on Sundays operated by Stagecoach
49  Lancaster - Halton - Carnforth - Warton
51 Carnforth - Silverdale
55 Lancaster - Hest Bank - Carnforth - Warton
80 Lancaster - Ingleton
81 Lancaster - Kirkby Lonsdale
89 Lancaster - Knott End
555 Lancaster - Keswick (new timetable from 19th March 2016)
755 Morecambe - Bowness (new timetable from 19th March 2016)

Update on April Service Cuts

It's been some time since we posted anything about the cuts to the County Council's contract bus services that are due to come in on 3rd April 2016, so here is an update on the latest position.

Following a stakeholder consultation, to which the Bus Users' Group responded, the County Council set up a cross-party Cabinet Working Party on Buses to determine how best to mitigate the effects of its own decision to withdraw all funding for non-commercial bus services in the county.

The Working Party was given the remit to recommend how best to spend funding of £1M  Capital funding in 2016-7 and an annual sum of £2M revenue funding, which had been set aside for "innovative" and community-led projects but for which the consultation uncovered little interest.

Sensibly, the Working Party is now considering a range of options to put back conventional bus services to many areas that were due to lose them, concentrating on daytime services to areas that would otherwise have no bus service at all.

Taking the Working Party recommendations and the previously announced commercial decisions by Stagecoach, the following changes are now anticipated.  These are, however, subject to approval by the County Council and to acceptable quotes being received from operators. The Working Party meets again on 8th March following which an announcement is expected with details of the new timetables.

Service  1   Silverdale Shuttle

This service will be withdrawn, but a revised service 51 (see below) will provide some connections between Silverdale railway station and the village.

Service 5  Carnforth - Morecambe - Overton

Stagecoach will continue to operate the daytime service commercially and will add some early evening journeys. The last buses on weekdays will be as follows:

1840 Overton to Carnforth

1940 Overton to Morecambe

1840 Carnforth to Overton

1940 Carnforth to Morecambe.

Stagecoach will also operate the Sunday service commercially with last buses one hour earlier than weekdays.

Service 5B  Brookhouse - Morecambe

Service withdrawn

Service 5C  Carnforth - Crag Bank - Morecambe

Service withdrawn. Alternative service between Carnforth and Morecambe (not serving Crag Bank) is provided by service 5.

Service 7  Vale - Lancaster - Marsh

Most evening and all Sunday journeys withdrawn.  

Service 7 will operate between Vale and Lancaster (George Street) every 20 minutes. Last departure from Lancaster will be at 1820.

Journeys between Marsh and Lancaster Bus Station will be renumbered service 11, and will run every 30 minutes with last journey from Lancaster at 1855. Journeys towards Marsh will be re-routed and will not stop outside the station entrance on Station Road. They will continue to stop near the railway station entrance on Meeting House Lane.  Journeys towards the city centre will still serve Station Road.

Service 10  Lancaster - Ridge

All Sunday journeys are withdrawn and the last bus on Mondays to Saturdays from the Bus Station to Ridge will be at 1928.

Service 33  Morecambe - Bare Circular

Thus service will be continued "subject to a low cost solution being found".

Service 40  Lancaster - Preston

Stagecoach will continue to run the occasional journeys that currently run under contract meaning that there will be no change to this service.

Service 42  Lancaster - Blackpool

The evening journeys operated by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire will be withdrawn and Stagecoach will also withdraw some Sundays journeys operated commercially. The last bus from Lancaster to Blackpool will be at  1742 (Mondays to Fridays); 1740 (Saturdays) and 1710 (Sundays).

The last bus from Blackpool will be at 1924 (Mondays to Fridays); 1920 (Saturdays) and 1835 (Sundays)

Service 49  Lancaster - Halton

Some journeys will be extended beyond Halton to Warton via The Kellets and Carnforth to replace service 51. The last bus from Lancaster to Halton will be at 1900. The evening and Sunday service to Halton currently provided by services 81A/B is withdrawn. In Lancaster all buses will run via Aldrens Lane instead of Norfolk Street due to problems caused by parked cars.

Service 51  Lancaster - Kellets - Carnforth - Silverdale

This service in its current form will be withdrawn.  Stagecoach service 49 (see above) will provide a replacement between Lancaster and Warton but there will be no evening or Sunday journeys.

A replacement service between Carnforth and Silverdale will be provided under contract to the county council but it is unclear at present what form this will take or who will operate it. 

Service 55  Lancaster - Carnforth - Silverdale

This service will have a new timetable with extra running time to improve reliability. Peak hour journeys to and from Warton will continue but the single journey to Silverdale will be withdrawn.

The later evening journey provided by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire will be withdrawn.

Service 55C  Carnforth - Crag Bank - Lancaster

Service withdrawn. Alternative services between Carnforth and Lancaster (not via Crag Bank) are provided by services 55 and 555

Service 80  Lancaster - Ingleton

This service will have a new timetable. On Mondays to Fridays the 0655 Ingleton to Lancaster bus will start at Hornby at 0717 and the 1850 Ingleton to Lancaster journey is withdrawn. There are changes to the times of some other journeys and the last bus from Ingleton will be at 1350.

On Saturdays the 0745 Ingleton to Lancaster is withdrawn and the first bus from Ingleton will leave at 0900 with two later journeys at 1125 and 1325. Buses will leave Lancaster at 1015 1215 and 1415 and there will be a later journey to Ingleton on service 81 via Kirkby Lonsdale at 1730.

Service 81A/B  Lancaster - Kirkby Lonsdale

Stagecoach will run a commercial service, numbered 81, between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale via Hornby, Melling, Tunstall and Burrow. This service will not serve Wray or Wennington which are served by service 80 (see above). 

Buses will run approximately once every two hours with all journeys operating via Melling, Tunstall and Burrow. The only journey on the existing 81A route via Gressingham will be the afternoon school bus from Kirkby Lonsdale, The last bus from Lancaster will be at 1730 and from Kirkby Lonsdale at 1715.

In addition, the County Council will provide a journey at "about" 1830 from Lancaster as far as Hornby and then "on request" as far as required towards Kirkby Lonsdale.

There will be no evening or Sunday service.

Service 89 / 89H  Lancaster - Knott End-on-Sea

The County Council will provide a bus every 90 minutes - as now - on this service during the daytime with the last bus leaving Lancaster at 1820. There will be no evening or Sunday service and buses will no longer continue to Fleetwood on service 86 as this route is withdrawn.  The operator of the new 89 service is not yet known.

In addition Stagecoach is introducing its new Summer Timetable for Lake District services on Saturday, 19th March with changes including a revised timetable for service 555 between Lancaster, Kendal and Keswick.  Click here for details.

Stagecoach "Under 19s" Offer Extended

Good News for bus passengers in the Lancaster area aged under 19.  Stagecoach has extended its £2 all-day ticket offer until 10th April 2016.

The "Under 19s Dayrider" is part of an experiment by the bus company to encourage bus travel by this age group the ticket offers a full day's unlimited travel - with no restrictions - within the Bay Dayrider  Zone  (click here for a map)

The ticket, which costs just £2  offers significant savings over single and return fares and would previously have cost a young person £4.90 - the price at which it is still available for older passengers.

Examples of savings which can be made just on single journeys are:

Carnforth to Lancaster            £3.30    £2

Morecambe to Lancaster         £3.30   £2

Heysham to Lancaster             £4.50   £2

and of course the ticket can be used again for all other journeys on the day of purchase!

The ticket covers the whole of the Bay Dayrider Zone  but not the larger Dayrider Plus area.

For those aged 19 and over  a Bay Dayrider ticket costs £4.90 

These tickets are available to purchase from the driver of the first bus you use each day.

County Council Working Group to Consider BUG Proposals

Service 89:  Can it be saved?

Lancashire County Council has set up a Cabinet Working Group on Buses to consider how best to spend £1M of capital funding and £2M per annum revenue funding that is being made available for public transport following the decision to withdraw all bus services that currently run under contract to the council.

Initial thinking was that this money would be best spent on providing minibuses to parish councils and/or community groups so that they could run their own services, using volunteer drivers and other staff. The Bus Users' Group felt that this was not the most cost-effective means of spending the money and in a letter to the council's cabinet member for transport said that it should instead be spent on keeping bus services running to those areas that would be hardest hit.

The Cabinet Working Party meets tomorrow (Friday, 19th Febraury) and we have received an indication that it is now thinking along the same lines as the BUG, with the bulk of available funding likely to spent on conventional bus services.

County Councillor Gina Dowding, who is a BUG member and also sits on the Cabinet Working Group says she is "hopeful" that most daytime bus services can be retained.  The BUG has asked that daytime services be continued on the following routes, which were threatened with total withdrawal:

33  Morecambe - Bare Circular

51  Silverdale - Carnforth - Lancaster

81A  Lancaster - Gressingham - Kirkby Lonsdale

89  Lancaster - Knott End.

Detailed timetables for these services have been submitted to the Working Group and we hope that we will be successful in getting them, or something similar, accepted.

There is no indication that any evening or Sunday services will be put back.  We have asked that evening and Sunday services be reinstated on service 81B between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale (evenings) or Hornby (Sundays).  It appears less likely that this proposal will be accepted, but we have asked that at least some early evening (up to around 1900hrs) journeys can be provided as far as Hornby.

We will announce the outcome of the Working Group's deliberations as soon as we are made aware of them ourselves.

Service 81 Proposals for Evenings and Sundays

When Lancashire County Council withdraw all services running under contract to them in April, Stagecoach will continue to operate a reduced timetable on services 80 and 81 (Lancaster to Ingleton/Kirkby Lonsdale), but buses will only run during the daytime and not at all on Sundays.

The Bus Users' Group is putting forward proposals to the new County Council Buses Working Party that seek to restore some of the services that will be withdrawn using the limited funding that will be available.

Here are our proposals for evening and Sunday services between Lancaster and Wennington or Hornby.  We realise that this service is vastly inferior to that currently operating, but we are being realistic in what we can expect the county council to fund.  This route is the only one out of all those due to lose them where we are proposing that evening and Sunday buses be continued.  We hope that this service would meet most essential needs but we now welcome your comments on the proposals.

Service 81  Lancaster - Wennington via Halton (Evenings)
Service 81  Lancaster - Hornby via Halton (Sundays)

All service 81A buses from Lancaster via the north side of the Lune Valley are being withdrawn. We have a proposal for a replacement service here:

Service 81A  Lancaster - Gressingham - Kirkby Lonsdale