Wednesday 24 January 2018

All Greyhound Bridge Timetables Now Available


All the new timetables that will apply during the Greyhound Bridge closure, between 29th January and next August are now available online, both from Stagecoach and Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire.




Almost every service in the city will have some changes made to times.  Those which normally cross the river are most affected of course with buses having 10 to 20 minutes added to their running times.
Through services between Lancaster University, Morecambe and Heysham (services 2 2A 3 and 4) will operate as two separate services with through passengers required to change at the bus station. However through fares will continue to be available between connecting buses.

Even services that don't cross the river are affected with extra running time being added to allow for the effects of expected traffic congestion in the city centre.

The following services will have significant changes

18  East Lancaster Circular.  Frequency reduced from every 30 to every 40 minutes with a completely new timetable.

41  Morecambe - Lancaster - Preston:  Most journeys will operate between Lancaster and Preston only. Passengers for Morecambe will have to change at the bus station on to other services.

New service U2:  Lancaster - University via Bowerham:  Evening journeys are reduced from every 20 minutes to every 30  during university vacations.

New service U3 Lancaster - University via Greaves Road:  The daytime service along Greaves Road will operate only during university terms. In the vacations a half-hourly service will continue to be provided by service U3R. Greaves Road is also served by the 40, 41 and 42.

All these changes, including the service reductions are temporary and full services will be restored after the works are completed.  Stagecoach tell us that they are sorry they have had to make cuts to services during the holidays but point out that due to the closure they have had to provide a significant number of extra buses and drivers just to keep existing services running.  As they will receive no compensation from the county council for the extra cost and loss of income caused by the roadworks they feel they have no alternative but to make some temporary reductions to services that are heavily-used by students in term time but not in the holidays.


Thursday 18 January 2018

More News on Greyhound Bridge Closure


Following our post on how to find out about your bus service during the six months from 29th January that Greyhound Bridge will be closed there is now some information on Stagecoach's website.

There are now links to most new timetables with the rest expected to be added very shortly. 

Wednesday 17 January 2018

New Bus Times During Greyhound Bridge Closure

Greyhound Bridge closes on 29th January for six months.

The closure of Greyhound Bridge in Lancaster from 29th January for at least six months will result in new timetables for ALL the city's bus services.

With less than a fortnight to go these new times are still not available on-line or in print, but the information is there, buried within Stagecoach's website. This makes it possible to check on how the new timetables will affect your journey. Here's how to do it on-line:

1.  Go to www.stagecoachbus.com

2. Make sure the Location tab (top centre) is set to "Lancaster"

3. Click on Plan a Journey

4. Fill in the starting and finishing points of your journey and your departure time and set the date to after 29th January 2018

5. This will give you a journey plan that will apply when the new timetables are in place.  
In the example on this link you can see that a journey from Lancaster University to Heysham, which can normally be made on a through bus (service 2 or 2A) will need a change at Lancaster Bus Station because during the bridge closure there will be no (or at least very few) through buses between south Lancaster and Morecambe.

6. But don't be tempted to follow any more links. From the results page it looks as if it might be possible to reach a full timetable for the new services, but it isn't - and clicking on the new service number just takes you to a copy of the current (pre- 29th January) timetables!

We will post links to the new timetables as soon as they become available.