Service 555 Winter Timetable: No change for a change!

Service 555 in Kendal

The  current Stagecoach Lake District timetable runs up until 1st November, with the Winter service commencing the following day. As far as our area is concerned it is the 555 Lancaster-Keswick service that is affected.  The "summer only" additional journeys that operate via the M6 between Lancaster and Kendal will cease, as usual, for the winter at this time.

Sunday Service

In previous years there have also been changes to the Sunday timetable. Buses continue to run every two hours, but  with southbound buses running a few minutes or so earlier than in the summer and northbound journeys switching to the opposite hour.  This change would seem to have been more about how the drivers' duties were organised rather than to reflect the needs or wishes of passengers. Delaying the first journey from Lancaster by an hour meant that passengers could not reach Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere or Keswick until the early afternoon.  Because the return buses remained at more-or-less the same times, it had the effect of reducing the amount of time visitors to The Lakes could spend there. Visitors to Ambleside could enjoy just a four-hour stay or three-and-a-quarter hours in Grasmere. Anyone intrepid enough to journey to Keswick would have just two-and-a-quarter hours in the town before catching the last bus home - not much reward for six hours travelling!

But this year things have changed - or rather they haven't! The winter Sunday timetable remains pretty much the same as the summer, with buses heading north from Lancaster at 0915 and every two hours until 1715 allowing passengers an extra hour in the Lakes.  In addition, two extra journeys run between Kendal and Lancaster via the motorway, no doubt to get a Kendal depot bus to and from Lancaster to run the service but also providing early and later facilities for passengers between the two towns.

The Bus Users' Group pointed out the failings of the previous Winter Sunday timetable to Stagecoach two years ago and they did promise to look into it then. Whether it is our request that has prompted the change (or "non-change?) remains to be seen, but we certainly feel it is for the best.

Ever Earlier?

Get there earlier on the 755.

The  deficiencies of the previous service prompted our Publicity Officer, Alex, to devise his own way of getting to the Lakes on a Winter Sunday morning - a way which will still hold valid this year:  Leaving Lancaster on service 1 at 0823 it is possible to make a 2-minute connection at Morecambe, Euston Road with service 755 (arr 0840 / dep. 0842) ("no problem on a Sunday", says Alex). The 755 arrives at Kendal at 0937 and connects with a 555 bus that starts its journey there at 0940,  giving an arrival at all points north to Keswick a full hour earlier than  can be achieved on the 0915 from Lancaster. You'll need an Explorer ticket (or a concessionary pass) to avoid buying expensive single tickets but it's worth a try if you want a longer day out.

Check it Out

You won't find the new 555 timetable on Stgecoach's website yet and Lancashire County Council doesn't show you the new times until they've actually started, but thankfully we can rely on Cumbria County Council to let us know what's happening in their area and you can see for yourself via this link.

The Mystery Of The Missing One

A service 1 that doesn't exist?

 The Bus Users' Group would always recommend checking carefully before making an unfamiliar journey by bus. There are at least four possible sources of information online: Bus Company websites; Traveline; Google Maps/Transit and BusTimes.org, an independent site. We'd also recommend that you check more than one as the following tale will tell.

The week just ended was Lancaster University's Freshers' Week when Stagecoach normally enhance the service on routes 1/1A along Greaves Road. Service 1, which in the holidays runs only between Heysham and the City Centre, is extended to the University to give a 10-minute headway with the 1A, whilst the evening and Sunday service on 1A is similarly extended to give more buses to the University. 

Paper timetables make this clear, but in their "temporary" (or is it now permanent?) absence how would the online enquirer get on?

Stagecoach

Copies of the paper timetables appear on Stagecoach's website and have been clearly annotated (in red, bottom right) to show the start date of the enhanced service.

But bus companies seem to think that we passengers won't - or can't - read timetables and that what we need are Journey Planners. Stagecoach's own Journey Planner, however, doesn't seem to know about the change! In the screenshot below, the 1507 and 1527 from the Bus Station are missing, giving the impression that the service along Greaves Road is less frequent than it actually is.

Similarly, the journey planner tells you that in the evenings, apart from occasional buses on service 40, the only service to the University is the 100, the three 1As an hour are ignored.

Both sets of Stagecoach information can't be right - so what about Traveline? 

Traveline

 Traveline, which is maintained by local authorities using data from a national database populated by bus companies, knows all about the new times, both during the day...

...and (although we aren't showing it)in the evenings.

Google

Google Maps, which also uses the national database, is also on the ball, showing the day time and evening service correctly, even though it uses the American 12-hour clock system to do so.

Bus Times 

Bus Times is an independent site, originally aimed at bus enthusiasts but increasingly used by the general public. It doesn't offer a Journey Planner, but does have a timetable for every bus service in the country. It's usually very reliable, but in the case of the 1 and 1A it still shows the "holiday" times that applied up until last week, with the 1 running only between Heysham (Overton on a few journeys) and the City Centre

and the evening service on 1A doing the same

What's Going On?

Traveline and Google use the national database, which gets its data from bus companies, including Stagecoach. It's not surprising then that they are showing up-to-date information.  Bus Times uses a variety of sources for its timetables. In the case of Stagecoach services it uses information supplied directly from the company as indicated on the timetable page

Stagecoach's own journey planner, unlike those of Traveline and Google, only gives information on the company's own services. It won't, for example, tell you about Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's buses in the Lune Valley even when they complement its own. It therefore does not draw its data from the national database, but from a separate company-specific one, also accessible to Bus Times

What seems to have happened is that Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancs has successfully supplied the current timetable data to the national database, but - for whatever reason - has been unable to send it to its' own Journey Planner, which is maintained at Group level and outside local control.

The Bus Users' Group has previously identified many faults in the Stagecoach planner - could this be another one?