BUG CALLS FOR BUS PASS RESTRICTIONS TO BE LIFTED TO SUPPORT VACCINATION ROLL OUT

 

Lancaster Bus Users' Group has called upon Lancashire County Council to implement a temporary relaxation on the use of English National Concessionary Bus Passes (NoW Cards) to support the roll out of the government's Covid-19 vaccination programme.

Three major vaccination centres have been established in the Lancaster District at the Health Innovation Campus at Lancaster University, Lancaster Town Hall and Morecambe Football Ground. All three sites are easily accessible by bus but the Group is concerned that older people, especially those living a distance from any of the sites, will be put off accepting morning appointments if they have to travel before 09.30 and pay high fares to reach them.  Reductions in bus service levels from Monday, 25th January will also hake it harder for people, with many services reducing to one bus per hour or less.

In a letter to Councillor Keith Iddon, Cabinet Member for Highways & Transport, the Group has asked that the ban on free travel before 09.30 be lifted at least until the end of the current phase of the rollout by when most older and more vulnerable people will have been vaccinated.

How to reach the vaccination centres

The Health Innovation Campus is served by buses 1A, 4, 40, 41, 42 and 100, which between them provide seven buses an hour from the city centre. Buses 1A 41 and 100 operate a through service from Morecambe. The nearest bus stops are on the A6 near the entrance to the campus site.

Lancaster Town Hall is served by all buses to the city centre bus stops in George Street and Common Garden Street. For other services, the nearest stop is Lancaster Bus Station.

Morecambe FC Football Ground (currently known as the Mazuma Stadium) is on Christie Way off Westgate and is served by bus 6A from Morecambe centre and Lancaster. The nearest stop is on Westgate near the junction with Christie Way.

Services Cut as Bus Use Falls Again

Government figures show that after recovering to 60% of pre-Covid levels in the summer, bus patronage is once again on the decline with steep falls recorded since the latest lockdown period began.

In the first two weeks of January bus patronage in England, outside London, was at only 25% of the January 2020 figures used by the Department for Transport as a reference. The requirement that people should stay at home and make only essential journeys has led to falls in transport use across all modes as the following figures show. 

TRANSPORT USE IN ENGLAND IN JANUARY (1st-18th) as % of January 2020 level.

Cycling                        65%

Cars                            51%

Bus (London)               33%

BUS (Excl-London)    25%

London Tube                16%

Rail                             14%

Whilst bus use has fallen further than car travel or cycling it has not declined as steeply as London Underground ("Tube") or National Rail. Nevertheless, the bus industry is still heavily-reliant on emergency funding from central and local government, which is increasingly calling the shots on which services can continue and at what level, with bus operators and local councils working closely together to determine appropriate timetables.

Unsurprisingly therefore Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancs. is to introduce some reductions to services in our area from Monday, 25th January that will apply "until further notice".

The purpose of continuing to operate a service at a time when so few people are travelling is to allow essential journeys to be made and, in particular, to allow key workers to get to and from their places of employment. The Bus Users' Group is pleased to see that the powers-that-be recognise that not all essential work takes place between the hours of 9 and 5 and that evening and Sunday services will continue to run.

Service Changes

Service 1/1A  University - Lancaster - Heysham will run every 20 minutes daytime and every 30 minutes between Lancaster Bus Station and Heysham only in the evenings. Click for timetable

Service 2X  Morecambe - Heysham - Link Road - Lancaster will run every 30 minutes Click for timetable

Service 4  Lancaster Railway Station - University will run every hour. Click for timetable.

Service 6  Morecambe - Westgate will be suspended. Service 6A provides an alternative.

Service 6A  Lancaster - Westgate - Morecambe will run every 30 minutes in the daytime and every hour in the evenings. Click for timetable.

Service 7  Lancaster - Vale will run every hour. Click for timetable.

Service 10  Lancaster - Ridge will run every hour. Click for timetable.

Service 11  Lancaster - Marsh will run every hour.  Click for timetable

Services 40 / 41 Morecambe - Preston will run every hour with most daytime journeys running as service 41 through Garstang and via the University. Evening and Sunday buses will operate as service 40. Click for timetable.

Service 100  University - Lancaster - Morecambe will run every 30 minutes. Click for timetable.

Service 755  Morecambe - Kendal - Bowness-on-Windermere is suspended.

Services not mentioned above will not change and will continue to operate a "School Holiday" service.  Services 500/501/502/504/935 to Ripley School are combined under a temporary 500X service. Click for timetable.