Buses Diverted in Heysham Due to Worn Out Roads

Services 2X and 5 are affected

Stagecoach has had to divert some bus services in Heysham due to the state of the roads and the failure of Lancashire County Council to repair them. In a statement on its website the company says:

From Thursday 4th February 2021 we will not be able to serve stops on Heathfoot Avenue in Morecambe. This will affect services 2X, 5 and the 500x school bus. The road surface on Heathfoot Avenue has deteriorated to the point where it is causing damage to our vehicles and has become unsafe for us to use. We have raised the matter with Lancashire County Council and whilst they recognise that the road surface does need replacing it is not in their plans in the medium term. 

 

While Heathfoot Avenue remains unsuitable, buses will travel between the Combermere Road turning circle and Heysham Towers via the main A589 Heysham Road. 

 

We are sorry that we are unable to continue serving Heathfoot Avenue, we will resume our service along the road as soon as the road is repaired.  If you are concerned about this diversion we would ask you to contact your elected representatives particularly those on Lancashire County Council to urge them to make the resurfacing of Heathfoot Avenue a higher priority.

 

Temporary service 5 timetable - Download here.

The Bus Users Group is concerned that passengers from the affected area stand to lose their bus service for an indefinite period and calls on Lancashire County Council to repair the road concerned as a matter of top priority.  We are writing to the local county councillor Andrew Gardiner andrew.gardiner2@lancashire.gov.uk to ask him to support our request. Anyone affected by the diversion may like to write to him too.

Real-Time Bus Information Planned for Railway Station

An image of how the display will appear, submitted with the planning application.

First Group, part-owners of the Avanti West Coast train operating company, has applied to install an electronic information display unit at Lancaster railway station that will help passengers making onward journeys by bus.

The touch-screen display, which will be sited at the foot of the stairs leading from the overbridge to Platform 3, will show details of onward bus connections and will include "real-time" information as well as scheduled times. It also incorporates a journey planner, although it is not clear at the moment whether this includes both bus and rail services.  The display also incorporates local visitor information.

Avanti West Coast, which operates trains between London, the West Midlands, Lancaster and Glasgow/Edinburgh, is required to provide such displays at twelve of the stations it manages as part of its franchise agreement entered into when it took over the service from Virgin Trains.

Previously, onward travel information was shown in the form of posters on the station, but the railway had great difficulty in keeping up with the frequent changes to bus services and the information was often out of date. The Bus Users' Group hopes that the new electronic display will not suffer from that problem, and also that it will not suffer from some of the problems experienced in its counterpart at Lancaster Bus Station.

No date has been given for the installation of the display, which is currently awaiting approval from Lancaster City Council.