National Express Returns to Lancaster

 

Birmingham is now served by National Express from Lancaster again

As the company continues its recovery from the pandemic, Lancaster is now reconnected to the National Express coach network with the introduction of service 181 between Birmingham and Glasgow.  At present, only the overnight coaches will serve the city, with the southbound service calling at the Bus Station at 02.40 closely followed by the northbound coach at 03.00.  The service also calls at Hamilton, Carlisle, Preston, Manchester and Manchester Airport and a refreshment halt is made at Tebay services in both directions.

Connections are available at Birmingham for London, Bournemouth and the West Country as well as Heathrow and other airports, although some of these involve lengthy waits.  A daytime service between Birmingham and Glasgow remains on the M6 and does not call at Lancaster.

According to the company's website the service runs "Monday to Sunday" or, as we would say: "Daily" and starts on Sunday, 23rd May. However, anyone attempting to book a ticket online will find that after today there appears to be a gap until next weekend until a daily service begins.

Megabus

Lancaster is also served by rival coach firm Megabus, although that company's coaches only call at Lancaster University and not the city centre. Megabus can't or won't publish actual timetables but extensive research on their website shows that Lancaster is served by a route running from London to Glasgow via Manchester, Manchester Airport and Birmingham. At least the Megabus service is a daytime run, with the coach to Manchester and London calling at the University at 14.05 and the northbound Glasgow coach departing at 15.15 every day.

Park & Ride Extended and Enhanced - at short notice!

The new southern terminus of the Park & Ride at Lancaster Royal Infirmary.
Because KLCH has only one route-branded bus for the service,
the extra journeys are being operated by an unbranded vehicle.

 In a surprise move, with little notice to either the operator or the public, Lancaster's Park & Ride service, which links the city centre with the car park at Junction 34 of the M6 at Caton Road, has been completely revamped.

From Monday, 17th May the service is boosted to run every 15 minutes (or every 20 when the traffic is expected to be busy!) and the route is extended to take in the Lancaster Royal Infirmary, where buses will use the existing bus stops on South Road.  The service also runs later in to the evenings, to cater for hospital staff and visitors.

However, the new route means that the stop in George Street in the City Centre is no longer served. For passengers coming into the city from Caton Road there are no drop off points between North Road (opposite Sainsbury's) and the Infirmary on South Road (see map below). Passengers may, however wait on the bus at the Infirmary and then alight at Queen Square, Cable Street or the Bus Station on its return trip.

The service has also gained a new route number - L1 - which partially restores an old Ribble Motor Services tradition of numbering local routes in the "L" series.

The new route and times are shown below.

The enhancement, which requires a second bus to operate, has been expected - indeed promised - for some considerable time and is intended as a means of combating the problem of restricted car parking space for staff and visitors at the hospital. Plans to build a bigger car park at the hospital have not been progressed and if and when they do go-ahead there will be a short term reduction in staff car parking space as the work takes place.

However, the trigger for this latest move appears to have been the move by the City Council to remove the concession during the Covid pandemic whereby certain NHS staff have been allowed to use council run car parks free of charge, with that concession now transferring to the Park & Ride. Funding for the enhancement has come from the NHS and is on a three-month trial basis.

Parking at the Caton Road site remains free and the bus fare into the city or the infirmary is held at £1.60 return, a bargain compared with fares for the same journey on parallel bus services.