Councils Co-operate to Save Lune Valley Buses

Service 81 at Kirkby Lonsdale Market Place

Lancashire and North Yorkshire County Councils have been holding talks to see what can be done following notification from Stagecoach that it is to withdraw services from the Lune Valley.

Coming just days before the County Council published its Bus Service Improvement Plan, which sets out its ideas for improving the county's bus network, Stagecoach says it intends to close its outstation at Ingleton and de-register services 80  Lancaster - Ingleton and 81 Lancaster - Kirkby Lonsdale - Ingleton from the end of December.

Rob Jones, Managing Director for Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancs told the Bus Users Group

"We advised staff this week that we will be closing our Ingleton outstation at the end of this year, and are working with Lancashire County Council on how this affects customers on those routes.

"Sadly the 80/81 has not made money for some time, and before the pandemic struck the world, so with lower passenger numbers and significantly lower concessionary travellers (across the country not just Ingleton), we have had to take this decision."

Service 80 leaving Ingleton for Lancaster

Cross-Boundary Services

The services were being provided without any financial assistance from either authority.  Whereas Kirkby Lonsdale, (where the 81 terminates) is just within Cumbria County Council's administrative area, responsibility for the service lies almost entirely with Lancashire.  Service 80, however, has a substantial proportion of its route within the area covered by North Yorkshire County Council

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said:

"We have been in discussion with colleagues at NYCC and we are keen to ensure the cross boundary services are able to continue for residents of both counties.  Ingleton and High Bentham are bigger communities than most of those either side of the river combined and it is likely going to be key to maintain these cross boundary links with them potentially contributing towards to greater sustainability of the network.  Of course LCC would expect that NYCC fund their share of any future service provision through their area."

 The Bus Users Group has been invited to put forward suggestions as to what any replacement services should look like and we have put forward a number of ideas on matters such as regular headways, alteration to departure times, service numbers, fares and ticketing.

Lancashire County Council is keen to secure the replacement services as soon as possible and has undertaken to inform the Bus Users' Group and other interested parties when this has been achieved.

As this post was being written unofficial reports were received that Stagecoach would continue to operate the existing services until April, "to give the councils more time to organise a replacement", something that a council spokesman was unable to confirm or deny.

 

Under-19 DayRider Ticket Validity Altered in Bid to Combat Anti-Social Behaviour

 

With immediate effect, Stagecoach's popular Under-19s DayRider will not be valid after 19.00hrs on services 1/1A, 2X, 6A, 40 and 100 between Lancaster Bus Station and Morecambe/Heysham. The tickets remains valid at all times on other services as well as between the Bus Station and Lancaster University on services 1A and 100.

Managing Director, Rob Jones, told the Bus Users' Group:  

"Sadly we have been seeing large groups of youths travelling on our services in that area, causing a nuisance and have needed to have police assistance on a number of occasions.  The flexibility of our DayRider meant they could spend all evening just travelling around and causing mischief, leading to some very difficult and stressful situations for our drivers. Lancashire Police  are aware of this restriction too. 

The change, which Mr. Jones said had been made reluctantly, is for a temporary period and will be reviewed in four weeks time.

In order to ensure that young people making genuine journeys are not out-of-pocket a special Under-19 return fare, priced at £2.60 - the same as a DayRider - has been made available to purchase on the sections of route concerned and can be bought at any time of day, so that someone needing to be in Lancaster between, say, 12.00hrs and 20.00hrs can still travel for £2.60 even though the DayRider is not valid after 19.00.

The Bay Area Under-19 DayRider gives unlimited travel (with the above exception) in an area stretching from Silverdale to Galgate (Hampson Green) and Overton to Denny Beck.  The Under-19 Lancashire Day Rider, which covers a wider area at a higher fare is not affected.