City-centre bus stops to close for two weeks.

 

The stops in George Street will be out of use for up to two weeks.

The city-centre bus stops in  George Street in Lancaster will be out of action from Tuesday, 30th August until Tuesday, 13th September as the long-running programme of works to renew electricity cables in south Lancaster is completed with the closure of Spring Garden Street. Some buses will also be unable to stop in Common Garden Street.

Stagecoach has issued the following statement as to how its services will be affected:

Southbound services towards the University / Garstang / Ridge will be diverted via Thurnham Street and King Street and will be unable to serve the stop on George Street. (They will, however, continue to call at Common Garden Street - LBUG)

Services travelling towards Morecambe will operate direct via King St between the Infirmary and bus station serving the stop at Queen Square. The stops at Common Garden St and George St will not be served

Services 2X (Heysham)  and 11 (Marsh)  will be diverted via Thurnham St and King St to serve the stop at Queen Square rather than George St.

Service 7 (Vale)  will operate to the bus station only and will not serve George St.

Service 18  (East City Circular) towards the Leisure Park will not serve George St or Common Garden St. A temporary stop will be placed on Nelson St. On the return journey it will serve Queen Square rather than George Street.

Service 55 due to depart George St at 15:45 on schooldays will commence from Queen Square.

Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire services 9 (Bowerham) and 89 (Knott End) will also be affected and will be unable to call at George Street.

Although the closure period extends to 13th September, it will be lifted as soon as the work is completed, which might be at an earlier date.

Bus Service Emergency Funding Extended into 2023

 

The extended grant will help operators maintain services such as
 Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's 550 from Levens and Arnside to Morecambe

Bus services across England will benefit from an extension of the government's Bus  Recovery Grant by a further six months.  Despite previous statements that the £150m grant, which covered the period from March 2022 until October "would be the last", the Department for Transport has now announced a further £130m in funding to cover an extension until March 2023.

Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport said:

This funding will ensure millions across the country can continue to use vital bus services, and brings the total we’ve provided to the sector throughout the pandemic to almost £2 billion.

At a time when people are worried about rising costs, it’s more important than ever we save these bus routes for the millions who rely on them for work, school and shopping.

Relief

The news will be greeted with relief by bus passengers, following announcements by many bus operators across the country that the end of the grant would result in service cuts because passenger numbers have still not returned to pre-pandemic levels.  Local authorities, who faced being asked to replace the withdrawn services with additional contract expenditure will no doubt share that relief.

Locally, Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancs MD, Rob Jones, recently told a Bus Users' Group meeting that passenger levels in Lancaster had returned to 90 / 95% of adult and student travellers, although concessionary bus pass holders were still only travelling at about 70% of pre-pandemic rates. He felt that this should help Stagecoach avoid making any "significant" cuts to services.  Hopefully, the new funding will remove any continuing doubts over the future of local routes.

The recovery of passenger levels following the pandemic and the associated lockdown in 2020 has been a long drawn out affair. After initially plummeting to just 10% of "normal" levels, ridership slowly recovered to about 80% by March of this year. Since then it has stabilised and even fallen back a little, with the figure for July being just 77%. (These figures are for England as a whole and do not necessarily reflect the position in Lancaster).

What Happens Next?

The news may have come too late for some bus operators who have already given the necessary notice to reduce services from the beginning of October and it will be interesting to see if these proposed cuts are now reversed. 

As to what will happen in March, this must still be very much up in the air. Even if passenger numbers have recovered to pre-Covid levels by then, high inflation will lead to cost increases for operators which will need to be reflected in increased fares. Experience during earlier periods of high inflation, has shown that increased fares can lead to passengers making fewer journeys, whilst the falling value of wages will leave people feeling worse-off and less inclined to travel. 

 That grant may need to be extended further still.