Campaign for Better Transport Recognises Our Work

Any campaigning organisation is always pleased to have its work recognised, particularly if that recognition comes from  larger and well-established fellow-campaigners.  Lancaster District Bus Users Group was therefore delighted to be asked to contribute a "guest blog" for the Save Our Buses pages of the Campaign for Better Transport's website.

We chose to tell the tale of our successful fight to restore a bus service to those parts of Lancaster badly-hit by the reductions to service 18 (East Lancaster Circular) and the County Council's reluctance to spend the money it had been given to improve it.

You can read about it here.

Evening Services from the Bus Station Relocated as Interior Refurbishment Begins.

When we said that Lancaster Bus Station would re-open "following the completion of the refurbishment works", what we SHOULD have said was that it was the external work that was complete.

As some people have pointed out, not a lot appeared to have been done to the inside of the station! The good news is that internal repainting and improvements to the passenger entrance will start after the bank holiday on Tuesday 29th August and continue until 1st September.

More good news is that this work will be done at night to minimise inconvenience to passengers. After 19.00hrs each evening all buses will leave from the "Night Stand" adjacent the taxi rank on Damside Street, which is usually used for departures after the bus station closes at 23.30 each evening including the overnight Scottish coaches. Sadly, the reduced evening service now operating in Lancaster means that all evening buses can be accommodated on this stand, at least for the period of the works during which the extra service 3s to the University will not be running.

Stagecoach will arrange supervision and notices to inform passengers, which at the suggestion of the Bus Users Group will include a map to indicate where the "Night Stand" is, although it should be easy to find as the picture below shows.

The "Night Stand" on Damside Street that will be used for all departures
 after 1900 during internal refurbishment of the bus station.

Bus Station to Re-open after early completion of refurbishment works.

Lancaster bus station will re-open fully from start of service on Friday, 18th August and all services will revert to their normal routes in the city centre, much to the relief of passengers who have been enduring the "summer" weather at the unprotected stops in Dalton Square for the last few weeks!

The refurbishment works were originally due to last up until the beginning of September, but have been completed ahead of schedule by the City Council and its contractors.

Work will continue for a short while to make Stand 1 more accessible to passengers in wheelchairs, following a campaign by Cameron Redpath - a Bus Users' Group member and passenger on the Ridge bus, so both this stand and adjacent stand 2 will remain closed. Stagecoach staff will be on hand to direct passengers to the alternative departure stands.

The Bus Users' Group has been observing the part-closure and the alternative arrangements and will be compiling a report on the exercise in the hope of avoiding some of the problems that have occurred should it become necessary to relocate buses away from the bus station for any reason in the future, but in the meantime our Congratulations and thanks are due to the Council and the Contractors as well as to Stagecoach for managing the process.

Minor Changes to Stagecoach Services in September

From Stagecoach's website:

Changes to timetables in Lancaster from 4 September 2017

From Monday 4 September we will be introducing some changes to services in Lancaster. The below is a summary of the changes and timetables will be available shortly.

Service 2/2A/N2 – We have re-timed some Monday to Friday journeys to improve reliability and this service will no longer stop at China Street in the city centre.

Service 5 – The Monday to Friday 0740 journey from Morecambe and the 0815 from Carnforth have been retimed to run 10 minutes earlier to improve reliability.

Service 55 – The Monday to Friday 1522 journey from Carnforth has been re-timed slightly to improve reliability.

Service 40/40A/41 – The 1640 40A School journey from Preston College has been re-timed to run 15 minutes later. Monday – Saturday evenings journeys and Sunday journeys have also been re-timed to improve reliability.

Services 500, 501, 502, 504 and Service 935– Minor timetable changes to improve punctuality.

The Bus Users' Group will post the new timetables as soon as they are available.

County Council to Increase Spending on Buses

Service 81 was one of the services affected by the April 2016 cutbacks.

Lancashire County Council's Lead Member for Buses, Andrew Snowdon has begun a "cross-party consultation" within the council on the prospect of increasing the council's spend on bus service contracts by £1M per annum - a 50% rise in the existing budget. The move follows a change of control in the running of the council, from Labour to Conservative, in May.

County Councillors are being consulted on three "key priorities" for improving services and are being asked to put forward their own ideas.

Cllr Snowden said: “I’m keen to ensure passengers benefit from the improvements to bus services we promised as soon as possible, I have already been working with officers on some draft proposals for how we could best meet the needs of communities with the new funding. “However, I also want to ensure that county councillors have the opportunity to input into work on behalf of the communities they represent and raise any issues they are aware of which will help to make sure the proposals we eventually bring forward have a real impact and provide the best possible value for money. A good public transport network is vital to support our economy, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to access work and education.

The key priorities are:

To restore lost links between communities, particularly in rural areas where people who don’t drive or own a car rely most on public transport.

To increase the frequency of services on routes where there is more demand

And to stabilise the network to support routes which might otherwise disappear. 

The council’s new administration has committed to make an extra £1m available to support bus services, increasing the budget from £2m to £3m. Final proposals will be put before the council's cabinet on 14th September

It appears that at this stage consultation is restricted to elected councillors, so the Bus Users' Group will be putting our ideas to  local councillors so as to ensure that the Lancaster District gets its fair share of the pot.

Bus Station to get £150k Makeover

UPDATE:  For temporary departure stand arrangements during the work click here.

Opened in 2001, Lancaster's bus station is now set for a much-needed refurbishment.with the City Council investing £147,000 to bring the facility up to the standard local bus passengers deserve.

The work consists of cleaning all the external metalwork such as the entrance columns and the removal of any corrosion. These areas will then be redecorated.

The roof will also be treated - both internally and externally to include the removal of the vegetation!

The matting at the entrance will be replaced and extended to reduce the amount of moisture brought into the building on people's feet, hopefully reducing cleaning costs.

Lastly, the external balustrade and railings will be given a new coat of paint.

Works will start on 24 July and continue for six weeks, being timed to co-incide with school and University holidays. During the work each side of the bus station will close in turn for a three-week period, with bus departures being relocated. It is hoped to accommodate all services within the bus station but some use may have to be made of Dalton Square.  The internal work - such as the matting and work on the internal roof - will be done at night to minimise disruption. Whilst not part of the refurbishment project, it is hoped that work can also be done to improve access for disabled passengers to the smaller  buses used on some city services.

Lancaster is fortunate to have a modern, undercover bus station, complete with toilets, refreshments and an enquiry office - something not enjoyed by towns such as Kendal, Barrow or Blackpool - and the Bus Users' Group is pleased to see that the City Council is prepared to invest in this asset.

Dales Bus Services - Some Background

Lancaster is fortunate this year to have no fewer than three Summer Sunday & Bank Holiday bus services linking the city to the Yorkshire Dales and Forest of Bowland.  The Northern Dalesman runs to Ingleton, Ribblehead, Hawes and Richmond, the Malham Tarn Shuttle links the city with Malham Tarn via Settle and the Bowland Explorer provides a link to  Gisburn Forest, Clitheroe and Slaidburn.

The Northern Dalesman

Many local people use these services, but do they ever stop and wonder where they came from and how they are provided?  The following article, from the Dales Bus website explains and shows how these three services are just part of the bigger picture

Tenth Anniversary Year News from Dales & Bowland CIC

The Dales & Bowland Community Interest Company celebrates its tenth year of managing the Sunday DalesBus network this summer and everyone is invited along for the ride.

The company has responded to cuts in traditional public sector funding for bus services by exploring new fundraising avenues which have kept the buses on the road and created new opportunities for 2017. Two Crowdfunding campaigns have raised over £10,000 whilst a folk music concert in Otley organised by Friends of DalesBus recently generated £670. Many donations have come from people who don’t use the buses but feel strongly that access to the National Park should not be restricted to car users. Acorn Stairlifts are welcomed aboard as the new sponsors of the Acorn Wensleydale Flyer from Northallerton to Hawes whilst Northern Powergrid have helped to save the Northern Dalesman from Teesside. The Northern Dalesman from Lancashire via Ribblehead Station (for connections off the Leeds – Settle – Carlisle train) is sponsored once again by the Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line and Northern, starting in Preston this year via Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale.

Generous support from the National Trust means that more buses will be offered between York, Boroughbridge, Ripon and Fountains Abbey whilst a new minibus service will link Fountains Abbey and Brimham Rocks with Pateley Bridge.

The Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company and Bentham Line Community Rail Partnership have tapped the new Northern Seed-Corn Fund, established as part of the new rail franchise, to support the Malham Tarn Shuttle and the new Bowland Explorer, linking Lancaster, Bentham Station and Clitheroe Interchange with the Forest of Bowland. Friends of DalesBus continue to support services including a streamlined service 875 from West Yorkshire to Hawes via Wharfedale and Aysgarth.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority remains committed to DalesBus and supports key services from West Yorkshire to the National Park to enable urban residents to maintain their health and wellbeing in the Dales, as well as publishing the popular DalesBus timetable booklet. This year Dewsbury and Bradford will have a through Cravenlink service to Skipton and Malham, connecting at Ilkley with DalesBus 874 running between Wakefield, Leeds, Bolton Abbey, Grassington and Buckden.

DalesBus continues to see passenger numbers grow on key routes but sadly has had to trim back some less popular services in the Eastern Dales.

Full details of the 2017 network are available now.

Paper timetables for the Northern Dalesman and Malham Tarn Shuttle can be obtained from Lancaster and Morecambe libraries, Lancaster and Morecambe Visitor Information Centres and the Stagecoach Travel Shop at Lancaster bus station.