Don't Forget Dales Bus this Easter.

Here is a press release from Dales Bus concerning their "Malham Tarn Shuttle 881" service.

EXTENDED DALES BUS SERVICE LINKS LANCASTER & MORECAMBE WITH THE YORKSHIRE DALES NATIONAL PARKS.

The popular Dales Bus service 881 from Morecambe, Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale has been extended to operate from Easter weekend to provide a direct link for walkers and sightseers to Malham, one of the most iconic visitor destinations in any UK National Park.

Malham Tarn: Visit it on service 881.

The Malham Tarn Shuttle 881 will operate every Sunday and Bank Holiday from April 1^st until 21^st October.  It will pick up from Morecambe Bus Station at 0825, Lancaster Bus Station at 0850 and Kirkby Lonsdale (Market Square) at 0930 for Ingleton, Clapham (for access to Ingleborough), Austwick and Settle before crossing over some of the most spectacular limestone countryside in England, past Malham Tarn National Nature Reserve before descending to the village of Malham and terminating at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Centre.

Malham is a paradise for walkers. There are beautiful and spectacular walks – to Malham Cove, Janet’s Foss and Gordale, or for keen walkers along the Pennine Way to Malham Tarn or the Pennine Bridleway back to Settle.

To keep prices as low as possible to encourage everyone to get out into the National Park for their health and wellbeing, Dales Bus offer a range of good-value day tickets purchasable from the bus driver. A Western Dales Explorer Ticket covers a day’s travel on Dales Bus from Morecambe or Lancaster as far as Malham for just £9 (adult), or £15 for a family ticket for up to 2 adults and 3 children. A £7.50 Dales Privilege Rover Ticket is available for anyone with a senior or disabled bus pass, railcard or student ID. 

The Northern Dalesman services from Lancaster to Wensleydale and Swaledale and the Bowland Explorer bus service will both commence at Spring Bank Holiday weekend on May 27^th following new rail timetable changes.

Full details of all Dales Bus services for 2018 are now on the Dales Bus web site – www.dalesbus.org.   

Thirty Years Later

The new picture on our masthead celebrates the introduction of Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's new service 582 between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale, introduced on 5th March.

Lancaster to Skipton by bus in 2018

Buses on this service continue through to Settle and Skipton as services 581/580 and restore the link between Lancaster and Skipton. Buses were first operated between the two towns by Pennine Motor Services of Gargrave in 1926 and from 1931 the service was jointly-operated with Ribble Motor Services of Preston (which eventually became part of the Stagecoach empire).

How things were in 1981: A Pennine bus at Settle bound for Ingleton, where it would connect with a Lancaster service

1981 Again: This bus is at Clapham, heading for Skipton from Lancaster.  Service 582 now provides this link.

The joint service was numbered 580 in the Ribble series and had co-ordinated timetables and common fares with inter-available tickets.  By the 1980s only Pennine buses completed the whole route, with four through journeys per day. At other times, Ribble buses ran from Lancaster to Ingleton and connected with Pennine buses on to Skipton to give an hourly link. This arrangement lasted until 1986 when the government decided that such co-operation was bad for passengers and what was really needed was competition.  Unfortunately, the decline in the use of rural bus services  meant that there was no room for two competing companies on the route and the operation was soon split into two halves, with Ribble operating between Lancaster and Ingleton and Pennine running between Ingleton and Skipton, with all the benefits of a through service being lost.

Pennine Motor Services ceased to trade in 2014, although by then it had retreated from Ingleton to Settle, and after a short period when replacement services between Settle and Skipton were provided by North Yorkshire County Council using its own 16-seater minibuses, Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, which was by then operating between Kirkby Lonsdale and Settle, extended its service to Skipton, marketing it as "The Craven Connection"

The Ingleton to Lancaster section continued to be operated by Stagecoach, the successors to Ribble Motor Services, as its service 80 and continues to follow the original joint route via Bentham. The Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire services link Lancaster and Skipton in a slightly different way, taking passengers through Kirkby Lonsdale rather than Bentham, but the reintroduction of through buses is very welcome and restores the historic connection.

If you fancy a ride on the new service you will find a link to the timetable here.

Easter Start for Dales Bus This Year

See Malham Tarn with Dales Bus

Fans of the Dales Bus services that link Lancaster and Morecambe to the Yorkshire Dales and Forest of Bowland will be pleased to learn that one of their favourite services - the "Malham Tarn Shuttle" - will have an extended season in 2018 starting at Easter and continuing through until 21st October.

Service 881, which will be operated by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, runs on Sundays and Bank Holidays linking Morecambe, Lancaster and the Lune Valley with Ingleton, Settle, Malham and Malham Tarn.  The bus leaves Morecambe at 0825, Lancaster Bus Station at 0850 and Kirkby Lonsdale at 0930 and arrives in Settle at 1020, Malham Tarn at 1038 and Malham village at 1050.

The timetable allows either a full day at Malham, with the return bus leaving at 1605 or there are earlier buses at 1125 and 1330 to Settle and Ingleton allowing passengers to spend some time in one or both towns before returning to Lancaster for 1805 and Morecambe at 1825.

A full timetable can be found via this link

Unfortunately, concessionary bus passes cannot be used for free travel on the Malham Tarn Shuttle because Lancashire and North Yorkshire County Councils say that it should only be used by "tourists" rather than local people (who actually make up the bulk of the ridership), but good-value discounted tickets are available to all bus pass holders.

Lancaster's other Dales Bus services, the 830 Northern Dalesman to Ribblehead, Wensleydale and Swaledale and the 833 to Ingleton, Gisburn Forest, Slaidburn and Clitheroe will re-start on 20th May and full timetable details will be posted here as soon as they are available.

The Bus Users' Group wishes to offer its congratulations to the Dales & Bowland CIC, which organises the services, for once-again securing the funding for the network in what are still very challenging times for public services and we will be encouraging our members to make full use of the services over the coming summer.

Stagecoach, Don't Park Here!

Greyhound Bridge has been closed to all traffic for four weeks now, with all buses - and other traffic - diverted over Skerton Bridge. Initial impressions are that the disruption has not been as severe as everyone thought and, with some exceptions, buses appear to be coping very well.  But there continue to be a number of problems.

Stagecoach:  Don't Park Here   DON'T"!

The bus station continues to be clogged up with all the extra buses that perhaps aren't actually needed and which therefore spend more time in the station waiting for their next trip instead of being stuck in the traffic as was expected.  There can be queues of buses waiting for a free stand at times and, unfortunately, passengers are still missing their buses despite the efforts of drivers and inspectors to direct them to whichever stand their bus is on.  The Park & Ride service has been badly affected by this, which is a shame as its passengers, not being used to using buses, need a bit more mollycoddling than the regulars. It has been allocated its own dedicated stand to help in this, but it looks as if this might not always work and perhaps a certain amount of desperation is setting in after problems keeping it clear as the hand-written notice on Stand 4 implies.

Temporary stop at Ryelands Park

Elsewhere in the city the bus stops at Common Garden Street and George Street are now correctly signed and have the right timetables in the right cases, after the Bus Users' Group pointed out some errors and we have had another success - this time at Ryelands Park

Due to the alterations to the traffic flows following the bridge closure the stop on Morecambe Road opposite Our Lady's school cannot be used by buses heading out of the city to Torrisholme, Vale or along the A6 north.  Instead a temporary stop was created on Owen Road outside Ryelands Park. Despite it having a projected life of at least six months it was initially marked only by an "A" board, weighted down with a couple of sandbags and placed on the footway.

Needless to say, the stop quickly became rather more "temporary" than intended and kept going for a walk in the park or even disappeared altogether, leading to much confusion amongst bus drivers and passengers.  When the BUG became aware of the problem we asked the county council whether they could provide a proper bus stop, with a fixed pole and sign. After all, given the multi-million pound cost of the repair scheme surely they could find a few quid to stick a pole up!

To the fair to LCC, they agreed to do so almost immediately and the pole was in place just two days after our request, although we are not sure why the gang who put the new pole up didn't take the A board away! But it seems that the county council will listen to the concerns of passengers where the bridge works are concerned, so if you become aware of any similar issues please let us know. A "comment" at the bottom of this post will suffice,

All Present and Correct Now on Common Garden Street

 The very busy bus stops on Common Garden Street
 now have correct timetable displays.

Lancashire County Council has now responded to our report of  the very confusing situation at Common Garden Street  published on this website last week.  The county council is normally very prompt to respond to our requests and suggestions but apparently the problems at Common Garden Street and George Street have taken longer than usual to sort out.

The council produces its timetables using specialist computer software that takes data directly from bus companies such as Stagecoach and translates it into roadside displays showing lists of buses in departure time order. The system is designed to work automatically, without the need for manual intervention, but when things go wrong - as they clearly did here - it can take a while to sort out. The problems with the data for Common Garden Street were particularly challenging and it appears as if much discussion has taken place between the county and Stagecoach to sort it out after we reported them.

We were promised everything would be put right by this morning and at 10.30 this was the scene at Common Garden Street:

 Three shiny new "Bus Stop" signs all with up-to-date service numbers and with buses to the University and southbound from the city distinguished from the rest. All the timetables were in the right places too.

Of course, it's a shame that it wasn't all done properly in the first place and the Bus Users' Group trusts that the County Council and Stagecoach continuing to talk to each other to ensure that similar glitches in the data don't occur again.

Confusion on Common Garden Street

Common Garden Street is the main picking-up point for south and eastbound buses leaving the city centre and, due to the one-way system, is also a major setting-down point for buses from the south of the city. There are three stops, helpfully lettered by the county council as "A" "B" and "C" Each stop has a flag showing the service numbers as well as a timetable case showing departure times.  So far, so good.

The service changes necessitated by the Greyhound Bridge closure mean that the displays at these stops, along with every other stop in the city, have been updated.  A mammoth task, for which the county council, which maintains them and which deserves praise - especially with the reduced staffing levels under which it operates these days.

But it looks as if the city centre stops have been just a little bit too much for them this time.

Stop A (just off camera to the right in the image above) is for buses heading towards the University on services 2, 2A, 3, 3A and 4.  For the duration of the bridge closure (which is expected to be six months) these services have had a "U" prefix added to the number to distinguish them from buses heading to Morecambe that were previously part of the through services that have been split at the bus station.  LCC's first failure is not to have updated the flag.

As far as the Bus Users' Group can determine - and as Stagecoach has confirmed to us - there have been no changes to how these stops are used, so we are puzzled as to why the display case now contains times for:

2X Battery-Lancaster .

3A Lancaster - University

18 East Lancaster Circular

U2 University - Lancaster(i.e. towards the bus station)

The 2X (just one journey at 0821) and the 3A towards the University DO use this stop, although the service number 3A is not in use for the duration, having been replaced by U3 and U3R.  Service 18 uses Stop C as do buses on the U2 towards the bus station.  However, buses on U2 U3 U3R and U4 towards the University, which use this stop, are not mentioned on the display!

Stop B, behind the bus in the main image, is for buses to Preston, Blackpool and Knott End as well as local service 9 to Bowerham. The stop sign has never been updated to take account of the fact that alternate journeys on the 40 to Preston were renumbered 41 several years ago and that the 89H was discontinued last year.  The N1 is a late-night service to the University, which surely uses Stop A (although this blog author is usually fast asleep when that operates) and which in any case has been numbered N2 for some time.

The display case here correctly includes the 9, 40, 41, 42 and 89. But it also includes the service 3 journey at 0630 to the University that almost certainly uses stop A as well as, inexplicably, all the U2 journeys (every 10 minutes all day) to the University that also use Stop A

Stop C is for westbound buses towards Heysham (although these are terminating at the bus station during the works) as well as city services 10 (Ridge) and 18 (Williamson Park) that, despite the stop designation, head east out of the city.  It's main use however is as a setting-down point for buses coming into town from the south.

Here, the council has put up a display for the 10 (which is correct) as well as some - but by no means all - of the buses that are heading for the bus station. The rest of these buses as well as service 18 to the Park are wrongly included in the Stop A display instead!

The Bus Users' Group watched  these stops very closely to see what actually happened before writing this post and we can confirm that buses are using the very same stops that they always have done. Regular passengers know the times they are due and buses to the University are frequent enough for passengers not to need a timetable (at least during the day), but for infrequent users or visitors to the city it must be a nightmare.

Just up from Common Garden Street is George Street, used by services in the opposite direction. There are two stops here, but the confusion that must be caused by the displays the council has put up here is so great that we don't have the time to go into it here. Suffice it to say that they are just plain wrong! Fortunately these stops are mainly used by alighting passengers  - which is just as well.

This group normally holds LCC's public transport team - and especially the people dealing with bus stop publicity - in very high regard. They are very keen to get things right and usually reply to and act promptly on any suggestions we make when we discover an error or something we think could be improved in their displays. However, these faults were brought to their attention over a week ago and we have not received even an acknowledgement, let alone seen any action on their part.  It's a shame, as generally the bus service is coping extremely well with the disruption and is being let down only by poor publicity from the county council.

Greyhound Bridge: What do you think of it so far?

Two-way traffic on Skerton Bridge

Greyhound Bridge in Lancaster was closed to all traffic on 29th January when two-way working was introduced on Skerton Bridge for cross-river journeys.

The closure necessitated major changes to bus timetables, with extra time being allowed for the diversion and the expected traffic congestion that would occur. Some services were split into two halves, either side of the city, and extra buses and crews deployed to maintain frequencies.  Stagecoach warned passengers to allow extra time for their journeys and everyone expected major delays throughout the six-month period of the works.

So, after the first fortnight how are things working?

It was to be said that most people have been surprised at how well the traffic is flowing. The fact that the Lancaster Guardian has not been able to come up with a "Traffic Chaos, Shock, Horror" story in the two editions that have appeared since the closure says a lot.  There have been some delays to certain services at certain times but on the whole things are going a lot better than people expected.

It could be that some motorists have just discovered the existence of the Heysham Link Road, which acts as a diversionary route, or perhaps some people are avoiding the city altogether but the congestion and delays that were forecast don't seem to have happened - so far.

In fact, things could be said to be working almost too well.  The extra buses and the extra time allowed aren't always required - and buses are arriving at the bus station earlier than scheduled - when they should still be stuck in the traffic.  Unfortunately this does cause a problem: they have nowhere to go when they get there!  The bus station has very limited space for buses on layover between trips. This is a problem at the best of times and although some services have been moved to a different stand to help things, it's now getting out of hand. Buses arriving at the station are finding their departure stand already occupied and the nearest space can be at the other end of the station - if indeed there is space at all.

Buses queueing to reach a stand.

It's not unknown for buses to have to queue to get into the station and once inside it's common for drivers to have to leave their bus and go and look for the passengers who are waiting in the right place and shepherd them back to the bus. Needless to say, some are better at doing this than others.

"17...18....19....20??, Where's my bus?

Because of the uncertainty, passengers tend to mill about in the middle of the concourse, rather than wait at the designated stands.

Everything "on time" if you know where to look

The popular electronic departure screen can't be of any help to them as it can't be programmed to show any alterations to the departure stands and resolutely directs passengers to where the bus ought to be, rather than where it is. (The 100% "on time" record seems to confirm that the buses have more than adequate time added to their schedules).

Help is at hand

But Stagecoach is trying to help and extra staff are on duty to help and advise passengers. Something which appears to be very necessary at times.

The company tells us they are aware of the problem and are looking for alternative places to park buses between trips - although these can't be too far away from the station itself.

But apart from this, there don't seem to be too many operational problems at the moment, although if you've had a different experience please leave a comment and let us know.

Unfortunately, Lancashire County Council is rather letting the side down when it comes to bus stop information and we'll have more on that tomorrow.