The 12 Lancashire bus routes getting a £1.3m boost as £1 fares near

Bus operators and Lancashire County Council have agreed how to spend £1.3m increasing journey frequencies.

The information office at Preston bus station will also be reopened – five years after its closure as part of a cost-cutting exercise – as part of an investment in extra members of staff and longer operating hours at all bus stations operated by County Hall. It is part of an effort to improve both customer service and security.

The cash to fund the move will come from a £200,000 pot that will also be used to promote bus travel across Lancashire – including other newly-agreed schemes to tempt passengers to get on board.

Those include a £5.5m young person’s fare discount initiative for bus-users aged between 16 and 21, which see the price they pay for tickets cut by a third. That follows a decision taken at this year’s county council budget meeting to scrap free bus passes for 16-18-year olds who are not in education, employment or training, or who are young carers.

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Meanwhile, a £1 adult single fare is to be introduced on Sundays across the county from 26th May – at a cost this year of £1.5m – replacing the current ‘buy Saturday, get Sunday free’ offer. Also known as the Weekender Ticket, it has had a low uptake in some parts of Lancashire, which has been attributed to a lack of consistency across different operators regarding how the concession can be bought and used.

The flat £1 fare will also be available on the Spring Bank Holiday Monday on 27th May. The overall £8.5m funding fillip for 2024/25 is part of the third phase of the government-financed Bus Service Improvement Plan for the county council and Blackburn with Darwen Council areas – almost £1.5m of which for the current financial year has come from savings found from earlier phases of the initiative, including the axing of the Weekender Ticket.

The exact operation of the young person’s discount scheme is still being discussed with bus operators, but it is due to be introduced on 1st July. A cabinet report revealed that it will cover single, return or day tickets and will require an AnyBus Young Person’s pass, to be presented upon boarding.

Cabinet member for health and wellbeing Michael Green told the meeting where the measures were decided that he knew of people for whom access to bus services had “made all the difference in terms of training, education and career opportunities”.

He added: "[Lancashire is] a big county – we’ve got large rural areas and if people don’t have access to a private motor vehicle, public transport is crucial to them.”

County council leader Phillippa Williamson added that her recent experience of the county’s buses had been “a great pleasure”.

Lancashire bus services began offering a £1 fare for single journeys after 7pm, seven days a week, in January last year since when 1.8 million of the discounted fares have been sold.

BUS BOOSTERS

This is the full list of services that will be enhanced under the latest plans (in phases from 26th May, check with your operator for exact dates and before you travel):

Central and West Lancashire

No. X2 – Preston/South Ribble/West Lancashire – restore half-hourly daytime frequency between Preston and Southport.

No. 2 – Chorley – increase in Monday-Saturday daytime frequency to half-hourly, extra journeys via Chorley Hospital.

No. 23 – Preston – enhance Saturday daytime frequency to every 10 minutes.

No.113 – Preston/South Ribble – introduce Monday -Saturday evening service.

No. 152 – Preston/Chorley – match Monday-Thursday evening timetable to that of Friday-Saturday.

Nos. 375 & 385 – West Lancashire – introduce extra early morning and late evening Ormskirk (Edge Hill) to Southport journeys.

North Lancashire/Fylde coast

Nos. 10 & 11 – Lancaster – introduce Monday-Saturday evening service.

No. 82 – Lancaster – introduce Monday-Saturday evening service between Lancaster and Hornby.

No. 100 – Lancaster – enhance Sunday Lancaster-Bare-Morecambe route to every 30 minutes.

No. 42 – Lancaster/Wyre/Fylde – iIntroduce extra morning return journey to fill gap in service.

No.12 – Wyre – enhance current school service to all day, creating Bispham-to-Poulton link

East Lancashire

Nos. 481 & 483 – Rossendale/Burnley – introduce extra Monday-Saturday evening journeys