A shake-up of bus services in Morecambe - including changes affecting the 'Bare Circular' and Westgate routes - will come into effect soon.
The 33 'Bare Circular' Morecambe-Bare service is being withdrawn but will be replaced by "an improved service" 6B and 6C, said bus company Stagecoach, from January 15 2024.
The 6B will be a new loop service operating from Morecambe-Westgate-Branksome Estate-Bare, running every hour.
This will run from Morecambe bus station to Westgate and will continue to Branksome, Lancaster Road, Sainsbury’s, Burlington Avenue, Beaufort Road, Strickland Drive, Lonsdale Road, Bare Lane, Oak Avenue, Princes Crescent and Marine Road East and the promenade to Central Drive for the Festival Market and back to Morecambe bus station.
The 6C will be a new loop service operating from Morecambe-Bare-Branksome Estate-Westgate, again every hour.
This will run from Morecambe bus station via Central Drive, Euston Road, Thornton Road, Lord Street, Marine Road East, Bare, Princes Crescent, Oak Avenue, Bare Lane, Lonsdale Road, Strickland Drive, Beaufort Road, Burlington Avenue, Lancaster Road, Sainsbury’s, Branksome, Westgate and then to the Festival Market and back to Morecambe bus station.
Both services will run around every half an hour from Bare to Morecambe, with a combined 15 minute service between Westgate and Morecambe.
The number 6 bus from Morecambe to Westgate will be reduced to hourly, but still with a 30 minute service combined with the new 6B and 6C.
The 6A service from Lancaster to Morecambe via Westgate will continue with minor changes to timetables, the biggest being retiming of some evening and Sunday journeys.
The Lancaster District Bus Users Group said the changes were "nearly all good news".
"The new pattern retains the two buses an hour between Lancaster, Westgate and Morecambe as well as the four buses an hour between Westgate and Morecambe during the day time, although passengers will have to get used to the Westage bus being either a 6, 6A, 6B or 6C," said an article on the group's website.
"Passengers on most of the current 33 route will see the number of buses more than doubled (although the two buses an hour from the bus station will leave at similar times). They will benefit, however, from later departures on service 6C at 1734 and 1834 to Bare and Branksome, whilst the current 160-minute gap in the service on schooldays between 1400 and 1640 is eliminated, with only the 1539 service 6B journey running “school holidays only” and new 6C journeys at 1434,1534 and 1634 throughout the year.
"Altogether, the number of buses to Bare and Branksome increases from eight on schooldays / 11 on Saturdays and school holidays to 18 on schooldays and 19 on Saturdays and school holidays.
"The new services open up a number of new journey possibilities for passengers such as Bare and Branksome to Westgate and the West End and vice-versa; Westgate and Branksome to the full length of Morecambe promenade between Bare and Regent Road; and buses in both directions between Sainsbury’s and Westgate, Branksome and Bare."
The number 33 Bare Circular was set to be axed altogether in 2016 due to Lancashire County Council budget cuts but was saved after a campaign.
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