Bus services across Cumbria are set to undergo a number of changes next week following government advice to limit non-essential travel.
Stagecoach has announced alterations to its timetables that will come into force from Monday.
Many of the routes in the county will move to a ‘school holiday’ timetable following the introduction of a period of national lockdown.
There will be more significant changes in Carlisle and Penrith, where on Mondays to Fridays Stagecoach will mostly be running a Saturday timetable.
In addition to running to a Saturday timetable, during the week service 104 will not serve Center Parcs and the late evening journeys will not run.
Services 76 and 62 will run to a Saturday timetable but will have some extra journeys to accommodate key workers.
Services 685, 508 and 563 will run a Monday to Friday service akin to when the schools and universities are closed.
Services 91 and 91A will be combined into a 91x service to allow travel to Caldew School for children of key workers.
In Barrow and the South Lakes, Service 1’s late night Friday and Saturday service from Biggar Bank to Furness General Hospital (10.45pm) and the return journey (11.15pm) will not run during the lockdown period.
Similarly, the Service 555 evening journeys at 8.10pm and 10.10pm from Kendal to Grasmere, and at 9.10pm and 11.21pm from Grasmere to Kendal, which usually run on Friday and Saturday nights, will also not run in lockdown.
Service 99 from Kendal, which usually has two buses, will be reduced to one with a revised route. This will run Mondays to Fridays if there are pupils travelling to Kirkby Lonsdale.
There are slight reductions in West Cumbria to Service X5’s Friday and Saturday evening timetables with the 11.15pm from Workington to Keswick and 12.15am from Keswick to Workington also suspended for lockdown, while 300 service will run to a Saturday timetable on Mondays to Fridays.
Rob Jones, managing director of Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire, said: “It is only right that we follow government advice in reducing the number of services to limit non-essential travel, but the changes that we have made still ensure that essential routes are maintained.
“Some of the changes will only be in effect during lockdown periods, so they are subject to change. To keep up to speed with any changes, we recommend visiting the Stagecoach website for any updates.
“We will continue to ensure all the extra measures are in place such as regular cleaning of buses so people can continue to travel with confidence with Stagecoach.”
Visit www.stagecoachbus.com to view the full timetables coming into force from Monday 11th January.
