Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire

Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire is a major operator of bus services in North West England. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, and has its origins in the purchase of Cumberland in 1987 and Ribble in 1988 from the National Bus Company. The head office of Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire is in Carlisle. It was previously known as Stagecoach North West until 1 September 2011, when Stagecoach Merseyside joined Preston and Chorley depots to form Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire.[1]

Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire
A Stagecoach in Cumbria bus operating the flagship regional service 555
ParentStagecoach Group plc
Founded2011
HeadquartersCarlisle, Cumbria
Service areaNorth West England
Service typeBus
HubsCarlisle, Lancaster, Morecambe, Kendal, Whitehaven, Workington, Keswick
StationsLancaster, Barrow, Carlisle, Kendal
Depots
  • Stagecoach in Lancaster - Morecambe (White Lund) & Catterall
  • Stagecoach in Cumbria - Barrow; Kendal; Workington (Lillyhall); Carlisle (with Penrith outstation)
Fleet
OperatorStagecoach Group
WebsiteOfficial website

Overview

Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire operates services in Carlisle, Lancaster, Morecambe and the Lake District with service 685 running from Carlisle to Newcastle (joint with Arriva Jesmond depot) and services 79/179 from Carlisle to Annan and Dumfries.

Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire also run several services which are contracted to Cumbria County Council, or Lancashire County Council.

Stagecoach in Cumbria
An open top Wright Gemini 3 bodied Volvo B5TL with green LAKEsider branding on route 599 in the Lake District.

Stagecoach in Cumbria is a trading name of Stagecoach North West Ltd and operates services around the Cumbria area (formerly known as Stagecoach Cumberland, Stagecoach Ribble and Barrow Borough Transport).

Cumberland was one of the first National Bus Company subsidiaries to be privatised: this was almost immediately after gaining the Penrith and Carlisle depots from Ribble. The company was bought from the NBC by Stagecoach, who split it into two territories: CMS Carlislebus for services within Carlisle itself and CMS Cumberland for the rest of the services; eventually both territories merged with Ribble's south Cumbria services to become Stagecoach Cumberland.

In 2005 Stagecoach started operating new double-decker buses that were the property of Cumbria County Council on its flagship service X35 route between Barrow-in-Furness, Ulverston, Grange-over-Sands and Kendal. At the time the route was subsidised by Cumbria County Council and lower fares applied. In July 2012 the service became commercial and Stagecoach began to use its own buses. At the same time the service was renumbered X6 and diverted away from the Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal. Some daytime X6 buses now stop at the K Village shopping centre on the way into Kendal. The return fare from Ulverston to Kendal is currently £6.90, as of September 2017.

The 62, 62A and 62B service to Kingmoor Park is also subsidised by Cumbria County Council, as of 2006.

In January 2008, the flagship 555/6 route from Keswick - Lancaster was upgraded to Dennis Trident/ALX400 operation. A further upgrade took place in October 2011, this time to brand new Scania N230UD/Enviro400s which, along with the open top ALX400s on routes 78, 508 and 599, operate in a green version of the corporate livery. In June/July 2016, the route 555 Scania N230UDs were replaced by brand new ADL E40D (ADL Enviro 400MMC). In July 2017 the route 599 open top ALX400s were replaced by brand new Wright Gemini 3 bodied Volvo B5TL with green LAKEsider branding.

The company is frequently criticised for its high fares, as indeed was Ribble in its day. In November 2012 a single fare from Kendal to Ambleside was £6.25 (11 miles, 17.7 km) and Bowness to Grasmere £5.85 (5.4 miles, 8.7 km).

Depots

Stagecoach in Lancaster
A current Stagecoach in Lancaster bus. 18382 is a Dennis Trident 2 with Alexander ALX 400 Body.

Stagecoach in Lancaster operates services in Lancaster, Morecambe, and the surrounding area, including the services between Morecambe/Lancaster and Preston/Blackpool. It is a trading name of Stagecoach North West Ltd, and consists of the former Stagecoach Ribble services in the area combined with those formerly operated by Lancaster City Transport, the local municipal bus operator which ceased trading in 1993.

They operate mainly from their depot in White Lund, Morecambe. There is also a small outstation, which is no more than 10 parking spaces next to Whittingham's Farming Supplies, in Catterall, near Garstang; this is used only to keep the buses which operate the 40,41,940 & 941 routes that start in Preston, the 42 route from Blackpool and the 942 service from Catterall.

Depot

References
  1. "Stagecoach announces UK Bus Regional Management Appointments". Stagecoach Group. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
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