The withdrawal of subsidised services by Lancashire County Council has seen most operators deregister their contracted services. Few will be replaced, but Coastal Coaches and Catch 22 Bus have stepped up with new services from 4 April and Blackpool Transport have registered various changes too.
Catch 22 will extend their service 22 from Cleveleys to Fleetwood. This will revert to a 30 minute frequency between Mereside and Cleveleys from 4 April and will be extended over the 84 route from Cleveleys to Fleetwood - with minor variations in Larkholme. The service will run from 0750 - 1720 from Fleetwood (Mon-Fri) and 0820-1750 from Cleveleys. Saturday first trips are 90 minutes later.
Their new service 24 will run from Cleveleys to Poulton again via the 84 route - but also serving the Hillylaid Road section of the 87. This will run half hourly Monday to Friday from Cleveleys (0750-1750) and from Poulton at 0750 to 1720. Saturday service will be hourly. 0820-1720, returning from Cleveleys half an hour later. Sunday service and some additional trips to Victoria Hospital are being considered according to the operator
Coastal's tenders are service 76 (Blackpool to St. Annes via Poulton and Kirkham), and the evening/Sunday part of the 78 (St. Annes to Wesham). It has, however, registered a new service 77 from St. Annes to Victoria Hospital via Mereside. Service 78 will extend from Wesham to Poulton every hour - presumably via the 76 route via Elswick. The 78 is commercial during the day, its not clear if evening/Sunday services will continue.
Blackpool Transport's changes affect all services. The 1, 4, 7, 11, 14 have a revised timetable with the 3, 9, 10 and 17 have route and timetable changes. The 12/13 are cancelled and the 2C replaced on a new registration. A new service 15 has been registered as "Blackpool to Blackpool via Staining" - happily returning the traditional number, while the existing 15/16 have route/timetable changes - presumably now all as service 16. Further detail will no doubt follow in due course.
Preston Bus has cancelled services 75 and 80, but so far no cancellation for the evening service 68 has been reported. Kirkby Lonsdale Minicoaches has cancelled the evening 42 from Lancaster. Presently KLMC has a remarkably large operating areas - based at Carnforth, most of its work is Lancaster based, but in addition to reaching Blackpool, operates a regular service into Skipton! Elite minicoaches has not yet cancelled the 87.
