Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire predominantly operates commercial bus services in Cumbria and Lancashire, with some services extending into Dumfries and Galloway (79 and 179), as well as Northumberland and Tyne and Wear (685). The company also operate several contracted services on behalf of
Cumberland Council,
Westmorland and Furness Council and
Lancashire County Council.
Stagecoach in Cumbria Stagecoach in Cumbria is the
trading name of Stagecoach North West Limited, and predominantly operates services in
Cumbria. The company has been formerly known as Barrow Borough Transport, Stagecoach Cumberland and Stagecoach Ribble. Cumberland Motor Services was one of the first
National Bus Company subsidiaries to be privatised in 1986; this was almost immediately after gaining the
Penrith and Carlisle depots from Ribble. The company was bought from the NBC by Stagecoach in July 1987, 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, the company commenced operation of Cumbria County Council-secured service X35, which ran between
Barrow-in-Furness and
Kendal via
Ulverston and
Grange-over-Sands. In July 2012, funding was withdrawn and the service was taken over commercially by Stagecoach. At the same time, the service was renumbered X6 and the route was diverted away from
Westmorland General Hospital. In July 2016, a fleet of twelve
Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC double-deck vehicles were introduced on
service 555, which runs between
Keswick and
Lancaster via
Grasmere – an investment totalling £2.5 million. In July 2017, a fleet of
open-top Dennis Trident/
Alexander ALX400 were replaced by new
Volvo B5TL/
Wright Gemini 3. Branded in the two-tone green Lakesider livery, the vehicles operate on service 599 - branded as "Lakesider" by Stagecoach - between
Bowness-on-Windermere and
Grasmere via
Windermere and
Ambleside, with occasional early/late connections to the depot in
Kendal. In April 2023,
service 555 was renewed with a brand new fleet of nine
Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC double-deck vehicles. This investment totalled £3 million, and saw seven vehicles from the existing fleet of similar vehicles dating from 2016, cascaded to Barrow depot to operate services 6 and X6, between
Barrow-in-Furness,
Ulverston, and
Windermere or
Kendal, and the remaining five down to Morecambe. The company has been frequently criticised for charging high fares – especially when the cost of a single journey is equated against a comparative journey in
London.
Stagecoach in Lancaster Stagecoach in Lancaster operates services in and around the towns of
Lancaster and
Morecambe. It is the trading name of Stagecoach North West Limited, and consists of the former Stagecoach Ribble services, as well as those formerly operated by Lancaster City Transport – a
municipal bus operator which ceased trading in 1993. During 2018/2019, 32 new
Alexander Dennis Enviro 400mmc arrived into Morecambe depot for routes 1/1A as well the 100/2X. 18 was introduced in 2018 with a further 14 introduced during 2019. This was a £7 Million pound investment. ==Fleet and operations==