Plans to boost public transport

A mountainous and sparsely populated landscape creates remote communities who often have to travel to access services and are difficult to reach and less cost effective for public transport providers to serve.

Among the problems this creates for businesses is the issue of simply getting staff to work on time with the latest figures from Cumbria Tourism showing that up to 81 per cent of tourism businesses are facing problems with public transport, including challenges with timetables, frequency, coverage and connectivity. 

However, across the county, businesses, transport providers, politicians and the public are working on initiatives to get Cumbria on the move conveniently, sustainably and, hopefully, on time. 

Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness Councils are the two transport authorities for Cumbria, although services such as rail and bus services - with the exception of some community buses they fund - fall outside their remit.

Westmorland and Furness’ interests also extend to the water, where it operates the Windermere Ferry from Bowness to Hawkshead, which received a series of upgrades earlier this year.

Angela Jones, Westmorland and Furness’ director of thriving places, says collaboration is important with commercial operators, as well as working with communities to decide which government funding to apply for and how to spend it.

This year the council is investing £1.7 million in restoring and improving 30 bus services in its area thanks to the Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus (BSIP)+ funding awarded by the Department for Transport.

This is in addition to £591,015 which had already been invested in 11 routes earlier in the year from BSIP+ funding and a Supported Bus Services Grant.

Cumberland Council has also received  £2.4 million which it is investing in routes in the authority.

Angela says previously most bus services in Cumbria were operated on a purely commercial basis, limiting the level of service in areas with a low population.

"To be commercially viable, generally, operators need a critical mass of people and regular bus users,” she says.

“If you have less people, it's very difficult to make it commercially viable for a commercial operator, because they could be running bus routes at a loss.

“So what we're doing is giving them financial support to subsidise 30 routes, to top up their income from the bus users so that actually they can reinstate services that maybe have been withdrawn or even introduce additional times or evening routes.

“It's about providing public sector funding to support the commercial and community operators, and provide more frequent and enhanced services for our residents and visitors.”

The council has also worked with Cumbria Tourism and local operators to lobby for and fund additional bus services for staff working in the sector, which are running from Barrow to Bowness in the evenings and on Sundays.

This year the council also launched a four-year pilot of a digital demand responsive transport service covering the rural areas within 15 miles of Penrith and 10 miles of Ulverston, using a £750,000 grant from the Department for Transport’s Rural Mobility Fund.

Once the pilot scheme has finished it is hoped that the services could be potentially expanded into other areas of the district.

The council has also earmarked £300,000 for its Westmorland and Furness 16 to 19 Education Travel Bursary Fund to support young people who are having difficulty travelling for education or training.

"What we're trying to do is get people to use buses and public transport at an earlier age, because then it helps them to develop sustainable travel habits so they're more likely to use public transport in the future,” says Angela.

As a member of Transport for the North and Rail North, Westmorland and Furness also lobbies government around improvements and upgrades to the rail network in Cumbria, including on the Cumbrian Coast and Furness Lines as well as through the Energy Coast Rail Upgrade.

In July the leaders of both councils, all of the county’s MPs, Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership and the Chamber of Commerce wrote to new transport secretary Louise Haigh to seek reassurance that the new government would commit to the promise to upgrade the line made by former prime minister Rishi Sunak.

This investment will improve capacity, allowing for service frequency improvements and enabling the line to support the transport of more freight.
Westmorland and Furness and Cumberland are also waiting for confirmation of the £129m and £149m they were due to receive respectively as part of the £2.5 billion Local Transport Fund for the north.
The fund is made up of money redirected from the HS2 and pledged to northern communities after the northern part of the project was scrapped. It was due to be distributed from April.
Local transport authorities will be able to choose from a range of projects such as building new roads, improving road junctions and pavements, improving bus stations, installing or expanding tram lines, or improving train stations.
Underlying all of these considerations is the potential for a devolution deal for the county and the potential for councils to have more say over transport spending and procurement.

“We are waiting for further information from government on both planning reform and devolution,” says Angela.
“Both authorities have indicated they are open to discussions with government on what devolution could bring, in terms of additional funding, powers and freedoms.”

Integral to many of the plans for public transport in Cumbria is bus service operator Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire, which operates a fleet of 280 vehicles running 19 million passenger journeys each year.
Managing director Tom Waterhouse says buses are particularly popular with tourists travelling between Ambleside and Keswick, while the £2 price cap on bus fares - currently due to come to an end at the end of the year - has helped encourage people to use the bus both in rural and urban areas.
Passenger numbers have grown across its network by around 10 per cent following the introduction of the cap.
"That increase has remained pretty stable," says Tom.
"What that supports is that once people have tried using the bus, they are happy to keep using the bus.”
Despite the perceived convenience of using the car, Tom believes travelling by bus can be easier and more appealing.
“I think ultimately it depends on the use case,” he says.
“It can be easier, because if you're trying to commute in and out of Carlisle, for example, from the west coast, we have services that operate straight into the heart of Carlisle city centre, so don't have to fight to find car parking spaces or pay for parking, you don't have to think if you're in a social engagement who is going to be driving home tonight.”
To continue growing the numbers, Tom says the county needs to have a “serious conversation” around how to manage congestion, with public transport playing a major part in the solution.
This could bring benefits to areas including the national park where he believes congestion is becoming a barrier to people visiting.
He says journey times could also be quicker overall if more people used the bus. In turn, this would make it possible for services to stop at more places or increase frequency.
"I also think it would allow more reliability,” says Tom.
“The challenge around congestion is that it can often be unpredictable, and the unpredictability of it makes it harder to manage.”
He says measures which could be introduced are more bus lanes on key corridors or traffic lights that give priority to bus travel.
Stagecoach is also considering how it can transition its fleet from diesel to electric, making a significant proportion of its fleet EV over the next 10 to 15 years.
It is a challenging prospect for some longer routes in Cumbria with steep hills but is more possible in urban areas.
"The barrier there is that the cost of an electric vehicle is double the cost of diesel and running cost savings do not offset that initial doubling of the capital investment cost required, so there is work to do around how we do that in a sustainable way, but that's going to be a big part of our future going forward,” says Tom.

(Image: Newsquest)
Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, says he hopes the change of government in July will see some transport projects which have long been discussed in Cumbria finally come to pass.
One example is the creation of a passing loop on the Lakes Line from Oxenholme to Windermere.
Tim says this would effectively dual the track, making it possible for trains to pass each other and increase the number of services.
"You could double the capacity relatively cheaply and very quickly,” says Tim.
A feasibility study for the project was signed off by the former county council in 2023 but there has been no action from the Department of Transport since.
With the poor performance by rail operators in the North West usually down to staffing issues, Tim hopes the new government can resolve some of the industrial relations problems to reduce strikes and increase staff morale.
"There's certainly a window of opportunity with the new government, who we can't hold responsible for the foot dragging of the last few years," he says.
"It's certainly an opportunity and I'm determined to use that.”
However, the change of administration could also come with its problems.
Last month it emerged that the Department for Transport is carrying out an internal spending review, which will include reviewing the  £1.3bn upgrade of the A66 between Penrith and Scotch Corner.
When she announced the review, transport secretary Louise Haigh said it followed the previous government making “£2.9 billion of unfunded transport commitments”.
"I would argue, of all the road upgrades in the country, it's the one with the strongest case, most importantly, when it comes to saving lives, but also economically, because it is the main A road which links the east and the west of the country, in the north of England," says Tim.
"In another era, there would have been a motorway there. We're not saying there should be a motorway there but we're certainly asking that you don't have these miles of single track road where the overwhelming majority of deaths happen.”
While he says he does not disbelieve the Labour government about the lack of funding available, the A66 should be the last project they decide to backtrack on.
"A new government potentially gives the opportunity to get on with it, but they're obviously keen to be seen to be responsible, and keen to demonstrate, accurately, that the last government made promises that they didn't put any money towards, and therefore have no plans to actually fulfil those promises,” he says.
"I'm not doubting that overall, but I am saying that it is nonsense to have to count the A66 in that basket of schemes that need re-examining.”