Stagecoach Lake District by Bus 2024

[Open top 80]

The Summer 2024 Lake District is now available on the Stagecoach website.

Buses around the Lake District | Stagecoach

Getting around the Lakes is easy when you travel with Stagecoach. Leave your car keys at home and make the most of your day when you jump on board a Lakes Connection Open Top bus.

www.stagecoachbus.com

Welcome to the Lake District!

Getting around the Lake District by bus is easy, relax, take a break from driving and explore the tranquil waters and outstanding scenery of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Enjoy unlimited all-day travel in the central Lakes from as little as £9.50, or hop on for a single journey for just £2! Amble around Ambleside, Wander round Windermere or go carefree in Keswick - all without the palaver of parking.

The timetable is attached below.

 

[northern506]

The Summer 2024 Lake District is now available on the Stagecoach website.

Buses around the Lake District | Stagecoach

Getting around the Lakes is easy when you travel with Stagecoach. Leave your car keys at home and make the most of your day when you jump on board a Lakes Connection Open Top bus.

www.stagecoachbus.com

The timetable is attached below.

Quite a few improvements there compared to last year?

From what I can see: the 77C is new, the 509 and UB1 are brand new services, the 516 has been increased to hourly and improved weekend service on the 553/554.

 

[Megafuss]

The big change is the half hourly X4/X5 all the way to Penrith.

On the Stagecoach website there are some other changes from the same date to the 104 and Penrith/Appleby service which look quite exciting to.

 

[northern506]

The big change is the half hourly X4/X5 all the way to Penrith.

On the Stagecoach website there are some other changes from the same date to the 104 and Penrith/Appleby service which look quite exciting to.

Excellent changes - it's interesting that they aren't advertised on the Stagecoach website until you click onto the leaflet though.

 

[Red Onion]

It’s a shame it doesn’t start a week earlier for my week in Keswick. I’ll benefit from the new timetable for the last couple of days of the trip though.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

The big change is the half hourly X4/X5 all the way to Penrith.

On the Stagecoach website there are some other changes from the same date to the 104 and Penrith/Appleby service which look quite exciting to.

I'd have to look up the details of when but the X5 was previously every 30 minutes Penrith to Keswick. It carried fresh air backwards and forwards at a cost of £500,000 per year - in old prices back then.
EDIT ran every 30 minutes from July 2000, reverted to hourly by summer 2005.

Cockermouth to Lorton (77C) has had service previously, the 'placing journeys' operating from Cockermouth, rather than Keswick ex Penrith is a new feature.

The new 509 via Lowther is an interesting one, an area poorly served since the Kendal to Penrith service (near enough) disappeared overnight, one day after Reays took it over.

The hourly 516 to Dungeon Ghyll is an excellent move, not sure how it will fare in terms of passenger numbers but it is the sort of frequency needed to at least try and get people out of their cars and de-congesting the valley. I think I would have filled that two hour gap in the evening though. Probably the best service up the valley, ever. At a quick look there had been a service of 8 journeys plus a couple of shorts to Chapel Stile in the 1960's.
EDIT June 1949 had 8 full trips and 1 short M-F, 8 full trips and 3 shorts Sa, 5 full trips and 1 short Su. Much the same through to 1966 when the service started to be cut back.

 

[gnolife]

The big change is the half hourly X4/X5 all the way to Penrith.

On the Stagecoach website there are some other changes from the same date to the 104 and Penrith/Appleby service which look quite exciting to.

For the benefit of anyone reading who may struggle to find them on Stagecoach's website, the changes to the 104 and 563 are

104 (Carlisle – Penrith)

We are pleased to announce that service 104 will increase to a half-hourly frequency, Monday to Saturday daytimes, throughout the route. One journey an hour will continue to Center Parcs at Whinfell Forest. This means that some departure times have changed. Journeys are also speeded up between Carlisle and Penrith during the daytime where journeys will alternate between operating via Cumwhinton & Carleton Clinic or via Peterill Bank Rd providing hourly service to each. This enhanced frequency has been funded by HM Government ‘Bus Service Improvement Plan’ monies, in partnership with Westmorland & Furness Council. Click here to view the updated timetable.

563 (Penrith - Appleby - Kirkby Stephen - Sedbergh – Kendal)

On Monday-Friday, this service is extended from Appleby to Kendal via Kirkby Stephen & Sedbergh. This change facilitates through journeys from Penrith to Kendal. This extension has been funded by HM Government ‘Bus Service Improvement Plan’ monies, in partnership with Westmorland & Furness Council. Click here to view the updated timetable.

(This appears to be two trips Kendal to Penrith, one Kendal to Sedburgh and one Penrith to Appleby)

 

[Baxenden Bank]

For the benefit of anyone reading who may struggle to find them on Stagecoach's website, the changes to the 104 and 563 are




(This appears to be two trips Kendal to Penrith, one Kendal to Sedburgh and one Penrith to Appleby)

Thanks (and to @Open top 80), I struggle to view or download anything from Stagecoach of late. It is a Firefox browser 'situation'.

 

[Bletchleyite]

From what I can see: the 77C is new, the 509 and UB1 are brand new services, the 516 has been increased to hourly and improved weekend service on the 553/554.

Hourly Langdale Rambler is a massive improvement - has it ever been that good? I don't think so.

The one thing it could probably do with adding is an evening run connecting with a Windermere train around 2100 for weekend trippers staying at the various campsites and hotels down that way.

This is a pretty great package to be honest, I hope it does well.

 

[Open top 80]

The 505 Coniston bus will no longer be hourly from Windermere train station during the day. It will be terminating at Ambleside instead.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The 505 Coniston bus will no longer be hourly from Windermere train during the day it will be terminaing at Ambleside in instead

With 3 per hour on the open tops to Grasmere plus two 555s that probably barely matters that much. Though it'd be nice if the 0900ish through service ran on Saturdays too.

 

[TheManOnThe172]

The hourly 516 to Dungeon Ghyll is an excellent move

Back in the late 1970's or 80s, I remember that on a Bank Holiday weekend, the last 516 after mid-afternoon Saturday was on Tuesday morning. Quite incredible for the only service in arguably the prime valley of the country's "top" National Park.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Back in the late 1970's or 80s, I remember that on a Bank Holiday weekend, the last 516 after mid-afternoon Saturday was on Tuesday morning. Quite incredible for the only service in arguably the prime valley of the country's "top" National Park.

Given the traffic issues down there, one could almost argue in favour of a much more intense bus service (say half-hourly 6am-midnight) and removing all the parking, with the only people able to park down there being those with prebooked accommodation at the hotel or one of the campsites. Not sure where would be best for a park and ride car park though, certainly not Ambleside which is a nightmare.

 

[RELL6L]

It's great to see some positive changes. Improvements to the 77 after several years without change. The 77C makes sense, hope it works. Odd to see a 77A and a 77C on a circular service but the 77A is clockwise.....
The 78 probably has a more realistic timetable with a couple of catch-up periods, implying it will simply be a two vehicle operation (breaks presumably supplied through the gap in the 77/A service). From my experience punctuality could get a bit flaky in the afternoon as queues bunged up Keswick and the Borrowdale road is narrow. In the summer I guess this reverts to Lillyhall losing the splendid open top journeys we have on the 555 at the moment).
The hourly 516 is good, as are the weekend / occasional extras such as the 509 and 593.
The X4/X5 going half hourly throughout is quite surprising. Interesting that the X4 and X5 now each provide a straight hourly service, reducing the service to the village of Braithwaite. It looks like Penrith now put one bus out on this, something new.
I love the extension of the 563 to Kendal! I can't see anyone taking it all the way from Penrith to Kendal at 2hrs 15minutes when the train to Oxenholme takes under half an hour. This provides interesting trip opportunities!
So much doom and gloom around this really cheers me up!

 

[BlueFox]

From what I can see: the 77C is new, the 509 and UB1 are brand new services,

The 77C and UB1 ran last summer, there was also a UB2 and UB3. They weren't included in last year's lake district booklet, they didn't start until later in the year.

Last year's 77C was just a weekends only shuttle between Cockermouth and Buttermere from May to the end of August, and came after the success of a free service which ran on that route in 2021.

The 509 replaces and extends last year's UB2 service, last year's UB1 and UB3 have been combined to becomes UB1. The UB services started in July last year. They were hoping to make it a daily service this year, so I'm a bit disappointed they're still only running at the weekend.
Some of the 509s replace some of last year's 73. The rest of last year's 73s have now become 553.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Back in the late 1970's or 80s, I remember that on a Bank Holiday weekend, the last 516 after mid-afternoon Saturday was on Tuesday morning. Quite incredible for the only service in arguably the prime valley of the country's "top" National Park.

I don't have a complete collection of timetables. The Sunday service disappeared after summer 1986, I guess at deregulation. It had been summer only for a few years prior to that. The situation remained the same until after 1991 but before 1996.

The 505 Coniston bus will no longer be hourly from Windermere train station during the day. It will be terminating at Ambleside instead.

Having had a very quick look, the 505 and 516 interwork, with recovery time. There is no way you could run the 516 on itself all day long, congestion in Ambleside requires recovery time. Some operators (hello Hulleys) may try impossible timings, Stagecoach don't!

Given the traffic issues down there, one could almost argue in favour of a much more intense bus service (say half-hourly 6am-midnight) and removing all the parking, with the only people able to park down there being those with prebooked accommodation at the hotel or one of the campsites. Not sure where would be best for a park and ride car park though, certainly not Ambleside which is a nightmare.

A gate at the town end of both Langdale and Borrowdale (with intensive bus shuttles) would be an excellent idea. Also very unpopular though!