A £750,000 fund secured by Lancashire County Council will mean improvements to bus links in West Lancashire will go ahead.
The money will help pay for a string of improvements across Lancashire, with specific measures to be introduced for Ormskirk and Skelmersdale bus commuters.
This includes a daytime service to be restored a Sunday and Bank Holiday between Preston and Ormskirk via Tarleton, as well as added support for the weekend daytime 300 bus service between Liverpool, Haskayne, Halsall and Southport. The route goes through the western rural communities of West Lancashire, linking with Southport and Liverpool.
Lancashire County Council received the £750,000 following a successful bid to the Department for Transport’s (DfT)_ ‘A better deal for bus users’ programme.
County Councillor Andrew Snowden, Lead Member for Buses at Lancashire County Council, said: “We’ve made improving public transport one of our top priorities as it’s vital to people’s daily lives and our local economy, with many people relying on buses to get to work, access education and other services, do their shopping and visit friends.
“This new funding will help to build on the investment we’ve already made in restoring links for communities which might otherwise have no or very little public transport, and supports the commercial network to ensure transport connections across the county are as effective as possible.
“Some of the improvements being introduced this summer will also increase the frequency of a number of services where there is most demand, developing more attractive and sustainable services for the future.
“While there are still restrictions on using public transport at the moment, these improvements meet a number of requests from communities for better connections and will help to support our economy as Lancashire begins to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.”
The investment will meet a number of outstanding requests for bus services received from residents, local councillors and MPs, as well as building on improvements introduced in December 2017 when the county council increased its annual budget for buses.
The county council’s supported bus service network has resumed normal operation, after initially operating to a Saturday timetable at the beginning of lockdown.
