Bus Fares Increase
Monday 28 July
It is with regret that Metro Coastlines are having to introduce an increase in bus fares to cover rising fuel costs. Over the past few months the Company has been faced with massive increases in the price of diesel. Metro Coastlines buy 3,900,000 litres of diesel each year and the annual fuel bill has gone up by over £1,000,000 since this time last year.
Oliver Howarth, Operations Director said "Whilst we are increasing our bus fares, this fare rise only covers half of our increased diesel costs -we are saving the rest of the money through a range of internal economies. We are doing our utmost to ensure our regular travellers get a good deal - ZoneCards, TravelCards and MetroBusSavers are not going up. Tram fares are also not being increased, because trams are not powered by diesel."
On-bus fares will rise from Monday 28th July, generally by 5p or 10p. Some, but not all, £2.00 fares will go up to a new £2.20 maximum fare. Those that are going up to £2.20 are mainly those fares that have been capped for between two and five years.
Steve Burd, Managing Director said " Metro Coastlines continues to offer good value for money - a 30 day bus and tram zonecard costs less than a tank of petrol in a typical family car!! This price increase is solely due to the rise in World oil prices. We are not expecting fuel prices to fall significantly in the next few months, but if they do we will look to adjust our fares accordingly."

Line 11 Changes to service

From Monday 28 July Line 11 buses which terminate at St Annes Square will be extended to allow passengers to reach Pleasure Island and other attractions on the seafront. On Mondays to Saturdays line 11 will now operate a new service via Beach Road, South Promenade, Hornby Road to Clifton Drive. Buses will also pick up northbound passengers before terminating outside the Admiral Pub on Clifton Drive.
There is a slight change to the timetable - buses southbound will depart 1 minute earlier at the Farmers Arms on Mondays to Saturdays.
On Sundays and Bank Holidays the line 11's which terminate at St Annes Square will not operate via Pleasure Island.

Western Train making good progress

With the help of £278,000 of support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the rebuilding of the illuminated tram based upon a Wild West Train is making excellent progress.
The locomotive body has been dismantled and the bodyframe transferred to a new but exact replica chassis – the original 1935 chassis was too corroded to be retained.
Correct bogies have been sourced for the loco unit to replace the modern bogies it had been fitted with in 1986.
Work is now progressing on creating exact copies of the locos chimney, domes and driving wheels using weatherproof aluminium sheet rather the original hardboard.
Meanwhile the carriage unit has had its chassis patched up (being in quite good position) and the body has been refloored and is now having its panelling restored. The project is still on track for completion in Spring 2009.
You can see pictures of the restoration and read more by going to the

Buses instead of trams this winter

From Monday November 5th, Metro Coastlines Line 1 will run all the way to Fleetwood and for the first time is equipped with easy-access low floor buses.
Because of massive track relaying projects this winter, the world famous tramway will close after Sunday 4th November and will re-open at Easter.
So that customers are not left without transport, the orange and yellow doubledeckers of Line 1 will run through from Starr Gate to Fleetwood instead.
The timetables will be completely different but there will be the same very early morning start and late night finish, and the buses will run every 20 minutes during the day, every 30 minutes in the evening, just like the trams.

The tramway runs partly on reserved track that cuts disgonally across the road network between Rossall and Fleetwood and that means the buses cannot get as close to some traditional tram stops as we would like. However we are working closely with Lancashire County Council to try and reposition bus stops in difficult areas.

Our trams were mainly built in the 1930s, long before disabled access became a concern and that means some people find the tram steps are too high. So we are very pleased that the replacement bus service this winter is going to be mainly worked by wheelchair accessible, super-low-floor buses. And we pledge to run Line 1 with low floor buses as much as possible in the future - indeed we intend this extension to Fleetwood to operate all year round from now on.

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