A number of bus services will be free to use between now and Christmas to encourage Christmas shoppers to take the bus rather than a car as part of a pilot by Lancaster BID in partnership with Lancaster City Council and Lancaster Bus Users Group.

The pilot is part funded by Lancaster University’s Community Benefit Fund, a scheme that awards up to £20,000 a year to local communities across the Lancaster District to support sustainable and environmental community based projects.

Four services will benefit from the fund; The 7 - serving Vale and Skerton, the 10 - serving Freehold and Ridge & Bulk, the 11 – serving Fairfield, Abraham Heights and Marsh, and the 18 – serving Moorlands, Williamson Park, Wyredale Road, Stranden Gate & Quernmore Road.

The free services will be available to all passengers and will run every Sunday between the 28^th November and the 19^th December, with extended services for Thursday late night shopping hours from the 2^nd until the 23^rd December 2021.

The Sunday services will be the usual Stagecoach buses operating the usual Sunday timetable with Travellers’ Choice running the Thursday late night service, after the final Stagecoach buses have completed the usual timetable service. They will be operating on the usual bus routes for these services at the same minutes past each hour as the earlier Stagecoach buses.

The Community Benefit Fund was established as part of a project to install Lancaster University’s wind turbine, which currently generates around 15% of the University’s overall energy demand.

Each year, the fund awards £20,000 to local community projects and has recently awarded funding for 2021, its eighth round of funding. Details of the fund and its recently supported projects, and how to make an application can be found on Lancaster University’s website.

More details for both services will be posted on the Lancaster Business Improvement District (Lancaster BID) website.