The A592 between Bowness in Windermere and Newby Bridge in Cumbria is subject to a long term closure.
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| The south bound shuttle service starts at Windermere Railway Station |
As
a result a free mini-bus bus service has been put in place between
Windermere and Newby Bridge using a series of minor roads. The service,
which takes 46 minutes, is being operated by Stagecoach using a fleet of Mercedes mini-buses.
I sampled the service on the 4th
March catching the 12.56 from Windermere Railway Station. The route
initially follows the A592 south to Bowness, traffic was reasonably
quiet so we were able to pause for time at the steamer pier at Bowness for a
minute or so before proceeding again at 13.06 along the A592. The bus
travels as far as the actual works being carried out before turning around and
heading north again until a right turn is made onto a minor road which
climbs away from the lake.
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| The route passes the point at which the road is closed to normal traffic |
From here a series of minor roads are used to bypass the road closure, the route becoming very scenic as the bus climbs up and over the minor roads. Eventually views of the southern part of lake Windermere are apparent as the route drops down and regains access to the A592.
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| The roads are definitely more suited to mini-bus operation |
We reached the terminus of the service at
13.45 a couple of minutes late but with plenty of time for the mini-bus
to turn around and wait for the X6 Barrow to Kendal service with which
it is timed to meet. The Kendal bound X6 arrived a few minutes late at 14.13 and I
took the opportunity to hop on board in order to return to Kendal.
The
free service is certainly worth trying, allowing passengers to travel
on picturesque roads which don't normally have bus services running on
them. It hasn't really been advertised as tourist service due to lack of
capacity on the mini-buses, but it is there for anyone to use and comes
highly recommended.
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| Views of the southern part of lake Windermere |
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| The terminus at Newby Bridge. |
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| The shuttle service connects with the Barrow / Kendal X6 Scania - ADLEnviro 400 PX61 CVK is operating on the Barrow bound service. |
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