Bus service between Preston and Southport returns to every half-an-hour

The X2 making its way through Preston city centre Pic: 70023venus2009

The bus link between Preston and Southport is being restored to a half-hourly service.

Lancashire County Council is putting extra funding into the X2 route.

It runs from the city through Tarleton, Southport, Formby and to Liverpool.

The X2 goes back to a half-hourly service on Monday to Saturdays, starting from Monday 2 September.

The service is operated by Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire.

It’s part of a number of services seeing timetable changes as further funding is unlocked by the county council for the government’s Bus Service Improvement Plan. £41.9million has been secured so far for Lancashire services.

Cabinet member for highways and transport, county councillor Rupert Swarbrick, said: “Thanks to the funding we have secured from the Department for Transport for our Bus Service Improvement Plan, there will be many improvements to services in Lancashire.

“One of our main aims is to encourage more people to use the bus by providing extra journeys at times that people find convenient.

“Enhanced daytime frequencies and later services are often helpful to people who use the bus to get to and from work, as well as being convenient for anyone going out for the evening or visiting friends and family.

“I’m also really pleased that we are working in partnership with our bus operators and neighbouring authorities to provide better links right across Lancashire and beyond so that more people have easy access to bus services.

“We’ve been working closely with operators to build passenger numbers with the aim of making these services sustainable over the long term.

“Our aim is to get more people using buses by making them a more attractive and convenient option, and the funding we’ve secured from HM Government for our Bus Service Improvement Plan gives us the chance to make some really significant improvements.”

The updated X2 timetable can be seen on the Stagecoach website.

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