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 Alexander Dennis Enviro400 in Lincoln in 2008 | |
| Parent | Stagecoach Group |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2005; 20 years ago (2005) |
| Headquarters | Lincoln |
| Service area | |
| Service type | Bus |
| Depots | 5 |
| Website | www.stagecoachbus.com |
Stagecoach in Lincolnshire is a bus company, formerly known asLincolnshire RoadCar, operating services throughoutLincolnshire. The company is a division ofStagecoach East Midlands, which is a subsidiary of theStagecoach Group.
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The Lincolnshire Road Car Company was formed in 1928 after being renamed from the Lincoln-based Silver Queen Motor Omnibus Company, which was first formed in 1922 and initially ran services toGrantham andLouth. Lincolnshire Road Car had acquired a number of independent operators before joining theTilling Group in 1929, then going on to acquire the Lincolnshire operations ofUnited Automobile Services in 1931.[1][2] Under theTransport Act 1968 Lincolnshire Road Car, by then a part of the state-ownedTransport Holding Company, became part of theNational Bus Company.[3]
The company ran services from throughout the county of Lincolnshire including some services over the county boundaries to such towns asNewark-on-Trent andRetford inNottinghamshire as well asKingston upon Hull andGoole in theEast Riding of Yorkshire. Many rural services ran from Lincoln's St. Marks Bus Station to the outlying villages surrounding the city. Although these services ran within the city boundary, passengers were not allowed to use them for internal journeys within the city. Bus services within the city of Lincoln were provided by Lincoln City (Corporation) Transport. Lincolnshire Road Car not only provided long-distance services within the county but also town services within many towns in the county, such asLouth andSleaford.
When theTransport Act 1985 deregulated bus services, the National Bus Company was broken up and Lincolnshire Road Car was acquired by theYorkshire Traction Group in 1988.[4] Prior to this, the company began painting their fleet green and yellow and used fleetnames simply reading 'RoadCar'.[5] A hire coach operation named 'Coachlink' was also founded under Traction Group ownership, however it would be dissolved by March 2004 due to the business becoming financially unviable.[6]
Upon deregulation, passengers were also permitted to use RoadCar services for journeys wholly within the city of Lincoln and RoadCar and city buses started competing on many routes in Lincoln and around the surrounding villages, the city buses leaving the confines of the city for rural routes for the first time. Lincolnshire RoadCar took over Lincoln City Transport in 1993 after the company incurred losses from competing with RoadCar and had amanagement buyout offer rejected.[7][8]
In 1988, RoadCar acquired the business ofNewark-on-Trent independent company W. Gash & Sons. Initially, the company was operated as a separate entity from RoadCar, but in 1989, both companies merged after inspections found the Gash fleet to be mechanically deficient, which saw thetraffic commissioner strip Gash of its operating license.[9]
RoadCar introduced its firstlow floor buses onSkegness town services in late 1997. These weresingle-deck buses branded as "Super Buzz", adopting a yellow, red and blue striped livery that featured a stylisedbee graphic.[10][11] Roadcar later expanded its low-floor fleet from February 1999 through being a founder operator of theLincolnshire County Council administeredLincolnshire InterConnect rural bus network; RoadCar introduced three "Lo-Liner" branded single-deck buses on service 6 between Lincoln and Skegness, which originally ran alongsidehigh-floor "Hi-Liner"double-decker buses.[12][13]
In 2001, RoadCar introduced their first low floor double deckers. These buses originally ran alongside the existing Hi and Lo-Liners on their Connect 6 route before they were fully replaced by these new buses a year later. These low floor double deckers were later be introduced on their "Super Buzz" branded routes in 2004, which by then the brand was already introduced across the Lincoln, Newark, Grimsby and Scunthorpe Town Service routes.[citation needed]
RoadCar became a subsidiary of theStagecoach Group in December 2005 following the group's purchase of the Traction Group.[14][15] In September 2006, RoadCar was rebranded as Stagecoach in Lincolnshire, becoming part of an enlargedStagecoach East Midlands subdivision that moved its headquarters fromChesterfield to Lincoln.[16]
From March 2006, Stagecoach purchased new buses for the company, among them four Alexander Dennis Darts and five MAN 18.220/Alexander Dennis ALX300s for the Gainsborough area, in a bid to improve services, gradually phasing out the oldest of RoadCar's buses. The new vehicles temporarily featured RoadCar logos in the front and side windows, and buses from other Stagecoach areas were seen in the area during the transition. The existing fleet then had their RoadCar logos removed.
At the beginning of August 2006, Stagecoach caused considerable controversy[citation needed] with their decision to make major changes to the bus network in Lincoln. Some services were withdrawn without replacement while others benefited from frequency increases. Following a local media campaign, the company agreed to make some changes to return services to those areas which had lost them. At the same time, the company also lost a majority of its service work in Nottinghamshire toVeolia Transport's subsidiaryDunn-Line and local company KJB.
In Autumn 2007 Stagecoach announced the withdrawal of some services in Louth, Lincoln and Gainsborough. The threatened services survived after successful negotiations with thedistrict councils over subsidies. In August 2008, however, the company's depot in Louth was closed, with some routes being taken over by Skegness and Grimsby depots and a number of contracted routes surrendered.[17] A new depot in Skegness was later opened by Stagecoach in September 2009, costing £2.2 million to construct.[18]
Stagecoach first introduced the 'Simplibus' network concept to Lincoln in February 2017, the third such network to be launched in Stagecoach East Midlands. A £3 million investment into the city's bus services saw ten new single-deck buses enter service on a numerically renumbered route network. This development coincided with the opening of Lincoln's new bus station in January.[19] A year later in Scunthorpe, Stagecoach entered a partnership with local independent bus company Hornsbys andNorth Lincolnshire Council as part of a Quality Bus Partnership, creating 'Simplibus North Lincolnshire'. This Simplibus network was launched with a joint remuneration of Stagecoach and Hornsbys bus services around Scunthorpe andBrigg and surrounding areas into numerical order, a circular route created in Scunthorpe, and buses being branded with Simplibus logos across both fleets.[20]
Stagecoach in Lincolnshire is the main operator of the 'InterConnect' service, a network of rural and interurban bus services around the county. Bus services operate to urban destinations such asLincoln,Gainsborough,Skegness andScunthorpe via the rural communities in between. Buses are painted in a purple livery based on the previous Stagecoach livery. The service is also jointly operated by Brylaine Travel.
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Stagecoach operates a number of 'Seasider' brandedopen top buses on both theSkegness andCleethorpes seafronts.
In the RoadCar era, open-top Roadcar buses in Skegness were originally branded as 'The Open Topper', and consisted of various Leyland buses, before being replaced by MCW Metrobuses in 2004. Originally, the buses wore a livery of white, yellow and blue, similar in design to RoadCar's standard fleet livery, but in 1997, the open top livery was changed to yellow, red and blue.[citation needed]
After Lincolnshire RoadCar came under Stagecoach ownership, the open-top services were rebranded in 2007 as the 'Coastal Cruiser', with buses receiving a new livery as a result of this rebrand, however a few closed-top MCW Metrobuses also received this Coastal Cruiser livery. In 2010, the MCW Metrobuses were replaced byAlexander ALX400 bodiedDennis Trident 2 buses. The service was relaunched in April 2014 as the 'Skegness Seasider', with sixAlexander ALX400 bodiedDennis Trident 2 buses refurbished in colourful liveries and named 'Rocky', 'Candy', 'Pierre', 'Shelly', 'Sandy' and 'Salty'.[21][22] TwoWright Eclipse Gemini bodiedVolvo B7TL buses named 'Rolly' and 'Milly' joined the fleet in 2015. In 2016, 'Rocky' was replaced by an open topAlexander Dennis Enviro400, coinciding with the introduction of the Cleethorpes Seasiders: two Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TLs named 'Lolly' and 'Splash'.[citation needed]
Three more Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Trident 2 buses named 'Teddy', 'Sunny' and 'Sweetie' were added to the fleet in 2018,[23] followed by a twelfth bus named Scoop in March 2022.[24] The Skegness Seasider buses were replaced for the 2024 season with twelveAlexander Dennis Enviro400Hhybrid electric buses transferred fromStagecoach Manchester, with two of the Seasiders, Milly and Pierre becoming closed top buses to allow them to run in the winter season as well as the summer season.[25]
The ThreeFifty is a half-hourly cross-river bus service over theRiver Humber that connects Scunthorpe andKingston upon Hull via theHumber Bridge andBarton-upon-Humber. The service was first operated as 'Humberlink' service 350 by both Lincolnshire RoadCar andEast Yorkshire asNational Bus Company subsidiaries, commencing operations on 24 June 1981 following the opening of the Humber Bridge and replacing the pre-existingHumber Ferry.[26][27] The service was also operated by local independents Applebys ofConisholme and Hornsbys of Scunthorpe on Sundays.[citation needed]
The ThreeFifty was relaunched as the 'Humber FastCat' by Stagecoach in Lincolnshire in 2009, receiving an investment of six branded single-deckers, each of which carried a name on a special orange livery. The service was also launched as a joint operation withEast Yorkshire, who operate a single bus independent of the Stagecoach fleet.[28] The FastCat brand was later refreshed in 2014, in conjunction with the introduction of the sister 'Humber Flyer' service atStagecoach Grimsby-Cleethorpes.[22] Stagecoach later invested in a £1 million fleet of six newAlexander Dennis Enviro200 MMCs for the service in 2017, featuring USB charging and leather seating.[29]
The service was rebranded to 'ThreeFifty' during the summer of 2023, with the 'Humber FastCat' Enviro200 MMCs being repainted into a revised orange livery.[30]
On 11 April 2004, aVolvo B7TL double-decker bus withEast Lancs Vyking bodywork operated by Lincolnshire RoadCar collided with a number of pedestrians outside the main entrance toFantasy Islandamusement park on Sea Lane inIngoldmells. Five pedestrians were killed and six more injured, two critically, in the accident.[31][32] Following the accident, RoadCar were found guilty of breaching safety provisions for allowing the driver to operate the vehicle type without proper training and for operating a vehicle with faulty brakes; as a result, they were fined £2,000 at Skegness Magistrates Court on 8 August 2005.[33] The bus driver was found guilty of five counts ofcausing death by dangerous driving and a single count ofdriving without due care and attention, and was sentenced to five years of imprisonment on 9 November 2005.[citation needed]
Bus operators inYorkshire and the Humber | ||
|---|---|---|
| East Riding of Yorkshire |  | |
| Northern Lincolnshire | ||
| North Yorkshire | ||
| South Yorkshire (PTE) | ||
| West Yorkshire (PTE) | ||
| National | ||
