Lincolnshire Road Car Company

Preserved Lincolnshire Road Car Company ECW bodied Bristol Lodekka in Lincoln in April 2006

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 to Grantham and Louth. Lincolnshire Road Car had acquired a number of independent operators before joining the Tilling Group in 1929, then going on to acquire the Lincolnshire operations of United Automobile Services in 1931.^[1][2] Under the Transport Act 1968 Lincolnshire Road Car, by then a part of the state-owned Transport Holding Company, became part of the National Bus Company.^[3]

The company ran services from throughout the county of Lincolnshire including some services over the county boundaries to such towns as Newark-on-Trent and Retford in Nottinghamshire as well as Kingston upon Hull in the East 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 as Louth and Sleaford.

RoadCar Alexander bodied Leyland Olympian in Grimsby in September 2005

When the Transport Act 1985 deregulated bus services, the National Bus Company was broken up and Lincolnshire Road Car was acquired by the Yorkshire Traction Group in 1988.^[4] Prior to this, the company began painting their fleet green and yellow and used fleetnames simply reading 'RoadCar'.^[5] 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 a management buyout offer rejected.^[6][7]

In 1988, Lincolnshire RoadCar acquired the business of Newark-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 the traffic commissioner strip Gash of its operating license.^[8]

Stagecoach ownership

RoadCar became a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group in December 2005 following the group's purchase of the Traction Group.^[9][10] RoadCar was subsequently rebranded as Stagecoach in Lincolnshire.

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 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 to Veolia Transport's subsidiary Dunn-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 the district councils over subsidies.

In August 2008, 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.^[11]

The company opened their brand new depot in Skegness in September 2009. It is located on Burgh Road and cost £2.2 million.^[12]

InterConnect

An InterConnect Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC departing Scunthorpe bus station in October 2019

Stagecoach in Lincolnshire are 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 as Lincoln, Gainsborough, Skegness and Scunthorpe 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.

Simplibus networks

In Lincoln, Stagecoach first introduced the Simplibus network 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.^[13]

In Scunthorpe, Stagecoach entered a partnership with local independent bus company Hornsbys and North Lincolnshire Council as part of a Quality Bus Partnership in October 2018. This saw the creation of 'Simplibus North Lincolnshire', which launched a joint remuneration of Stagecoach and Hornsbys bus services around Scunthorpe and Brigg and surrounding areas into numerical order, a circular route created in Scunthorpe, and buses branded with Simplibus logos across both fleets.^[14]

ThreeFifty

A ThreeFifty Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC on Anlaby Road, Kingston upon Hull in October 2023

The ThreeFifty is a half-hourly cross-river bus service over the River Humber that connects Scunthorpe and Kingston upon Hull via the Humber Bridge and Barton-upon-Humber. The service was first operated as 'Humberlink' service 350 by both Lincolnshire RoadCar and East Yorkshire as National Bus Company subsidiaries, commencing operations on 24 June 1981 following the opening of the Humber Bridge and replacing the pre-existing Humber Ferry.^[15][16]

The 350 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 with East Yorkshire, who operate a single bus independent of the Stagecoach fleet.^[17] The FastCat livery would later be refreshed in 2014, in conjunction with the introduction of the sister 'Humber Flyer' service at Stagecoach Grimsby-Cleethorpes.^[18] Stagecoach later invested in a £1 million fleet of six new Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMCs for the service in 2017, featuring USB charging and leather seating.^[19]

The service was rebranded to 'ThreeFifty' during the summer of 2023, with the 'Humber FastCat' Enviro200 MMCs being repainted into a revised orange livery.^[20]

Seasider open top buses

Stagecoach operates a number of open top buses on both the Skegness and Cleethorpes seafronts. Originally branded as the 'Coastal Cruiser', this service was relaunched in April 2014 as the 'Skegness Seasider', with six Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Trident 2 buses refurbished in colourful liveries and named Rocky, Candy, Pierre, Shelly, Sandy, Salty, Rolly and Milly respectively, with three more buses named Teddy, Sunny and Sweetie added to the fleet in 2018,^[21][22] followed by a twelfth bus named Scoop in March 2022.^[23] The Skegness Seasider buses are all to be replaced for the 2024 season with eleven Alexander Dennis Enviro400H hybrid electric buses transferred from Stagecoach Manchester.^[24]