Stagecoach in Lincolnshire

Infobox Bus transit
name = Stagecoach Lincolnshire

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parent = Stagecoach Group
founded = 2005
headquarters = Lincoln
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service_area = Lincoln, Scunthorpe, Skegness, Newark-on-Trent, Louth and Grimsby
service_type = bus service
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operator = Lincolnshire RoadCar
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website = [http://www.stagecoachbus.com/lincolnshire/ www.stagecoachbus.com]

Stagecoach Lincolnshire is a bus company, formerly known as Lincolnshire RoadCar, which runs services throughout Lincolnshire.

Stagecoach in Lincolnshire is the trading name of the Lincolnshire RoadCar Company Limited, which is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, and part of its East Midlands division.

Its main hub is Lincoln but it also has depots in Scunthorpe, Skegness, Newark-on-Trent (Nottinghamshire), Louth and Grimsby. The company also had a depot in Grantham until 2004 when it was sold to MASS Transit of North Anston, Sheffield. The company's original Grimsby depot was closed in 2006 and merged with the existing Stagecoach Grimsby-Cleethorpes depot, which is controlled from the divisional headquarters in Lincoln.

ervices

They use 3 systems in their services:

*The unbranded services which run between urban and rural areas. These are generally run using older vehicles in the plain green, yellow and white colour scheme of RoadCar.
*Just Go (Lincoln), the (Scunthorpe) Shuttle, Into Town (Gainsborough) and Superbuzz (other towns), are all similar, high frequency, services which aim to get people through urban areas comfortably and fast using economic fuel. The vehicles used are mostly single-decker, with low-floor access and priority seats for the elderly, disabled and mothers with prams.

* InterConnect buses which run cross-county services between the larger towns and cities and along the Lincolnshire coast, operated by Stagecoach for Lincolnshire County Council. These are double-decker buses (with the exception of service 100) and the vehicles generally have low-floor access and are specially branded for the services. Services branded as InterConnect are:
** Connect 1 between Lincoln and Grantham operated by Alexander Dennis Enviro400
** Connect 3 between Lincoln and Grimsby via Market Rasen operated by Volvo B7TL/ELC Vyking
** Connect 6 between Lincoln and Skegness operated by Volvo B7TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini
** Connect 7 between Skegness and Boston operated by Volvo B7TL/ELC Vyking
** Connect 9 between Skegness and Mablethorpe operated by Volvo B7TL/ELC Vyking
** Connect 51 between Louth and Grimsby operated by Volvo B7TL/ELC Vyking
** Connect 100 between Lincoln and Scunthorpe via Gainsborough operated by MAN 18.220/Alexander ALX300InterConnect services 5 (Lincoln - Spalding) and 505 (Spalding - King's Lynn) are not operated by Stagecoach.

History

Lincolnshire RoadCar was formed in 1928. Under the 1968 Transport Act it became part of the National Bus Company. When the Transport Act of 1985 deregulated bus services, the National Bus Company was broken up and RoadCar was acquired by the Yorkshire Traction Group in 1988.

RoadCar became a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group in December 2005, when that company purchased RoadCar's parent company, Traction Group. Despite fears that rural and low yield services may be withdrawn, Stagecoach has insisted it would not cut services in the county due to their popularity. The company now trades as Stagecoach in Lincolnshire.

From March 2006, Stagecoach issued new buses to the company, in a bid to improve services, gradually phasing out the older of RoadCar's buses. The new vehicles had a temporary RoadCar logo stuck to 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 KJB (Nottingham) Ltd of Swinderby.

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.

Plans for the Future

Stagecoach's plans in Lincolnshire include further additions to its fleet including more products from the Alexander Dennis's Enviro range and the repainting of existing vehicles that are in the RoadCar colours, which is well underway. Stagecoach also intend to replace the elderly Almex ticket machines shortly, and have plans for contactless smart card technology, however it is unsure as to when this will come into effect.

External links

* [http://www.stagecoachbus.com/lincolnshire/ Lincolnshire section of Stagecoach website]
* [http://www.stagecoachbus.com/uploads/1April2007.xls Stagecoach's Lincolnshire Fleetlist (1 April 2007)]
* [http://www.lincsinterconnect.com/ Lincs InterConnect website]