Late last summer, DAVID JENKINS explored parts of the InterConnect network in Lincolnshire, built up from early 1999 as complementary rural and interurban services, and found how much it has changed in style and substance over its first 20 years
Lincolnshire's InterConnect network is 21 years old. At its purest, it provides links between the major towns at increased frequencies, with guaranteed connections at selected interchanges, some to local routes using smaller buses.
It saw some impressive growth figures, with a 30% increase in passengers between Lincoln and Skegness enabling the service to go commercial after just two years.
It has shifted shape and function several times, with connections having suffered greatly as local authority funding has reduced. The local routes that do survive — CallConnect — are often partially demand responsive and are provided directly by Lincolnshire County Council-owned Transport Connect.
The interurban network these days is provided mostly by Stagecoach, in the main by its East Midlands subsidiary (still legally Lincolnshire Road Car Company) — and now including the former Norfolk Green route 505 between King’s Lynn and Spalding — leaving Stagecoach East’s sole …
