Lincolnshire InterConnect is a

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

network in the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

in the east of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. A number of ''InterConnect''-branded

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...

bus routes with fixed

timetables A schedule or a timetable, as a basic time-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of a sequence of events in the chronological order in which such things are i ...

are complemented by demand-responsive, flexible ''CallConnect''

minibus A minibus, microbus, minicoach, or commuter (in Zimbabwe) is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, th ...

es, on which journeys must be booked in advance. Many of the InterConnect services are provided by

Stagecoach in Lincolnshire 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 Road Car Company Limited, which is a subsidiary of ...

; CallConnect services are run by a variety of operators including TransportConnect Ltd who are a wholly owned company of Lincolnshire County Council. InterConnect was first established in 1999, when the existing RoadCar "Connect 6"

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln ...

–

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, i ...

bus (introduced in 1998 as part of Route 6's rebrand) was rebranded and its service frequency increased. CallConnect was established in 2001. The network and its services are subsidised by

Lincolnshire County Council Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. Some services were scaled back in 2011–2012, following cuts to local government funding, and reductions in the Bus Service Operators Grant fuel duty subsidy.

List of InterConnect routes

Current routes

The various models of

double-decker bus A double-decker bus or double-deck bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. They are used for mass transport in the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and also in cities such as Sydney; the best-known example is the ...

used by Stagecoach in Lincolnshire for its InterConnect services are painted in a special purple-and-gold

livery A livery is an identifying design, such as a uniform, ornament, symbol or insignia that designates ownership or affiliation, often found on an individual or vehicle. Livery will often have elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or ...

which is different from the standard Stagecoach colour scheme. Some buses have route-specific numbered branding, in particular the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

InterConnect 6 service, and a "Coastal Connect" brand used on the routes serving towns and villages on the

Lincolnshire coast The coast of Lincolnshire runs for more than down the North Sea coast of eastern England, from the estuary of the Humber (which divides it from East Yorkshire) to the marshlands of the Wash, where it meets Norfolk. This stretch of coastline has lo ...

. Buses from the other InterConnect operators tend to carry that operator's standard paint scheme. All the InterConnect branded bus routes have hourly services throughout the day Monday to Saturday (with the exception of Interconnect 505; that runs up to every 20 minutes) with some services running on Sundays and Bank Holidays too (but on a reduced timetable).

Former routes

CallConnect services

There are two kinds of CallConnect services – entirely demand-responsive 'dial-a-ride' services which serve an area with no fixed route or timetable, and semi-flexible services which run to a timetable but which deviate off the route to serve smaller villages. Journeys on CallConnect must be booked in advance over the telephone or online. CallConnect buses are designed to meet the fixed InterConnect services at designated 'interchange' points in the larger towns and villages. Through ticketing is available between some InterConnect routes and CallConnect services, and vice versa. Through ticketing is also available between CallConnect buses in the

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Centred on the former parish of New Sleaford, the modern boundaries and urban area include Quarrington, Lincolnshire, ...

Metheringham Metheringham is an English village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 3,605. It is about south of the city and county town of Lincoln and north of Sleafor ...

area, and

East Midlands Trains East Midlands Trains (EMT) was a British train operating company owned by the transport group Stagecoach, which operated the East Midlands franchise between November 2007 and August 2019. Following the Department for Transport (DfT) award ...

rail services from

and

Metheringham railway station Metheringham railway station serves the village of Metheringham in Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the Peterborough–Lincoln line. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Railway, which provides all its rail services. Hist ...

s on the

Peterborough to Lincoln Line Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

. In 2011, Lincolnshire County Council reported a 23.5% increase in usage of CallConnect compared to the previous year.Louth Target (2012) ''Lincolnshire's CallConnect bus usage increases by 23.5 per cent'', 21 January. Available from

ccessed 20 February 2012/ref>

CallConnect areas

CallConnect services operate in 14 named areas across Lincolnshire (and extending into neighbouring counties) – only the city of Lincoln and its nearby villages, and the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

North East Lincolnshire North East Lincolnshire is a Unitary authority area with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. It borders the borough of North Lincolnshire and districts of West Lindsey and East Lindsey. The population of the district in the 2011 Census was ...

are not covered by CallConnect. The areas covered are:

Semi-flexible CallConnect services

External links

More up to date information

Lincolnshire InterConnect website

CallConnect online journey booking form

InterConnect Network Guide

Lincsbus: public transport information for Lincolnshire

''InterConnect Flexible Bus Services'' : Department for Transport leaflet (2003)

''Making connections in Lincs'' : Bus and Coach Magazine (2006)

CJ Conversions LTD - builders of the Call Connect vehicles

References

{{reflist Transport in Lincolnshire