Lynx,Coastal Red Limited
Companies House extract the trading name of 'Coastal Red Ltd', is an independent bus company based in King's Lynn and operating services across west and north

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and eastern

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

History

Coastal Red was founded by Stephen Challis and Andrew Warnes in 2013. The pair (along with Julian Patterson) had previously established Konectbus in 1999 before selling it to the

Go-Ahead Group The Go-Ahead Group plc is a passenger transport company based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore, Norway and Germany. Formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange, in 2022 it was purchased ...

in March 2010. Having considered construction and engineering, the idea of a new bus operation formally began in spring 2014. Julian Patterson would come aboard later that year upon leaving Go-Ahead.Second time around for former Konectbus team
''Bus & Coach Buyer'' 11 February 2015 Operations commenced for Lynx on 6 January 2015, with a school contract between Southery and

Downham Market Academy Downham Market Academy (formerly Downham Market High School) is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, situated in Downham Market, Norfolk, England. The academy was launched on 1 July 2013, sponsored by the CWA A ...

. On 26 January 2015, their first public bus service began, operating hourly between King's Lynn to Hunstanton, seven days a week. Lynx expanded its network of routes with the takeover three Council-subsidised bus services from Stagecoach in Norfolk in September 2017, followed by a further eight former Stagecoach routes from 29 April 2018, after Stagecoach closed their King's Lynn depot. Among the services taken on following Stagecoach's withdrawal from the area was the western half of the popular and well established ''Coasthopper'' service between King's Lynn and

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is north of Norwich, north-northeast of London and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local government authorities are Nor ...

."All change in King's Lynn as Stagecoach vacates the town" '' Coach & Bus Week'' issue 1340 1 May 2018 page 11 Lynx took over operation of the King's Lynn to

Wells-next-the-Sea Wells-next-the-Sea is a port town on the north coast of Norfolk, England. The civil parish has an area of and in 2001 had a population of 2,451,Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001). Census population and household c ...

section of this route, rebranded it as ''Coastliner 36'' and extended the service inland from Wells to

Fakenham Fakenham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is situated on the River Wensum, about north west of Norwich. The town is the junction of several local roads, including the A148 from King's Lynn to Cromer, the A1067 to Norw ...

. A further three services were taken over from Stagecoach in September 2018. During 2019, Lynx funded a 'comprehensive' refurbishment/renewing of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn bus shelters, and a next bus information screen was provided by Norfolk County Council. A brand new, thoroughly redesigned website (powered by the 'BusHub Mobility Platform') launched in December 2019, including a live bus tracker, fare calculator and journey planner, with an

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

& Android app following shortly afterwards in January 2020

Fleet

Lynx commenced operations with a fleet of four single-decker

Optare Tempo The Optare Tempo is an integral low-floor, full-size rigid single-deck bus manufactured by Optare and was launched in late 2004. It is marketed and sold as the replacement for the Optare Excel. It is designed as a lightweight bus, to use less ...

s, including an experimental prototype purchased directly from Optare. It has standardised on the type and by April 2018 it was operating the largest fleet of Tempos in the United Kingdom with 26. Since September 2016, Lynx has also operated double-deckers including

Optare Spectra The Optare Spectra was a double-decker bus body built on the DAF (now VDL) DB250 chassis between 1991 and 2006. The vehicle was developed as a joint project between Optare and DAF; it was based on the designs of the successful MCW Metrobus, ...

and

Wright Pulsar Gemini The Wright Pulsar Gemini was a design of double-decker bus bodywork built onto VDL DB250LF chassis by Wrightbus between 2003 and 2006. It was visually almost identical to the Wright Eclipse Gemini that was mounted on the Volvo B7TL and later ...

bodied DAF DB250LFs and

Leyland Olympian The Leyland Olympian was a 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1980 and 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production. Construction The Olympian had the same chassis and running gear as t ...

s. Two new, bespoke Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMCs arrived in spring 2021 for added capacity on the Coastliner route. Lynx own a

Leyland National The Leyland National is an integrally-constructed United Kingdom, British high-floor, step-floor single-decker bus manufactured in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industri ...

, which is operated as a heritage bus in a semi-preserved state, painted in Lynx's standard red livery. Delivered new to Hants & Dorset in November 1977, it has been used in passenger service several times to mark special occasions, as well as attending industry and promotional events and bus enthusiasts' rallies. As of winter 2019/20 it is stored out of service. Buses are painted in

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...

'Mars Red' - chosen to stand out against other bus operators in the area and as a nod to the 'Poppy Red' of National Bus Company days.

References

External links

Company website
{{Bus companies in East England Bus operators in Cambridgeshire Bus operators in Norfolk Transport companies established in 2015 2015 establishments in England