Lincolnshire InterConnect

Lincolnshire InterConnect is a rural bus network in the county of Lincolnshire in the east of England.

A number of InterConnect-branded interurban bus routes with fixed timetables are complemented by demand-responsive, flexible CallConnect minibuses, on which journeys must be booked in advance. Many of the InterConnect services are provided by Stagecoach in Lincolnshire; 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 Lincolnshire RoadCar "Connect 6" Lincoln–Skegness 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 and Norfolk County Council. Some services were scaled back between 2011 and 2012, following cuts to local government funding and reductions in the Bus Service Operators Grant fuel duty subsidy.

List of InterConnect routes

Current routes

Route name	Map colour	Destinations	Route variants	Operator	Date introduced	Does it run on Sundays and Bank Holidays?
InterConnect 1	Orange	Lincoln–Grantham	—	Stagecoach in Lincolnshire	November 2002	Yes, every two hours between Lincoln and Grantham and hourly between Lincoln and Waddington.
InterConnect B5	Red	Lincoln–Woodhall Spa–Boston	B5X	Brylaine Travel	July 2002	No
InterConnect 37	Unlisted	Spalding–Peterborough	—	Stagecoach in Peterborough	May 2010	Yes, 5 times each way.
InterConnect 51	Unlisted	Lincoln-Louth-Mablethorpe	51B	Stagecoach in Lincolnshire	April 2006	No
InterConnect 53	Green	Lincoln–Market Rasen / Market Rasen–Grimsby	53a; 53b	Stagecoach in Lincolnshire	February 2004	No
InterConnect 56	Yellow	Lincoln–Horncastle / Horncastle–Skegness	—	Stagecoach in Lincolnshire	February 1999	Yes, every two hours.
InterConnect 57/B7	Hot Pink	Skegness–Boston	X57	Stagecoach in Lincolnshire / Brylaine Travel	March 2005	No
InterConnect 59	Purple	Skegness–Mablethorpe / Mablethorpe–Louth	—	Stagecoach in Lincolnshire	March 2005	Yes, every hour during the summer season only.
InterConnect 100	Light Blue	Lincoln–Gainsborough / Gainsborough–Scunthorpe	101	Stagecoach in Lincolnshire	April 2006	No
InterConnect 505	Blue-green	Spalding–King's Lynn	—	Stagecoach in Lincolnshire	February 2002	Yes, every hour.

The various models of double and single-decker buses used by Stagecoach in Lincolnshire for its InterConnect services are painted in a special purple livery with the strapline "Connecting people with places" and the logos of the network's council partners also applied. Before the network was rebranded in 2023, buses formerly had a version of the previous Stagecoach livery in purple-and-gold branding, with some buses featuring route-specific numbered branding, in particular the flagship InterConnect 6 service, and a "Coastal Connect" brand used on the routes serving towns and villages on the Lincolnshire coast. Buses from the other InterConnect operators tend to carry that operator's standard paint scheme.

Former routes

Route name	Destinations	Operator	Date introduced	Date removed
InterConnect 5	Boston–Spalding	Brylaine Travel	July 2001	Route Rebranded to B3 (not to be mistaken as the Lincoln to Newark route). The route is the same.
InterConnect 18 (Rail Link)	Lincoln–Sleaford–Spalding–Peterborough	East Midlands Trains	April 2011	?
InterConnect X3	Lincoln–Newark	Stagecoach in Lincolnshire	June 2010	April 2011
InterConnect 3	Lincoln–Cleethorpes	Stagecoach in Lincolnshire	February 2004	2016
InterConnect 6x	Lincoln–Skegness (the quick way)	Stagecoach in Lincolnshire	July 2012	2014

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 on a mobile app, or on the CallConnect website or over the telephone in areas not served by the app. Fares are calculated in six radial 'zones' based from the pick-up point of the journey.

In 2011, Lincolnshire County Council reported a 23.5% increase in usage of CallConnect compared to the previous year.

CallConnect areas

CallConnect services operate in 14 named areas across Lincolnshire, including the north side of the city of Lincoln and its nearby villages, and extending into neighbouring counties) – only the remainder of Lincoln and the surrounding area, as well as the unitary authority of North East Lincolnshire, are not covered by CallConnect. The areas covered are:

Route number	Area covered	Operator	Date introduced
7B	Boston	TransportConnect	April 2011
15B	Bourne	Kier	July 2008
53C	Brigg, Caistor and Ridge	PC Coaches	February 2016
100G	Gainsborough	Kier	April 2006
1G/1K	Grantham, Newark & Kesteven	TransportConnect	November 2002 (1G) July 2008 (1K)
5C/6H	Horncastle, Coningsby & Woodhall Spa	Kier	April 2001 (6H) July 2002 (5C)
505H/505L	Holbeach & Long Sutton	TransportConnect	February 2002
51E/51N/51S	Louth	Kier / TC Minicoaches	March 2004 (51N) February 2005 (51S) July 2008 (51E)
9M	Mablethorpe & Alford	Kier	March 2005
3C/3M	Market Rasen & Caistor	TC Minicoaches	February 2004
18M/18S	Metheringham & Sleaford	Kier	April 2008
4P/4R/4S	Peterborough, Rutland, Stamford & the Welland Vales	TransportConnect	September 2009 (4S) April 2010 (4P) July 2010 (4R)
9S	Skegness	Kier	April 2011
16S	Spalding	Kier	March 2009
6S/7W	Spilsby & Wainfleet	TC Minicoaches	April 2001 (6S) February 2005 (7W)

Timetabled CallConnect services

Route number	Destinations	Operator	Date introduced	Timetable link
3L/3X	Louth–Binbrook–Market Rasen	TC Minicoaches	May 2011
6C	Horncastle–Louth	Kier	April 2001
51M	Louth–Manby	Kier	?
65/65A	Sleaford–Woodhall Spa–Horncastle	Kier / Sleafordian Coaches	?	3 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
635	Sleaford-Cranwell	Kier	April 2013
H1	Horncastle town service	Kier	?