Bomber County gets a much welcome new bus route

Saturday 1st August 2026

Continuing the theme of exploring new bus routes now regularly being added to Britain’s ever expanding bus network, this one is thanks to Lincolnshire’s BSIP/LABG funding.

It’s operated by family owned, Boston based, Brylaine and runs between Lincoln and Horncastle through rural Lincolnshire. It joins two other routes between the two locations via more direct routes.

Introduced on 6th July, route number B617 runs six return journeys a day on Mondays to Saturdays with an end to end journey time of 77 minutes making new connections available for villages which have been devoid of buses to Lincoln for many years.

The long established bus service between Lincoln and Horncastle is Stagecoach’s busy hourly route 56 which takes a direct trajectory along the A158 giving a 50 minute journey time with buses continuing east to Skegness. There’s also PC Coaches route 30 plying its way through various villages between the two locations with 5/6 return journeys on Mondays to Saturdays taking 65 minutes but it’s the new route B617 which takes a novel southerly trajectory thereby reconnecting Lincoln and Horncastle with Billinghay as well as new links from Coningsby and Woodhall Spa to Horncastle. Billinghay hasn’t had a regular bus service since 2016.

Brylaine also operates hourly route B5/5A between Lincoln and Boston on Mondays to Fridays which duplicates part of new route B617 although takes a slightly more circuitous route as shown in the below extract from the wonderful Bus Atlas website which mentions that PC Coaches operates the route on Saturdays as a 55 (at a reduced frequency). Bus Atlas hasn’t caught up with the new B617 yet but I’m sure will soon do so. As you can see, the B5/55 provides a link between Coningsby and Woodhall Spa to Lincoln which is now supplemented by the new B617 albeit via a different route.

I took a ride along the route from Lincoln to Horncastle a couple of Saturdays ago catching the 10:30 departure from the city’s relatively new bus station (opened in 2018). Aside from PC Coaches, Stagecoach buses dominate the local bus scene including hogging the departure bay (Stand G) from which the B617 departs.

However, the two other passengers waiting for the departure and myself realised what was happening as the bus pulled into the adjacent stand and we set off on time at 10:30.

Those two passengers had travelled into Lincoln on the incoming journey which reached the bus station at 10:07, done a quick bit of shopping and were ready for their return home less than 20 minutes later. They travelled to Walcott which prior to the new B617 appearing had just one return journey to Sleaford for shopping so they naturally seemed very pleased with this new bus service.

Two passengers joined us in Metheringham (22 minutes from Lincoln) with one travelling to Billinghay and the other to Coningsby (the former not being possible before the B617) and in the newly served Billinghay itself we picked up four passengers with three travelling together to Woodhall Spa and the fourth to Horncastle.

Three more joined in Coningsby travelling to Horncastle and another three boarded in Woodhall Spa for Horncastle. It was the first time I’d passed through Woodhall Spa and what a delightful place it looks – making a note to organise a return visit some time. Four passengers joined us here, travelling to Horncastle – yet more journeys not possible before the B617 came along and finally one more passenger boarded in Roughton Moor for Horncastle where we arrived with 12 passengers on board and a total number carried on the journey of 19 – an impressive number for a new bus route just two weeks old (when I travelled) and all the more so with passengers making journeys not possible before its introduction and obviously delighted with their new service.

The driver was also carrying out her duties well, explaining to a few passengers unfamiliar with the new arrangements what the times for return journeys are; the ticket prices; where to catch the bus back etc etc. It was all very encouraging to see.

The timetable comprises a roughly two hourly service with around six return journeys on Mondays to Saturdays utilising two buses. Interestingly there’s an 08:37 arrival into Lincoln on Saturdays but not until 09:17 on Mondays to Fridays although I see that journey has 10 extra minutes running time. Horncastle has an 08:20 arrival which calls at a couple of schools on Mondays to Fridays and is timed at 08:47 on Saturdays. Last journey back from Lincoln is 16:45 on Mondays to Fridays (16:30 on Saturdays) but from Horncastle it’s 15:54 (via the schools) and only as far as Billinghay.

Brylaine are using two Optare Versas on the route which offer a comfortable ride and, being ex Transdev Blazefield and having worked on the Leeds Bradford Airport Flyer routes, come equipped with extensive luggage storage provision at the front of the nearside as well as nice bright headrests for the seats. But it was the number of passengers using the route so early into its existence that I came away most impressed by as well as a very friendly driver.

Well done to Lincolnshire County Council and Brylaine for this initiative.

Oh; and that route number? It’s in recognition of the RAF’s No 617 Squadron famously known as the Dambusters which was based at RAF Woodhall Spa during the second half of the Second World War.

Roger French

Summer blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu

33 thoughts on “Bomber County gets a much welcome new bus route”

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  1. There’s an attractive timetable leaflet for the new B617 route but it is elusive and hard to find. It’s not carried on the buses nor is it available at Lincoln bus station.

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    1. There’s an attractive timetable leaflet for the new B617 route but it is elusive and hard to find. It’s not carried on the buses

      I picked one up on the bus, so it is being carried on at least some of the buses.

      My only niggle with the timetable is that while it specified the timing points at most stops (e.g. HORNCASTLE INTERCHANGE, as they show it), it shows the Lincoln terminus as just LINCOLN.
      Not Lincoln bus station, and definitely not Lincoln bus station stand G, just Lincoln.

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  2. Good to see a new route in Lincolnshire restoring lost links from years gone by. The route is initially funded for six months. Let’s hope that it is sufficiently used so that it can continue beyond then.

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    1. Let’s hope that it is sufficiently used

      I travelled on a mid-afternoon journey from Lincoln earlier this week. There were about a dozen on from Lincoln, some of whom could have used the B5 but chose the B617 instead, including a couple of families trying the bus out.

      Unfortunately being a hot afternoon the bus was like an absolute oven inside, which I suspect may not attract them back.

      Equally unfortunately we didn’t have the regular lady driver who has received plaudits elsewhere as well as on this blog. Our driver had passengers wanting the Bomber Command Centre but drove straight past it despite being aware the passengers didn’t know where it was, dropping them in Branston village instead, and later ignored the bell overcarrying another passenger. Given that much of the B617 route doesn’t have marked bus stops anymore, it would perhaps help if certain drivers were a little more attentive.

      The route certainly seems to have potential, and it already seems to have attracted users from the villages where until recently the only alternative was the Call Connect DRT, but whether it will survive beyond the end of funding is debatable. I suspect it will but on a reduced, potentially one vehicle, timetable.

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  3. Six months of funding will see it into the christmas period and the cold weather Lincolnshire sometimes gets. I assume Byline take on the independent role that Hudsons of Horncastle once had. I cannot see if the route gets connections for commuter times into Lincoln,but then a pre 1700 departure finish is also not much use for Woodhall Spa people.

    No reporting in the blog on roadside publicity is Lincolnshire better than other places for at least having stops etc sorted after a couple of weeks or so? How did the new users get to know about the route – Parish Council Meetings , Library Info or even the rare local or community newspapers or just seeing a nice red bus in the area ? Historic Lincoln city or road car green were nice colours but disappeared into the background of fields of peas and cabbages

    JBC Prestatyn

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      2. On the map should the 5 be 56 or the narrative 56 be 5 ?

        It’s currently the 56, but historically (for over 90 years) the Lincoln – Horncastle – Skegness route was the 6 until someone at Stagecoach East Midlands with no sense of history decided they wanted to renumber most of the “InterConnect” routes into the 50s to free up lower numbers for their ‘simplified’ Grimsby and Lincoln City networks. (The equally longstanding 3 Lincoln – Grimsby route was likewise renumbered the 53).

        The B5 towards Boston was historically the 5, later ic5, so basically retains its original number.

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    2. JBC,

      is Lincolnshire better than other places for at least having stops etc sorted after a couple of weeks or so

      Lincolnshire is surprisingly good at doing stops for such a car-oriented authority. Main stops now tend to have electronic displays integrated into the flag showing the next three or four departures (with real-time if the bus supports it and/or the driver has updated the machine at “connections”) and my local stop has certainly had the departure list updated quickly.

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      1. indeed I always thought they were pretty good even back in LRCC days and when Yorkshire Traction was the owning entity. I get a feeling the folk of Lincolnshire part miss the useful but not money paying at the time rail services

        JBC Prestatyn

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  4. Metheringham not Merringham.

    It’s good to see this new route running on Saturdays, when Brylaine largely shuts down; its only other Saturday work is on the 96A (Spilsby – Alford – Mablethorpe).

    Ian McNeil

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  5. It’s always good to see a new bus service getting off to a good start, but someone should tell the good people of Lincolnshire that the war was over 80 years ago and very few people now remember it.

    I wonder how many new German bus services employ the Luftwaffe as part of their marketing?

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    2. someone should tell the good people of Lincolnshire that the war was over 80 years ago and very few people now remember it.

      Give over. This country lives in the past at the best of times, and things like the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight are incredibly popular amongst people who are far too young to “remember the war”.

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      1. And you don’t need to go back 80 years for Lincolnshires connections to Bomber Country though the origins are the 2nd World War. Lincolnshire remained at the core of the RAF operational bases throughout the cold war, including 3 of the main V-Bomber bases for the nuclear deterent into the 70’s & 80’s, and still has operational bases.

        Dwarfer

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  6. Six months funding is not long enough to assess whether a route is going to be successful or not. It really needs to be twelve months so that data can be collected and analysed across the seasons. Better though than the three months that some Councils used to give for experimental services in the past.

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    2. Agreed, it really needs to be 1, ideally 2 years to gauge demand especially as there’s been no service for 10 years. Seems like an encouraging start though.

      Interestingly the Mini Switzerland Pilot in the Hope Valley will last 5 years. Plenty of time to learn what works and what doesn’t and change travel patterns and encourage modal shift here.

      Aaron

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  7. Woodhall Spa is a nice town and if you get back there you should check out the Spa Trail which is a walk along the old railway from Woodhall Junction to Horncastle.

    I understand why the route is the 617 but with Brylaine adding a B to all their routes it actually looks like 8617 on the blind!

    I seem to remember their being a LRCC garage in Walcott which you would have passed through.

    Let’s hope the success of this route encourages Lincolnshire to plug a few more gaps in the local network.

    Richard Warwick

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    1. with Brylaine adding a B to all their routes

      Not all of them; they also have G and K prefixed routes.

      I have no idea why they add the letters as the route numbers don’t conflict with each other.

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    1. Easy for them when they are basically one urban area where all the bus stops will have pavements and plenty of space.

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      1. trying to get london drivers to pull up where specifically allocated avoiding dropped kerbs or high steps from the roadway seems quite difficult

        JBC Prestatyn

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  10. Bus stops in rural areas. I am not sure of present legislation indeed has anyone ever done a history of the humble bus stop as a concept. Stopping points were mainly enforced by the local police authority on road safety grounds. Later the Traffic Commissioners had a role with timetables needing some kind of reference point. Nowadays GPS and similar for timing and route control start to be relevant but really is there any need to prevent stopping at any safe place to pick up or drop off passengers? In more urban areas the roadspace for stops prevents other road users from stopping thus keeping an efficient bus service in place.

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  11. I see that one of the 6 categories to be used to audit and rank bus stops in Portsmouth is “alight”.

    Hopefully the local arsonists will not be involved in the exercise.

    Ian McNeil

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    1. To alight apparently originates from Old English & dates back to AD1150. Of course setting fire to things goes back much farther….

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  12. I suspect that what they are really on about is stops where nobody ever boards (for any reason) and so no sort of waiting facility needs to be provided. Just a shame that whatever cheap AI they are using doesn’t have a sense of the ridiculous.

    Ian McNeil

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