Not another one?!

Tuesday 8th September 2026

I’ll try not to make this a full on habit every Tuesday – bringing news of on-the-road competitive skirmishes between two bus companies – but here’s just one more to add to the many I’ve already highlighted over the last few weeks and months. It’s almost as if the bus industry has stepped into a time warp back to the late 1980s, except I’ve yet to find one 2026 style battleground comprising an underserved or underperforming market with potentially lucrative results that would please a Finance Director.

This latest example is centred on the corridor between Boston, Sutterton and Spalding through south Lincolnshire’s finest flat sparsely inhabited rural landscape.

It kicked off a couple of weeks ago when Stagecoach used two buses to begin a new half hourly off-peak ‘shuttle’ type service between Boston and the village of Sutterton which lies on the A16 about midway on the route south to Spalding (highlighted in a red outline on the above maps). These journeys infill between two new peak hour journeys which cover the full route (Boston-Spalding) aimed at students attending Boston College.

Boston based independent operator Brylaine has been serving the Boston to Spalding market for many years operating two buses an hour comprising an hourly B3 complemented by an hourly B3X, the latter taking a more direct route by missing out a loop around Sutterton and the villages of Surfleet and Crossgate further south but in Spalding it serves the Springfield Outlet where a few minutes ‘stand time’ are taken before returning to Boston via the bus station.

Stagecoach’s route uses just plain number 3 and runs similar to the B3 except the peak journeys along the full route between Boston and Spalding also go via Gosberton, which is shown on the above maps north of Surfleet. As you can see from the timetable below the two northbound and two southbound peak hour journeys between Spalding and Boston include variations on college and school days, although I think there’s an error on the CD/CH designation on the northbound journeys, while the rest of the day has the infill half hourly journeys between Boston and Sutterton with an hour’s gap at lunchtime for a driver’s break.

This unashamedly competes with Brylaine’s half hourly B3/B3X timetable which I was pleased to see is promoted through having a supply of timetable leaflets on board its five buses committed to the route/s.

I took a look at the situation last Friday, arriving into Spalding bus station at around 11:10, to catch Brylaine’s 11:33 departure as a route B3X to Boston.

As I arrived the 11:00 departure (on route B3) was just leaving with only one passenger on board (above photo) but more passengers were waiting for a route B9 at 11:30 which also goes to Boston but via a longer route (via Donnington) taking 70 minutes. It only runs two-hourly but it struck me it looked to be a busier route.

I was initially fooled by that vehicle’s registration wondering how it could be a ’26’ plate before realising it was a ‘cherished’ plate from the old system and the vehicle dates from 2007 having seen previous service with First and Vision Bus in Manchester.

By 11:45 there was still no sign of the 11:33 B3X departure so I gave Brylaine’s telephone number a call and was answered almost immediately by a very helpful and pleasant woman who checked and advised the bus was on its way and would be with me shortly. It arrived at 11:49 with three passengers alighting, one remaining on board and me and another passenger boarding.

It’s not often you get to take a ride on a Dennis Trident in public service these days but we were soon heading off to Boston, leaving 17 minutes late and it soon became obvious why there was some late running…

… roadworks heading out of Spalding were causing diversions and delays.

… not helped by four-way temporary lights. It’s getting such a common thing these days. Roadworks and delays.

The driver did his best to make up time but it was a tough ask, although the Trident did enjoy the long section of route heading straight up the A16.

Passing buses heading south were not running too much behind schedule…

… and doing a quick head count I’d say there were no more than three or four passengers, if that, on board…

… indicating the journey I was on with just the three of us was fairly typical and indeed one of those alighted as we entered Sutterton leaving just the two of us for the rest of the journey.

We should have been passing through Sutterton at 11:56 but it was now 12:16 which meant we were following the Stagecoach bus which had just set off on its journey to Boston on its route 3 at 12:15. Not surprisingly we didn’t therefore pick up any more passengers into Boston, with just the two of us on board.

The route does include a deviation off the A16 to serve a residential area called Wyberton but no takers there…

… and then we suddenly turned right for another deviation through a new housing development…

… and although I looked very carefully as we travelled up and down this new section of road, I couldn’t see any bus stops yet installed so no passengers from there either. Stagecoach’s route 3 serves the Wyberton deviation but not this other one but I wonder if this new development is partly behind its thinking in adding these new journeys.

We arrived into Boston’s rather bleak and ultra sparse bus station at 12:37 (20 minutes late) and the driver departed almost immediately back to Spalding (due out at 12:30) with no takers.

Meanwhile sitting on the stand was one of the two Stagecoach buses on route 3 waiting for its departure at 12:45 to Sutterton. The second bus was also in the bus station on the extended lunch time layover with both drivers having a nice chat.

Once the driver was back in the cab, I joined the one other passenger already on board and we set off on time.

We picked up two more passengers at the next stop by the main shopping area but that was it for the journey with one alighting on the deviation around Wyberton, one in Kirton and the third alighted with myself at the end of the route in Sutterton.

The stops there had real time departures incorporated into the flag and I didn’t have to wait long for a B3 bound for Spalding which arrived with five on board. Interestingly this southbound sign was (wrongly) showing the northbound departure on the Stagecoach route 3 going to Bus Station but it was on the other side of the road heading back to Boston bus station.

No one got on or off the B3 as we proceeded around the entire village of Sutterton but one alighted in Crossgate (south of Surfleet) and another in Pinchbeck where two boarded.

We then had to go on the lengthy diversion due to the roadworks mentioned earlier arriving into Spalding 14 minutes late at 14:02 with the next journey back to Boston due away at 14:00.

So, it’s all very tight.

But also not very well patronised and certainly not enough passengers for four buses an hour. And don’t try travelling on a Saturday. The B3, B3X and the 3, like a lot of routes in this part of the world, are Mondays to Fridays only.

Tough, if you want to travel on a Saturday.

Roger French

My thanks to blog reader John for letting me know about this and background information.

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