Latest passenger figures from Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) show that its bus improvement plans have been a success, the council says, with thousands more passengers every week now using local bus services across the county.
Funding for its Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) meant a significant increase in the number of services and additional journeys, leading to an increase in people using them, the council reports.
In some areas, it says bus use has seen a 118% daily increase in user numbers and a 72% uplift each week in the number of people choosing bus travel. In figures now available, Sleaford’s town service has seen an increase of 47% when comparing week-for-week in 2023 to 2024, or an additional 17,000 passengers.
The Boston to Lincoln Saturday service has an average increase on the daily passenger figures of 112%, which equates to an extra 5,000 people using the one-day-a-week service since June, the county says. Gainsborough’s town service has seen a 72% increase when comparing the same period in 2023 to this year, or around 1,025 more passengers per week, the council reports, whilst both Skegness and Grantham town services are also seeing hundreds more passengers every week. The former averaging an extra 725 passengers per week whilst the latter is up to an additional 700 more on average every seven days.
Increasing the Stamford town service from four journeys a day three days a week, to an hourly service six days a week, has boosted numbers by 118%, the council reports, and there has been a 45% increase in average passenger numbers travelling on the Mablethorpe to Skegness summer service, year-on-year.
While the bus services have been a huge success across the county so far, LCC says its on-demand Call Connect bus service has also seen an increase in use, with the £2 single-journey fare cap which LCC introduced on the service this summer being used by some 77,500 customers.
Cllr Richard Davies, executive member for Transport at LCC said: “These passenger numbers are terrific and show just how successful our work with local bus providers has been so far with 150,000 additional passengers confirmed to have travelled in the county.
“We have worked closely with local bus companies, using funding for the Bus Service Improvement Plan to increase the right services in the right areas and even bring some older, discontinued services back. As soon as we started this work, we saw people returning to bus use right across Lincolnshire on the improved services. Because of that support from local communities, we were encouraged to continue our work further with more funding, and the results are speaking for themselves.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has used the new services, the increased services or took a £2 fare cap journey on the Call Connect service. Your support really matters and by using this transport in the way you have, you’re showing that Lincolnshire’s buses are once again providing even more of an essential transport link right across our area.”
