Buses on the England Coast Path in Lincolnshire: Skegness to King’s Lynn
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| Callconnect demand responsive bus outside The Barley Mow pub in Friskney |
As I make further progress on my hike along the King Charles III England Coast Path - which continues to be established unevenly across the country - I have been matching areas where the trail is officially open in substantive chunks with the availability of cheap accommodation and suitable travel options.
In early March those criteria aligned to bring me to the resort town of Skegness in Lincolnshire. As the northern starting point it would take me around The Wash, England’s largest natural bay, into the neighbouring county of Norfolk.
As standard I am attempting to rely on public transport to access the coast path. This is a particular challenge in this part of the country as only a scarce network of scheduled bus services exist, with almost nothing to serve the few coastal communities between Boston and King's Lynn. Indeed the area is so remote that the Ministry of Defence operate the Holbeach Air Weapons Range here, with regular low flying military aircraft using the coast for target practice. As such this is a week that necessitates careful day planning.
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Whilst there are many warnings of this lack of public transportation, the rollout of demand responsive transport (DRT) has made some rural areas accessible without a car for the first time. DRT in this case refers to on demand bus services that operate without a fixed timetable and are instead routed using technology that matches the requests of passengers via an app or call centre.
As Roger French notes on his excellent blog covering bus services across the country, DRT is in vogue as cash-strapped local authorities aim to reduce subsidies for commercially unviable rural bus routes. The encouragement of tech companies and Department for Transport funding has made DRT particularly attractive. But there are drawbacks aplenty: DRT services are heavily subsidised themselves and often tend to be poorly utilised; the apps can prove difficult to use, especially considering the demographics of rural bus users; and the time-limited funding that often surrounds the introduction of DRT services mean new schemes cease to exist before they can establish themselves.
Another significant issue is public awareness. For visitors the existence of such services can be a challenge to discover. Even local residents appear unaware of these services due to poor communication and advertising. When I plan a trip making use of public transport I usually scan Google Maps to see where bus stops or train stations are relative to my destinations, and work back from that to find a route. But since DRT services don't have fixed timetables they aren’t listed on journey planners, meaning rather intrepid research is required, something the average person is unlikely to do.
Whilst all of the critiques of DRT are valid, for my rather niche purpose it’s a cheap and highly convenient way to connect up parts of the coast path. I had been previously aware of the DRT provision across Lincolnshire due to an excursion last year in Mablethorpe. On my way there from Lincoln I used service 50, whose timetable mixes regular services and the Callconnect DRT.
Callconnect operates across the entire county, divided into zones based around key towns like Lincoln, Boston, Skegness or Spalding. I was excited to make more use out of it, especially as these services appear to be use them or lose them. Will the journeys I made even be possible in a years time? It's certainly not a given, which is why I wanted to offer this blog as a potential time capsule of my experience using both the Callconnect DRT service, and regular (and irregular) scheduled bus services along this stretch of the England Coast Path between Skegness to King’s Lynn.
Saturday 8th March: Skegness to Butterwick
The Via technology used for the app backend is pretty fiddly. Often you’ll need to try a couple of different pick-up times or slightly amend drop-off locations to receive a travel offer, and the app doesn't make that process simple or user-friendly.
Putting aside those frustrations I managed to book a bus a couple of days in advance to pick me up in the early afternoon from the Gibraltar Point Visitor Centre. This journey would take me to the starting point of my afternoon's hike. The decision to split the day being a necessity as the coast path is currently inaccessible for a couple of miles south of Gibraltar Point whilst a bridge is constructed over the River Steeping.
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| Poster at Gibraltar Point showing the England Coast Path closure |
Unlike other DRT services, Callconnect doesn’t take in-app payments, meaning the £3 fare (capped like other bus services in England) needs to be paid upon boarding. However the machine wasn’t working, so my ride was free. As we set off I was told that we would be picking up two passengers from separate points in Skegness who I could see via the app were to be dropped off a short way from what would have been my most direct routing. The first passenger was a no-show, but the second was diligently waiting outside Morrisons and also enjoyed the free ride.
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| Screenshot of the Callconnect app displaying my journey from Gibraltar Point to Friskney |
I was dropped outside The Barley Mow pub in Friskney. Here I could walk down the lengthy Sea Lane to pick up the coast path again. The app wouldn’t let me select a drop-off point further down the dead end road but I feel my friendly driver probably would have obliged if asked, especially as I was their last ride of the day.
My original plan had been to walk all the way to Boston, however my timings were off and I risked missing the last bus back to Skegness. So I opted to curtail my hike before sunset and take a detour off the trail into the village of Butterwick. Here I picked up Stagecoach-operated route 57 from outside the Five Bells pub on its route between Boston and Skegness. The service has a couple of route variants alongside its sister X57 and its Brylaine Travel-operated competitor B7/B7X. The 57 only stops in Butterwick on four of its thirteen runnings from Boston. The single decker arrived with three passengers, two of whom departed in Wainfleet, where a further two joined us through to Skegness.
Journey overview
Callconnect: Gibraltar Point — Friskney (12.40)
57: Butterwick — Skegness (17.34)
Sunday 9th March: Lincoln
When planning my week I was quite surprised to find no bus service runs between Skegness and Boston on a Sunday. With Callconnect also operating Mon-Sat only, I had to take a break from the trail for a day. Since I had purchased a Stagecoach Connect 7 Day Megarider for the week at a cost of £31, I decided to make use of it by travelling into Lincoln.
The 56 InterConnect is part of a network of Stagecoach services in the East Midlands. Presumably to comply with regulations on driving hours, the service is listed online as Skegness to Horncastle and Horncastle to Lincoln. In reality it's a through service with no change required. As such it’s pretty good value for a two-hour end-to-end journey and plenty of people were making use of it.
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| Lincoln Cathedral In Lincoln I disembarked close to the impressive cathedral, making a visit there and subsequently to the pleasant Seven Districts coffee shop nearby before making further use of my ticket by hopping on another bus downhill to the bus station . Here I connected with route 9 on its journey to the south west corner of Lincoln, making a stop at the large Sainsbury’s before returning to the city centre on the same route. I decided to spend a few hours at the very elegant bar of the Everyman cinema to catch up on some work, before picking up the last 56 service of the day back to Skegness. The double decker is fairly well used for a Sunday evening service through to Horncastle, although thinned out beyond there as we continued to Skegness. |
Journey overview
56: Skegness — Lincoln (11.00)
12: Lincoln Hotel — Lincoln Bus Station (14.50)
9: Lincoln Bus Station — Moorland Avenue (15.00)
9: Lincoln Doddington Road — Lincoln Bus Station (15.41)
56: Lincoln — Skegness (19.00)
Monday 10th March: Butterwick to Fosdyke
Back on the England Coast Path I need to return to Butterwick, but the timing options for the 57 are fairly limited. With only the 07.20 departure connecting with the village during the morning, I opt to part with an additional £3 fare to ride on Brylaine Travel’s later departing B7 from Skegness bus station, which I was surprised to find operated by a double-decker. The B7 offers three daytime runnings from Skegness that fill the gap of Stagecoach’s service.Arriving in Butterwick after 10am on a lightly used bus, I make my way back to the trail as it reaches and then follows the The Haven tidal river up to Boston town centre on its quest to find a bridge. Passing though a large industrial estate on the other bank of the river, I continue towards the RSPB nature reserve at Frampton Marsh. Stopping for a quick coffee in the visitor centre - necessitating a slight diversion from the trail - I continue along a very remote stretch before reaching the River Welland. The path follows it down to Fosdyke Bridge on the busy A17.
It’s here that I’ve had a sense of dread of what’s to come. I wasn’t able to book a Callconnect back into Boston, so I’m relying on a single bus — the 18.25 running of the Stagecoach-operated B2. The route serves workers commuting to and from the Bakkavor factory, a food manufacturing plant located just a little beyond Fosdyke. My worry is whether this service even picks up members of the public. Whilst the bus passes Fosdyke Bridge, there is no listed bus stop here, so I have to walk into the village of Fosdyke, where the bus should in theory turn off the A17 for a stop outside the village church.
Upon arriving I note there is no bus stop flag. The Stagecoach app has a bus tracker, but the B2 hasn't appeared, putting me further on edge. I wait on the side of the road outside the church in front of a row of houses. The scheduled time comes and goes and I grow anxious that the bus may have bypassed Fosdyke. It does seem odd to me that a bus with a timetable optimised purely for the factory shifts of workers living in Boston would make a stop in the village.
Thankfully around eight minutes later the bus does arrive. I must be the first passenger to hail it here for a while as I board the double-decker to journey with the factory's predominantly eastern European workforce.
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| B2 bus in Fosdyke [photo from return journey on Thursday] Once on board another anxiety develops: I have a twenty minute scheduled connection in Boston to meet the final Skegness-bound 57 of the day, but after the initial delay we seem to have an issue en route in Kirton, leaving us a further ten minutes down. I begin to adjust my plans and consider making an alternative connection to the train — not a cheap option with only 'anytime' fares available on this route meaning a further £6.55 expense with my railcard (£9.90 without). |
Thankfully, the B2 timetable seems to have a lot of slack built into it towards Boston, presumably to account for bad traffic. At the bus station I leg it over to the waiting 57 with a few minutes to spare. The double-decker is fairly busy on this final service of the day, which makes me think there’s plenty of scope for later services on this inter-urban route.
Journey overview
B7: Skegness — Butterwick (09.30)
B2: Fosdyke — Boston (18.25)
57: Boston — Skegness (19.10)
Tuesday 11th March: Fosdyke Bridge to Gedney Drove End
On my return to Fosdyke I make a start on the 57 from Skegness to Boston to meet my second Callconnect service of the trip. The app tells me to wait by the west end of the bus station in Boston, but I see an unbranded minibus hurtle pass me to stop at the other end. Presuming this might be my ride - which the app's tracker confirms - I scurry towards it. It must be quite confusing for less savvy users or for those not using the app.
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| Screenshot of the Callconnect app displaying my journey from Boston to Fosdyke (top); on board with another passenger (bottom) |
There’s already someone onboard, making a convenient journey direct to their door in Sutterton. Even more convenient is that the payment machine isn’t working once again! So my Callconnect journey is once again free, despite being in a different vehicle.
The zonal nature of Callconnect means that the area centred around Boston ends in Fosdyke, so I'm due to be dropped at the village hall rather than near the coast path. I decide to ask the driver whether they'd spare me the mile and they kindly agree to take me to Fosdyke Bridge — technically out of their service zone.
As I begin my hike along another remote section, I can already see that my optimistic return journey timings are unlikely to work out. I had wanted to walk to Sutton Bridge to catch the 16.39 service of Stagecoach's 505, the last bus that would allow me to make my connections back to Skegness. It looks like I would arrive an hour late, so I decide to give Callconnect a try. After fiddling for a little while I manage to book a bus around 3pm from Gedney Drove End, a village just off the path. The timings turn out to be perfect as the bus picks me up for a journey to Long Sutton, the nearest place to catch the 505 on its route between King’s Lynn and Spalding. For the first time on Callconnect, I pay £3 for my journey on a working machine.An odd quirk of the app’s routing software produces quite an extraordinary journey map. As we pick up someone on the outskirts of Long Sutton, the app suggests driving to her destination of Holbeach first, before returning to the centre of Long Sutton for me. Perhaps this is because I requested an ‘arrival’ time into Long Sutton - which we were well ahead of - rather than a departure time from Gedney Drove End. Of course the driver has noticed this and reassures me he was planning to override the system. But as I tell him I’m trying to connect for the 505 he offers to take me to Holbeach, a quicker option for me. As we drop off the other passenger in a residential estate to the north of the town, the further convenience of this semi-personalised service reveals itself. As the driver is returning to the garage in Spalding, he offers to take me all the way there, much better for me than waiting for a busy school-time service of the 505.
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| Journey routing for my Callconnect service from Gedney Drove End to Long Sutton via Holbeach |
I use the opportunity of my early arrival in Spalding to visit Springfields Outlet, a pleasant out-of-town shopping centre complete with show gardens. The buses here are plentiful and I opt for Stagecoach's 37 to take me to the town's bus station on its journey towards Peterborough. Having to contend with some busy drive-time traffic and level crossing workings, I still manage to make the day's second-to-last Brylaine Travel B3 bus to Boston. On a route passing through various villages, we manage to make it into Boston bus station just after 6pm, allowing for a quick change on to a busy 57 bus back to Skegness.
Journey overview
57: Skegness — Boston (09.50)
Callconnect: Boston — Fosdyke (10.55)
Callconnect: Gedney Drove End — Springfields Outlet (15.15)
37: Springfields Outlet — Spalding (16.58)
B3: Spalding — Boston (17.17)
57: Boston — Skegness (18.10)
Wednesday 12th March: Sutton Bridge to West Lynn
Curtailing the previous day’s walk at Gedney Drove End presents me with a dilemma. There’s not enough time to tack on the hike from there to Sutton Bridge whilst also completing my planned walk onwards to King’s Lynn. A few attempts at booking a Callconnect service for the day results in nothing, so I decide to stick to my original plan and fill in the missing section another time.
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| A woman clearing the frosted windows on the top deck of the 57 in Skegness with a squeegee |
With a lengthy distance to cover to my starting point, I leave Skegness early to connect with the B3 in Boston and make a further change in Spalding for the 09.50 service of the 505. Arriving in Sutton Bridge before 11am, I set off on the England Coast Path, crossing the border of Lincolnshire and Norfolk, before reaching West Lynn, set across the River Great Ouse from King’s Lynn. I decide to end my day’s hike here and leave the convoluted route into King’s Lynn for another time. The historic ferry service between West Lynn and King’s Lynn is currently mothballed, in circumstances familiar to anyone trying to get between Gravesend and Tilbury. Hopefully it will be up and running again for me to sample when I return for the next leg of the coast path.
Whilst the 505 runs roughly every thirty minutes, West Lynn receives only half of these. I walk towards the bus stop but take note of a nearby road closure sign. There’s no information online or at the bus stop but I get the feeling that the bus might skip West Lynn as a result. So I decide to walk south and head towards the junction where non-West Lynn services bypass the suburb in a vain hope that I'd be able to determine the movements of any oncoming bus and sprint towards one of two bus stops. Soon realising this to be a poor plan, and noticing my bus is still in King's Lynn with a hefty delay according to the Stagecoach app, I continue south to the next bus stop outside the East Coast Business Park.From here I pick up the B3X, an express variation of Brylaine Travel’s B3 that bypasses most of the villages on its way to Boston by taking a route past the Springfields Outlet and along the fast-flowing A16. Arriving in Boston bus station around 18.20, I have the option to wait for the 57 back to Skegness leaving 50 minutes later. But I notice another service heading to Skegness from a different stop in Boston. The M3 - similar to the B2 I used on Monday night - is a service for factory workers from the Moy Park poultry meat factory in Anwick. Passing through Boston it continues as a scheduled service to Skegness. This appears to be less due to demand and more a result of logistics as it returns to the town’s Stagecoach garage overnight.
Leaving Boston 20 minutes before the last 57 of the day and sticking to the main road, I decide to pick up the M3 from the outskirts of town near Pilgrim Hospital. Once again unclear about the public availability of this service, two double-deck buses arrive at the same time. It seems capacity between the factory and Boston might require it, but beyond it turned out I was the only user of either bus! We run in tandem all the way to Skegness, arriving early at the bus station. It does seem a bit of a waste to run these buses with no passengers along a route where the 57 clearly is popular. Perhaps renumbering the M3 between Boston and Skegness would signpost it to more people?
Journey overview
57: Skegness — Boston (07.20)
B3 Boston — Spalding (09.00)
505 Spalding — Sutton Bridge (09.50)
505 West Lynn — Spalding (15.52)
B3X Spalding — Boston (17.47)
M3 Boston — Skegness (19.06)
Thursday 13th March: Gedney Drove End to Sutton Bridge
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| The two M3 buses at Skegness bus station at 4am |
On my final day I decided to return to Gedney Drove End to complete the missing link to Sutton Bridge from Tuesday.
Booking a Callconnect service was tricky. Despite experimenting with various pick-up/drop-off attempts and different timings, no results come back. That is aside from an early morning pick-up around 07.30 in Holbeach. Being based in Skegness I assumed there would be no way for me to reach Holbeach by that time.
Turns out I was wrong! In scenes that I would not recommend to any normal person, I begin my journey at Skegness bus station at 4am to pick up the M3 Moy Park Factory bus to Boston. Just as the previous night, two double-deckers run in tandem, picking up two people on our journey, until arriving in Boston where a few more wait on our route through town. A hoard of people — at least 50, but perhaps more — were gathered outside the local Asda, the main pick-up point for the service, which is where I get off.
I walk across to the bus station to wait in the cold with factory workers using the M2 bus — which I took in the opposite direction on Monday night. The lack of any facility at the bus station is even more evident at 5am on a cold morning. A single shelter on the far side of the station and no inside waiting area is quite inadequate. The timetabling of the M2 intrigues me. The 05.05 service is the only run from Boston to the Bakkavor Factory until the evening. The first return service to Boston is at 18:15. Seems like an exhaustingly long working day.
As people scramble to get on the bus, I alert the driver that I want to get off in Fosdyke, ensuring that we definitely turn in to the village. Arriving at All Saint’s Church in the early hours, I have a substantial wait. I had managed to book a Callconnect pick up between 07.00–07.20 from Fosdyke Bridge to Holbeach. That meant a 90 minute wait in the village . Perhaps quite a suspicious thing to do so early in the morning. A café on the busy A17 is marked on Google as opening at 06.30, but I don't trust the online information and opt to wander slowly towards Fosdyke Bridge instead. I happen across a small park next to the Fosdyke Social Club. Oddly enough, a cargo deck from an HGV was in the park, in a way that made it seem permanent. I decided this would be a good place to wait it out for my bus, given that it was sheltered and hidden from view.
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| Walking through the village in the early hours (top); my HGV hideaway (bottom) |
More than an hour later I carry on towards my pick-up point and duly came my driver. Our 14-minute ride down to Holbeach was simple enough and I requested he drop me off at the local Tesco supermarket so I could pick up a coffee and pastry. Of course the Costa machine was broken so an iced coffee had to do. In any case, I had enough time to walk down to my pick-up point for my next Callconnect, which would take me all the way through to Gedney Drove End. As the one before, I was the only passenger, which is perhaps not a surprise at this early hour. My struggle to book anything later perhaps points to there being existing bookings right after mine. Both buses also had functioning card machines.
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| Evidence of my payment on the two morning Callconnect services |
Journey overview
M3: Skegness — Boston (04.00)
B2: Boston — Fosdyke (05.05)
Callconnect: Fosdyke Bridge — Holbeach (07.02)
Callconnect: Holbeach — Gedney Drove End (07.27)
505: Sutton Bridge — Springfields Outlet (10.05)
37: Springfields Outlet — Spalding (11.39)
B9: Spalding — Boston (13.30)
57: Boston — Skegness (15.00)
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| Double rainbow at Springfields Outlet |
Quite the week of riding Lincolnshire’s buses and overall it all worked out, although not without some worrying moments. With generally punctual services, and a DRT operation that had limits to its usefulness, but also a degree of flexibility that would never have been possible with standard fixed routes before, it made for interesting bookends to my hikes.
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