450 now serves Immingham Town Centre

On Monday 2nd September, North Lincolnshire Council tendered service 450 between Immingham, Barton and Brigg, operated by Stagecoach, received a revised timetable and route. The service operates up to 4 journeys in each direction Monday to Saturday.

Between Immingham County Hotel terminus and South Killingholme the service now operates via Pelham Road in Immingham so as to serve the Civic Centre/Town Centre, and Habrough Church, as opposed to via the Manby Road industrial area and the A160. The previous route made sense when the 450 operated as an extension to service 5, as the 5 would serve the Civic Centre, however since the 450 became a separate service, there had been the rather odd situation of the service not serving Immingham Town Centre, but instead only a stop on the edge of the town (County Hotel) and an industrial area. This became more of an issue when service 5 was withdrawn from South Killingholme at the start of the year leaving the village without a timetabled bus to Immingham Town Centre. The revised service only offers the chance to spend either 45 minutes or 2 hours 45 minutes in Immingham Town Centre, but better than no timetabled bus at all (CallConnect is also available if pre-booked and has availability).

The 0940, 1140 and 1340 from Immingham now operate 5 minutes earlier, reducing connection times from service 5. From Brigg the 0930, 1130, 1330, and on Saturdays and School Holidays the 1530, departures now operate 10 minutes earlier. For anyone wanting to connect onto service 5 for Grimsby, you can now arrive at 1134 rather than 1154. Last departure from Grimsby to connect into service 450 remains at 1250 however, so not that much use!

Whilst these changes are positive and welcome, South Killingholme still has a poor timetabled service to it's nearest town, Immingham, and connections to Grimsby are near-useless without using CallConnect in one direction. What could make a difference is if prior to the 0935 departure from Immingham, a South Killingholme to Immingham 'short' was operated, at say 0910 (North Lincolnshire Concessionary Bus Passes don't have a 0930 start time), and on Saturdays and during School Holidays if following the 1452 and 1652 arrivals at Immingham County Hotel, new 'shorts' were provided to South Killingholme, at say 1500 and 1700. This would make a big improvement to the previously mentioned two issues for little extra mileage. If savings need to be made to fund these extras, I do wonder how much usage the 0715 Immingham to Brigg gets on a Saturday, and if it would be cheaper to run out of service from Grimsby depot to Brigg instead, direct via the A180 and A18 as opposed to via Barton?