Reductions to the 11 and 12 in North East Lincolnshire

Stagecoach services 11 and 12 in North East Lincolnshire were revised on 1st June. Whilst there are some positives, overall it's a cutback. Previously service 11 operated hourly Monday to Saturday daytimes between Grimsby Riverhead Exchange and Waltham via the Grange Estate and Morrisons, whilst service 12 linked Bradley Park and Waltham via Grange Estate, Grimsby Riverhead Exchange, Cleethorpes and New Waltham Monday to Saturday hourly, primarily off peak only.

Service 11 remains operating between Riverhead Exchange and Waltham via the Grange Estate, but now serves Bradley Park instead of Morrisons. The service remains hourly, but the Monday to Saturday morning peak and Monday to Friday afternoon service has been cutback. From Waltham, rather than a departure every 60-70 minutes in the morning peak, there is now a gap between 0640 and 0855. Monday to Friday there is now a gap in departures from Grimsby between 1310 and 1715 and from Waltham between 1355 and 1745.

The section of service 12 between Bradley Park and Grimsby has been withdrawn, replaced by the revised service 11 in Bradley Park - which reinstates earlier and later journeys to Bradley Park but reduces the Monday to Saturday morning/early afternoon frequency between the Grange Estate and Grimsby Town Centre from half hourly combined to hourly. Service 11 and 12 are advertised as through/no change of bus required services at Grimsby Riverhead Exchange, maintaining same bus links to Cleethorpes. Otherwise service 12 is little changed. Monday to Friday the 1427 Grimsby to Waltham, retimed to 1430, now terminates short in New Waltham. There is now a later last departure from Waltham on Saturdays, at 1525, previously 1405.

Gradually Getting Better

Stagecoach North East Lincolnshire service 4 received some small enhancements from 1st June, and will receive a further small improvement next week.

As part of the 1st June changes, additional Laceby extensions were added to the core Cleethorpes-Grimsby-Laceby Road Morrisons service. Monday to Friday the 1630 Cleethorpes to Morrisons was extended to Laceby, with the 1730 Morrisons to Cleethorpes now starting back in Laceby. The Monday to Saturday evening extensions to Laceby were also improved. Rather than just receiving limited early and late evening extenions, into but not outbound from the village, service 4 now extends to and from Laceby approximately hourly service all evening. On Saturday mornings the 0705 Morrisons to Cleethorpes was also extended back to start in Laceby, filling a 70 minute gap in service from the village.

A full Laceby to Grimsby summary timetable is available on the Humber Transport Summary Timetable page.

Then from Monday 1st September, a new Monday to Saturday 0435 from Cleethorpes to Morrisons will commence, an hour earlier than the previous first service.

Blast from the Past

Sunday 1st June saw the return of historic route number 45 between Immingham, Grimsby and Cleethorpes as part of a relatively small but very positive service enhancement. Stagecoach's 45 was renumbered as the 5 on 1st September 2014 to fit in with a wider renumbering scheme in North East Lincolnshire, but is now back alongside the 5 which continues to operate Monday to Saturday daytimes.

Daily evenings the 5 had been operating between Immingham and Grimsby every hour, with a Sunday daytime extension to Hewitts Circus via Ladysmith Road and Humberston Road, meaning that Humberston Road between Weelsby Road and Hewitts Circus had an hourly service Sundays compared to three buses each way Monday to Saturday. When introduced I speculated that operational reasons were behind this, enabling interworking with the 10.

Now the 45 replaces the 5 Monday to Saturday evenings and all day Sunday, operating hourly at all times between Immingham, Grimsby, Ladysmith Road, Clee Road and Cleethorpes Pier. This provides a new evening link from Immingham, Stallingborough, Healing, Wybers Wood and the Willows Estate to Cleethorpes as well as a new evening service for Ladysmith Road and Clee Road. Sunday daytimes, Immingham, Stallingborough and Healing regain a Cleethorpes service, whilst the frequency from the Willows Estate and Ladysmith Road to Cleethorpes and along Clee Road is doubled from once per hour on the 6, to twice per hour across the 6 and 45 (albeit unfortunately at a 15-45 minute interval). 

It is a nice nod to history that the 45 number has returned. However it is out of place compared to the main local routes within North East Lincolnshire being numbered in the 1-12 range, and the only exceptions being the 'also low numbered' 17 and 20. In reality the 45 is the 5 extended to Cleethorpes. There is an argument that using the 5 number could be confusing as one weekday morning service operates from Humberston, Cleethorpes and Grimsby to Immingham via Grimsby Road and Cleethorpe Road rather than Clee Road and Ladysmith Road, although that particular journey is a 5M not a 5.

Improved Service 9

Stagecoach North East Lincolnshire service 9 between Waltham, Grimsby, Cleethorpes and the North Sea Lane terminus (not actually used a terminus these days) gained an hourly Monday to Saturday evening and Sunday daytime service on Sunday 1st June. Unlike the Monday to Saturday daytime service 9 which extends to Hewitts Circus (Tesco Extra), the new evening and Sunday service 9 extends beyond North Sea Lane to the nearby Haven Cleethorpes Beach Holiday Park, supplementing seasonal open top service 17.

Whilst good news for holidaymakers, it's was also good news for other passengers as the Monday to Saturday evening and Sunday daytime frequency on associated route 10 between Waltham and Hewitts Circus was effectively doubled from hourly to half hourly by this improvement, since the 10 shares the vast majority of it's route with service 9, which has been timed at even intervals with the 10. 

Stagecoach's 31st August 2025 Grimsby bus map has a note that the evening and Sunday service to the Haven Holiday Park operates between 1st March and 30th November only, and that Hewitts Circus is not served by the 9 on evenings and Sundays between 1st March and 30th November. My inference from that is that the evening and Sunday 9 will serve Hewitts Circus in December, January and February. I presume Haven is closed during these three months? 

More Buses to Victor Street, Less to Wybers Wood

Stagecoach revised their 1, 2 and 20 services in Grimsby on 1st June. The 'core' remains the 1 and 2 each operating hourly Monday to Saturday daytimes between Grimsby Riverhead Exchange and the Europarc Industrial Estate via the West Marsh area, the 1 serving Lord Street and the 2 Corporation Road.

Service 1 however lost it's extension beyond Europarc to Wybers Wood and instead gained an extension beyond Riverhead Exchange to Victor Street via Victoria Street (Stagecoach Depot) and Cleethorpe Road. Services 1 and 2 now operate as a circular at Victor Street, rather than the 2 performing a short loop via Riby Street to terminate. With the 1 and 2 now sharing start and end points, departures from Riverhead Exchange to Europarc move from a 20-40 minute interval to a 28-32 minute interval between services.

The 20 continues to operate a limited Monday to Saturday early morning and evening service between Cleethorpes, Grimsby Riverhead Exchange, Corporation Road, Europarc and Wybers Wood, but gained a new diversion away from part of the A180 to serve industrial areas along Moody Lane and Gilbey Road. For a small time penalty, the 20 becomes a little more useful.

Service 20 also gained Sunday and Bank Holiday journeys operating at similar times to the Monday to Saturday service - anyone who wants to travel from Cleethorpes to Grimsby at 0500 on a Sunday morning can now do so! Seriously though, if there are factories on Europarc operating seven days a week, then a six days a week bus service isn't very attractive. Whether the 20 actually aligns with Sunday shift patterns I don't know, lets hope it does.

Slightly Quicker to Lincoln - but not all good news

As part of Stagecoach's service changes in North East Lincolnshire on 1st June, most journeys on Monday to Saturday service 53 between Grimsby and Lincoln were re-routed within Grimsby to provide a more direct routing. Previously, with the exception of the first morning morning departure, all service 53 journeys arrived into and departed Grimsby Town Centre via Hainton Avenue and Weelsby Road to Fryston Corner (Grimsby Institute). Now, with the exception of one journey each way on schooldays, all services operate from Grimsby Town Centre to Fryston Corner via Bargate.

The positive side to this is reduced journey times. Previously off-peak Laceby Market Place to Grimsby Riverhead Exchange was timed for 25 minutes, now Laceby Caistor Road to Grimsby Riverhead Exchange is timed for 17 minutes off peak.

On the other hand, the section of Weelsby Road between Hainton Avenue and Fryston Corner is now only served by buses on schooldays. Hainton Avenue retains an hourly Monday to Saturday off-peak service with route 7.