Bus company won’t run Saturday services until August after failing to recruit enough drivers

A bus company has said it’s not recruited enough staff to return Saturday bus services that stopped running this year.

In December Brylaine announced from January to March 31 it would not run Saturday services such as the Spalding Town IT1/IT2, the B13 Boston – Spalding and K59 Boston – Spalding, due to a lack of drivers.

But they’re now extending that ban on services until at least August.

A spokesman for the company said: “With regret we announce Brylaine will not be reinstating our commercial network of ‘Saturday Bus Services’, directly after 31/03/2022.

“Whilst we have endeavoured to recruit in the 10 weeks since suspending them, we have unfortunately been unable to recruit to the levels that enable the reinstatement of weekend bus services. 

“Therefore, we are continuing with our initial purpose of operating ‘all weekday timetabled bus services between Monday to Friday’ to ensure consistency and confidence for passengers travelling throughout week.

“Our objective is to continually reinforce the importance of passenger confidence by delivering bus services without the fear of them being dropped on an ad-hoc, daily basis. 

“Lincolnshire County Council have confirmed that they will continue to support the alternative bus services in place – delivering reduced timetables, until the end of July 2022. 

“We are advising passengers requiring ‘weekend bus services’ across our network to visit www.lincsbus.info for timetable information.”

“Rest assured, we fully understand the impact of restricted weekend bus services across the districts of Boston, Lincoln, South Holland and East Lindsey.

“We hope to be able to advise passengers of any changes over the following months.

“In the meantime, we would sincerely like to thank all passengers for their continued support and kind patronage of Brylaines local bus services.”