Further housing development to the west of Grantham led to a new circular route to Barrowby Gate being introduced in May 1980, running anti-clockwise, outwards via Barrowby Road and returning via Dysart Road.  Two years later in 1982 Reliance introduced the Grantham - Bottesford - Bingham - Nottingham replacement route, running up to eight times a day, when through journeys on the previous jointly operated Road Car and Trent service ceased. 1984 was an important year in Grantham when the old bus station on St Peters Hill was closed and replaced by the current facility in  Wharf Road from 19th March.

GRANTHAM AFTER RELIANCE

Mass Transit 2004 - 2005

Turning to the more recent story of the town services in and around Grantham, the Reliance business was acquired from Joe Simmons by Mass Transit of South Anston near Sheffield in mid-2003 (the name comes from the founder Michael Alan Strafford). They opened a new depot in Tollemache Road on the southern outskirts of the town in March 2004 and extended their operations beyond the original Reliance routes by taking over some of the Road Car services from 31st May of that year, when the Road Car depot in Hunting Tower Road, Grantham had closed (it had been opened as early as 1929).  This followed a dispute with local staff over trade union recognition.

Mass then took over all Road Car's town services as well as the country routes to Colsterworth, South Witham and Sleaford. (Interurban services into Grantham continued to run from the Road Car depots in Lincoln and Newark respectively). With a fleet size of twenty three vehicles day-to-day running of services in Grantham would be by Mass Transit-owned Reliance Travel, with the buses running under the Mass Reliance name while coach services ran under the name of Reliance Travel. Depot manager at this time was Andrew Simmons (grandson of Wilfred, son of Joseph). Predominant vehicle livery was dark blue with yellow trim and some buses were lettered as 'Grantham's Own'. Operations by Mass Transit proved to be unreliable and were the cause of much public complaint; there were cutbacks in November 2004 with some services withdrawn and others halved in frequency. Mass finally withdrew from Grantham after only nine months in February 2005 because of a deteriorating financial situation, losses were stated to be over £300,000. The Reliance subsidiary had gone into in liquidation in November. With hindsight Mass may have over-reached themselves and by their founder's own admission they should probably not have come to Grantham in the first place. They continued, however, as substantial school bus providers in Yorkshire, trading as BrightBus, until the retirement through ill health of the proprietor in 2017.

     Footnote: Mass had earlier bought the Lincoln operations of Applebys of Louth in 2001. This was also disposed of in 2005 to Dunn-Line.

Centrebus 2005 onwards

From 12th February 2005 the Grantham town services passed to Centrebus, an operator with other networks in Leicestershire, Hertfordshire, Derbyshire, Luton and St Albans. Initially taking over eight vehicles and twenty staff and the Tollemache Road depot from Mass the Grantham routes were then rationalised to a core operation of viable services. Some of the areas of the town did seem to have been overprovided for at times.

The initial routes operated by Centrebus at the start of operations were:
      1      Alma Park - Grantham Bus Station - Earlsfield (half hourly)                  2      Harrowby - Grantham Bus Station (half hourly)
      4      Grantham - Bus Station - Great Gonerby (hourly)                                  5      Grantham Bus Station - Ropsley (three journeys Mon-Fri)
      6      Grantham Bus Station - Barrowby (hourly)                                            X6   Grantham Bus Station - Barrowby - Nottingham (six journeys)
      7      Grantham Bus Station - Woolsthorpe (three journeys)                            101  Grantham - Foston (school journeys)
      602  Grantham - Long Bennington (school journeys)                                     608  Grantham - Great Ponton (school journeys)    

The town service to Barrowby Gate was being operated by Pulfrey at this time (previously, since 1980, it had been provided by Reliance - date of change not recorded) and this passed to Centrebus in July 2005 as their route 3. But there were still two local routes - town service 620 to Sunningdale via Belton Avenue and country route 605 to Woolsthorpe via Denton - that remained with Pulfrey until April 2010. By November 2007 the Centrebus fleet at Grantham comprised sixteen buses, of which six were double-deckers, all ex-Travel West Midlands. Six of the single-deckers were ex-Reliance. Routes 602 from Grantham to Newark (replacing Road Car), 608 to South Witham and 609 to Sleaford followed.

In April 2010 the Grantham town network of Centrebus was considerably enhanced and expanded as part of the county council supported 'IntoTown' services already provided in several other Lincolnshire market towns including Sleaford, Boston and Spalding. Working in partnership with Lincolnshire County Council, a fleet of seven new low floor buses was purchased for use on routes around Grantham. The popular cross-town Alma Park to Earlesfield service 1 was increased to run every 20 minutes whilst other areas such as the District Hospital, Barrowby Gate,  Sunningdale, Great Gonerby and Somerby also benefitted with the introduction of half hourly services running throughout the day, six days a week (routes 3, 4A and 4B). A regular service to the rail station was provided for the first time in recent years. This £850,000 investment was backed up by improvements at bus stops, and the rolling out of a real-time satellite-based passenger information system funded by the county council. So Grantham’s local bus network was transformed to ensure that the 21st century transport needs of residents and visitors could be met sustainably. 

Then in July 2011 Centrebus took over long established independent operator Kimes of Folkingham when the co-operative formed in 1997 came to an end following the sudden death of Paul Brown the operations manager. The Kimes rural routes melded well with the Centrebus network. Another significant purchase by Centrebus was that of Veolia Transport (Paul James Coaches) in October 2011 with their operations and base at Saxby near Melton Mowbray.  Subsequently the ex-Kimes depot at Folkingham was closed at the end of August 2013 with some routes passing to Grantham depot (eg 26 to Billingborough and 27 to Sleaford), with route 9 passing to Saxby whilst the 12 went to their Corby operation.  Centrebus passed the 58 and 59 (Boston - Donington - Spalding) routes to Brylaine of Boston with five vehicles.

Further adjustments to the Grantham town service timetables took place in April 2013, with an overall reduction in the offering. Centrebus Commercial Manager David Shelley commented "in January 2010 Centrebus entered into a funded arrangement for the experimental enhancement of a number of bus services in Grantham. This included investment in new vehicles, improvements to a number of existing services, and experimental services in parts of the town not well served by bus. That arrangement came to an end in March 2013, and as a result Centrebus carried out a detailed review of what services can continue given that funding is no longer available. The scheme has been very successful in a number of areas, and passenger numbers have increased significantly in the town. As a result a number of the enhancements are able to continue even though subsidy has stopped. Service 1 in particular retains a 20 minute frequency throughout the daytime period, and buses to Great Gonerby are considerably better than they were three years ago, with a half-hourly service from Grantham for much of the day, and additional buses through to Newark. Areas such as Barrowby Gate, Sunningdale and Somerby also retain a service, in many cases not having many buses at all three years previously. Frequencies have reduced compared to what had been offered during the past three years, but this simply reflects the pattern of usage and the level of public funding that is now available."

The 2013 changes would appear to have effected a reduction of three buses from ten scheduled to seven in the daytime run-out for the town services. Sunningdale and Somerby saw even greater reduction in service levels from April 2014, reducing to only four journeys a day on route 9 (which also includes a rural element to and from Denton and Woolsthorpe). August 2015 saw some further reductions at school times and the withdrawal of the Saturday service on route 2 Harrowby. An improved service to the Downtown retail complex north of Gonerby was provided from September 2016 with the through buses on Grantham - Newark route 24 diverted into the shopping centre and the local buses on route 14 Grantham - Gonerby shortened to turn via Green Street in Gonerby. August 2017 saw the total withdrawal of Grantham town service 2 (with 2A peak journeys to the Alma Park industrial area incorporated into new peak time route 1A) and the closure of the depot at Saxby near Melton Mowbray following substantial alterations to services in parts of Leicestershire and Rutland. Saxby depot being replaced by a smaller out-station at Coston, near Waltham on the Wolds.

Less than twelve months later the Coston outstation closed after operations on 21st July 2018 and the services were transferred to other depots, with the 55/56 (Melton Mowbray - Grantham) and RF2 (Melton Mowbray - Oakham) passing to Grantham depot. Outwith the Grantham area the 14/15 (Melton Mowbray town service), 23 (Melton Mowbray - Nether Broughton), 25 Melton Mowbray - Stathern) and 113 (Melton Mowbray - Oakham) passed to Leicester depot; and the RF1 (Melton Mowbray - Corby) to Corby depot.

Further change came with service 24 Grantham to Newark reducing from hourly to two hourly from 24th July 2018, and on the same date Grantham town service 1 (Earlsfield - town centre - Alma Park) reduced to half hourly at peak periods (still twenty minute frequency during shopping hours). One sole early morning journey remains for route 1A via Sunningdale. From 3rd September 2018 route 4 (Grantham - Corby Glen - Stamford) passed from Centrebus to Call Connect as a contract change - the northern half of this route was an important service for Reliance in day gone by. Also the 9 from Oakham via Stamford to Peterborough has frequency reductions with abolition of through journeys across Stamford and the Oakham to Stamford section reducing to hourly off-peak journeys only following local government funding cuts. A full hourly service was maintained from Stamford to Peterborough until October 2018 when this passed to Delaine of Bourne as their route 205.

After nineteen years of operation in Grantham and surrounds Centrebus provide a service attuned to the travel needs of the area. Adjustments to the Grantham area network took place on 7th April 2019 resulting in some withdrawals and lessening of frequencies on town services.  Further lessening of frequencies followed, most recently in September 2022, reflecting the reduced usage of public tranport experienced by operators nationwide since the covid pandemic lockdowns of 2020.

Timetable leaflet from September 2000 for the

Leyland Leopard / Duple Dominant JAL573N of Reliance, seen at Grantham in 1978.
A one owner bus which operated here for some 25 years.
(photo with thanks from the johnmightycat1 collection)

Grantham old bus station (pre-1984) off St Peters Hill in 1979 with Reliance AEC / Plaxton bus NTL283G departing.
A 43-seater new in August 1969.  Note the Reliance booking office to the right and the Road Car office to the left.
© Copyright Alan Murray-Rust and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence