The Delaine "network" centres on four market towns plus the City of Peterborough. From a map enthusiast's point of view their network cartography is, to say the least, basic!
But the individual service route maps are superb. Here is that for the "main line"see if n..
Buses run every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday and every hour on Sundays as route 101. Route 102 is a Monday to Friday operation and tours the complexities of Deeping St James before running hourly to Peterborough.
Note also that the 102 nips down Godsey Lane to call at The Deepings' Tesco.
Whilst at the 102 stop, it is woth noting that Delaine display timetables (remember them?) at their bus strops. Streetview's view is out of date ...
The hourly extension north to Morton turns off the A15 ...
... and trundles along the attractive High Street to turn outside the equally attractive church where an ideal turning triangle makes the manoeuvre easy!
In addition to the route map, there are more detailed town plans which are, again, excellent.
... but the policy is very clear.
Obviously these are maintained by the company that has no desire to hide behind the less-than-enthusiastic information provided by many local authorities.
The 201 takes the "long way round" via Stamford between Bourne and Peterborough and offers an hourly service Monday to Saturday but nothing on Sundays. 
The maps are superb, as usual; and the local extract for Stamford clearly shows that the 202 variant omits the little tour round the town.
The 301 from Stamford to Spalding bcompletes the network.
The map helps!
The 302 serves more of Deeping St James and has occasional trips to Bourne, mainly around school times. The whole 301/302 service runs only Monday to Friday.
401, 402, 403 and 404 are basically school services, mainly to get the kiddies to and from Bourne Academy.
But hidden in the 401 is a "real" bus service.
On Thursdays only it wiggles around the villages near the A15 and on the B1177 ...
... to provide a once-a-week shopping trip into Bourne. A careful perusal of the timetable reveals that the 1215 take-you-home trip from Bourne does not actually terminate at Aslackby but continues in service back to Bourne.
A round trip via Rippingale Church ...
... would be a real delight.
Also a delight is the former Rippingale Station on the long-closed line from Essendine and Bourne to Sleaford. Amazingly, the station is still intact and sits proudly with a few bits of track.
At one stage the owner had a goodly collection of railway "stuff".
So it was that Alan travelled from Northampton to Bourne in a superbly preserved Stagecoach bus.
But back to "The Delaine":-
Alan's conclusions are apposite as we all watch the bus industry teetering on the edge of collapse!
A Saturday excursion takes us to Bourne in Lincolnshire where they run the buses in a slightly different manner to the fashions favoured by bigger companies. Newly delivered Enviro 200 MMC number 170 (AD 22 DBL) ...
... carries the same livery as Leyland PD2 number 45, new in 1956. 
As a bus is a rectangular box the livery is applied in straight lines, no swoops, no diagonals, no motorway service vehicle yellow and nothing stuck over windows. Route branding is applied instead of an advert for the local car dealer.
Buses in Bourne are managed in Bourne, not in Chelmsford, Berlin or somewhere else fifty miles away. Bus stops have proper timetables. You might describe this as old fashioned as you plan yet another re-structuring which will have fewer managers covering an even bigger area - but observations, admittedly on only one Saturday, suggest it is a way of running a bus company which encourages passenger use.
Big is not always beautiful.
Maybe some of the big groups should look to Delaine and see whether they need to review their business philosophy.
Maybe they really do need to be Born (Bourne) again?
Next Variety blog : Saturday 7th May
Proper paper timetable leaflets available from both the drivers and the office 😀
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