Session flash not working in Laravel 5.2.45

Similar issue regarding Session flash not working. Was suggested to another to post a new post for help.

Doesn't seem to be working with either 'web' in routes or not. Had removed, added back, same issue:

$ php artisan --version
Laravel Framework version 5.2.45

From route list:

$ php artisan route:list
...
|        | GET|HEAD                       | dashboard                                                                       | dashboard.index                            | Project\Http\Controllers\DashboardController@index                                           | web,auth      |

routes.php

Route::group(['middleware' => ['web', 'auth',],], function () {
    Route::resource('dashboard', 'DashboardController');
...

Have been running the follow after changes to routes and .env:

php artisan clear-compiled
php artisan config:clear
php artisan config:cache
composer dump-auto

Kernel.php

<?php namespace Project\Http;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Kernel as HttpKernel;

class Kernel extends HttpKernel {

    /**
     * The application's route middleware groups.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $middlewareGroups = [
        'web' => [
            \Project\Http\Middleware\EncryptCookies::class,
            \Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\AddQueuedCookiesToResponse::class,
            \Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession::class,
            \Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession::class,
            \Project\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken::class,
        ],

        'api' => [
            'throttle:60,1',
        ],
    ];

    /**
     * The application's global HTTP middleware stack.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $middleware = [
        'Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\CheckForMaintenanceMode',
        'Project\Http\Middleware\EncryptCookies',
        'Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\AddQueuedCookiesToResponse',
        'Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession',
        'Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession',
        'Project\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken',
    ];

    /**
     * The application's route middleware.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $routeMiddleware = [
        'auth' => 'Project\Http\Middleware\Authenticate',
        'auth.basic' => 'Illuminate\Auth\Middleware\AuthenticateWithBasicAuth',
        'guest' => 'Project\Http\Middleware\RedirectIfAuthenticated',
        'cors' => 'Project\Http\Middleware\Cors',
    ];

}

BTW, my RouteServiceProvider is still using older method:

    public function map(Router $router) {
        $router->group(['namespace' => $this->namespace], function ($router) {
            require app_path('Http/routes.php');
        });
    }

so 'web' is not being applied twice.