Connecting St Margaret’s Project - November 2023
We are pleased to have been awarded £12m from the government’s third round of the Levelling Up Fund for our connecting St Margaret’s Project. The proposed development would redesign the junction of St Margaret’s Way, Burleys Way, Vaughan Way and Church Gate. As part of this new bus lanes along St Margaret’s Way and Sanvey Gate are planned. This will help improve journey times and service reliability by creating a direct link between the new St Margaret’s Bus Station and the A6, A50 and Anstey Lane corridors.
ProCon Awards - Winner - November 2023
We are pleased to announce that our new St Margaret’s Bus Station won the ProCon Awards 2023 for the category Regeneration Project of the Year!
Route One Awards - Highly Commended - November 2023
The Leicester Bus Parnership’s multi-operator Tap On Tap Off scheme was recognised in the Route One Awards 2023, where we came second and received ‘Highly Commended’ under the category Best Use of Technology (over 150 vehicles). Congratulations to National Express West Midlands who won the overall award under this category.
Quality Bus/Bus Centre of Excellence Conference - November 2023
We are pleased t the Bus Centre of Excellence (BCoE) hosted the first Quality Bus Conference in Leicester, which was open to all industry professionals, giving the Leicester Buses Partnership the opportunity to showcase the work we have done since the Enhanced Partnership Scheme was launched in April 2022.
National Transport Awards - Highly Commended - October 2023
The Leicester Bus Parnership’s work was recognised in the National Transport Awards 2023, where we came second and received ‘Highly Commended’ under the category Best Alliance/Collaboration of the Year. Congratulations to Cornwall Council who won the overall award under this category.
Leicester Buses Partnership Delivered 75% of goals in Year 1 - July 2023
In May 2022 Leicester City Council, Arriva, Centrebus, FirstBus, Kinchbus, Roberts Travel and Stagecoach formed the Leicester Buses Enhanced Partnership. Our aim is to make bus travel electric, frequent, reliable, easy and great value. We legally committed to 100 goals over a 3-year period. By August 2023, we have already delivered 75 goals and are on track to deliver the rest by May 2024.
A6 Bus Lane Consultation - July 2023
One of the major bus priority works in our scheme is introducing bus lanes along the A6 to help improve reliability. More details about the scheme and the consultation that took place over the summer period can be found here - A6 Bus Lanes.
1,000 Leicester Buses branded bus stop totems installed - July 2023
We have officially installed 1,000 of the new Leicester Buses branded bus stop totems in the network! The new bus stop totems have an eye-catching Leicester buses branded flag and a four-side poster drum for timetable information and publicity. The majority of these bus stops also have real-time information displays and text-to-speech announcements to assist those with visual impairments.
The project has been ongoing since January 2022 and we will be continuing to invest in our bus stop infrastructure by installing these bus stops in other urban areas such as Birstall, Wigston, Anstey and Glenfield. We hope to be in a position to be able fund all the stops in the Flexi area with the Leicester buses branded totems.
Hop! service carrying 1,000 passengers a day - July 2023
Less than 4 months since it’s launch, our brand new free electric Hop service is averaging at carrying 1,000 passengers a day and initial data suggests that the most used boarding stops are the bus station and railway station, suggesting the service is being used to interchange from other bus services.
New Electric Buses being introduced by First Leicester - May 2023 Onwards
First Leicester has broken ground on infrastructure work to support 68 battery-electric buses that are being part-funded via a Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) fast-track bid submitted by Leicester City Council. The first of the Wrightbus GB Kite Electroliner single-deckers will arrive from April 2023.
In total, £29.1m is being put to the First Leicester project. That includes ZEBRA money and capital investment from the operator. When all 68 of the GB Kite Electroliners are in use, they will account for approximately two-thirds of group’s fleet in the East Midlands.
In addition to this, further funding has been secured for an additional 18 double decker buses, which will make the First Leicester depot one of the first fully electric depots in the UK outside of London. Leicester Electric | First Bus
Network Optimised - April 2023
Bus duplication has been removed on 4 key corridors to rationalise and simplify the network and allow better co-ordination between bus services in order to provide an enhanced experience for customers:
Humberstone Road/Uppingham Road: First 38/A and Arriva 53 (which is being renumbered to 37) will provided an enhanced combined frequency of every 5 minutes Monday to Saturday and 15 minutes on Sunday along this corridor.
Goodwood to City Centre: First service 54 will be renumbered to service 15, providing an enhanced service, operating every 7/8 minutes Monday to Friday, every 10 minutes on Saturday and every 15 minutes on Sunday. Centrebus service 54A will no longer operate.
Beaumont Leys to City Centre: First service 54 will be providing an enhanced service, operating every 7/8 minutes Monday to Friday, every 10 minutes on Saturday and every 15 minutes on Sunday. Centrebus service 54A will no longer operate.
Evington to City Centre: Centrebus will be providing an enhanced service, operating every 10 minutes Monday to Saturday and every 30minutes on Sundays. First service 22 will no longer operate.
Flexi tickets and tap on tap off contactless capping will continue to be available across all services, providing passengers with the best value fare regardless of which bus company they travel with.
New Free City Centre electric bus launched - April 2023
Our final service the Hop! which forms part of the Greenlines electric network has been launched, serving key destinations around the City Centre on a 10 minute frequency Monday to Saturday.