Year 2 Progress and Results

The Leicester Buses Partnership was formed in May 2022 between Leicester City Council and the bus operators (Arriva, Centrebus, First Bus, Kinch Bus, Roberts Travel, Stagecoach and Vectare) in Leicester. 

The aim of the partnership is to make bus travel electric, frequent, reliable, easy and great value, with specific targets of increasing passenger usage by 25% (to pre-covid levels) by 2025 and electrifying the whole network and increasing use by a further 10% by 2030.  The partnership is well-recognised as a successful partnership in the industry, having delivered 94 out of the 100 commitments in just over 2 years since forming, including:

  • 50% of the network is electric, (key milestone reached in June 2024) with 134 ‘electric green’ liveried buses (providing a one network feel and having a greater combined impact of the number of electric buses) operating from 4 charging depots, including First Bus’s depot which is fully electric.  Total investment of £60.5m has been made so far, consisting of operator and grant (ZEBRA & TCF) funding. 

  • Orbital passenger usage has increased by 25% year on year and Hospital Hopper has seen a 21% increase since introducing electric buses on the services.

  • New Hop! free city centre electric circular launched in April 2023 – supports interchange and accessibility and supports the existing network.  500,000 trips made in first year of operation.


    Network optimisation along 9 key corridors with coordinated timetables, less commercial mileage (83% of pre-covid levels), with minimal impact to frequencies helping to provide a more sustainable network.

  • 10 bus priority schemes including a new bus link at Savoy Street (journey time saving of 2 minutes per trip outbound) and St Margaret’s Bus Station – Burleys Way (journey time savings of 4 minutes in the peak and 3 minutes in the off peak). 

  • 500 new bus shelters installed, including bee-friendly shelters.

  • St Margaret’s Bus Station – first carbon neutral bus station in the UK.

  • Over 1,300 new Leicester Bus branded totems installed, including 750 real-time information stops with text-to-speech facility. 

  • Unified one network brand set up under Leicester Buses – logo on all bus stops, bus shelters, bus stations and on commercial operator’s fleet.

     

  •  Leicester Buses website – central information on timetables, disruptions, service changes as well as a journey planner.  Looking to develop this by investing in a Leicester Buses branded app.

  • First area to launch Multi-Operator Tap on Tap off capping in May 2022 – covering 99% of journeys within the scheme.  Our multi-operator ticketing scheme has trebled since 2019 and continues to grow, with £6.1m trips made in 2023/24, up 11% on the previous year.  Further work is being carried out to include the remaining operators in the scheme. 

 

Collectively this diverse and comprehensive partnership has resulted in a 14% increase in passenger numbers between 2022/23 and 2023/24, to 97.1% of pre-covid levels. 

Overall network punctuality has improved from 84.5% to 86%. Overall satisfaction is at 82%, bus stop satisfaction at 81%, length of time waiting for the bus at 73% and punctuality of bus at 76% (Transport Focus) which are all either equal to or higher than all others in the Urban Other category.

Further details of what we’ve delivered and what we are hoping to deliver next (subject to funding) can be found in the video below.