Leicester City Council has announced that it will be working with bus companies to try and improve journey times and reduce congestion across the city as part of a new council-led scheme.
Some of the measures it will implement to achieve this include cutting duplicate services and co-ordinating timetables on several routes across the city.
This aligns with a recent agreement made between the council and bus operators to better integrate bus services operating on similar routes.
What’s more, these changes are expected to reduce the likelihood of buses arriving simultaneously, which can cause congestion and slow journey times.
The new agreements involving bus operators First, Arriva and Centrebus will be brought in on a three-year trial basis, from April 2023 until March 2025, according to the local authority.
This new scheme is one of several major upgrades to be introduced to bus services in the city since the launch of the Leicester Bus Partnership in spring 2022.
Adam Clarke, councillor and Leicester deputy city mayor for transportation, clean air and climate emergency, said: “The Leicester Bus Partnership means that the city council and local bus operators are working jointly on investment and innovation of the city’s public transport system.
“As part of that we’ve focused on where services are duplicating each other, causing congestion and confusing travellers.
“Evidence shows that reliability and journey speed is harmed by buses delaying themselves – basically too many buses trying to serve the same routes at the same time.
“Working with the companies to reduce duplication, this trial scheme means removing up to 10 diesel buses, speeding up journey times, lowering pollution and improving timetables across the day.”
Arriva, Firstbus and Kinch bus have already reported the removal of some duplicate routes across the area.
Some of the previous work of the partnership includes the introduction of an all-electric bus fleet, which has replaced the older diesel fleet at the city’s three Park and Ride sites, the Hospital Hopper service connecting the city’s three biggest hospitals and the Orbital route circling the whole of Leicester.
Moreover, a further 93 electric buses will reportedly be introduced across 17 Firstbus and Arriva services from March 2023, together with a new free bus service around the city centre. The council has also announced plans to introduce 30 new electric bus routes in the next eight years.
