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[Please note that the shuttle service won't operate 1 November - 31 March.]

Yes, still running at the moment. I assume until end of half term? Saw one myself on the shuttle

According to the East Midlands Airport website:

"We have a free pick up or drop off option at our Long Stay car park. This car park is free for up to 60 minutes. Long Stay 2 is a 15 - 20 minute walk or a short shuttle bus journey from the terminal. Please note that the shuttle service won't operate 1 November - 31 March.
Our free shuttle bus operates 24 hours a day, every day. With shuttle buses every 20 minutes, it's a quick journey from the car park to the terminal doors. When returning, the Pick Up zone is just outside of arrivals."

The driver shortage is over so it's time to get rid of boards that require buses running as little as 15 minutes late from terminating early on the last run of the day in order to get back to the depot within driver hours. Or at least I assume it's poor diagramming pushing hours to the limit rather than a lazy driver that caused the 17:40 50 to Narborough to terminate at Fosse Park due to the driver needing to get back to the depot on time.

While not arguing that what happened was customer-friendly, the decision was presumably made for a good reason. Are we sure there was no problem with the vehicle?

By the time it arrived at Fosse Park, the 1740 Leicester - Narborough was running 17 minutes late, which could potentially have meant the driver might be close to exceeding his hours if he continued to Narborough then back to depot, especially if there were any further delays on his empty trip. The 1800 Leicester - Narborough was less than 5 minutes behind the 1740 at Fosse Park so, apart from having to change buses, the impact on passengers would have been minor.

4750 has reportedly been withdrawn due to a collision, leaving only twelve Pulsar Geminis remaining.

4750 is showing on bustimes.org, tracking currently on route 48 (departure from Leicester at 1135). It has not tracked for a couple of days but if it was just a minor 'bump' that would make sense.

Alternatively, the ticket machine may have been transferred into a different vehicle without the vehicle number being changed - so, has anyone viewed any of these journeys to be able to confirm which bus is actually working them?

Rail replacement until the weekend,specifically the trams.

That would be 35179 which is a Leicester-branded Streetdeck currently in Sheffield.

Pscar05's post had it the other way round - a Sheffield-branded Streetdeck in Leicester. If that's so, any ideas what that might have been?

[joint]

... apparently we are not able to have the electric busses due to planning problems with the ports (seen on Instagram the land owner isn't allowing the electric chargers to be installed)

Serious thought -

According to the news item on the Leicester Buses website, the Arriva electric double-deck buses were (partly?) funded by a joint bid to the Government's Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme by Arriva UK Bus and Leicester City Council.

These things normally require the money to be used only for the stated purpose (in this case, electric buses for Leicester) otherwise the grant has to be re-paid, so I am not sure that Arriva can just send them elsewhere - or what Leicester City Council would do if they did try to do that.

[4426]

Thurmaston depot's ticket machine numbering strikes again!

Bustimes has Arriva Merseyside 4426 (MX09 LXH, although the reg has now been removed) tracking on Midlands route 127 today. Having viewed one of the journeys, I can confirm that this is actually Midlands 4425 (YX64 VPF). Merseyside 4426 is not on the list of buses due to transfer to Midlands, possibly because it is in a special livery for a local children's hospice in Merseyside, and it has also been tracking on Merseyside today so clearly hasn't moved.

In addition, 4424 (YX64 VPE) is still active in Leicester although it doesn't seem to have tracked as itself since 19th January. It is actually one of two vehicles tracking as 4435 - 4435 is the one on route 127 while the 4435 which has been tracking today on routes 84 then 49 is actually 4424.

[4435]

Former Arriva North-West 4419 (CX58 GBV) is now in service with Arriva Midlands at Thurmaston - it has been renumbered 4435 and was viewed on Saturday (23rd December) on route 48.

4427 (MX09 LXJ) is also now in service - ironically, in light of the previous comments about 4428, when viewed on Saturday morning (again on route 48) 4427's destination display was ... stuck on 'reversing'!

4433 looks like a dodgy swop, according to Bustimes hasn't earned a penny in a month

I think 4433 is getting an undeserved reputation for unreliability, maybe based on the tracking data on bustimes.org.

Yesterday (Wednesday 29th), the tracking data suggests that 4433 worked the 0750 route 48 from South Wigston to Leicester but it has not reported all the way to the city centre, just at a few stops in South Wigston. It then shows no other work for the day.

BUT - I travelled on 4433 yesterday on the 1012 route 48 from Leicester to South Wigston. This is part of the same timeboard as the 0750 from South Wigston and the remainder of this timeboard seems to be missing from Wednesday's tracking record, so it's probably that the tracking equipment is faulty rather than that the vehicle keeps breaking down.

The bus sounded in perfectly good fettle on the trip to South Wigston.

It's always started and finished in Humberstone Gate, maybe it because it's moved stops

Sorry, I have to disagree.

The August 2022 timetable leaflet shows route 17 as Charles Street (Stand CD) - Highfields - Charles Street.

It moved to Humberstone Gate East in April 2023.

Interesting registered change.. 22A will operate Evington to Barrow Upon Soar in the new year?

According the the 'service changes' listed on the Leicester Buses website for January 2024:

22A - Evington to Birstall via City Centre - some journeys will be extended beyond Bristall to serve Barrow-upon-Soar, Sileby and Cossington to replace the 128 service which will be withdrawn.

https://www.leicesterbuses.co.uk/service-changes

A number of service changes have been registered for 7th Jan.
Whilst most look like timetable changes, looks like 16 & 17 have new city centre stops?

It looks like the start/end points in the registration for route 17 have been wrong since April, when its central barrier moved from Charles Street to the stop on Humberstone Gate East formerly used by routes 88 and 88A (which had moved to Haymarket Bus Station), so that's just a bit of "tidying-up" rather than an upcoming change, I think.

63522 is back in service in Leicester, although it doesn't appear to be tracking at the moment.

It was on 88A yesterday (Monday 30th) as I was making my way to visit someone in the Royal Infirmary, working the 1330 from City Centre to Saffron Crossroads.

It has been on 38/38A today (Tuesday 31st), viewed working the 1701 38A to Thurnby Lodge as I was returning from today's hospital visit.

It isn't tracking as a different vehicle - the journeys it would have worked have just not tracked at all.

There is an interesting (and fairly well-hidden) page on the First Leicester website about the Leicester electric buses:

https://www.firstbus.co.uk/leicester/about-us/leicester-electric

Towards the bottom of the page is a link to download a PDF booklet which seems to be a copy of a booklet produced for the launch event of theses buses - it has quite a bit of useful information about the project so is well worth a read.

I quite like the animation at the top of the page, too!

I notice that, according to bustimes.org, there are no electric vehicles out today (Sun 16th July) on First Leicester routes. I think this also happened a few weeks ago and, on other Sundays, there have been only a small number of electrics working.

Does anyone know any reason why the electric buses aren't being used so much on Sundays - following all the fanfare about their introduction, I would have expected it to be the other way round, with a full electric output on the single-deck routes once there were enough vehicles in service (which there are now).

[4566]

To answer my own question:

4566 is working on the 84 route today - I have viewed it and can confirm it carries the registration YX72 OEO. For some reason, it seems that 4566 and 4570 have been swapped round - or is it a mistake that will be rectified sometime?

To reply to myself (again) . . . obviously a mistake that has now been rectified (and after only 3 months).

I have been keeping an eye on 4566 and 4570 whenever I could. In Leicester this afternoon, I viewed 4566 at Haymarket Bus Station and noticed that it now carries the registration which it was originally supposed to have - YX72 OEK.

A quick check on bustimes allowed me to track down 4570 at St Margarets Bus Station and that now carries YX72 OEO.

This change must have occurred within the last two weeks as I last viewed 4566 on 3rd May and the 'wrong' registration was still being carried then.

I don't know whether the vehicles have been renumbered or the registration plates have been swapped round although, from a close-ish look at the fleet numbers, it didn't look like they had been changed (there seemed to be no evidence of a sticky residue from where a number may have been removed, for example). It may have to remain a mystery.