First Bus - Leicester

[leicesterbusadventurer]

Not 100% on this, but could the X84 be merged into the 84?
I feel they interwork together anyway?

They don't interwork, they're not even run from the same depot.

It used to interwork with the 85, but not since April's reductions.

[47609FireFly]

Full 13 is now there.. like the 14/A it just seems to be minor tweaks rather than a full change. (A shame, they really could of done with a Sunday on the 13!).
Noticed the 13 will no longer terminate as such at Park Drive, and instead appears to just run a continuous loop terminating at Haymarket (where it waits a slightly longer time!). The 2155 departure which currently waits 15mins at park Drive.. will now wait time inside the Optimus Point industrial estate!
22B is only Saturday, and nothing from Centrebus, which could mean that they'll still be running their 22A around the same part of Birstall also!

https://www.centrebus.info/service-changes/ - clicking on the 'View Timetable' link for the 22A shows that Centrebus' Saturday timetable will be only city centre to Evington from 06/08/2022. They will not be running to Birstall on Saturdays. First's 22B will be the only route along Birstall Road on Saturdays.

[47609FireFly]

Nice to see first getting a tender even if it is only for Saturday's

this change also sees First serving Birstall for the first time in quite a few years - think the last time was the 70a?

Not quite - the 70A was city centre to Blackmore Drive. The last time First operated to Birstall, it was route 70 to Windmill Avenue. 

[Glenfieldmathk1]

https://www.centrebus.info/service-changes/ - clicking on the 'View Timetable' link for the 22A shows that Centrebus' Saturday timetable will be only city centre to Evington from 06/08/2022. They will not be running to Birstall on Saturdays. First's 22B will be the only route along Birstall Road on Saturdays.

Correct. But at time I posted this comment, there was no details from Centrebus!

[Glenfieldmathk1]

Not quite - the 70A was city centre to Blackmore Drive. The last time First operated to Birstall, it was route 70 to Windmill Avenue.

I always thought it was 70A as I used it to get home from college. Centrebus also used 70A until later changing to 22A. (With 1 70A being run by a Grantham depot bus).

[leicesterbusadventurer]

Not quite - the 70A was city centre to Blackmore Drive. The last time First operated to Birstall, it was route 70 to Windmill Avenue.

You've got it the other way round. It was initially the cross-city 70, Windmill Avenue to Blackmore Drive, then around 2009, it was split so the 70 was just Leicester to Blackmore Drive, with Leicester to Windmill Avenue becoming the 70A. That then passed to Centrebus in September 2010, as Centrebus already ran the 70B to Harrogate Drive in Birstall. Then the following year they became part of the 22A and 22B.

The 70 remained in operation until October 2013 when it became part of the 16. This change was undone in August 2016 with the Blackmore Drive section re-numbered as the 20 as it is today. It was First run initially, before passing to Centrebus in October 2019.

[Glenfieldmathk1]

Big Service changes announced.. despite the fact they seemed to have actually reduced frequency's (opposite to what the new bus plan was supposed to do?) on most routes, there are positives:
4, 14/A, 17, 21, 22, 88/A/E, gets improvements to help with reliability.
13 gets Sunday, and Saturday reverts back to every 30 mins..
25/26 increases frequency..

However..
16 downgraded to 30mins Mon-Sat
38/A downgraded to 7/8combined Mon-Fri
74 downgraded to 20mins Mon-Fri
Both seem to have also lost inter working

18 downgraded to 20mins Mon-Fri

Sunday service downgraded to every 60mins on service 16 & 18.
Sunday service reduced to 30mins on the 22

No changes to 13W, 22B, 54 (or Amazon Shuttles BHX3, BHX5)

Full timetables are online under forthcoming.

[SSmith09]

Big Service changes announced.. despite the fact they seemed to have actually reduced frequency's (opposite to what the new bus plan was supposed to do?) on most routes, there are positives:
4, 14/A, 17, 21, 22, 88/A/E, gets improvements to help with reliability.
13 gets Sunday, and Saturday reverts back to every 30 mins..
25/26 increases frequency..
38/A increases frequency

However..
16 downgraded to 30mins Mon-Sat
74 downgraded to 20mins Mon-Fri
Both seem to have also lost inter working

18 downgraded to 20mins Mon-Fri

Sunday service downgraded to every 60mins on service 16 & 18.
Sunday service reduced to 30mins on the 22

No changes to 13W, 22B, 54 (or Amazon Shuttles BHX3, BHX5)

Full timetables are online under forthcoming.

Services 14/14A and 38/38A have hidden reductions to weekday timetables too 

These changes should see a lower PVR by around 5 buses 

[LazyGuy222]

Big Service changes announced.. despite the fact they seemed to have actually reduced frequency's (opposite to what the new bus plan was supposed to do?) on most routes, there are positives:
4, 14/A, 17, 21, 22, 88/A/E, gets improvements to help with reliability.
13 gets Sunday, and Saturday reverts back to every 30 mins..
25/26 increases frequency..
38/A increases frequency

However..
16 downgraded to 30mins Mon-Sat
74 downgraded to 20mins Mon-Fri
Both seem to have also lost inter working

18 downgraded to 20mins Mon-Fri

Sunday service downgraded to every 60mins on service 16 & 18.
Sunday service reduced to 30mins on the 22

No changes to 13W, 22B, 54 (or Amazon Shuttles BHX3, BHX5)

Full timetables are online under forthcoming.

A complete joke considering this new Leicester Buses scheme was supposed to improve frequency's and connectivity, and First have gone and done the complete opposite except on the 13. 

Completely dumbfounded as to why the 22 is having a Sunday reduction when the route is usually fairly busy. Would've made more sense to swap the Streetdecks for Streetlites on a Sunday and kept the frequency as was.

[Glenfieldmathk1]

A complete joke considering this new Leicester Buses scheme was supposed to improve frequency's and connectivity, and First have gone and done the complete opposite except on the 13.

Completely dumbfounded as to why the 22 is having a Sunday reduction when the route is usually fairly busy. Would've made more sense to swap the Streetdecks for Streetlites on a Sunday and kept the frequency as was.

13 & 25/26 seem to have came out of this review much better than the other routes.
However, I think overall these slight changes are probably better in the long run. If it makes them more sustainable. At least they've not cancelled a lot of routes like they have in Worcester.

My guess is 16 & 74 will become fully double decker (now that they no longer need the full 5 deckers on Amazon shuttles - just 3 required now). They did trial the electric decker on these routes also.

As for 22, I cannot comment as I haven't seen it on Sundays. But from what I've heard numbers are down compared to pre-covid. (Hence why they split it in the first place).
On the other side 13 seems to have more passengers than a few years ago (mainly due to the Optimus point industrial estate development / Birch lane)
Looks like 25/26 is back to pre-covid too!

Something I am surprised is the 88/A hasn't reverted back to pre-covid timetables. It's time they adjusted the branding, as some buses are still showing the "every 5 mins" branding which seems not to be the case anymore.

I'm sure further changes / reviews will take place though. Is the new Leicester buses plan "Fully funded" yet?

[leicesterbusadventurer]

A complete joke considering this new Leicester Buses scheme was supposed to improve frequency's and connectivity, and First have gone and done the complete opposite except on the 13. 

It's just getting worse. First are just following what Arriva have done, and as a result of all these cuts, Kinchbus have gone one step further and will soon be scrapping the 2 between Leicester and Sileby.

This scheme is not at all going to plan.

[LazyGuy222]

First has confirmed that our upcoming electric vehicles will be built by Wrightbus.

https://news.firstbus.co.uk/news/first-bus-places-one-of-uks-largest-ever-ev-bus-orders-with-uk-manufacturer-wrightbus-following-dft-zebra-funding-award

[Glenfieldmathk1]

First has confirmed that our upcoming electric vehicles will be built by Wrightbus.

https://news.firstbus.co.uk/news/first-bus-places-one-of-uks-largest-ever-ev-bus-orders-with-uk-manufacturer-wrightbus-following-dft-zebra-funding-award

Surprised it says 20 double deckers and 173 single deckers.. I expected first as a whole to have ordered more double deckers (unless they plan to do that next time, as I know the previous company they were buying from was only offering single deckers).
After trials of the "Electroliner" here in Leicester.. I honestly hope that some of the 20 double deckers will come to Leicester (but probably not!).

What was good, I travelled on Sunday on the 13 and was good to see passengers using it! Hoping this will continue.. Today it was published in the local Glenfield newspaper so information is now out there!
I also used 13 today and the double decker was busy (1.20pm from city) (hence why I question what's going to happen if literally all Leicester's buses are replaced by singles).

Also - anyone noticed the First Twitter team seems to have been removed? Is this cost cutting perhaps?

Lastly, something I was also wondering.. how does the multi operator capping work? (£5 day).  I went on 162 and 104. After this ride 104 was capped. I then used 13 (and capped - no payment).. 
do first get anything for this journey? Maybe from LCC?
Or are the operators loosing out?

[xmj-signal]

Perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, there is now a full set of August 2022 timetable leaflets (with the exception of the 22B) available in the First travel shop just outside the Haymarket shopping centre.

This would suggest that the current services are expected to stay unchanged for some time - however, the 74 timetable will need to be reprinted almost immediately due to the move of the city centre starting point from Haymarket Bus Station (as shown in the leaflet) to St Margaret's Bus Station, from 2nd October.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of errors:

the map in the 16 leaflet shows Gedding Road being used in both directions rather than inward only (outward journeys run via Gwendolen Road and Drinkstone Road)

the map in the 25/26 leaflet shows these routes running along Abbey Park Road (they currently actually run via Ravensbridge Drive and Blackbird Road) although the map in the 54 leaflet correctly shows the route running via St Margaret's Way rather than Abbey Park Road

[markcf83]

Surprised it says 20 double deckers and 173 single deckers.. I expected first as a whole to have ordered more double deckers (unless they plan to do that next time, as I know the previous company they were buying from was only offering single deckers).
After trials of the "Electroliner" here in Leicester.. I honestly hope that some of the 20 double deckers will come to Leicester (but probably not!).

What was good, I travelled on Sunday on the 13 and was good to see passengers using it! Hoping this will continue.. Today it was published in the local Glenfield newspaper so information is now out there!
I also used 13 today and the double decker was busy (1.20pm from city) (hence why I question what's going to happen if literally all Leicester's buses are replaced by singles).

Also - anyone noticed the First Twitter team seems to have been removed? Is this cost cutting perhaps?

Lastly, something I was also wondering.. how does the multi operator capping work? (£5 day).  I went on 162 and 104. After this ride 104 was capped. I then used 13 (and capped - no payment)..
do first get anything for this journey? Maybe from LCC?
Or are the operators loosing out?

I was of the understanding that all of the order was to be double deckers.