More Skylink services for Leicester

March 2010

From 25 April, Leicester residents will receive a more frequent service to Derby and East Midlands Airport.

Bus operator, Kinchbus will increase the frequency of the Skylink bus from hourly to every half hour during the day, keeping the existing hourly service during the night.

This development will alleviate timetable pressures caused by congestion and make the service more convenient for holiday makers travelling to the airport and shoppers travelling to Loughborough and Derby.

Derby City Council has provided capital investment to contribute to an additional vehicle which will allow the entire route to operate to the same frequency standard. Leicestershire County Council has contributed towards a marketing budget of the wider Skylink bus network.

Jamie Cheatle, Operations Manager at Kinchbus, said, "These changes will allow us to protect the longer term interests of the service.  We have been working with our partners to combat the effects of congestion on the route and the solution of an extra vehicle will ease reliability issues and allow us to serve Leicester more frequently."

Mrs Pendleton, Lead Member for Environment and Transport at Leicestershire County Council said “There has not been such a frequent bus service between Leicester and Derby for many years. This improved frequency gives passengers more choice and an alternative to using the car and we hope Leicestershire residents will embrace this improved service.”

Lucy Care, Cabinet Member for Planning and Transportation at Derby City Council said, "We're delighted that, by working together with our partners, we've been able to further improve what is already a really successful service. This improves the reliability of the bus service to the airport, and gives Derby residents a frequent bus service to Leicester."

In addition, the Skylink service will no longer serve Loughborough train station also from this date, as passenger usage data shows that East Midlands Parkway station has become the preferred station for passengers travelling from the south.  Passengers travelling between Loughborough Train Station and the town centre can use one of the many frequent 'Sprint' bus services and transfer onto Skylink using a special through ticket. 

Passengers can find out more about this service change at www.skylink.co.uk or by contacting Kinchbus on 01509 815637