Whatever Happened to Arriva Click?
As you would expect, following on from fbb's recent West Lothian blogs, there is plenty about Leicester's so-called "Uber-style" demand responsive minibus service. It was paid for by the developers of New Lubbesthorpe ...
The service is listed on part of Arriva's web site ...
... and a google search will provide you with the phone number and opening hours.
There is even a dinky little video with smiling passengers and quick glances of places you might want to go to in the city.
There's lovely! And all your not very frequently asked questions are still not really being answered for the Leicester service.
Needless to say the service hasn't run since cer Summer 2022.
So no longer will Arriva Click minibi lurk in the Braunstone Leisure Centre car park ...
... idly waiting for calls from passengers that rarely come.
Bus watchers have long opined that the public would much prefer a proper bus service with a timetable and without the faff of on-line App booking. It is so much easier to walk to your bus stop, board, pay your fare and travel. You know when your bus to town will come and you don't have to wotry about coming back.
The new service is called Novus and is operated by Vectare a company that we met miles away in sunny Harlow. fbb thinks that Vectare must be subcontracting their operations to a local Leicester company - and bit like the way National Express contracts others to run its coaches. On the Vectare site we are introduced to "Novus Flex" which looks very much like Arriva Click in a shallow disguise.
Dors it still operate?
fbb asks the question because the Leicester Buses comprehensive web site (of which more in tomorrow's blog) lists a Novus (non-flex) Direct. 
Which is something different.
And, lo and joyously behold, there is a PDF of an excellent leaflet - well nearly excellent - for a real bus running to a real timetable.
It runs every 30 minutes seven days a week, with an hourly evening service each day. Unusually for the secretive bus industry that refuses to tell you how much the product is until you get on, Novus Direct has a simple zonal fares table on the leaflet.
This shows adult and child fares but nowhere are we told whether the reduction to £2 maximum applies. The Novus Direct service is dated from January 2023, so fbb presumes that it replaces the Novus Flex. It would appear to use the same minibuses for the new Direct service. Will these rapidly become inadequate?
Below is one on its layover in the purpose built turning circle (NOT!) at the New Lubbesthorpe terminus.
The big disappointment on the leaflet is the map.
Whilst there is not much you can do with the "Hail and Ride" section on the new estate ...
... the lack of stop names throughout the rest of the route and particularly in Lecester centre is unhelpful.
There is plenty of room to include them! Maybe in the age of "It's all on-line" potential passengers should just be pleased to get map, fares and timetable in printed form!
Novus Direct does not really serve Leicester Station.
Six minutes would be a challenge, certainly for the creaky, as with fbb. You leave the station and, dicing with death and a very complex set of traffic lights and crossings, you aim for the light coloured building lower left in the Streetview shot below.
Keeping to the left of said building you now amble in a leisurely fashion along Granby Street ...
... until you come to the junction with Rutland street. This is not easy to spot as it is not marked on any of the on-line maps ...
... but it is the yellow road that links Granby Street with Charles Street. It does say Rutland Street on the Tesco Express shop!
Here is the tight hand turn ...
... and here is the bus stop..
Or, at least, fbb assumes that it is. Google maps does mention Novus Direct as calling at this stop if you click on the right nibbles!
It is not a good interchange between bus and rail. Perhaps when the new station entrance opens, it might be possible to get buses close to the front door.
The good news continues tomorrow with an excellent map and, to quote fbb's correspondent, "Kathryn heard the frog but I didn't".
It's such incites that make the UK's public transport such a delight.
Next Best O'Leicester blog : Thursday 20th April
Vectare are actually based in Loughborough, the Leicester operation is in-house and part of a wider network on the Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire border. The Harlow operation is an expansion of the company taking over an Essex operator several years ago. Novus Flex still exists, a quick look on the Vectare website (via Google) shows its details and make it clear that it is additional to Novus Direct, and the fixed timetable service is part of that developer contract that replaced the Click service as a logical addition as the housing estate expands. Reading comments from Vectare about other services they have recently taken up would make me believe that nothing they operate in the East Midlands are in the £2 fare cap.
ReplyDeleteQuite frankly the 6 minutes walk time from Rutland St to Rail Station is 'creaky' fbb speed, I've done it in much less as a fit-ish middle aged person without trying that hard.
Vectares new Nottingham to Newark route 90 IS included in the £2 fare cap in conjunction with Nottinghamshire County Council.
DeleteIt would still be better if the bus stopped by the railway station, as that six-minute walk can be increased considerably by anyone who takes the wrong turning!
ReplyDeleteIt may be a case of just following the signs - but once when I suggested that to an exasperated and seriously lost woman, she snapped "Well, where do I find a sign then?"