Doing my usual trawl through the VOSA registrations yesterday (there were loads!), I came across this registration from TrentBarton;
PB0002711/37 – BARTON BUSES LTD, 88A MANSFIELD ROAD, HEANOR, DE75 7BG
- Registration Accepted
- Starting Point: Nottingham Broadmarsh Bus Station
- Finish Point: Leicester St Margarets Bus Station
- Via: West Bridgford
- Service Number: Leister Express
- Service Type: Limited Stop
- Effective Date: 25-JUL-2011
- Other Details: Monday ot Saturdays
I’ve always been surprised, since I moved to the area, that there is no Nottingham to Leicester bus service. Some National Express coaches do serve both places and obviously there a 2 or 3 trains an hour for most of the day. This is definitely one to look forward too.
Trentside Traveller's Blog 
This has been tried, some years ago, but wasn’t a success. I think it was part of routes 737/747/757 or something like that, which linked Leicester – Nottingham – Mansfield – Chesterfield – Sheffield and was a joint Stagecoach/Trent operation. Today’s PRONTO survives though, over part of the route.
The train between Leicester & Nottingham is to fast & regular IMO for the bus to be any kind of alternative, with a half hourly fast of 29 minutes & an hourly stopping train at 49 minutes. At a guess I’d say it’s at least an hour for a service direct via A606 & A46. So a similar situation to the X3 & ex centrebus Nottingham – Grantham 626. But what I find bizarre here about your research is the fact it’s trentbarton who’ve registered this ‘new service’ not premiere or yourbus even. If I can take you back a few years, Barton used to run an irregular service (I think) number 12 via the A46 Thurmaston Willoughby on the wolds, Keyworth? A606 into Nottingham. But can you remember Stagecoach express before pronto? This consisted of 737, 747 & 757. I’m pritty sure it was the 747 (I know 737 was for Chesterfield) that ran from Doncaster, Worksop, Mansfield, Nottingham & then on to Leicester! This in it’s self was a bizarre situation at the time because even I thought Stagecoach had taken over all these routes or had taken over TB for that matter! The Doncaster – Leicester ceased at the same time of the launch of pronto & the death of Stagecoach express, to date nothing ever replaced the link either. The big question is why did trentbarton or Stagecoach pull the plug at the time & why does trentbarton want to revive this route now? I’m guessing with a name like the Leicester express it IS a revival of the 747? It is surprising as you say that there’s no Nottingham Leicester link, kinchbus could of (at the time of Arriva pulling the plug on the Loughborough 99) extended their Leicester -Loughborough routes on to Nottingham but instead premiere took on the route (infact making a success too, from hourly to half hourly) & with the current bus war between the two companies (kinchbus now running alongside premieres X9) could this new Leicester express be running along the A60 corridor which is quite fast to Loughborough then fast via the A6 into Leicester?
Lol also the old coaches used on the stagecoach express’s can still be found on transpeak all these years later 🙂
This is indeed interesting, I knew I still had the timetables somewhere so I dug them out. The Stagecoach service was 757, in 1997, it was Leicester to Doncaster operating hourly with a journey time of 50 mins between Broad Marsh and Leics. (60 mins from Victoria) By 2000, it had been curtailed to just Nottingham to Doncaster. From 5th June 2000, however, Barton (Wellglade) started a 777 service from Nottingham to Leicester, again hourly with the same journey times, the calling points were Trent Bridge, West Bridgford, Tollerton, Six Hills, Ratcliffe College and Thurmaston, None of these operated after 6pm in the evening. Could this latest venture be a revival of the old 777? Around the same time, there was also a Stagecoach United Counties, ‘Coachlinks’ X60/61 service from Nottingham to Oxford via Leicester but routed via Loughborough, Quorn, Mountsorrel and Birstall with a journey time of 60 mins to Leics. (4 hours to Oxford) There were only 5 journeys daily at irregular intervals and I dont know when this ceased.
Also, largely forgotten now, was an express service by Trent from Derby to Leicester, the 207, I seem to think that it had a name at one point (Pegasus??) It was two hourly via Alvaston, the A50 and M1 to junction 22 and A50 again, with a journey time of 50 mins. It was intended to connect with TransPeak at Derby. I would love to see this revived as well, but with Skylink now covering Derby to Leicester, albeit with a very long journey time, I dont think there’s much chance!
the express services was:
737 Nottingham-Mansfield-Holmewood-Chesterfield and extended to Sheffield/Meadowhall on a Sunday and was operated by Stagecoach and Trent Buses
747 Nottingham-Mansfield-direct-Chesterfield-Sheffield-Meadowhall operated by Stagecoach
757 Leicester-Nottingham-Mansfield-Worksop-Doncaster operated by Barton and Stagecoach
also there was a 767 which worked off the 747 at Sheffield which went Sheffield-Meadowhall-M1-North Anston-Worksop
Excellent! Mark has summarised it perfectly. Is my memory playing tricks, but I seem to recall the 757 driver could issue tickets on the East Coast Main Line via Doncaster.
The challenge we had back then was the validity of Trent Zigzags (if they were called that then), which Trent assured us were valid on the group of routes, but many drivers, especially Stagecoach thought differently. No doubt why PRONTO accepts more or less no tickets at all other than PRONTO, which completely stuffs any form of integrated public transport in North Notts.
The 757 did for a while offer through tickets with the East Coast Main Line at Doncaster. I seem to remember that on weekdays it was £10 return to York, and about £30 to Edinburgh. Saturday’s connection was for Leeds. This was discontinued when the timetable was reduced to every 2 hours Nottm-Doncaster. I must admit that I preferred the Retford & District 100 Nottm-Doncaster service which formed part of the present-day Stagecoach Lincs 99. It ran about four times a day Sunday-Friday with Sunday journeys between Retford and Nottm co-ordinated with the Worksop 33 (and possibly numbered 136), with various routes on weekdays, with a single Bawtry-Gainsborough-Retford-Nottingham return trip on Saturdays
Thanks for the interesting comments everyone.
Certainly, the route has an interesting, if chequered history.
I vaguely remember TrentBarton having another go in the early part of the 2000s. I guess this was it.
BARTON BUSES LTD – PF0007191/5
Registration Number: PF0007191
Variation Number 1
Status Surrendered
Operator Name BARTON BUSES LTD
Service Number(s) 12
Start Point Leicester
Finish Point Nottingham
Via
Service Type Normal Stopping
Date Received 28-MAR-2003
Effective Date 26-APR-2003
I seem to remember it was operated from Broad Marsh, and rail competition was blamed on their website on withdrawal.
Premier have tried also (I simply don’t remember this one!)
PREMIERE TRAVEL LTD – PB1021628/5
Registration Number: PB1021628
Variation Number 1
Status Cancelled
Operator Name PREMIERE TRAVEL LTD
Service Number(s) 12
Start Point Nottingham
Finish Point Leicester
Via Tollerton, Keyworth, Syston
Service Type Normal Stopping
Date Received 08-JUL-2009
Effective Date 31-AUG-2009
For the record, does anyone know the difference between status cancelled, withdrawn and surrendered?
The Premiere service was, I believe, a Nottinghamshire County Council tender that was withdrawn when the current 51/52/65 services were introduced.
Via West Bridgeford certainly helps in guessing which route the service will take to Leicester lol. Could this be a move by wellglade to end the “fares not a promotional ploy” (you know those £1 & £1.50 fares) along the A60 corridor. We will soon see but I can’t help feeling the Leicester express may run via Loughborough, it would be more attractive for the villages along the A60 as well as a fast Loughborough-Leicester link, plus there’s not much in-between via A606 & A46 either & it’s been tried before. Although there isn’t a mention of Kinchbus withdrawing lol let’s see………
Maybe not as exciting as first thought
Traveline East Midlands currently shows just a 1015 Nottingham-Leicester and a 1415 return (1515 Sat) … and thats all
Barton’s number 12 to Leicester ran hourly via Keyworth, Willoughby and Syston. They ran this service for years and at one time I think there was a direct 12X service aswell. Later Premiere ran the 12 as a County Council service with only 4 journeys a day, which finished a couple of years ago.