Trent Barton are cancelling the Leicester Express from 23rd July. I basically know nothing about how this service did from a commercial point of view – it was in fact news to me that it was still running.
I’m not sure what the object of this service really was. It was launched as a cheap day out in Leicester, but the single journey a day lacked credibility. It may have been a test to see if the corridor was viable for a more frequent service perhaps. But clearly it has gone the way of all previous express an semi-fast services between these two cities.
Nottingham has never had a wealth of interurban serices, currently limited to Marshall’s Fosse flyer to Newark (nothing into Lincolnshire though); Red9, the successor of Arriva’s 99; Red Arrow; Centrebus’s 19 to Oakham, and the High Peak services to Derbyshire and Cheshire, plus Pronto, currently shared between Trent Barton and Stagecoach EM. Each of these are longer local services than traditionally interurban or semi-fast. There few seasonals and specials too, Skegness and Alton Towers spring to mind.
Is this down to pretty good rail links directly causing this (this is likely the case with Leicester) or just that there are opportunities being missed?
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The fares were ridiculous. Had Trent Barton not been greedy about the notion of a service to Leicester, it could’ve very easily taken off. How on Earth are they every going to make money when a single was £10, a return was £10, or travel all day on a Zig Zag Plus (incl. Skylink Derby Leicester) for £10!!
If you booked in advance on National Express, you could get the tickets delivered to your door for just £5.60. Even the train was cheaper, a single was £8.90, and a return was £9.70….
If they’d accepted normal Zig Zags for a fiver, and made the fares realistic, say £4.50 single and £7 return, I don’t think we’d be seeing a cancellation.
A real shame in my opinion.
I never ralised that it was that expensive…
Costlier and slower than the train then!
I think it reinforced the view that they simply didn’t know what to do with the service at launch, so its demise was inevitable. I almost wouldn’t be surprised to see Premier or Centrebus have a go at this at some point, perhaps as suggested, hourly, at something like £5 single, £7 return.