From 31 October 2016, customers using the Centrelink bus service that connects the Victoria and Broadmarsh bus stations will notice a difference.
The existing red midi buses will be replaced with longer blue buses as Nottingham Community Transport begin operating this service on behalf of Nottingham City Council.
Nottingham Community Transport will be trialling the new fleet of all-electric buses, before they go into full service in the New Year. The new buses are much more environmentally friendly, being all-electric, with lower emissions and running further on a charge. They are also more economical to run.
From the 30 January 2017, the new Centrelink Park and Ride service will run between the Queen’s Drive Park & Ride Ecohub, Meadows Way, the Railway Station, Market Square and the City Centre, terminating in Victoria Bus Station. This new service will no longer serve Fletcher Gate and the Lace Market but will instead access and depart the city to the west of the City Centre via Maid Marian Way. This service will be operated with 13 new ultra-modern low emission electric buses and current city centre Centrelink bus stops will continue to be served following these changes.
Citylink 2 will also be replaced by the new Ecolink Park and Ride service, and will operate from the city centre, Lower Parliament Street, Daleside Road, Colwick Park and Ride, Colwick Industrial Estate and Victoria Park.
Centrelink and Ecolink Park and Ride services will be operated by Nottingham Community Transport on behalf of Nottingham City Council.
A new Nottingham City Transport Navy Line 49 service will be introduced in January, replacing the existing W4 service and serving the stops along Queen’s Drive currently served by the Citylink 1. It will run between the Boots Factory, Thane Road, Electric Avenue, Queen’s Drive, NG2 Business Park, the Railway Station and the City Centre. It will terminate with other Navy Line buses in the Old Market Square on Beastmarket Hill. Buses will also stop on Maid Marian Way and at Broadmarsh. Existing stops on Fletcher Gate, George Street, Elite and Mount Street will no longer be served. It will run up to every 15 minutes during the Monday to Friday daytime (6am to 6.30pm) and will continue to have early morning and evening journeys to cater for shift patterns along the route, especially at Boots Factory. On Saturdays and Bank Holiday Mondays, there will be five journeys in each direction which will run at similar times to the current W4.
For Experian and Electric Avenue, Nottingham City Transport will run more of their Navy 48 buses along the 48A route to provide up to 10 buses per hour to the Railway Station and the City Centre.
Councillor Nick McDonald Portfolio Holder for Business, Growth and Transport at Nottingham City Council, said ‘The new Centrelink Park and Ride service will provide a more direct link to the City Centre for commuters and shoppers who park at this site, whilst also maintaining the existing connections to the city’s train station and bus stations. The introduction of new electric buses to this service and the Ecolink Park and Ride Service will help to improve the city’s air quality, reduce carbon emissions and support the financial sustainability of both services through reduced fuel costs”.
Ian Combellack, General Manager of Nottingham Community Transport, said: “I am really proud that Nottingham Community Transport will be running this service for the City Council. We have a lot of experience of providing electric bus services and the new all-electric buses are top quality. They go further per electric charge and are more economical than the previous buses used on the Centrelink service. They are also more environmentally friendly, so we are playing our part in making the city’s air quality better.”