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Nottingham City Transport

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Nottingham City Transport
logo
image
An NCT Scania OmniTown bus.
Founded 1986
Headquarters Nottingham
Service area Nottinghamshire
Service type Bus
Routes 81
Fleet 360
Web site www.nctx.co.uk

Nottingham City Transport (NCT) is the major bus operator of the English city of Nottingham, running a comprehensive network of services in the Greater Nottingham area, with some services continuing to Southwell, Loughborough, and East Midlands Airport. There are over 80 routes across the City, giving excellent access around Nottingham from less than £1 per day. Nottingham City Transport is the largest remaining municipal bus company in England (the largest in the United Kingdom being Edinburgh's Lothian), and is regarded as one of the best operators in the UK. Transdev has had a 18% stake in the company since 2000.

Contents

[edit] NCT route branded services

Navy Line:

1 & 48 both use Scania OmniDekkas, 2 & 3 both use Optare Solos, 4 uses Scania L94UAs and a Scania OmniCity (Bendy Buses).

Green Line:

5, 7, 8 & 9 all use Optare Solos, 6 & 10 both use Scania OmniDekkas, 11 uses Optare Solo SRs.

Maroon Line:

13, 13X & 14 both use Scania OmniTowns.

Brown Line:

15 & 16 both use Dennis Trident 2s, 17 uses Scania OmniDekkas.

Lilac Line:

24, 25 & 26 uses Dennis Trident 2s, 27 uses Scania OmniDekkas.

Note: 25 changes to Optare Solo's every evening.

Pink Line:

28 uses Scania OmniDekkas, 30 uses Scania OmniLinks, 31 uses Optare Solos

Orange Line:

34 uses Scania OmniCitys, 35 uses Scania OmniCitys and Optare Excels, 36 uses Scania OmniDekkas, 37 uses Optare Solos.

Blue Line:

39,40, 41 & 42 all use Optare Versas


Red Line:

43 & 44 both use Scania OmniDekkas.

Sky Blue Line:

45 uses Scania OmniDekkas.

Lime Line:

56 & 59 both use Dennis Trident 2s, 58 uses Scania OmniDekkas.

Yellow Line:

68 & 69 both use Optare Excels and Scania OmniCitys, 70, 71 & 72 all use Optare Solos.

Turquoise Line:

77,78 & 79 all uses Scania OmniDekkas

Purple Line:

87 & 88 both use Dennis Trident 2s, 89 uses Scania OmniDekkas.

Pathfinder:

100 uses Optare Versas.

[edit] Local/Worklink service

Nottingham City Transport also operates some services funded by Nottingham City Council, including Local Link, Skylink and Citylink services.

L3, L4, L9, L10, L11, L12, L13, L14, L15, L53, W2 all use Optare Solos, W3 uses Scania OmniLinks, W1, W4 uses Dennis Trident 2s. C1 use Scania OmniDekkas, C2 and Skylink use Scania OmniCitys

[edit] Night buses

GO2Night - Friday and Saturday nights only

All Scania OmniDekkas.(excepted N100 uses Omnicity)

[edit] Fares and tickets

Nottingham City Transport operates an exact fare system, where change is not available from the driver. (Pathfinder, South Notts, Skylink and Citylink Park and Ride buses do give change.)

On the bus, NCT offers a simplified fare structure (prices valid 5th June 2011):

Regular customers can save money by having an Easyrider Citycard, which is a pre-purchased travel smart card available from the Travel Centre in Old Market Square and which can be renewed online, by direct debit, or by telephone.

There are also Under 18 versions of Citycard and Citycard Anytime.

Students and staff at both Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham can activate their ID cards for cheaper bus travel and have just one card for all their needs.

Easyrider was introduced in the late 1990s, and was the first 'smartcard' system to be introduced in the UK. The contactless smartcard is passed over a reader on boarding the bus, and removes a day of pre-paid travel from the balance on the card or counts down until expiry. Approximately 30-35% of journeys made on NCT are paid for by an Easyrider card. In 2009, Easyrider merged with Citycard to offer retail, library and leisure discounts to all card holders.

[edit] History

Horse drawn buses operated in Nottingham from 1848. The Nottingham and District Tramways Company Limited opened its first routes in 1878 with horse drawn trams, and experimented with steam traction a few years later. The company was taken over by Nottingham Corporation Tramways in 1898; electrification followed, with the first electric trams operating in January 1901 and within two years over 100 trams were in service on eight lines. The first motorbuses were introduced in 1906.

On 1 October 1965 a trolleybus sweeps round the roundabout at the junction of Gregory Boulevard and Sherwood Rise

.

The Nottingham trolleybus system was inaugurated in 1927. By 1930, a number of routes had been converted from trams to trolleybuses. A new bus depot was opened on Parliament Street in June 1929 and is still in use today.

By 1935 the trolleybus fleet had reached its peak at 106 vehicles, making it the largest fleet in the country.[citation needed] The last tram ran in September 1936. World War II brought reduced services, economy measures (including diluting diesel with creosote) and blackout screens on vehicles. Before the war some diesel-engined buses were introduced, although large deliveries of diesel-engined buses did not take place until after the war. The advent of diesel services enabled the the last petrol-engined buses to be withdrawn.

Between 1966 and 1988, Nottingham City Transport specified its own design of bodywork on double-decker buses from several different manufacturers, like this Leyland Atlantean (Northern Counties) and Volvo B10M (East Lancs).

By the end of the 1950s, trolleybuses were in decline, the last new trolleybus joining the fleet in 1952 reaching a maximum fleet of 155 vehicles. The first one-man operated bus appeared in 1951. In 1954 guide dogs were allowed to remain on the lower saloon of all vehicles and heaters were installed in all cabs in 1956. Trolleybuses disappeared between April 1965 and July 1966, and the West Bridgford UDC Transport undertaking came under Nottingham's control in 1968. One-man operation started to come into force in January 1970 and by 1977 nearly all services were one-man operated. 1974 saw a name change to City of Nottingham Transport and by 1976 an all-time peak of 494 operated vehicles was reached.

The deregulation of the industry under the Transport Act occurred in 1986 and Nottingham City Transport Limited was formed. In 1988 the Company purchased Stevenson's Bus Services at Ilkeston and formed a subsidiary company Erewash Valley Services Ltd; these services were integrated with the main company in 1990. In 1991, South Notts was purchased for a pound, giving a main route from Nottingham to Loughborough and a garage at Gotham. In 1997, Pathfinder (Newark) Limited was bought, giving a presence in the north of the county. Fleet names are retained within the company but both South Notts and Pathfinder liveries are now extinct, South Notts bus 490 being the last bus repainted into South Notts' original livery. Nottingham City Council remained 100% owners, despite many offers to buy NCT, until 11 May 2001, when 5% of the ordinary shares, and convertible preference shares to a possible value of another 13% of ordinary shares, were issued to Transdev plc, a member (along with NCT) of the Arrow consortium. This was formed to enable the tram system Nottingham Express Transit (NET) to be created. NET has returned trams to the streets of Nottingham after an absence of several decades, and has proved to be very popular with the travelling public.

[edit] Awards

Nottingham City Transport has been recognised at the UK Bus Awards every year since 2002, and was awarded the title of Bus Operator of the Year in 2004.


[edit] Awards

Nottingham City Transport has been recognised at the UK Bus Awards every year since 2002, including Bus Operator of the Year in 2004.

[edit] Ecolink ethanol buses

In 2007, Nottingham City Transport became the first company in the UK to introduce Ethanol powered "Eco" buses. Named "Ecolink 30", the service uses a combination of standard diesel powered Scania OmniCity buses and 3 specially converted ethanol Scania OmniLink buses on its Pink Line 30 route.

The ethanol powered buses are painted in a special "Ecolink" livery which uses flowers and leaves along the side of the bus to symbolise the "green-ness" of the buses. They also use the slogan "Go Green" combined with the information that they reduce CO2 emissions by around 30 tonnes. The standard diesel buses used on the route are painted in the standard green of Nottingham City Transport "Nottingham Network" buses.

The ethanol buses are equipped with a colour LCD destination display, an LCD screen onboard which allows advertisements &/or CCTV footage to be played, a Star Trak GPS locating system which allows for real time ETA's to be displayed at electronic bus stop timetable displays and also allows for the next stop to be displayed on the buses onboard electronic display (Above the "Bus Stopping" sign). The bus also has a low floor to allow for wheelchair/buggy access and is equipped with an extendable ramp to allow wheelchair users to board the bus when there is a gap between the bus door and the pavement.

The buses were purchased by Nottingham City Council using funding from the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) which allowed them to purchase 3 ethanol powered buses and construct an ethanol fuelling station. The buses are operated and maintained by Nottingham City Transport.

The buses are also often used on the W3 route which runs 4 times a day during the week.

[edit] Fleet

NCT have started to take delivery of 32 Optare OmniDekkas and 24 Optare Solo SRs ordered, these will arrive in separate batches.

Scania OmniLinks 301-303 will return to NCT from Premiere Travel.

[edit] Firsts

Nottingham City Transport have introduced many new bus models and transport concepts over the years, including:

[edit] Security

Nottingham City Transport have installed CCTV on all of their fleet, and install in general more cameras per bus than other operators. Double decker buses usually have around 8 cameras each, while even the very smallest buses still have 4 each. New buses also have LCD screens installed, so passengers can see what is being recorded.

NCT are active participants in Nottingham's Respect for Transport campaign, and random 'Gateway checks' are often held on buses, where police and revenue inspectors board to check tickets. Police have been known to arrest wanted persons on board buses during gateway checks. NCT has introduced a new campaign called, 'Quit the Spit'.

The brown line buses, currently operating on routes 15 & 16 from Milton Street.
78 Strelley

[edit] Go2

In September 2001, NCT changed most bus routes, truncating cross-city routes, and introducing new and retimed services across Greater Nottingham. Go2 was launched at this time to appeal to commuters and refresh perceptions of bus travel. Following a decline in patronage of over 50 years prior to these changes, the number of customers using NCT buses has increased year on year since.

On Monday to Saturday daytimes, Go2 services now operate every 7 or 8 minutes on most routes, with the original 10 minute frequency still operated on a few Go2 routes. Sunday services have also been increased, with some every 15 minutes (21, 43, 77) and others every 20 minutes.

Go2 Night was launched in December 2007 and there are 8 late night buses which run from the City Centre at 01:15, 02:15 and 03:15 every Friday and Saturday night. These buses have a flat fare of £2.50 cash single, but they also accept Easyrider Citycards and all day tickets for no extra charge!

September 2010 saw the launch of 2 new Go2 routes, the first for many years, with Red 43 introduced for Bakersfield and Sky Blue 45 introduced to replace the former Red 44/45 loops which had proven very unreliable due to the traffic and rail crossings.

NCT is still currently investing in new buses, and has spent over £30m on buses in the past 5-6 years. 20 new double decks are due in 2011 for the Go2 network.

In 2011, the Go2 brand receives minor rebranding to mark its 10th Year. This includes a special 10th Year Go2 logo on relivered buses. Currently the 36 is undergoing rebranding with the 27 and 89 due to receive new OmniDekkas. OmniDekkas for the 43 have been delivered for service.

In July 2011, Go2 Lilac 21 will be withdrawn and replaced by service 39 following the same route.

On NCTs Facebook page, they have recently suggested to fans what the former Go2 Yellow 69 would look like if it still existed and given comments on Yellow 68/69 asking fans if the routes will become Go2. This gives clues that NCT may give Yellow 68/69 Go2 status after the old 69 was withdrawn in 2007.

[edit] Nottingham Express Transit

NCT has a 50% stake in Nottingham Tram Consortium, the operating company of the tram. It is also a partner in Arrow, who have the tender for Line One. On the 29th March 2011, Nottingham City Council had announced the preferred bidder for NET Phase Two was Tramlink Nottingham. The consortium will be run by Trent Barton and Keolis;Alstom will provide 22 new trams for the line and Vinci will build the new route. (Vinci also holds the contract to build Nottingham Station's new multi storey car park.) In autumn 2011, Tramlink Nottingham will take over the running of the tram system, including Line One for 23 years. Construction of Lines two and three is due to begin in autumn 2011 and the line is due to open in late 2014.

[edit] Competitors

Premiere Travel run several bus services around the City and surrounding areas.

Stagecoach also serve Nottingham, operating the very popular Pronto service between Chesterfield, Mansfield and Nottingham (in partnership with Trent Barton), and the Sherwood Arrow to Worksop via Ollerton, Edwinstowe and White Post Farm.

Other small operators that operate in Nottingham include Doyle's Minicoaches of Ripley who operate contracts on behalf of the council.

Although Trent Barton is a competitor, there is a fairly warm reception from both companies to each other, with the Kangaroo day ticket helping to bridge the gap between the two.

YourBus now compete against NCT with their Y36 - a direct copy of NCT's GO2 Orange 36 route to Beeston & Chilwell.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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See also
Nottingham City Transport (18% stake) · Nottingham Express Transit (tram system)
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