 | |
 A Kinchbus Alexander-Dennis Enviro200MMC in Loughborough in 2023 | |
| Parent | Wellglade Group |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1972 as G.K. Kinch |
| Headquarters | Loughborough |
| Service area | Derbyshire Leicestershire Nottinghamshire |
| Service type | Bus services |
| Routes | 7 |
| Hubs | Loughborough |
| Depots | 1 |
| Fleet | 40 (June 2024) |
| Operator | Wellglade Group |
| Website | www.kinchbus.co.uk |
Kinchbus, [1] formerly G.K. Kinch, is a bus operator in Loughborough, England. Since 1998 it has been a subsidiary of the Wellglade Group.
Kinchbus was founded in 1987 by former Leicester City Football Club director Gilbert Kinch trading as G.K. Kinch and based in Barrow Upon Soar. Before moving into local bus services, Kinch had operated coaches from nearby Mountsorrel since at least 1972. In the early 1990s Kinchbus began to expand with services around Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, including the purchase of Loughborough Bus and Coach from Midland Fox, giving the company its presence in Loughborough. In 1998 Kinchbus was sold to the Wellglade Group.
Since 2008 Kinchbus has operated the Skylink service between Derby and Loughborough. In April 2009, after the withdrawal of the Arriva Midlands service, it was extended into Leicester via the A6. [2]
In January 2013, Kinchbus reintroduced service 9 between Loughborough and Nottingham, following the collapse of Nottingham-based operator Premiere Travel. [3]
During September 2022, it was announced that current managing director Jeff Counsell will retire in February 2023 and will be succeeded by Tom Morgan who is the current commercial director for Kinchbus and fellow Wellglade Group subsidiary Trentbarton. [4]
Kinchbus are the main provider of bus services within the Loughborough area alongside services to Nottingham and Leicester running 7 days a week, Kinchbus also provide Skylink services between Leicester and Derby via East Midlands Airport.
In August 2022, Kinchbus announced that their long-established number 2 service between Loughborough and Leicester would be cut back to Sileby from 4 September 2022 as a result of driver shortages and lower passenger numbers. [5]
As part of a Wellglade Group post-Covid-19 pandemic review of services across the network, the Skylink Derby stopped serving Long Whatton and Diseworth from the 2nd of October 2022. [6]
As of 2024, the fleet consists of forty buses of varying models, including eighteen Alexander-Dennis Enviro200MMCs and eleven Optare Solos. [7] This includes a number of buses on long-term loan from sister company Trentbarton due to frequency increases on the Skylink Derby and faulty buses.
During 2020, Kinchbus upgraded services 11/12 with Optare Versas which were transferred from Trent Barton and replaced Optare Tempos which were used on the service since new in 2007. As a result of the now-abandoned Leicester clean air zone, the Skylink fleet was also upgraded with 12 new Enviro200 MMCs which replaced a fleet of eleven Mercedes-Benz Citaros.
Most buses wear a two-tone yellow and blue livery, split diagonally along the side of the bus, with the yellow in front. This livery was originally introduced in 2007, and was given a facelift in 2013 starting with the vehicles used on Kinchbus 9. Most of Kinchbus's services are route-branded, as in common with their sister company, Trentbarton. Skylink buses are the exception to branding on the standard livery as they are mostly yellow with branding for the service. The present livery was introduced in 2012 and debuted on a fleet of Volvo B7RLE/Plaxton Centros and Scania L94UB/Wright Solars. Due to a shortage of buses caused by the unreliability of certain types of buses already within the fleet and the increase in frequency of the Skylink Derby, several buses have been transferred to Kinchbus from Trentbarton which wear a predominantly orange livery advertising both companies' Mango bus fare app.
East Midlands Airport is an international airport in the East Midlands of England, close to Castle Donington in northwestern Leicestershire, between Loughborough, Derby and Nottingham ; Leicester is to the south and Lincoln northeast. It serves the majority of the East Midlands region consisting of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Southern Lincolnshire, Rutland and Derbyshire. The airfield was originally built as a Royal Air Force station known as RAF Castle Donington in 1943, before being redeveloped as a civilian airport in 1965.
Trentbarton operates both local and regional bus services in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire, England. It is a subsidiary of the Wellglade Group.
East Midlands Parkway railway station is located north of Ratcliffe-on-Soar on the Midland Main Line in the East Midlands of England. It provides park and ride facilities for rail passengers on the routes from Leicester to Derby and Nottingham. It is also the closest station to East Midlands Airport, some 4 miles (6.4 km) away, but without public transport link.
Leicester Citybus, trading as First Leicester, is a bus operator providing services in Leicester. FirstGroup own 94% of the company with Trentbarton owning the other 6%.
Nottingham City Transport (NCT) is the major bus operator of the city of Nottingham, England. NCT operates extensively within Nottingham as well beyond the city boundaries into Nottinghamshire county. Publicly-owned, it is today the second largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom after Lothian Buses in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Optare Tempo is an integral low-floor, heavy duty, full-size rigid single-deck bus manufactured by Optare and was launched in late 2004. It is marketed and sold as the replacement for the Optare Excel. It is designed as a lightweight bus, to use less fuel than traditional heavy duty integral rigids. As of July 2017, 233 had been built, including 27 Tempo SRs. The Tempo SR has now been replaced in the UK market by longer variants of the Optare MetroCity, although production of the Tempo SR continues for the Australian market.
Felix Bus Services was a company formerly based in Stanley, Derbyshire. The company operated bus and coach services in Derbyshire between 1921 and 2012.
Centrebus Limited, trading as Centrebus, is a bus company based in Leicester operating services in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland.
Midland, previously known as Choice Travel, was a bus company operating mostly in the Wolverhampton and Walsall areas of the West Midlands. Some services also operated in the Staffordshire and Shropshire area.
Arriva Derby is a bus operator in Derby. It is a subsidiary of Arriva Midlands.
Broadmarsh bus station is a bus station serving the city of Nottingham, England.
Premiere Travel was a bus company in Nottinghamshire.
Notts+Derby is a bus operator providing services in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. It is a subsidiary of the Wellglade Group.
Yourbus was a bus operator in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. It ran commercial and tendered local bus services from its base in Heanor.
Stagecoach Midlands operates most bus routes in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire; the legal name for the company is Midland Red (South) Ltd.The company was previously split into Midland Red in Warwickshire and United Counties Omnibus in Northampton; however, the two were merged together under the Midland Red identity in 2021.
Star Trak was a real-time bus information system operating in Leicester and Derby between 2000 and 2011. It was run by the Leicester City Council.
High Peak Buses Limited is a bus company based in Dove Holes, Derbyshire, formed in 2012. It operates a mixture of local and long-distance commercial and subsidised public bus services in and around the Borough of High Peak, after which it is named.
The Wellglade Group (WG), is a transport group operating bus and tram services in the English Midlands.
Skylink is the brand name for bus services that serve East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire. Services are operated by Kinchbus and trentbarton, both a part of Derbyshire-based Wellglade Group.
Bus operators in the East Midlands | ||
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| Derbyshire |  | |
| Leicestershire | ||
| Lincolnshire | ||
| Northamptonshire | ||
| Nottinghamshire | ||
| National | ||