 | |
 Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC in Loughborough in August 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 around 40 buses which includes Enviro200 MMCs, Optare Versas and Optare Solos.[ citation needed ] As a result of the frequency increase to Skylink (Leicester - Derby) in March 2024 a number of vehicles are currently on long-term loan from fellow Wellglade Group subsidiary trentbarton.
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 Castle Donington, North West Leicestershire, England. The airport is situated between Loughborough, Derby and Nottingham ; Leicester is 20 miles (32 km) to the south and Lincoln 43 miles (69 km) northeast. It serves the majority of the East Midlands region consisting of the counties 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 is a bus operator providing both local and regional services in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire, England. It is a subsidiary of the Wellglade Group.
Loughborough is a Grade II listed railway station in the town of Loughborough, Leicestershire; it is on the Midland Main Line and is located 111 miles (179 km) north of London St Pancras. The station is sited to the north-east of the town centre.
Arriva Midlands East is a bus company operating services in Leicestershire, England. It is a trading division of Arriva Midlands which is a subsidiary of Arriva plc which is itself owned by the government of Germany through Deutsche Bahn.
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 since been replaced in the UK market by longer variants of the Optare MetroCity, although production of the Tempo SR continues for the Australian market.
The Blackburn Bus Company operates both local and regional bus services in Greater Manchester and Lancashire, England. It is a subsidiary of Transdev Blazefield, which operates bus services across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.
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.
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.
Stagecoach Midlands is a bus operator providing local and regional services across the English Midlands, operating in the counties of Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and the West Midlands. The company is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group and is headquartered in Northampton.
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.
The Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC, also marketed as the Alexander Dennis Enviro200, is a single-decker city bus produced by Alexander Dennis since 2014 as the successor to the Enviro200 midibus and Enviro300 full-size bus. The first Enviro200 MMCs entered service with National Express West Midlands in 2015. Notably, Enviro200 MMCs have been modified by Fusion Processing to be used as the basis for the first driverless bus trials in the United Kingdom.
Kernow is a bus company operating services in Cornwall, England. It is part of First South West, a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
The Ilkeston Flyer is a bus route that operates between Cotmanhay and Derby via Ilkeston and Spondon. Launched in 1999, it is solely operated by Trentbarton and was formerly in partnership with Felix Bus Services prior to 2012.
Bus operators in the East Midlands | ||
|---|---|---|
| Derbyshire |  | |
| Leicestershire | ||
| Lincolnshire | ||
| Northamptonshire | ||
| Nottinghamshire | ||
| National | ||