Day 54 on #AYearOfBuses takes us to Leicester for the first time, where there’s another bus war quietly bubbling away.
First’s 54 is one of the few cross-city routes in Leicester, running from the large housing estate at Beaumont Leys in the west, through the city centre and over to Goodwood in the east. It competes heavily with Centrebus 54A, which runs an almost identical route, with two bits tagged on at either end – extending the route into Anstey on the western edge of the city, and down to Leicester General Infirmary in the east.
Both operators run roughly every 10 minutes through the daytime on the core section of the route, with buses at various times scheduled to run two minutes in front of their rivals by both operators in a rather tit-for-tat game of cat and mouse. There’s little to separate the operators on quality, either – First recently introduced a fleet of Wright Streetdecks into the city, but as today’s photo (taken 1 February) shows, it’s not exactly set in stone as to what they’re supposed to be doing.
Image credits: Alex S on Flickr