The local bus operator has seen 2 per cent growth year-on-year for passenger journeys on its services in Coventry, defying the national trend. Annual statistics from the Department for Transport show that overall bus use in England (outside of London) has fallen over the last 25 years.
Three years ago the bus operator introduced a 12X service to provide a fast, frequent link between Warwick University, Coventry rail station and the city centre. It has proven so popular with passengers that National Express Coventry has now increased the frequency of weekday services by 50 per cent.
The 12X now serves the route up to every 10 minutes Monday to Friday daytime. On Saturday daytime buses operate up to every 15 minutes. Evening and Sunday services have had minor changes to timetables, including extra late-night journeys during the week.
Tom Stables, Managing Director, National Express UK, said:
“Passenger journeys on our National Express Coventry services have increased by two per cent year-on-year. That’s an extra thousand passengers a day and defies the trend of declining bus use elsewhere.
“We’ve made changes to some of our services to better serve the community, with more links from the city centre and we're delighted to have been able to increase the frequency of our popular 12X service, which provides our passengers with the quickest link between Coventry city centre, rail station and Warwick University.”
The 11 service from Coventry city centre to Leamington Spa operates up to every 20 minutes Monday to Saturday daytime, with additional journeys between Coventry, Earlsdon and University during term times. Evening and Sunday services have had minor timetable changes.
Service 16 and 16A from Warwickshire Shopping Park has a revised timetable with buses continuing to run up to every 10 minutes Monday to Saturday daytime. In addition, one bus per hour will continue on from Warwickshire Shopping Park to University Hospital, replacing the iGo 26 service which ceased operation on 30th September.
A new service 20C has also been introduced, linking the city centre and Walsgrave Tesco via Foleshill Road. The 20C operates hourly Monday to Saturday daytime with a small gap at afternoon school time and replaces the iGo service 30, which no longer exists.
Service 20 and 20A have had minor changes to timetables and the 20E has been renumbered 20B, with no changes to the route.
Full details of changes to services and timetables are available on www.nxcoventry.co.uk
