Review of current dedicated bus travel service written by Alan Digby
Leicester City Football Club has joined in partnership with Arriva Midlands. To provide a service for people who live outside the City to attend Matches at the King Power Stadium. This is a revised version of the previous Fox Travel Home service.
The return fare is £6.00 per adult and £5.00 per Senior Citizen or Children up to 15 years of age, this being payable to the driver on each departure.
Currently there are 3 Routes in Operation. F1, F2 and FSA.
F1 – Starts at Rothwell, 1 Hour and 55 Minutes before the scheduled Kick Off time. It calls at Desborough, Market Harborough, Kibworth, Fleckney, Oadbyx2, Wigston, and finally at Welford Road / Knighton Lane
F2 – Starts at Nuneaton, 1 Hour and 50 Minutes before the scheduled Kick Off time. It calls at Hinckleyx3, Barwell, Earl Shiltonx3 and Leicester Forest East.
FSA – Starts at Newtown Linford, 1 Hour and 35 Minutes before the scheduled Kick Off time. It calls at Anstey, Groby, Ratby, Glenfieldx2.
Generally there are 5-10 Minutes gaps between pick-ups. (Obviously less where there are multiple pick-ups in the same town/village) But further details of the exact timings and prices from the various pick-up points, can be obtained from the Arriva Travel Shop – details below.
Arrival at the Stadium on all Routes is approx. 45 minutes before Kick Off. The coaches are then parked on the Stadium Car Park during the game.
The Return Journey from the Stadium commences 45 minutes after the end of the game.
If any Members would like to advise Arriva in advance of their intention to travel, please either forward an email to [email protected] or telephone the Travel Shop on 0116 / 2423670 during the week prior to the match.
It is disappointing to note, however, that there are no services to the Melton & Rutland/Oakham areas of the County. An area where there is a large support for Leicester City, and an area with already “limited” public transport options for fans wishing to attend Home games. For instance the last Arriva Bus service to Melton now departs Leicester at 7.25pm (19.25) and the last train is 9.18pm (21.18). So without access to a vehicle fans, in the Melton area cannot attend home night games and get home. Hopefully Arriva and the Club will look to address this issue in the near future.
The Foxes Trust hope that it’s Members and other City Supporters will use these Services, as with the cost of “personal” travel to Home games increasing almost weekly. It may soon be very difficult to keep attracting large attendances to the Stadium. These are needed if the Club & Players are to be successful in reaching their goals of Promotion and getting the club into a more healthy financial state.