Kinchbus

Kinchbus[2] is a bus operator in Loughborough, England. It is a subsidiary of the Wellglade Group.

Kinchbus
Kinchbus2 branded Mercedes-Benz Citaro in 2017
ParentWellglade Group
Founded1987
HeadquartersLoughborough
Service areaDerbyshire
Leicestershire
Nottinghamshire
Service typeBus services
Routes7 (June 2017)
HubsLoughborough
Depots1
Fleet37 (June 2017)
Chief executiveSue Blount[1]
Websitewww.kinchbus.co.uk

History
Park Royal bodied Leyland Atlantean in Loughborough in 1987
Optare Tempo in Loughborough in 2011

Kinchbus was founded in 1987 by former Leicester City Football Club director Gilbert Kinch trading as GK 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 Fox County service it extended the service to Leicester.[3]

After the collapse of Nottingham based Premiere Travel on 25 January 2013, Kinchbus announced that it would reintroduce its route 9 service between Loughborough and Nottingham to replace Premiere's Red9 service.[4]

Services

Kinchbus are the main operator within Loughborough operating services 5 and 11/12 around the local housing estates and 'sprint' buses between the railway station, town centre and Loughborough University campus along with service 2 into Leicester and service 9 into Nottingham.[5]

Kinchbus also operates the Skylink Leicester-Derby services to East Midlands Airport from Leicester and Derby.[6]

That the 'sprint' and Skylink services are named rather than numbered is in common with Kinchbus's sister company Trentbarton, most of whose routes use names instead of numbers.

Fleet

As of February 2021, the fleet consists of twelve Enviro200 MMCs, thirteen Optare Solos, four Optare Versas, five Mercedes-Benz Citaros, a Wright Eclipse and several Wright Solars.[7] Most buses wear a two-tone blue and yellow 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 the mid-2010s. Several of Kinchbus's services are route-branded, as in common with their sister company, Trentbarton. The twelve Enviro200 MMCs are the exception, wearing a yellow version of the Skylink livery, for use on the Skylink service between Derby and Leicester via East Midlands Airport and Loughborough. The current Skylink livery was introduced in 2012.

As Kinchbus is part of the Wellglade Group, the buses are numbered in the same fleet list as those of its sister companies. The fleet also has several buses that were in service with sister companies, especially Trent Barton.

During 2020, Kinchbus upgraded the town services 11/12 with Optare Versas which were transferred from Trent Barton in 2020. As a result of the Leicester clean air zone the Skylink fleet was also upgraded with 12 new Enviro200 MMCs replacing the fleet of Mercedes-Benz Citaros.

See also

References
  1. "Sue's the new driving force at Kinchbus".
  2. "Kinchbus Limited 02116469". Companies House.
  3. "New operator for Leicester Skylink Bus service". UK airports information blog. 17 March 2009.
  4. "Kinchbus steps in to help Premiere customers". Kinchbus. 30 January 2013. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013.
  5. "Route list - kinchbus".
  6. "Skylink Derby Airport – Loughborough – Leicester". Kinchbus. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  7. "The Wellglade Group Fleet List". Derby Bus Depot. January 2019. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
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