St Margaret's Bus Station

St Margaret's Bus Station is located on Gravel Street to the north of Leicester City Centre, England. It is named after St Margaret's Church, which stands just across Burleys Way. Passengers using both train and buses in the city can include a PlusBus ticket with their train ticket that gives unlimited bus travel in a designated area.

St Margaret's Bus Station
General information
LocationGravel Street, Leicester LE1 3AG
Coordinates52.6393°N 1.1342°W / 52.6393; -1.1342
Operated byLeicester City Council
Bus routes31
ConnectionsNo
Construction
ParkingNo
Bicycle facilitiesYes
Disabled accessYes
History
Opened1985
Closed2021 (for rebuilding)

From 1 January 2021, the current station closed as part of a £13.5 million rebuilding scheme to make it the first carbon neutral bus station in the United Kingdom and is scheduled to reopen during the summer of 2022. [1]

Services

Long-distance coach services operated by National Express.

The majority of bus services are run by Arriva Midlands to Coalville, Coventry, Hinckley, Loughborough, Market Harborough, Melton Mowbray plus several parts of the Leicestershire area including Beaumont Leys, Blaby, Groby, Oadby, Ratby and South Wigston.

Kinchbus operate service 2 to Loughborough and Skylink buses to East Midlands Airport & Derby via Kegworth or Long Whatton.

During the rebuilding of the station services have been relocated to other City Centre stops.[2]

History

The use of the site as a bus station dates back to 1940.[3]

The bus station was built in 1985 and at the time was a state-of-the-art arrival and departure point in the city. Councillor Derek Fryett, Chair of the Planning Committee opened it on 3 May 1985. The contractor was Costain Construction. Although considered one of the best stations in the country Leicester City Council set about a programme of refurbishment in 2006. The major refurbishment was complete in March 2007 and the station was reopened by Councillor Patrick Kitterick on 24 May 2007.

In November 2020 a new road was completed allowing buses to access the A594 ring road directly from the bus station, shortening journey times.[4]

The former building, dating from the 1980s, was closed after the final services departed on 31 December 2020.[5][6] Demolition of the building began immediately.[7]

Future

A new bus station is currently under construction, designed by Building Design Partnership and is set to open during the spring of 2022.[3] As part of the project, a pedestrian link road has been created using part of a car park on Mansfield Street to create the new link road between St Margaret's and Haymarket bus station.[6]

References
  1. "better facilities". Leicester Buses. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  2. "Leicester Buses". Leicester Buses. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  3. "UK's first carbon neutral bus station designed by BDP". BDP. Retrieved 6 June 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. Mack, Tom (13 November 2020). "New road out of bus station to slash 5 minutes off journeys". LeicestershireLive. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  5. Martin, Dan (21 December 2020). "City bus station to close - here's what's happening to services". LeicestershireLive. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  6. "Works begins on £13.5m St Margaret's Bus Station redevelopment". East Midlands Business Link. 4 January 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  7. Gordon, Chris (29 January 2021). "St Margaret's Bus Station starts to come down". LeicestershireLive. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
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