Title: Park & Ride in Leicester
Author: Andrew Bartlett
Publisher: Leicester Transport Heritage Trust
ISBN: 978-0-9569075-5-4
Specification: 295mm x 210mm, 32pp, softback
Price: £12
Leicester City Transport is credited with introducing Britain’s first successful park-&-ride bus service — branded Park N’ Ride — over 18 days in December 1966, using three of its 44-seat Leyland Tiger Cubs to connect a car park in the south of the city with the central shopping area.
The priority was to make it cheap and convenient. There was a flat return fare of 6d (2½p) — 78p at today’s prices — for adults or half that for children, passengers were encouraged to bring as much luggage and shopping as they could carry (dogs and folding pushchairs were welcome) and there was a conductor on board to speed boarding by collecting fares on the move.
It was estimated to have kept 5,000 cars out of the city centre, but covered less than half of its costs (one-man operation might have got that closer to 60%). General manager Leslie Smith said it proved that the motorists of over 50 years ago were prepared to switch to public transport if the offer was attractive.
When it was relaunched the following October, the counci…
