City park and ride extended for the Christmas period

LEICESTER Park and Ride is running extra services throughout December from all three sites – meaning it will be operating every day during the festive month, except for Christmas Day.

The extra services will be on all five Sundays in December. On those Sundays (December 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30), buses will be running every 15 minutes between 10am and 5.30pm from the sites at Meynell’s Gorse, Enderby and Birstall.

A service is also running on Boxing Day (Wednesday 26 December) from 10am to 5.30pm. In addition to the Sunday and Boxing Day services, Leicester Park and Ride will be running later into the evenings from Monday to Friday to allow more time for Christmas shopping, bargain-hunting in the post-Christmas sales, sightseeing or family days out. The later running times are funded by Leicester’s Business Improvement District (BID).

The late running dates and last bus times are: Monday 3 - Friday 7 December, 8.15pm Monday 10 - Friday 14 December, 9.15pm Saturday 15 December, 8.15pm Monday 17 - Friday 21 December, 10.15pm Saturday 22 December, 8.15pm Thursday 27 & Friday 28 December, 9.15pm Saturday 29 December, 8.15pm The core Park and Ride services are joint- ly funded by Leicestershire County Council and Leicester City Council. More details of the additional services, festive timetables and fares are available from the Leicester Park & Ride website.

Blake Pain, county council cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “Leicester Park and Ride services are the perfect way to travel into the city centre to make the most of the festive season. Whether it’s for a shopping trip, a day out with the family, visiting the sights or just relaxing with friends, the extra services throughout December will make it easier.

“I would encourage everyone planning trips into the city centre to leave their vehicles at one of our three Park and Ride sites and take the bus instead.”

Deputy city mayor, Adam Clarke, said: “These extended Park and Ride services are great news for anyone looking for an affordable and hassle-free way of coming into Leicester this Christmas.

“They will also help to reduce the number of vehicles coming into the city centre at this particularly busy time of year, which is a vital step as we look towards delivering better air quality for Leicester.”

There will be no service on New Year’s Day, and normal services resume on Wednesday, 2 January.

All three of the Park and Ride sites have free parking for service users, including disabled spaces and parent and child parking.