National Express, the UK’s leading coach operator, began running its services from Leicester’s new St. Margaret’s Bus Station today (5 July). 

National Express has moved from its temporary location on Charles Street into the newly developed, net-zero carbon bus station on Gravel Street. The first coach to use the station was the 440 arriving from London Victoria at 01:55am. 

National Express operates 57 daily departures from Leicester with popular routes including London Victoria, Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as services to major UK airports including Birmingham, Heathrow, Luton and Stansted. 

Passengers benefit from a range of modern facilities, including a dedicated National Express customer service desk and ticket kiosks, real-time digital information screens, a new independent cafe and newsagents, and modern toilets complete with Changing Places accessible facility.

Visiting the bus station on its first day of operation, Leicester’s Deputy Mayor Cllr. Adam Clarke, said: "St Margaret’s Bus Station is an important gateway into Leicester for the thousands of people who arrive by coach and I’m really pleased to welcome National Express back home to St Margaret’s. I would also like to thank the Leicester coach travelling public for their patience. I hope they’ll agree it’s been worth the wait.”

Ed Rickard, service delivery director at National Express, said: “Coach travel has moved on significantly in recent years and it’s great to be able to operate from this fantastic state-of-the art bus station with modern facilities for our customers’ convenience and comfort .

“As demand for sustainable, affordable and reliable travel grows we’re quickly building back our network. We’ve seen a 25% increase in bookings for our Leicester - London services, as a result we now have up to 15 departures to London every day with tickets available from £4.90 one way, improving connectivity between the two cities, and beyond.”

The bus station redevelopment is part of the £14.3million St Margaret’s Gateway regeneration project. This has been supported by a £10.5million allocation from the Getting Building Fund, a pot of government money awarded to the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) for shovel-ready infrastructure projects to help create jobs and support economic recovery across the Country.