# Nottingham City Transport

Nottingham City Transport (NCT) is the major bus operator of the city of Nottingham, England. NCT operates extensively within Nottingham as well as beyond the city boundaries into Nottinghamshire county. Publicly owned, it is today the second largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom after Lothian Buses in Edinburgh, Scotland.

## History

Horse-drawn buses operated in Nottingham from 1848. The Nottingham and District Tramways Company Limited opened its first routes in 1878 with horse-drawn trams, and experimented with steam traction a few years later. The company was taken over by Nottingham Corporation Tramways in 1898. Electrification followed, with the first electric trams operating in January 1901 and within two years over 100 trams were in service on eight lines. The first motorbuses were introduced in 1906.
The Nottingham trolleybus system was inaugurated in 1927. By 1930 a number of routes had been converted from trams to trolleybuses. A new bus depot was opened on Parliament Street in June 1929 and is still in use today.
By 1935 the trolleybus fleet had reached its peak at 106 vehicles, making it the largest fleet in the country. The last tram ran in September 1936. World War II brought reduced services, economy measures (including diluting diesel with creosote) and blackout screens on vehicles. Before the war some diesel-engined buses were introduced, although large scale deliveries of buses did not take place until after the war. The advent of diesel services enabled the last petrol-engined buses to be withdrawn.
By the end of the 1950s, trolleybuses were in decline, the last new trolleybus joining the fleet in 1952 reaching a maximum fleet of 155 vehicles. The first one-man operated bus appeared in 1951. Trolleybuses were withdrawn between April 1965 and July 1966, and the West Bridgford UDC Transport undertaking came under Nottingham's control in 1968. One-man operation started to come into force in January 1970 and by 1977 nearly all services were one-man operated. In 1974 it was renamed City of Nottingham Transport and by 1976 an all-time peak of 494 operated vehicles was reached.
To comply with the Transport Act 1985, in 1986 the assets were transferred to a new legal entity. However the company effectively remained in public ownership as Nottingham City Council held full equity of the new entity. In 1988 Stevenson's Bus Services, Ilkeston was purchased and formed a subsidiary company. Erewash Valley Services Limited. These services were integrated with the main company in 1990.
In 1991 South Notts Bus Company was purchased for £1, giving NCT a route from Nottingham to Loughborough and a garage at Gotham. In 1997 Pathfinder (Newark) Limited was purchased, giving NCT a presence in the north of the county. Fleet names are retained within the company but both South Notts and Pathfinder liveries are now extinct, although routes into Clifton and into South Nottinghamshire have navy line branding, taken from the navy blue livery of South Notts.
Despite many offers to buy, Nottingham City Council retained 100% ownership in NCT until May 2001, when 5% of the shares were issued to Transdev. This was related to the Nottingham Express Transit operating contract being awarded to Arrow Light Rail, a consortium between Transdev (later Veolia Transdev), Nottingham City Transport, Bombardier, Carillion, Galaxy and Innisfree. The consortium was contracted to build and operate the light rail for 30.5 years since 9 March 2004, but the contract was ripped up in 2011 when Tramlink Nottingham was selected as the preferred bidder for the construction of Phase 2 of the light rail. The last day of operations of Arrow Light Rail was 16 December 2011.
Another change early in the 2000s was the introduction of 'Go2' and 'Network'. This was a concept whereby every bus route was assigned a colour, and all the routes exiting the city via the same route (or went in the same general direction) had the same colour (e.g. every route using Derby Road to leave the city were coloured orange). This led to the coloured lines system which is still in use. Go2 buses had a colour coded front with white rear, and Network buses had a colour coded area round the front windows and a stripe to the back, on a two-tone dark green base. Buses with no colour coding (used when a correctly coloured one is not available) were plain green or white. The livery went through a change about 10 years after the start of the colour system where Go2 had colour coding on both ends of the bus with a silver centre, and Network the same but with a green centre. The Network brand started to fade away in 2015 as these buses also began having silver centres, and the Network name dropped when a bus was repainted.

## Ecolink ethanol buses

In 2007, Nottingham City Transport became the first company in the UK to introduce ethanol powered "Eco" buses. Named "Ecolink 30", the service used a combination of standard diesel powered Scania OmniCity buses and three specially converted ethanol Scania OmniLink buses on its Pink Line 30 route.
The ethanol powered buses were painted in a special "Ecolink" livery which used flowers and leaves along the side of the bus to symbolise the "green-ness" of the buses. They also used the slogan "Go Green", combined with the information that they reduced CO$_2$ emissions by around 30 tonnes.
The ethanol buses were equipped with a colour LED destination display, an LCD screen onboard which allowed advertisements and/or CCTV footage to be played, a Star Trak GPS locating system which allowed for real time ETAs to be displayed at electronic bus stop timetable displays and also allowed for the next stop to be displayed on the onboard electronic display (above the "Bus Stopping" sign). The buses also had a low floor to allow for wheelchair/buggy access and were equipped with an extendable ramp to allow wheelchair users to board the bus when there is a gap between the bus door and the pavement.
The buses were purchased by Nottingham City Council using funding from the East Midlands Development Agency which allowed them to purchase three ethanol powered buses and construct an ethanol fuelling station. The buses were operated and maintained by Nottingham City Transport.
This trial ended in March 2013, when it was no longer viable to source ethanol. The three buses were converted to diesel and were branded for the Pathfinder service to Southwell. They were re-branded again later in a generic silver livery, to be used on any route. To replace them, three standard Scania OmniCity vehicles from another route were refurbished, and repainted in to green 'Nottingham Network' livery with pink ends to denote the service being part of the pink line. These formerly ethanol-powered buses were sold in 2019 following the purchase of new Alexander- Dennis Enviro200 MMCs.

## Fleet

As of 2024, the Nottingham City Transport fleet consisted of 315 buses, which includes six training buses, based from two depots in Parliament Street and Trent Bridge. Most of this fleet (73%) consists of double-decker buses.
In 2017, Nottingham City Transport won funding from the Office for Low-Emission Vehicles (OLEV) to purchase a fleet of 53 biogas-powered Alexander Dennis Enviro400 City CBG double-decker buses, which were rolled out over 2017 and 2018. By 2018, Nottingham City Transport was operating the largest fleet of biogas-powered buses in the world. In 2019, Nottingham City Transport again successfully bidded for funding from the OLEV to expand the gas refuelling station at its Parliament Street depot, and as a result, more than doubled the gas bus fleet with the delivery of 67 more Enviro400 CBGs. During summer 2022, Nottingham City Transport took delivery of a final order for 23 more Enviro400 CBGs, bringing the operator's total gas bus fleet to 143 of the type.
The operator also announced that they and Nottingham City Council had submitted a business case as part of a bid to the UK government's Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) Fund for funding the purchase of 78 battery electric single-deck buses, and the following month they announced that their bid had been successful. The first 22 new electric Yutong E10 and E12s began entering service from NCT's Trent Bridge in April 2024, with further orders being placed for 38 more to be delivered between 2025 and 2026; these buses are intended to replace NCT's entire single-deck fleet at Trent Bridge garage.

## Routes

* 1: Nottingham – Trent Bridge – Wilford Lane – Clifton – Gotham – East Leake – Stanford-on-Soar – Loughborough
* 1A Nottingham – Trent Bridge – Wilford Lane – Clifton
* 1B Nottingham – Trent Bridge – Wilford Lane – Clifton
* 1E Nottingham – Trent Bridge – Wilford Lane – Clifton – Gotham – East Leake Academy
* 3 Nottingham – Trent Bridge – Wilford Lane – Ruddington – Clifton
* 3A Nottingham – Trent Bridge – Wilford Lane – Wilford Village – Silverdale – Clifton
* 4 Nottingham – Trent Bridge – Wilford Lane – NTU Clifton Campus
* N4 Nottingham – Trent Bridge – Wilford Lane – Clifton – NTU Clifton Campus
* 5 Nottingham – Trent Bridge – West Bridgford – Abbey Park – Alford road – Edwalton, Wellin Lane
* 6 Nottingham – Trent Bridge – West Bridgford – Gordon Road – Alford Road – Gamston, Morrisons
* 7 Nottingham – Trent Bridge – West Bridgford – Melton road – Edwalton Fields
* 8 Nottingham – Trent Bridge – West Bridgford – Musters Road – Rushcliffe School – Wilford Hill – Compton Acres – Musters Road
* 9 Nottingham – Trent Bridge – West Bridgford – Musters Road – Compton Acres – Wilford Hill – Rushcliffe School – Musters Road
* 9B Nottingham – Trent Bridge – West Bridgford – Musters Road – Compton Acres – Wilford Hill – Rushcliffe School
* 9B Rushcliffe School – Musters Road – West Bridgford – Trent Bridge
* 10 Nottingham – Trent Bridge – Loughborough Road – Wilford Hill – Ruddington Village
* 10C Nottingham – Trent Bridge – Loughborough Road – Wilford Hill – Ruddington Village – Rushcliffe Business & Country Park
* 10X Nottingham – Trent Bridge – Loughborough Road – Wilford Hill – Loughborough Road – Rushcliffe Business & Country Park
* 11 Nottingham – Meadows – Trent Bridge – Lady Bay
* 11A Nottingham – Meadows – Trent Bridge – Lady Bay – Ambleside – Gamston, Morrisons
* 11C Nottingham – Meadows – Trent Bridge – Lady Bay – National Water Sports Centre
* 15 Nottingham – Hucknall Road – City Hospital (Hucknall Road) – Bestwood – Top Valley – Rise Park
* 16 Nottingham – Hucknall Road – City Hospital (Hucknall Road) – Andover Road – Top Valley – Rise Park
* 16C Nottingham – Hucknall Road – City Hospital (Hucknall Road) – Andover Road – Top Valley – Rise Park – Brownlow Drive
* 17 Nottingham – Hucknall Road – City Hospital (Hucknall Road) – St Albans Road – Bulwell
* 24 Nottingham – Carlton Hill – Gedling – Victoria Retail Park
* 25 Nottingham – Carlton Hill – Westdale Lane – Mapperley – Woodthorpe – Daybrook – Arnold
* 25B Nottingham – Carlton Hill – Westdale Lane – Mapperley
* 26 Nottingham – Carlton Hill – Gedling – Burton Joyce – Lowdham – Brackenhurst Campus – Southwell
* 26A Nottingham – Carlton Hill – Gedling – Burton Joyce – Lowdham – Brackenhurst Campus
* 26B Nottingham – Carlton Hill – Gedling – Carlton-le-Willows Academy
* 27 Nottingham – Carlton Hill – Cavendish Road – Carlton
* 28 Nottingham – Ilkeston Road – Jubilee Campus – Beechdale – Bilborough
* 29 Nottingham – Ilkeston Road – Jubilee Campus
* 30 Nottingham – Ilkeston Road – Jubilee Campus – Wollaton Park – Bramcote Lane Shops – Wollaton Vale
* 34 Nottingham – Derby Road – Q.M.C – University Park Campus
* 34C Nottingham – Derby Road – Q.M..C – University Park Campus
* N34 Nottingham – Derby Road – Q.M.C – University Park Campus -Beeston
* 35 Nottingham – Derby Road – Q.M.C – Wollaton Vale – Bilborough – Strelley – Cinderhill – Bulwell
* 35A Nottingham – Derby Road – Q.M.C – Wollaton Vale
* 35B Nottingham – Derby Road – Q.M.C – Wollaton Vale – Bilborough – Strelley
* 36 Nottingham – Derby Road – Q.M.C – Beeston – Chilwell
* 39 Nottingham – Thorneywood – Porchester Road – Carlton Valley
* 40 Nottingham – St Ann's – Woodthorpe Court – Sherwood Shops – City Hospital Grounds – Edwards Lane Estate
* 40B Nottingham – St Ann's – The Wells Road Top
* 40X Nottingham – St Ann's – Sherwood Shops – City Hospital Grounds
* 41 Nottingham – St Ann's
* 42 Nottingham – Hungerhill Road – Brewsters Road – St Ann's
* 43 Nottingham – Sneinton Dale – Bakersfield
* 44 Nottingham – Sneinton Hermitage – Racecourse Park & Ride – Colwick – Netherfield – Gedling
* 44A Nottingham – Sneinton Hermitage – Racecourse Park & Ride – Colwick Industrial Estate – Netherfield – Gedling
* 48 Nottingham – Meadows – Riverside Retail Park – Clifton Bridge – Clifton
* 48X Nottingham – Meadows – Queen's Drive – Clifton Bridge – Clifton
* 49 Nottingham – NG2 – Riverside Retail Park – Queen's Drive Park & Ride – Clifton Bridge – Boots Site
* 49A Nottingham – NG2 – Riverside Retail Park – Clifton Bridge – Boots Site
* 49B Nottingham – NG2 – Riverside Retail Park – Queen's Drive Park & Ride
* 49X 49 Nottingham – NG2 -Queen's Drive – Clifton Bridge – Boots Site
* 50 Nottingham – Citylink – Daleside Road – Racecourse Park & Ride – Colwick Industrial Estate – Victoria Retail Park
* 53 Clifton – Clifton Bridge – Showcase Cinema – Q.M.C – Ring Road – City Hospital (Ring Road) – Arnold
* 53B Clifton – Clifton Bridge -Showcase Cinema – Q.M.C
* 54 Clifton – Larkhill Village – Summerwood Lane – Rivergreen – Clifton Bridge – Showcase Cinema – Q.M.C – Ring Road – City Hospital (Ring Road) – Arnold
* 54B Clifton – Larkhill Village – Summerwood Lane – Rivergreen – Clifton Bridge – Showcase Cinema – Q.M.C
* 56 Nottingham – Mansfield Road – Sherwood – Woodthorpe – Plains Estate – Arnold
* 56B Arnold – Plains Estate – Woodthorpe
* 57 Plains Estate – Woodthorpe – Sherwood – Mansfield Road – Nottingham
* 57X Nottingham – Mansfield Road – Sherwood – Plains Estate
* 58 Nottingham – Mansfield Road – Sherwood – Daybrook – Arnold – Killisick
* 58X Nottingham – Mansfield Road – Sherwood – Daybrook – Arnold – Coppice Road – Killisick
* 59 Nottingham – Mansfield Road – Sherwood – Arnot HIll – Arnold Market – Rolleston Drive -Killisick
* 60 Nottingham – Woodborough Road – Mapperley – Westdale Lane – Gedling (Chase Farm)
* 61 Nottingham – Woodborough Road – Mapperley – Mapperley Plains – Lambley – Woodborough – Calverton
* 68 Nottingham – Sherwood Rise – Basford – Bulwell – Hempshill Vale – Snape Wood
* 69 Nottingham – Sherwood Rise – Basford – Bulwell – Snape Wood – Hempshill Vale
* 70 Nottingham – Sherwood Rise – Basford Village – Bagnall Road – Cinderhill – Bulwell – Norwich Gardens – Morrisons
* 70B Nottingham – Sherwood Rise – Basford Village – Bagnall Road – Cinderhill – Bulwell
* 71 Nottingham – Sherwood Rise – Basford Village – Cinderhill Island – Bulwell – Morrisons
* 71B Nottingham – Sherwood Rise – Basford Village – Cinderhill Island – Bulwell
* 77 Nottingham – Alfreton Road – Aspley Lane – Strelley
* 77C Nottingham – Alfreton Road – Aspley Lane – Strelley – Cinderhill
* 78 Nottingham – Alfreton Road – Broxtowe – Strelley
* 79/79A Nottingham – Alfreton Road – Cinderhill – Bulwell – Moor Bridge – Rise Park – Top Valley – Bestwood Park – Arnold
* 87 Nottingham – Mansfield Road – Sherwood – City Hospital (Edwards Lane) – Oxclose Lane – Redhill – Arnold
* 88 Nottingham – Mansfield Road – Sherwood – City Hospital (Edwards Lane) Bestwood Park – Top Valley
* 89 Nottingham – Mansfield Road – Sherwood – City Hospital (Edwards Lane) – Bestwood – Rise Park
* A2 Bulwell – Rise Park – Bestwood – City Hospital (Edwards Lane) – Ring Road – Aspley – Beechdale