By Rian Fearnehough
The Hop! bus service is allowing passengers who want to ride around Leicester city centre to do so free of charge.
Hop! was introduced to Leicester in 2023, with Leicester City Council and Centrebus providing free services around the city to help reduce pollution by offering an alternative to short car journeys.
An LCC survey found that 10 per cent of trips on Hop! would have previously been taken by car, showing the service is helping to cut out short journeys as Leicester tries to increase public transport usage by three times as part of its attempt to make the city carbon neutral.
More than 100,000 trips were made in the first five months of operation, with the number only rising as more people found out about the service, especially as it provides an easy free link between the train and bus station.
Hop! runs anti-clockwise around the city, avoiding right turns, which allows for shorter journey times, with the service looping around every ten minutes.
Passenger of Hop! Ryan Cummings said: “The Hop! bus is a really good service, especially if you have some errands to do in the middle of town, as well as an easy way of getting to the train station.”
The service is especially useful with the government’s new rise in bus fares, which have increased to £3 for a single journey, making a free service even more crucial for those struggling financially.
The government is providing £150 million to help keep the fares down, but with everything on the rise, another rise in costs is the last thing people need.
With Leicester’s goal for carbon neutrality, a rise in bus fare is a worry as all of the hard work the council has put into getting people on public transport may be wiped out with it being less affordable.
“Now the fare has gone up to £3, it is making it a bit harder now for people who want to get the bus with even fewer people being able to catch it,” Ryan added.
