Cityzap, the motorway express bus service between Leeds and Manchester, is offering free travel throughout January to anyone with a valid rail ticket between the two cities – just as train passengers returning to work face the biggest rise in season ticket prices for five years.
The brand, run by Transdev Blazefield, is also aiming to capitalise on rail commuters “fed-up with overcrowding, strikes and delays.”
Transdev Blazefield CEO Alex Hornby says: “Free Wi-Fi, USB power, and free online e-books, magazines and games sound like things from the future on the railways, but we have them all right now on Cityzap.
“We also offer that most prized attraction of all to train commuters who know only too well what it’s like to have to stand every day – a comfy, quilted leather seat.”
“We run every hour, every day with handy stops in the heart of both Manchester and Leeds – so no long walk to and from the railway station. And there’s a warm welcome from our amazing team of drivers, dedicated to the route, who can use our very own ‘zap-nav’ to avoid congestion and select the quickest route.”
The Cityzap service runs from 0600-1830hrs weekdays, and 0900-1730hrs on Sundays.
A Gold seven-day unlimited ticket on any of its buses is £34 – compared with £79.30 for a week’s train travel between Leeds and Manchester. Gold is also valid on all Transdev buses.
Cityzap launched its Leeds to Manchester service in November 2017, following the huge success of operator Transdev’s award-winning original Cityzap express between Leeds and York, which carried a quarter of a million passengers in its first 12 months.
The Cityzap concept was created following extensive customer research across the UK and Europe by bus operator Transdev, which revealed that customer perceptions of bus travel suffered due to the perception that even though buses linked major cities, the number of stops served along the route made it difficult for the bus to effectively compete against the train and the private car.
Buying tickets for the Cityzap service is easy, with a dedicated smartphone app, Transdev Go, offering a range of bargain day, weekly and monthly tickets for travel on Cityzap and the full Transdev network of connecting services across the North of England.
The app also gives users access to real-time live departure times from the first stop on their journey to the last – and a live news feed to make sure everyone’s in the know before they go.
Full details at: http://www.cityzap.co.uk.
