Orbital (bus service)

Orbital is the name given to Centrebus services 40N and 40S which operate around the outer suburbs in Leicester, UK.

Orbital (40)
Greenlines branded Yutong E10
Overview
Operator	Centrebus
Vehicle	Yutong E10
Peak vehicle requirement	5
Route
Communities served	Leicester General Hospital, Oadby, Wigston Magna, Eyres Monsell, Aylestone, Fosse Park, Thorpe Astley, Braunstone Frith, Glenfield, Glenfield Hospital, Beaumont Shopping Centre, Mowmacre Hill, Gipsy Lane, Hamilton, Netherhall Road, Thurnby Lodge and Goodwood Road
Service
Frequency	every hour on both services

History

Centrebus have operated the 40 service since around 2003 but the history can be traced back to the early 1980s.

As part of the Leicester bus partnership, Centrebus and Leicester City Council successfully applied for ZEBRA funding for electric vehicles to operate on service 40, these were launched on 24 October 2022.^[1]

The previous fully circular route was 30 miles (48 kilometres) long and formed a circle around Leicester.^[2] In March 2025, Centrebus announced changes to the service with it being split into two routes from 27 April in a bid to improve the reliability.^[3]

Route

The Orbital services currently operates as two separate services 40N and 40S in a bid to improve reliability across the service

Service	Terminus Point	Places served	Terminus Point
40N (Northern Orbital)	Glenfield Hospital	Beaumont Shopping Centre, Mowmacre Hill, Gipsy Lane, Hamilton and Goodwood Road	Leicester General Hospital
40S (Southern Orbital)	Hamilton Tesco	Netherhall Road, Thurnby Lodge, Goodwood RoadLeicester General Hospital, Oadby, Wigston Magna, Eyres Monsell, Aylestone, Fosse Park, Thorpe Astley, Braunstone Frith, Glenfield, Glenfield Hospital	Beaumont Shopping Centre

Orbital services both currently operate to an hourly frequency Monday to Saturday, serving the housing, retail, and business areas around the A563 Outer Ring Road.

Future

As part of the Leicester Buses partnership, Leicester City Council are seeking funding to increase the frequency to every 30 minutes alongside the introduction of (less frequent) evening and Sunday services with additional electric buses.^[4]

Vehicles

Orbital is currently operated by four Yutong E10 buses in a distinctive bright green livery with Orbital branding alongside two further examples with Greenlines branding which act as spare vehicles for use on Hop! or the Hospital Hopper services.^[5][6]

Centrebus have previously used a number of Dennis Darts on the service. In 2007 Optare Esteem buses were launched onto the route and these were replaced by Optare Solo SRs in 2016.