Draft:Vectare

Vectare Limited, trading as Vectare, is a bus company based in Loughborough which operates services in the East Midlands, East of England, Essex and Hertfordshire. They also operate a transport consultancy under the same name, providing transport services for both school and corporate environments.

History
Vectare first emerged in 2016, founded by university friends Peter Nathanail and Dominic Kalantary. It was initially run solely as a transport consultancy, with bus operations beginning in 2018 through private services ran solely using minibuses.

Operations began expanding over the following years, with regularly-scheduled passenger services initially emerging in the Loughborough and Derby areas. Vectare later expanded to cover Leicester, with services in the city run predominantly under the Novus brand. Services in the East Midlands continued to expand with the introduction of a network of routes around Bingham town centre.

Vectare services in the East of England were first introduced in 2020 with the launch of a small number of routes connecting the city centre of Peterborough. At the same time, the operations of the company expanded into Essex with the opening of a new depot in Rettendon Common and the introduction of routes in the Wickford and Basildon areas.

The presence of Vectare in Essex continued to widen in early 2021, with a number of routes being introduced in the areas surrounding Epping and Waltham Cross. Services reached Harlow on 26th July with the takeover of route 381 between the town centre and Coopersale.

A demand-responsive transport service branded flexibus+ in Swaffham was launched through a partnership with Norfolk County Council in March 2022. Essex operations further expanded that Summer with the commencing of Travel Essex Park and Ride services in Chelmsford and Sandon.

Connections to the Nottingham network received a large expansion in April 2023 with the launch of routes 90 and 92, linking the city to Newark-on-Trent.

In August 2023, Vectare purchased Hertfordshire and Essex based operator Central Connect from coach operator Galleon Travel. This served as a significant expansion to the Vectare network, with 45 routes and 2 depots at Riverway, Harlow and Start Hill, Stansted being acquired. £5 million in government funding is being invested into the network in 2024, primarily towards the purchase of new ADL Enviro200 MMC buses to replace the outdated Central Connect fleet. The brand is expected to be operated separately for the foreseeable future, with Central Connect vehicles gradually being repainted into Vectare colours with their own dedicated branding.

Fleet
As of February 2023, the Vectare fleet consists of approximately 100 vehicles. The fleet mostly contains Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 MMC vehicles, the majority of which were purchased brand new for Vectare services. A further 15 of these were obtained from Central Connect. Vectare also operate a sizeable number of Mercedes-Benz Sprinter minibuses, and a small number of Mercedes-Benz Tourismo coaches. An additional small group of older Alexander Dennis Enviro200 and Scania Omnicity vehicles were also inherited through the purchase of Central Connect.

The 2024 Vectare business plan states that 25 Enviro200 MMC vehicles are set to enter service by May 2024, with an undisclosed number of minibuses and double-deck buses expected to arrive in the second half of the year.