The Anonymous Widower

Leicester City Centre

This Google Map shows the relationship between Leicester station and the City Centre.

Leicester Station And The City Centre

The station is in the South-East corner and the big High Cross Shopping Centre and the cathedral are in the North-West corner.

Leicester City’s stadium is off the map to the South-West.

I could just about walk it to the Shopping Centre from the station, but it was at the limit of my range with the faciitis in my right foot.

I took these pictures as I walked between the station and the centre.

If there was a city, that needs a people mover of some sort between the two locations, it is Leicester.

All European cities would run a tram and with the latest technological developments, the tram would now be battery powered as in Seville and soon to be seen in Birmingham. On such a short distance, it doesn’t even have to have rails, but could be a rubber-tyred, double-ended articulated bus. I once saw a concept like this is in a Wrightbus presentation.

I made one big mistake on my visit to Leicester.

I was intending to go to the cathedral and have some lunch, which I did in Carluccio’s in the High Cross Shopping Centre.

As I was hungry, I had the lunch first and found that the shopping centre has been designed, so you have to go back through it to get anywhere.

As I didn’t want to buy anything except lunch, that would have been a pointless exercise.

So after wasting twenty minutes walking in the wrong way, I was running too late to visit the cathedral.

So on your visit to Leicester visit the cathedral first and if you’re in a hurry and want something to eat afterwards, don’t go in the shopping centre.

A properly-designed people mover going from the station to the pedestriansed central are and on to the cathedral would not only solve my problem, but it would surely attract a lot more visitors to the city to visit the cathedral and Kind Richard.

The one thing that a people-mover in Leicester, doesn’t have to be, is a fully-fledged tram with overhead wires. That is so nineteenth century for short routes in city centres.

Get it right in Leicester and I can think of several other towns and cities, that could use such a system.

May 5, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Leicester, Leicester Station, Shopping, Trams