Midlands Bus Festival 2027: heritage buses and group bookings

More than 100 vehicles are expected at the Midlands Bus Festival next year which will celebrate the history and heritage of bus transport.

Heritage Bus Rally

The region’s rich bus heritage will be celebrated at the event held across two sites in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

Groups will be welcomed on board a selection of preserved and vintage vehicles for passenger rides, as well as static display buses during a packed programme of events.

Taking place between 8th and 9th May 2027, the event aims to become the largest gathering of buses and preservation vehicles in the Midlands. The festival is the result of a collaboration between the Great Central Railway, Leicester, Great Central Railway Nottingham, Leicestershire Transport Heritage Trust and Nottingham Area Bus Society.

General manager at Great Central Railway, Malcolm Holmes, said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the region’s rich bus heritage on a truly impressive scale. We’re now inviting owners and preservation groups to get involved and help us make the event as spectacular as possible.”

What can visitors expect?

Visitors will be able to experience a range of routes at the Midlands Bus Festival on a variety of preserved buses, connecting the Great Central Railway and GCRN, as well as other services operating around the local area.

It takes place at Quorn & Woodhouse Station, located at Grand Central Railway in Leicestershire, as well as Ruddington Fields, located at Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre.

Great Central Railway, Leicestershire

Source: Joe Connell

The event has been jointly organised by various charities and organisations including the Great Central Railway, Leicester.

Heritage is the driving force

The Great Central Railway (GCR), one of the event’s organisers, is the last mainline railway that was built in Victorian Britain. Originally opening in 1899 to transport coal and goods, the GCR has been preserved as a heritage railway, which is now open to the public.

To date, there are nearly 700 volunteers working on site, either on the ground, behind the scenes or on the trains themselves, offering fine dining passenger rides to visitors.

Another contributor at the Midlands Bus Festival is Leicester Transport Heritage Trust, a registered charity with an extensive historical archive of around 15 heritage buses dating from the 1950s.