Nottingham City Transport (NCT) will take over from Central Connect East Midlands as the operator of service 90 between Nottingham, Bingham, Farndon, Newark, Balderton and Fernwood from 1st February 2026.
Pathfinder 90 will maintain a seven day a week service across the core route, running hourly during the Monday to Saturday daytime and every 2 hours in the evenings and on Sunday daytimes.
David Conway, NCT Head of Operations said, “We are delighted to be introducing Pathfinder 90 and look forward to continuing this key service between Newark and Nottingham. The introduction of the 90 adds Bingham, Farndon, Newark, Balderton and Fernwood to the NCT network, with customers able to benefit from improved access to the city-bus network for continuing their journeys within Nottingham”.
Peter Nathanail, Managing Director at Central Connect said, “Since we took on the operation of route 90 two years ago, we’ve delivered significant improvements to passengers, including increased evening and weekend frequencies, and providing Balderton and Fernwood with buses throughout the day. It’s great to now be handing the baton over to such a high quality operator as NCT, and I want to offer my thanks to our hard-working team who have worked hard to grow and develop this important local bus service”.
Route
NCT will be operating a standard route every day between Fernwood, Newark, Farndon, Coney Grey, A46, Bingham, Radcliffe Road, Trent Bridge, Nottingham Station and Nottingham City Centre.
A small number of early morning and late evening buses won’t serve Coney Grey Spinney or Farndon Village. These buses will show 90X.
Our 90 won’t serve Cropwell Bishop or Cropwell Butler in the evenings or on Sundays. The number of people using the buses at these times is too low to keep running.
Newark
In Newark, they’ll follow the same route as the 90, with Newark Bus Station the main stopping point for buses. The Bus Station is a short walk from the Town Centre.
Farndon
In Farndon, buses will follow the same route as the 90 along Long Lane, Marsh Lane and Main Street. We won’t be serving California Road or The Copse. A small number of early morning and late evening buses will operate along Fosse Road. These buses will show 90X.
Bingham
In Bingham, the main stop for the Market Place will remain on Market Street. We’ll use Nottingham Road rather than Tithby Road when travelling to/from Nottingham. We’ll continue to serve Lidl, Bingham Leisure Centre and serve Dunsmore Avenue.
Radcliffe Road, A52
The main stop for Radcliffe will be on the A52 at Cropwell Road. Between here and Gamston Lock, we’ll speed your journey up by running non-stop along the A52.
Nottingham City Centre
Buses will serve Nottingham Station and continue to terminate in Old Market Square on Beastmarket Hill. They won’t be stopping in Broad Marsh Bus Station. The nearest stop for buses towards Newark are just outside on Canal Street.
Times
Seven days a week, with buses:
- Hourly Monday to Saturday daytimes
- Two hourly Sunday daytime
- Two hourly Monday to Saturday evening, with the last bus back from Nottingham at 22:20 on Saturdays
Fares
Adult single fares will be capped at £3 across the full route, thanks to NCT’s participation in the National Bus Fare cap.
All journeys between the City Centre and Gamston Lock will be inside our City Zone, covered by our Easyrider, Grouprider and All Day Cityrider tickets.
Journeys which start or finish anywhere between Gamston Lock and Fernwood will be in our Outer Zone, where Easyrider Further and Network Rider tickets apply.
If you already have a long term Central Connect season ticket, you will be able to exchange them to an NCT equivalent ticket to use on our 90 service. Final details about how this will work will be published soon.
