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.
Following discussions between the two operators, Central Connect drivers will be offered the opportunity for future employment with Nottingham City Transport.
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”.
Adult single fares will be capped at £3 across the full route, thanks to NCT’s participation in the National Bus Fare cap, with Easyrider Further and Network Rider tickets available for journeys that start or finish outside of the Greater Nottingham area, providing discounted travel for regular users.
Existing customers with long term Central Connect season tickets will be able to exchange them to an NCT equivalent ticket to use on the new service.
The new Pathfinder 90 timetable and map is available at www.nctx.co.uk/pathfinder90
Posted on 08 December 2025
