Six months into the job, Reading Buses’ new CEO Robert Williams speaks to James Day about returning to his hometown to run the buses, and how the operator continues to aim high
As one of the last remaining municipal operators and also one of the most highly-regarded bus operators in the UK, the CEO role at Reading Buses comes with large boots to fill. On 1 October last year, the role was taken up by Robert Williams.
Robert‘s new role is not his first in the town. Indeed, it was in Reading that he was first introduced to the coach and bus world.
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After obtaining a degree in physics with computing from Warwick University, buses came to mind as a possible career choice and Robert applied for some graduate schemes, though he was not successful. He then saw a student placement advertised with what was then Stagecoach South Midlands.
“It was effectively a one-year work experience placement and I thought it would be a good starting point,” Robert said. “Thankfully the interviewing panel – which included James Freeman as Operations Director – agreed and gave me the opportunity.“I started the placement in Oxford, analysing passenger numbers, concessionary fare claims and some of the ticket machine-based jobs. Given my background, I got my teeth into that and made some good progress. I found a few bits and pieces which could be improved and were improved as a result.
“About six months in the company was reorganised and split into Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. James Freeman went to be MD of Warwickshire and Martin Sutton remained as MD of Oxfordshire. Martin was a great source of knowledge and advice. We needed to set up a separate commercial department in Oxford, because it was previously all done from Rugby. I applied for the Commercial Officer’s position and got it, with Clive Jones at Rugby, now Commercial Director of Megabus keeping a watchful eye on things.” Robert became Commercial Manager a couple of years later.
“There are two big projects which stand out from that time,” Robert said. “One was what we called the S Series – taking our disparate network of interurban and rural routes and putting them into a combined network with improved marketing. It eventually led to the network becoming Stagecoach Gold just as I was finishing in the area.
“The other big project was called Transforming Oxford, which was the coordinated timetables and integrated ticketing with Oxford Bus Company. I was behind the scenes doing a lot of the planning and detail behind some of the proposals. It led to what were standalone competitive routes being coordinated under a qualifying agreement organised through the council. That made such an impact on the service being provided and improving the environment within the city.”
Becoming a director
After nine years in Oxford, Robert relocated to Devon to be Commercial Director at Stagecoach South West. “My role was to replace an Operations Director, but with a more commercial planning approach,” he explained. “The team at the time had a lot of experience with operations and felt that someone with a commercial background would supplement them.
“I was involved in all sorts of things, including route branding, marketing campaigns, improving KPIs and delivery and various other initiatives and projects. The acquisition of Plymouth operations from FirstGroup was a highlight, with a lot of energy required to change the culture to fit in with the Stagecoach way of thinking. That opened the door to introducing the South West Falcon coach service, which was my little baby in many respects. It was a huge investment from Stagecoach – one of the group’s biggest projects of the year it started, 2016.”
At this point, the opportunity arose for Robert to return to Reading, when the role of CEO of Reading Buses became available. Robert said he couldn’t resist the chance to run his hometown’s buses.
“It was that passion and enthusiasm for the industry and being in Reading which helped me to clinch the job,” he said. “There’s no looking back now – it’s pretty much my dream job. I hope I can keep the company moving in the right direction and at the top of its game, as it is so well-regarded. There are small areas for improvement, and we need to get into those details to improve in those areas.”
Subsidiaries
In December 2017, First decided it was going to deregister some services in the Slough area, primarily the Green Line 702 service, but also the number 5 service in Slough itself. Reading Buses took on the 702 on a commercial basis, run from Reading, and used the Thames Valley brand to operate the 5 under an emergency contract with Slough Borough Council to get an operation off the ground there.
“We called that operation Thames Valley because we didn’t think it was right to call it Reading Buses – it’s not in Reading,” Robert explained. “Slough Buses didn’t quite have the right ring to it, and it was felt that with that expansion we were becoming more focused on the Thames Valley.”
In September 2018, Newbury & District was acquired – effectively the bus division of Weavaway Coaches.
“We worked closely with it over a number of years on several different projects, but tenders were lost and it became a bit more competitive,” Robert recalled. “That died off after a while, and we learned that the owners were looking to dispose of the business. We thought it would make a nice fit.
“The business brought with it a lot of other work which we hadn’t done in the area, like school contracts, and spread out into Hampshire and Oxfordshire.” Reading Buses also recently agreed terms to take over Courtney Buses.“The deal has been in the works for quite some time,” said Robert. “It’s great to announce it and think about how we can bring the two companies together once the contracts are completed.
“We can now start to think about how we can replicate the success of Reading Buses in the surrounding Thames Valley towns, though what is already there is quite successful. Courtney Buses has grown its business and patronage, which was one of the attractions. It was already a good fit in terms of its approach to branding and good customer service.
“We will do a rebrand eventually. The company is named after its owner at the moment and we have our own brand in the area from our fledgling operations in Slough called Thames Valley. At the moment, that’s the front-runner for the new branding.
“With our new look for Newbury and District, we’ve incorporated a bird motif. Courtney uses a bird in its logo, and we see the bird migrating across our two satellite companies as something which pulls them together.”
High satisfaction
In the recent Transport Focus results, Reading Buses matched its record overall satisfaction score of 94%.
“Last year we suffered quite a bit from roadworks and traffic congestion,” Robert said. “It has been good to see the satisfaction come back once that work had been largely finished.
“The survey as usual highlights lots of areas where we can do more. There is still 6% to go at with overall satisfaction.
“Each employee has been given a booklet with all of the information from Transport Focus. They can see what people are saying and the biggest areas we can improve on. It justifies why we bang on about certain things to them.”
People power
“We’re all about people here,” said Robert. “It’s the bus industry mantra and in particular ours. First and foremost, the customer: how do we meet and exceed their expectations and provide a bit of delight and happiness each day?
“We call it our mission – connecting people and places every day with an amazing team. That mission came out of a lot of detailed work with our staff. It wasn’t dreamt up one day by an executive somewhere, it was worked on and brought through by staff.
“People also extends of course to our staff. We’ve been able to invest in facilities, and have staff on very good terms and conditions which allows us to be competitive in the market. Thames Valley is very difficult for employment of all types, so we have to work very hard to stand out from the crowd. We have just over 500 drivers in Reading alone and have had difficult times in the past, but at the moment we are fully staffed and have an excellent training academy which has a constant trickle of people waiting to come in.
“The other thing that stands out for me is simply diversity of the workforce, both in terms of ethnicity and gender. I know a third of our workforce are from ethnic minorities. Diversity is important because it gives us a wide range of views and approaches to things, and we can be flexible and respond to our customers’ needs. It does reflect Reading as well – it’s a diverse town.”
New recruits and training
Reading Buses’ recruitment policy is to only recruit people without a PSV licence, instead targeting people with a customer focus.
“That has borne fruit in terms of the way our staff interact with our customers,” Robert stated. “We feel our training academy is more than equipped to train people how to drive a bus.
“We did have a period last year where we invited licence holders to apply.
“I would never say never in terms of changing things in the future, but I think our approach is fundamentally the right one. We need people who will look after our customers to the best of their ability. It’s not all about driving standards and skill. We can train that.”
The operator provides Driver CPC training on top of licence acquisition. It has its own JAUPT-approved CPC course which is designed and delivered each year.
“The course last year was quite something,” Robert recalled. “Our charity of the year was Autism Berkshire and as part of our partnership, they arranged for a young person with autism to come in as part of each CPC course to allow staff to meet them and ask any questions they had. It made the session more interactive, involving and engaging.
“The feedback was that it has not just helped our staff, but also the development and confidence of the autistic youngsters brought in. Everybody concerned was really pleased with how the course came out.”
This year’s charity is Cancer Research UK Kids & Teens, which won by a landslide in the staff vote after a Reading Buses member of staff died from cancer aged just 22.
Fleet
The Reading Buses fleet is varied, but the operator’s investment in gas buses means the largest slice of it consists of Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) and Scania buses. There are currently 237 vehicles in the fleet, including 27 at Newbury & District.
There are now 22 gas-powered double-deckers, all of which are ADL Enviro400s on Scania chassis. Five of these are standard ADL Enviro400MMCs, while the other 17 have Enviro400MMC City bodies. There is also a fleet of 35 Scania ADL Enviro300 single-decker gas buses.
Of the 31 ADL Enviro400 hybrid diesel electrics Reading Buses operates, 15 have now been converted to diesel, and one is in the process of being converted by Magtec to full electric.
Also from ADL are 38 Enviro400MMCs and 13 original Enviro400s, nine pre-MMC Enviro200s and four short wheelbase Enviro200s.
The other UK manufacturers are also represented. There are six Wrightbus StreetDecks, seven Wrightbus StreetLites, six diesel Optare Solos, five gas-converted Optare Solos, four Optare Solo SRs and one Optare Metrodecker demonstrator on medium-term loan.
Also part of the fleet are nine Scania OmniDekkas, 10 Scania OmniCity Double-deckers and six Scania Irizar i3s. These latter vehicles were acquired for a Vodafone corporate contract and include air-conditioning.
Of four DAF DB250 Wrightbus Geminis, one has been extensively refurbished. There are also four Dennis Trident Plaxton Presidents, two Dennis Trident Alexander ALX400s purchased from Stagecoach South (new to Stagecoach South West), three Scania East Lancs Olympus and one Scania OmniCity single-decker.
Eight coaches are currently operated – two Scania Caetano Levantes which are ex-National Express, three Volvo Caetano Levantes for current National Express work, another Volvo Levante bought for Newbury and District and two Mercedes-Benz Caetano Levantes which are on loan from Weavaway Coaches, pending replacement vehicles being bought for Newbury & District. Four Mercedes-Benz Sprinters, each with a different specification, are also part of the fleet. One of these has Mellor Strata bodywork.
Hybrid changes
Asked why some of the operator’s hybrids have been converted, Robert explained: “The battery which sits behind the electrics was always going to have a shelf life of around five years. When they got to that age, it became a question of what it cost to extend the warranty versus what it cost to convert them to diesel or pure electric.
“An exercise was undertaken to convert one vehicle into each option available at the time to help evaluate the pros and cons of each route. Clearly pure electric has environmental benefits, as does the hybrid to a slightly lesser degree, while diesel doesn’t have the battery issues. It came down to a choice between hybrid warranty and diesel conversion, and the cost was essentially the same. We did half and half.
“In some ways it’s a shame because the hybrid buses are very nice to ride on. There are no gear changes, they are smooth and they are very good buses for the passenger, but keeping on top of the battery life was an issue. The expectation was that batteries would improve, but that investment has gone into the next generation vehicles. It’s one of the challenges when you’re innovative at an early stage – you’re taking a chance.
“I guess that’s where gas is a big benefit. It uses less complicated, long established technology. The engines are very similar to petrol engines with spark plugs. The Euro V gas engine essentially meets Euro VI in terms of emissions and certainly does in terms of NOx. It’s effectively Euro VI without any of the cleaning equipment you need for diesel.”
Metrodeckers on the way
On order, Reading Buses has five Optare Metrodeckers for its Green Line service.
“They are going to be something else,” Robert enthused. They are the first diesel production order for the Metrodecker. We’re expecting them in June. The order was placed before I arrived, but we’ve been working on it since to refine the specification.
“They will have high-spec interiors because there is a bit of motorway running on the route.”
Asked why the Metrodecker was chosen, Robert replied: “One was the ability to provide the specification which was set. We were looking for something high-spec, and while we were not quite asking for a bespoke product, Optare does tend to be very flexible in terms of how it works and what it can include. That was the main attraction for a service of this nature. We also have high hopes for the fuel consumption, because they are integral lightweight vehicles. They ought to deliver financially.”
An order for BCI tri-axle double-deckers has now been cancelled. Robert said the specification Reading Buses required could not be met.
Running gas buses
Gas buses first arrived in Reading in 2013 – a fleet of 20 single-deckers on the back of a contract for Reading Borough Council called Greenwave. The project is expected to become a mass rapid transit route in due course, serving a two business parks, new housing developments and a Park & Ride.
“It was felt at the time that the next stage was to do something different in terms of the environment, which is what launched the gas concept, along with various rounds of Green Bus Funding to develop and enhance the infrastructure around it,” Robert said.
“What constrains us from getting more gas buses is the gas station. The more buses you fill in an evening, the lower the pressure gets in the system, which means the later ones take longer to fill up. As we add more and more buses we might be talking about filling buses up in the morning which is a fundamentally different way of running the business. We did put a bid in for the latest Low Carbon Vehicle Fund but we were not successful.
“It might be that particularly with our expansion, we could consider using gas in other locations. That would then allow us to buy more and spread the fleet around. We haven’t done any of the scoping work for that, but if we can make the case to do it, we will.
“For the time being gas works very well – lower running costs and simpler maintenance.
“We source our gas from waste products. Our supplier is carbon neutral. Although we have tailpipe emissions, it is offset by the people we buy the gas from.
“It is possible to invest in gas on a commercial basis, though the up-front cost is a challenge.”
Clean funding
“One of the things which we did get funding for was to convert the whole fleet to Euro VI this year,” Robert noted. “We’ve been working with suppliers to come up with systems for our various vehicle types which are not Euro VI to upgrade them all by December. That means every bus is going to be very green.
“The calculations the council have done indicate that rather than introducing a Low Emission Zone, if all our vehicles are converted, the town will be under the emissions limit.”
Specification
Reading Buses was an early adopter of audio visual displays and announcements, which have been standard on its vehicles since the early 2000s.
“We even fit external voice announcements to the buses, so when the doors open, they announce where they are going through a speaker above the door,” Robert enthused. “We’ve had varying degrees of success with that because of the on-street environment.
“Our most recent buses on the 17 have two wheelchair bays in response to customer requests. We have wood-effect flooring and soft-touch materials on the seatbacks. Other details include lightweight seating, coat hooks, USB charging points (a number of vehicles have been retrofitted to add these) and free 4G WiFi, which is pretty prevalent here even on urban services.”
Smartcard payments have been offered by Reading Buses since 2000. Robert explained: “Reading has traditionally had very high take-up of weekly tickets, which speeds up boarding. Since we’ve gone contactless there has been a vast reduction in people paying cash, with many now switching to the app and contactless, resulting in more passengers satisfied with journey speed.
“We still see a role for cash, though the one customer unfriendly thing we still have is fare boxes with no change given on urban routes. That is probably going to be our method of dealing with cash long-term on the urban routes. In an ideal world, you wouldn’t have to deal with cash and its associated slow processing and security issues, but equally, people want to pay with it and we need to take their money. We do everything we can to move people off it.”
Bus priority
Robert said Reading Buses benefits from some ‘phenomenally good’ bus priority: “Reading had the first ever contraflow bus lane – a one-way road with the bus lane going the opposite way – introduced in the 1960s when trolleybuses were still running. That bus lane is on our busiest route and a great asset to running buses in the town.
“In the last 10 years or so, the council has built a case and managed to implement a bus lane in the other direction on that road. We now have a one-way road with four lanes, two of which are bus lanes. It really does give us priority into the town centre on that route.
“On the other side of town, there were a number of new housing estates built with bus links. Rather than following the main A4 road out of town, the buses can go through a series of housing estates on a pretty direct route which penetrates all those estates really well.
“The mass rapid transit route on the A33 is currently being built. It’s a dual carriageway serving business parks, new housing developments and so on. That is being widened to put in bus lanes in all the key areas which will support the ongoing growth of that area, but also the huge amount of housing planned in the area beyond that.
“The council has also introduced some of the first red routes outside London, if not the first, along the 17 route, where double red lines are used and stopping is not allowed for any reason. In theory it keeps the roads less congested and free flowing. It again shows the council is willing to do its part.”
Countering cutbacks
While all of this priority is positive, council cutbacks are causing some problems. “The capacity to manage the network is a lot lower,” Robert explained.
“We have regular issues with certain parts of the network where some junction improvements would make quite a significant difference. Hopefully funding for that can start being gathered.”
Robert hopes to leverage Reading Buses’ status as a municipal company to help the situation:
“We’re working on traffic light control. Council budget cuts mean it can only afford a certain number of staff, which effectively cover the morning peak, but they go home at 1600hrs and there’s no coverage of the evening peak, which is the one that is of greater concern to us.
“Our control room has got CCTV screens to show them what is going on and staffed 24 hours a day. We could put the two together and with the right training, boundaries and rules deliver a better service for bus users, motorists and the town as a whole.
“We’re not crossing any boundaries to do that. While it’s in our interests and any bus company would want to do it, our ownership gives us a greater ability to work together.
“We have to be seen to be doing the right thing and running the business in a way that is socially responsible, as well as commercially responsible. Projects like this are some of the benefits which come out of that.”
The tech lab
Earlier this year, Reading Buses opened a ‘tech lab,’ which was launched by Buses Minister Nusrat Ghani MP.
“It is a successful attempt to involve aspiring technological whiz kids to come up with systems which will help us in the future,” Robert said. “We had someone set up a Twitter feed based on our real-time information feed, which we make available effectively as open data. The feed was set up to automatically tweet us whenever their bus is more than five minutes late, because they were concerned about delays and congestion. Every month it sends us a graph of how reliable we were.
“We thought ‘our systems can’t even do that!’ We decided we needed to bring them in and see if they can help us in any way. They’ve gone on to develop quite a few bits and pieces of the next level of real-time data analysis.
“We’ve also got a chap who is into 3D printing. He wanted to build a giant 3D printer, but didn’t have enough room in his mother’s living room to do so. We offered him some workshop space to do it there. One of the things we’re looking at is 3D printing body panels and whether you can get the structure right so the panels are robust, and the right colour so we don’t have to paint them.
“Another person we’ve been working with is developing a tree detection sensor. It measures from the smallest leaf up to the biggest branch, so you can track the growth of the tree to the point where it’s dangerous and give precise information to the local authority or land owner so they can go and trim it back. It could make a saving in terms of replacement windscreens and parts. It’s almost like preventative maintenance.“The lab is typically used by university students and independent businesses or anyone else with a genuine idea to try.”
Route branding
“We have a very strong commitment to route branding,” Robert said. “It works on a micro level – it’s not just Reading Buses that is the brand, but the blue bus or the green bus on top of that – the brand within the brand.
“People are very attached to their local route colour. That engenders loyalty and opens up the doors to people thinking ‘I know what that bus does’ when they see it around. It encourages usage. It continues to be very successful.
“It’s all about customer focus. It’s something we’re very passionate about. Done right, it is beneficial. We are committed to keep reinventing ourselves and refreshing.
“It’s a slightly different proposition outside of the town where we have more tendered services. On tendered services, we still see it as our goal to grow passenger numbers during the time of the contract. It’s not just a case of running a box with four wheels at the lowest possible cost, but maximising the number of people who use them.
“As I said, we will be rebranding Courtney Buses in due course and will use some route branding as part of that process, though the company does use some route branding already. They are already in that mindset, but we might be able to add some finesse and refresh it.”
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