Reinventing the network

Warrington’s Own Buses has been making a raft of changes to its business under the leadership of Ben Wakerley and Cathy Mitchell. James Day visits the municipal operator to hear about the progress it has made

Known as Network Warrington until relatively recently, Warrington’s Own Buses is an operator working hard to reinvent itself. New vehicles, striking brands and updated policies are all coming in to improve the service offered to customers in the town from the municipally-owned operator.

I had the opportunity to meet with the two fairly new faces at the helm of the operation, both of which joined in late Spring 2017.

Ben Wakerley is the Managing Director, who joined after a four-year stint as Operations Director at Abellio London, while Cathy Mitchell is a barrister and ward councillor in Warrington, who also has the role of Chair of Warrington’s Own Buses. She had also been a director of the municipal bus operator since 2016, but became Chair around the same time Ben joined the organisation.

“I’ve always been interested in transport,” Cathy said. “My dad was a HGV mechanic, and I used to help him with that.” [wlm_nonmember][…]

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From corporation to council

Ben first joined the coach and bus industry at the age of 18, as a bus driver for First Manchester. “I worked out of the Queen’s Road bus garage,” he explained. “I was at Lancaster University and drove part-time. I had always wanted to work in the bus industry, all my life.”

Joining First full-time after leaving university was an easy decision for Ben, and he became a trainee manager. He was put in charge of the Wigan garage as Operations Manager in his early twenties and held the role for a few years.

Ben then transferred to First London under Adrian Jones, where he was General Manager at the Willesden Junction Garage. At age 28, he was responsible for 400 staff and 110 vehicles. He ran the busy 18 route and led its conversion from articulated to double-deck buses. His success in the role was rewarded with a UK Bus Awards Young Manager of the Year win in 2011.

“After the award win, I was headhunted by National Express,” Ben continued. “I spent two years as the Interim Operations Director for the UK and Head of Owned Operations. I was then asked by Alan Pilbeam if I wanted to work for Abellio London, and I joined for four years as Operations Director.

“I decided that I really wanted to get my teeth into a more rounded commercial role, and also wanted to move back to the north-west. I applied for the Managing Director job at Network Warrington and I started in May 2017.

“Growing up, I always wanted to work for GM buses, which is why it’s nice to be back here.”

Ben added that he has been enjoying the greater autonomy he has at the municipal operation: “You get to see all aspects of the business. It is very much like running an SME from beginning to end. That is very useful in having a broad view of the total picture, what the market is doing and how the business is performing. It’s great to be able to take an idea, run with it, justify it and see the fruits of it.

“One difference is that in a big group you have a lot of support around you from other operating companies and the head office. It’s a different feel with a municipal because you don’t have that, but ALBUM and CPT pick that up as well as Backhouse Jones. Jane Cole at Blackpool and Martijn Gilbert at Reading have been very helpful to us, along the way.”

Warrington’s Own Buses

In April, Network Warrington was formally rebranded as Warrington’s Own Buses. The new branding was designed by Ray Stenning from Best Impressions and coincided with the arrival of a fleet of new vehicles – the first the operator had received in five years.

“When Cathy and I joined the company, we inherited a stable position, which was good,” Ben explained. “However, we still needed to grow passenger numbers and needed to improve the reputation.

“We have been working with Ray Stenning very closely on repositioning ourselves in the market. The name change to bring the operation up to date is a big part of that. We wanted the new name to reflect our municipal ownership, the locality and what we do.

“We’ve been phasing it in over the last six months. We’ve had recent customer growth and some significant contract wins lately as well as acquiring another bus company in the area.”

Upping the specification

Warrington’s Own Buses recently invested in 13 brand new Alexander Dennis (ADL) Enviro200 MMCs, following a tendering exercise where three different vehicles were evaluated.

“We looked at whole life costs of running them, and the Enviro200 made sense,” Ben said. “It’s also fair to say ADL have a really good partnership with Blackpool and we had an eye on that.”

“ADL ticked all the boxes. It was easy to decide to go with them,” Cathy added. “We didn’t have to compromise on our vision.”

Ben said the company had pushed for a ‘Warrington-spec bus.’ He explained: “We put a sofa at the back of the bus and have added unique lighting, glass panelled roofs, wooden floors, Lazzerini seats and alloy wheels, which look good and help reduce weight. The vehicles are visually really stunning.

“They are the first brand new buses we have had for five years, so we wanted them to be noticed and special. They are loaded with little features which really delight people. They have the usual WiFi, USB charging points, phone holders and lots of other features. We have had feedback from customers that the Cheshire Cat feels safer than other buses, and is more dementia friendly. We think the light interior plays a big part in that.

“We also have contactless payments on some services and have launched an app as well, which is network wide.”

Ben felt it was a no-brainer to invest in a high-quality interior: “The detail really counts. You can have these great features which cost more in terms of up-front thinking time, but don’t cost much more in terms of money.

“We’ve lined the walls of the buses with Ultrafabric, so it is very welcoming when you get on. Combined with the double padded seats and generous seat pitch, it feels more like being in a nice hotel than on a ‘typical’ bus. It doesn’t cost a great deal more to do that, so I don’t understand in some respects why you would specify a bus with a plastic wall and cheap seats if you could instead have something nice to sit in.

“The influence of Ray helps to challenge not just us, but also the manufacturers to think about these problems and what we can do about them. It should genuinely be done from the customer’s point of view. It is easy to say you are doing that, and even to think you are, but we found that until you really concentrate on it you’re potentially not where you should be.”

Cheshire Cat

The majority of the new ADL Enviro200 MMCs have been devoted to the Cheshire Cat network. This new brand covers the company’s services in south Warrington.

“We wanted the Cheshire Cat to be very striking and put buses on the map in Warrington,” Cathy said. “We have been extroverts and really wanted to make sure people know we’re here, and I think they do.”

Ben added: “We’ve also taken over the bus stops on the Cheshire Cat, covering the whole of south Warrington. We made the decision to adopt them because it means we can brand the flags and bus stop information displays to match our vehicles. It has been an extensive marketing exercise.

“Bus stops need to look good and supply fares and times information. They are part of the whole package, and the council in Warrington has been very supportive of us taking control of them and it is great that they have been progressive about it.”

The company has also taken steps to simplify the network, as well as installing audio-visual systems which benefit new passengers. Ben explained: “We were very conscious of the fact that for the routes which fall under the Cheshire Cat brand now, there were four or five different timetables. This was not making it easy for customers to understand the inter-timing of the services. It was masking the high-frequency, ‘turn up and go’ service.

“For example, between Warrington and Stockton Heath, there is a 10 minute bus service, but to know that, customers would have required six timetable leaflets. Before the changes, the information about the services was not joined up. I have to say Ray has been really helpful. Together, we have really pushed and pushed to think more from a customer point of view.

“In the new guide, all you do is turn to the area where you live and there is a page for it, with all the times for buses laid out neatly for you. It’s more leg work for us to do that as we have had to piece it together for the customer, but why wouldn’t we? The alternative is expecting the customer to do it themselves, which they won’t, and why should they?”

“It has to be simple enough for new people who haven’t used the bus before,” Cathy noted.

Ben continued: “We’ve also made nicer route maps, explained fares, updated payment methods and included deals with local shops and services, like free coffees. We’ve promoted the area too – Warrington Market gets a plug, Stockton Heath centre, the rugby club and so on. We’re selling the destination as well as ourselves.

“This method is followed inside the bus, where we have cove messages promoting the town. All the stakeholders like it, but most importantly it is giving customers more ideas of places to go on the bus.”

Cathy added: “It embeds us as being part of Warrington. We’ve had such positive feedback.”

Ben was keen to stress that the Cheshire Cat brand is more than just a gimmick. It is of course linked to Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat which appeared in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but the name has been used because the bus service serves the area where the inspiration for the character is rumoured to have come from. Warrington was also Lewis Carroll’s birthplace.

There are details in the Cheshire Cat timetable book about the sandstone cat carving on the west face of St Wilfrid’s Church tower in Grappenhall. The statue is thought to be the mark of a builder who worked on the church many years ago by the name of Catterall, and it is suggested that this is the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat.

Working with rail

Warrington currently has two railway stations – the west-east orientated Warrington Central and the north-south orientated Warrington Bank Quay. While Warrington Central is located almost adjacent to the town’s bus station, Warrington Bank Quay until recently did not have a bus service at all.

“I was quite surprised when I arrived here that Warrington Bank Quay, which is a railway station on the West Coast Mainline, didn’t have a bus service,” Ben said. “The station offers a great journey time to London of one hour and 50 minutes, but there was no bus service to get people to it. The only option was a car or taxi and relatively pricey car parking.

“After a lot of research, we routed the Cheshire Cat to go past the station every 10 minutes, and made the decision not to water that frequency down. There was some pressure to do so, because some areas might not get served if we wanted to keep the 10 minute frequency, but we needed to provide a service which takes the largest number of people where they want to go.

“The service is very successful now, and people want to use it. It also provides a significant benefit for people arriving in the station, as it only costs £1 for them to go into town on the Cheshire Cat.”

Council support has been important to allow this route change to work, as Ben explained: “We had the idea to put the Cheshire Cat past the station, and the council agreed because it would promote multi-modal travel and fits in with the local transport plan. However, there was a set of traffic lights at a junction with no right turn allowed which prevented the service from taking the route.

“The council agreed to consult on that, did the engineering work and changed the road network to allow a right turn for buses only. They also extended parking restrictions and bus lane enforcement on the route. They are aiming to increase bus lanes on the route further. They have been very helpful.”

Since rerouting the service, Warrington’s Own Buses has been in dialogue with Virgin trains, which will be allowing the bus operator to display adverts in its corridor at the station.

“Passengers will see that the Cheshire Cat is the way to get into town as soon as they get off the train,” Ben said. “We have been really out there with branding for this service. When passengers get off the train, you see our posters in the corridor, and our vinyls all over the bus stops – Bank Quay will be transformed.

“We’re also part of the Plusbus scheme. I think it’s something the railways should promote more.”

Branding benefits

Another service which has undergone a rebrand is The Pops, formerly the 20/21 Longford circular. The service uses Volvo B7RLEs, which have each had their exterior branding updated. Ben commented: “When you invest in rebranding a service, it has got to make a return on investment. You’ve got to see the growth come about from it. It has got to look good, but it also needs to make money.”

Ben explained that customers have started to identify with the new routes since they were branded, and the names have entered general conversation in the town. He said: “I get regular calls from people at Warrington council, who ask me ‘how things are on the Pops?’ They would never have said ‘how are things on the 20/21 Longford circular?’ The brand identity really does help and the public use the names.”

Cathy added: “We’re trying to reflect how the people see themselves. The people on the Cheshire Cat routes consider themselves to be in Cheshire rather than Warrington. We’re trying to tap into that.”

Updating the fleet

The Warrington’s Own Buses fleet consists of 91 buses. More than half of these are Wrightbus Cadet-bodied DAF SB120s, though Ben said these vehicles are getting to the age where they need to be replaced. The company is aiming to introduce new, cleaner vehicles into the fleet, and is particularly keen on electric buses.

“I spent some time in China looking at electric buses,” Ben noted. “We are interested in that for the environmental benefits, and would like the bus replacement we are doing to be clean.

“I was impressed by the other electric vehicles on show in China. The electric coaches performed very well. Drivers certainly like them – they perform well, and passengers like them too because they are smooth and quiet.”

The current Warrington depot is a former aircraft factory which the company inherited in the 1960s. However, a move is planned which would take the company to a new location in the centre of Warrington which would be better suited to operating electric vehicles.

Ben added: “We’ve applied for Department for Transport Clean Bus funding for 20 electric single-decker buses. Most of our routes are town centre circular, which really suit electric vehicles. However, at the moment, with the cost of infrastructure and the difference in capital cost of the vehicles, you still need DfT funding to help make the purchase of electric buses add up.”

A future rebrand

Following the successful rebrands which have already been carried out in Warrington, services to the west side of the town are next on the list. A public consultation exercise is currently ongoing.

“One of the things I’ve been surprised by in Warrington as a newcomer is the level of investment coming in and the vibrancy of the local economy,” Ben said. “You’ve only got to walk through the town centre to see this in the form of a new cinema and restaurants, but there is also investment in Warrington’s suburban areas.

“In the west there is another new hub in Great Sankey, which will have a swimming pool, gym, doctor’s surgery and library. Also in west Warrington is one of the largest industrial parks in Europe: Omega. Omega includes Amazon, Royal Mail and Hermes distribution centres. There are all these massive warehouses because it’s conveniently located near the M62. There’s an opportunity for us to provide services there.

“There’s also a lot of housing development in that area, along with a new railway station – Warrington West – due to open next year. With all those changes going on, the time is right to refresh our network in that area. Staff are being encouraged to give their opinions and they have been doing so.

“It will be given an identity, and Ray is very much involved again.”

Supporting staff

Warrington’s Own Buses currently has 160 full-time equivalent drivers. Ben said recruitment is not an issue for the company, though it is trying to recruit more people new to the industry, who can be trained from scratch.

“We aim to recruit newcomers, ‘people who like people,’ to quote James Freeman,” Ben said. “We have done a lot on engagement with staff and have been working with the trade union, which has been supportive of what we are trying to do.

“We now have far greater links with drivers, engineers and other staff. Half our workforce is on our private Facebook page and staff are interacting with each other there all the time. We have also signed up for some employee benefits packages with Personal Group and Active Cheshire. We are investing in our staff.

“ADL gave us the sponsorship to re-start our staff awards night again, which hadn’t been running for five years. We have been doing employee surveys, one when we started and a follow-up this year, and the surveys said staff wanted greater recognition and wanted the awards night to come back. Bringing it back has been very positive and we’re going to carry on with it – there’s no reason not to.”

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