Stagecoach North Scotland’s Jet 727 service has been recognised with top honours at the 2017 Scottish Transport Awards, winning Best Bus Service at the 15th annual event held in Glasgow last week (June 15).
The company was also part of the winning Transport Team / Partnership of the Year entry alongside Aberdeenshire Council, Aberdeen City Council and First Bus for the introduction of the Grasshopper multi-operator smart-ticketing scheme.
In addition, First Bus won the Contribution to Sustainable Transport award and Ian Davidson from First Scotland East won the award for Frontline Employee of the Year.
Stagecoach’s Jet 727 service, which previously won the same award in 2011, has seen passenger numbers increase by 21.6% since 2014.
Last year the company invested £1.7m in a fleet of double-deckers which have capacity for double the number of passengers and three times as much luggage storage.
The new buses also offer USB charging points, free WiFi and operate on a 10 minute frequency.
Mark Whitelocks, Stagecoach North Scotland Managing Director, commented: “This award is great recognition of the hard work our staff put in every day to deliver a high quality, reliable service for passengers travelling to the airport and to continue making customer improvements.
“For the service to win this award for the second time is very pleasing. Through our recent investment in new vehicles, with free WiFi, and the continued delivery of excellent customer service, we look forward to attracting even more people on to our greener, smarter services in the future.”
Giles Fearnley, Managing Director at First Bus, said: “I would like to extend my congratulations to our First Bus colleagues for their success at the Scottish Transport Awards.
“I’m very pleased that the judges recognised the efforts First Bus is making to change the industry’s direction of travel when it comes to vehicle investment, helping to improve air quality and reducing carbon emissions.”
