This year’s UK Bus Awards saw Nottingham City Transport take the top gong once again, on a night when its staff took centre stage. James Day reports
The 24th annual UK Bus Awards ceremony took place on Tuesday, 19 November. In total, 21 awards were handed out at Troxy in East London, including a new Cultural Change award won by National Express West Midlands for its Master Driver scheme.
Jane Hill from the BBC compered the event for the 10th year running, and opened with some positive stories from the industry over the course of the year. She then introduced UK Bus Awards Chair, Mark Yexley.
Mark welcomed guests to the ceremony, and said: “We’re here to recognise, reward and inspire, as we highlight everything which is good and great about the industry.
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“One of the particular characteristics of the bus industry is its camaraderie, its willingness to help out and its natural willingness to come together at particular moments. One of those happened in Orpington less than three weeks ago, when Ken Matcham, a driver with Go-Ahead London, lost his life in a road traffic accident.
“It is always deeply shocking when someone goes to work, but does not return home. Our thoughts go out to his family and colleagues. They and we have lost one of our own.”
Mark also highlighted the new Cultural Change award, which he described as something designed to showcase the work which has been done in training development, diversity and apprenticeships, along with anything else which ‘tries to shift the needle of attitudes and outlooks.’
“That’s something which is a big challenge for a company to pull off, but we’ve received a strong field of entries for this new award which speaks volumes about how hard the industry has tried to avoid being stuck in a rut and to make sure it stays aligned with wider changes in society.”
Nottingham’s night
UK Bus Operator of the year for 2019 was Nottingham City Transport (NCT).
The judges were particularly impressed with NCT achieving 10 year high customer satisfaction scores across all service features measured, along with a reduction in lost mileage and the running of services on Boxing Day for the first time. The operator has also refreshed its website, and its continually evolving app is used by 70,000 registered customers.
NCT has also made its bus times available on the Amazon smart speaker. In fact, NCT has embraced the Bus Services Act open data requirements, publishing its open data portal six months ahead of the legislative deadline.
As well as winning the top award for this year, NCT won the Top City Operator award for the second year running, reflecting a record £42m investment in its fleet and infrastructure.
NCT’s entire fleet is now Euro VI, with 130 new vehicles and exhaust treatment systems fitted to a 180 diesel buses. This has resulted in fleet emissions falling by 90%.
NCT has also achieved commercial patronage growth of more than 1% on a stable network, and the company is taking over two Park & Ride services commercially this year. Various other initiatives have also helped NCT achieve growth of 11% in the number of young people travelling.
The judges summed up the NCT entry as being well written and backed up with a good service on the ground, verified by mystery travellers. Mark Fowles, Managing Director of NCT, received this year’s award for Services to the Bus Industry. The award recognised his successful leadership of NCT, which has now won UK Bus Operator of the Year five times since he took the helm in 2001.
He was also recognised for his contribution to the wider industry, through involvement with the CPT and the Chair role at ALBUM in 2017 as well as being a member of the executive for 10 years. He has also been Chair of Traveline for a number of years, steering the organisation through changes to its funding and structure.
NCT’s staff were also in the spotlight. Sheila Swift won gold in the Unsung Heroes category after four decades of service, where she has progressed to the role of HR Admin Manager. She has taken responsibility for recruitment and moved NCT from a driver deficit to surplus within 12 months.
More success in driver field
It was an NCT driver who took home the award for Top National Bus Driver, following in the footsteps of 2018 winner Aaron Johnson – another NCT driver.
Jatinder Kumar grew up in a rural Indian village. He left the family home and moved to England so he could pay for his sisters’ education. The operator described him as ‘one of the most loving, compassionate and caring people you could ever meet.’
Jatinder’s employment record shows just five days’ sickness in 11 years. He’s had no accidents, received no complaints and has a telematics score that puts him in the top 3% of the 800 drivers at NCT.
Numerous customer commendations adorn Jatinder on his file. When he was crowned NCT’s Driver of the Year, he achieved a mystery traveller score of 93% and was described as someone who ‘is a perfectionist, doing his job to the maximum, with no fuss, and a pleasure to travel with. A fantastic asset to NCT.’ The UK Bus Awards mystery travellers agreed with this assessment.
Stagecoach tops the shires
This year’s Top Shire Operator was Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire. The operator was given credit for focussing on partnership, innovation and strong operational delivery.
Partnership working with councils, universities and other operators has driven customer growth and strong partnerships with community organisations have helped bring vulnerable people back onto the bus, the company said. It also received a 93% overall satisfaction score in last year’s Transport Focus survey.
Stagecoach Cumbria and South Lancashire said innovation within the company, particularly in the field of health and wellbeing, has improved staff engagement and reduced accidents, while new ways of partnering with communities have kept marginal services operating.
The UK Bus Awards judges praised how well the company copes with adverse weather in the winter, and a large influx of visitors in the summer. This is especially true in the Lake District where it has to deal with a lot of congestion and lays on extra staff at busy bus stops to guide visitors to the right service. The judges also noted new initiatives to attract young people to travel.
Ensignbus back to back
For the second successive year, Ensignbus won the Top Independent Operator category.
The repeat recognition was given because of continued successful operation in the difficult territory that is the Essex side of the Dartford river crossing – one of the most congested areas in the country. Despite this, Ensignbus has managed to sustain passenger growth over the past 15 years.
It operates a fully commercial network with a modern fleet of vehicles that includes a dozen tri-axle high capacity double-deckers, along with a number of successful contract services for companies such as Amazon and transport for passengers at Tilbury Cruise Terminal, set alongside a busy private hire and wedding vehicle operation.
The judges were impressed with the company’s continued growth, noting its new Boxing Day service last year and a customer service telephone number manned 24 hours a day.
Technical and Professional Awards
Cultural Change:
Gold: Master Driver – National Express West Midlands
Silver: Cultural change journey – Oxford Bus Company
Bronze: West Wellbeing – Stagecoach West
Environment:
Gold: Harrogate Electrics – Harrogate Bus Company
Silver: The UK’s first air-filtering bus – Go South Coast Bluestar
Bronze: Guildford Park & Ride electric buses – Stagecoach South
Innovation in Road Safety:
Gold: Driving a strong safety culture – Arriva Yorkshire
Silver: Mobileye – Abellio
Bronze: Glider driver training programme – Translink
New Horizons:
Gold: Mobileye – Abellio
Silver: CrewPLAN – Omnibus
Bronze: Newbury e-paper next bus pilot – West Berkshire Council
Bus & the Community (sponsored by CBW):
Gold: Brand the Bus! – Oxford Bus Company
Silver: Stuff a Bus – Translink
Bronze: School library bus – Metroline
Making Buses a Better Choice:
Gold: Glider – Translink
Silver: PickMeUp – Oxford Bus Company
Bronze: Metrobus Bristol – First West of England
Sustained Marketing Excellence:
Gold: Going for Growth – First West of England
Silver: People Against Ordinary – Uno
Bronze: Express City Connect – Stagecoach East Scotland
Marketing Initiative of the Year:
Gold: Stimulating senior bus travel – Stagecoach Yorkshire & partners
Silver: Explore by bus – Visit Isle of Wight
Bronze: Cruiselink services – Lothian
Awards for People in the Industry
Young Manager of the Year:
Gold: Jack Abbott – Stagecoach Manchester
Silver: Kerrie Grant – Go South Coast Bluestar
Bronze: Adam Green – Arriva Kent and Surrey
Engineer of the Year:
Gold: Stephen Stringer – Warrington’s Own Buses
Silver: Jack Abbott – Stagecoach Manchester
Bronze: Paul Stanley – Translink
Unsung Heroes:
Gold: Sheila Swift – Nottingham City Transport
Commendations for outstanding service: Roy Barratt – RATP DEV London, Chuck Ejakita – RATP Dev London, Eddie Hollis – RATP Dev London, Mitesh Patel – Metroline, Craig Trueman – Trent Barton
Leader of the Year:
Gold: Damian Bannon – Translink
Silver: Raj Chandler – Arriva Midlands
Bronze: Urvi Patel – Abellio London
Services to the Bus Industry:
Mark Fowles
Top National Bus Driver:
Gold: Jatinder Kumar – Nottingham City Transport
Silver: Keith Thomas – First Cymru
Bronze: Gurnam Singh – Stagecoach West
London Awards
London Bus Garage of the Year:
Gold: Norwood – Arriva London
Silver: Romford – Stagecoach London
Bronze: Croydon – Go-Ahead London
Top London Bus Driver:
Gold: Wasiq Ali – RATP Dev London
Silver: Nick Kukaj – Abellio London
Bronze: Peter Huttly – Go-Ahead London
Operator Awards
Top National Depot:
Gold: Blairgowrie – Stagecoach East Scotland
Silver: Reading – Reading Buses
Bronze: Swindon – Go South Coast Swindon’s Bus Company
Top City Operator:
Gold: Nottingham City Transport
Silver: Brighton & Hove Buses
Bronze: Stagecoach Manchester
Top Independent Operator:
Gold: Ensignbus
Silver: Prentice Coaches
Bronze: Courtney Buses
Top Shire Operator:
Gold: Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire
Silver: Stagecoach East Scotland
Bronze: Oxford Bus Company
UK Bus Operator of the Year:
Gold: Nottingham City Transport
Silver: Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire
Bronze: Ensignbus
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