The ALBUM Report 2019

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BRITAIN'S MUNICIPALLY-OWNED AND INDEPENDENT BUS SECTOR

in association with

THE AL BU M REPO RT 2019

I N CORPORATIN G

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TH E AL BUM

REPO RT 2019

WELCOME Welcome to the album report 2019, a publication from passenger transport devoted to Britain’s independent and municipal bus companies. Returning for a fifth consecutive year, this year’s report also incorporates the official Conference Workbook for the 2019 album Conference, hosted by cardiff bus at Cardiff City Hall on May 7-9.

We hope you find it an interesting read and we welcome all feedback.

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B I LL H I RON

BE N CO LSO N

ALBUM’s new Chair, Bill Hiron, speaks about the challenges that bus operators face

Former ALBUM Chair Ben Colson pays tribute to departing colleagues

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HIGHLIGH TS

CYNTHIA OGBONNA

A look back at some of the main highlights of the past 12 months for ALBUM members

We meet the Managing Director of Cardiff Bus, host of the 2019 ALBUM Conference

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V E H I C LES

TICKE TING

Alexander Dennis sees itself as more than simply a supplier to ALBUM bus companies

Passenger Technology Group and Ticketer outline their latest ticketing solutions

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SOFTWARE/IT

PASSENGERS

Omnibus and CitySwifter offer software solutions for bus operators of all sizes

Transport Focus is helping inform the industry with its Bus Passenger Survey

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THE ALBUM CO N FER ENCE WO R K BOOK

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CCTV

TH E CO NF E RENCE

TH E E XHI B I T I ON

Timespace Technology offers bus operators ‘the complete picture’

Details of the three-day conference programme, including speaker biographies

The floor plan for the exhibition, including profiles of the exhibitors

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INTE RVIEW: BIL L H IRO N

Bill Hiron, Managing Director of bus operator Stephensons of Essex and Chairman of the ALBUM grouping of municipal and independent bus companies

‘IT IS A STRUGGLE OUT THERE’ album Chairman bill hiron says that bus operators face big challenges. He spoke to robert jack ritain’s bus industry is going through a difficult period.

Overall, the number of people who use local bus services is in sustained decline and there is a multitude of reasons for this.

They include worsening traffic congestion and local authority funding cuts.

Meanwhile, the industry is coming under increased pressure

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to accelerate the transition to cleaner vehicles, placing further pressure on budgets.

And, at the same time, the bus and coach industry’s trade association, the Confederation for Passenger Transport (CPT), is in the midst of an acrimonious overhaul.

So there was plenty to talk about over a coffee in Southend-on-Sea with Bill Hiron, Managing Director of bus operator Stephensons of Essex and Chairman of the

ALBUM grouping of municipal and independent bus companies.

Hiron’s demeanour is more Eeyore than Tigger, but the more you talk to him the more you discover just how passionate he is about the bus industry – especially for SMEs like Stephensons, with who he identifies strongly.

“ALBUM is made up of a good bunch of people,” he says. “We have got some people who are passionate ... A lot of them aren’t in

it for the money, thank God. They are in it because they’re serving their communities, they have done it for years, they are family businesses and they enjoy what they do. And that is quite powerful in all sorts of ways.” new members The ALBUM grouping of SME bus operators represents around a fifth of the UK’s bus fleet – more than 6,000 vehicles at the latest count.

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It’s not as large as Stagecoach, Britain’s largest bus operator, but it’s on par with First UK Bus. Continued consolidation has diminished the membership. Over the past two years, the Go-Ahead Group bought Hull-based EYMS and Swindon-based Thamesdown.

Transdev has also acquired Rossendale-based Rosso. There have been closures too, like that of Birkenhead-based Avon Buses.

However, to offset the loss of these member companies and maintain the voice of the ALBUM grouping, Hiron and his colleagues decided last year to revise the membership rules. The group has subsequently invited three “second tier” bus groups into its ranks; the UK subsidiaries of two French groups – Transdev Blazefield and RATP Dev’s Yellow Buses – and Rotala, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market.

“ALBUM has become a well respected voice in terms of central government, local government, other stakeholders in terms of its use and we get consulted on most things,” he explains. “But that representation depends on being able to command a reasonably large membership base.

“So we looked carefully at ALBUM’s core values and its aims and objectives and we took

REPO RT 2019

with spells at the state-owned National Bus Company – where he was one of the very last senior management trainees to be recruited – Stagecoach and First UK Bus. Since 2001, he has led the expansion of independent bus operator Stephensons of Essex.

Although Stephensons is a locally focussed business, serving parts of Essex and Suffolk, Hiron also takes a keen interest in the national picture. In 2015, for example, he served a year-long term as CPT’s President, representing the bus and coach industry in the corridors of power.

He is acutely aware of the problems faced by ALBUM member companies. When asked

the view it made sense. We could expand our membership base to the second tier groups without compromising what we were about.”

Once the new trio have had a chance to settle in, other smaller groups outside London will be approached. the challenges Hiron says that ALBUM’s voice is unique. Firstly, it represents the bus industry’s SME sector.

Secondly, it is less constrained about what it can say than the large PLC groups, which are ever mindful of the reaction from the City of London.

He has worked in the industry for more than three decades,

Since 2001, Hiron has led the expansion of bus operator Stephensons of Essex

I OFTEN THOUGHT ‘I’ D LOVE TO RUN MY OWN BUSINESS’ “It’s a badge of honour to have been sacked by Moir. You know that you were doing something right,” Bill Hiron reflects.

The ALBUM chairman is talking about Sir Moir Lockhead, the former chief executive of FirstGroup, who was notorious for getting rid of managers that did not meet his expectations.

Subsequent events have since vindicated many of those managers. While they went on and flourished elsewhere in the bus industry, FirstGroup’s UK bus business floundered.

But Hiron doesn’t harbour any grudges. He left behind the world KPIs and corporate edicts in 2001 - he went and bought a

Stephensons of Essex has five depots, including Boreham

And then every month the pay cheque would come in,” he recalls. “In many ways I have got a lot to thank Moir for, because if he hadn’t sacked me I might never have had the get up and go

small bus and coach company, Stephensons of Essex.

“When I was working for big groups, particularly in my years with First, I often thought ‘I’d love to run my own business’.

about the strong performance of many of these companies, as evidenced by their annual haul of medals at the UK Bus Awards and their high user satisfaction ratings in Transport Focus’s annual Bus Passenger Survey, he quickly changes the subject.

“It is true that ALBUM members trend to punch above their weight in both awards and Transport Focus satisfaction scores, butwe mustn’t forget that behind the scenes it is a struggle out there, and not just for the ALBUM sector,” he says. “One of the messages that we have to get across is that despite all the good things that are going on, despite the long-term positivity for the sector with the right political mindset - in that congestion, pollution and so on are real issues that buses are in a key place to address – is that in the short-term the message is not getting across.

In the short-term we and the big groups ... are facing a myriad of problems.”

He elaborates: “You’ve got congestion, which is the number one. You’ve got the local authority cuts, which affect ALBUM members probably disproportionately because the traditional ALBUM membership base, other than the municipals, to go and do it.”

Hiron began his career as a senior management trainee with the National Bus Company in the mid-1980s, just as the state-owned company was being broken up and sold off. The end of his training placement at NBC’s Cheltenham & Gloucester Omnibus Company subsidiary co-incided with a management buyout, which Hiron was fortunate to participate in.

Over the next decade and a half he rose up the ranks in the rapidly evolving environment of the post-privatised bus industry, working for Stagecoach and then Badgerline prior to its “takeover, sorry merger” with Moir Lockhead’s GRT. Hiron was managing director of Essexbased Thamesway Buses when Badgerline and GRT combined

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INTE RVIEW: BIL L H IRO N

has generally grown up around local authority contracts.

“You have got the headlong rush to electric [vehicles] and, worse than that, the headlong rush, despite what we have said to government, to treat buses as part of the problem rather than part of the solution to air quality.”

ALBUM, CPT and the PLCs have all urged the government to recognise buses as being part of the solution to poor air quality in Britain’s towns and cities.

“Government nodded sagely, said it is all down to local authorities, ‘nothing to do with us, guv’,” says Hiron, “And what have local authorities done? They have generally seen local buses as the problem and not as the solution, which is not helpful.”

Depending on how quickly Clean Air Zones are implemented, Hiron sees major challenges for the bus industry. Whatever the aspirations of local politicians and council officials, the industry has a finite amount of finance available to support the capital costs of new buses. Furthermore, he sees risks in rapidly transitioning away from tried and tested products and towards vehicles and infrastructure that are still in their infancy.

He cites the example of

Nottingham, where he says ALBUM member Nottingham City Transport has made a big investment in gas-powered vehicles and the associated infrastructure only for the city council to back away from plans to do anything about harmful emissions from cars.

“If you just hit buses you have got a double whammy,” he warns. “You will run more risk of pushing people into cars, which creates more pollution. But one thing is certain - it creates more

to form First Bus in 1995. He stayed on and was later appointed divisional director for First’s bus businesses in the East of England, before receiving his P45.

Hiron then worked on a range of projects with bus entrepreneurs Julian Peddle and Steve Telling before he was approached about buying Stephensons. At first, the prospect did not appeal him.

“Why do I want to buy five coaches and five double-deckers, or whatever it was?” he says, recalling his thoughts at the time.

“I kept saying ‘No’ but in the end I succumbed.”

The company now has a fleet of around 100 vehicles, while Wickford-based NIBS Buses, which was acquired last year, has a further 35. Hiron also has a personal investment in Suffolkbased Galloway, which operates

45 vehicles.

So what’s his formula for success?

“It’s a whole load of things,” he responds. “It’s a bit of luck ... Being in the right place at the right time. It’s keeping your ear to the ground. So a fairly big chunk of our expansion ... has been people going bust or packing up so you just have to get onto the administrator straight away and have a chat with them and find out if there is something worth having.

“Generally, it has been buying up things that are pretty worthless and then making something out of them.”

NIBS Buses, which was acquired last October, was an exception to the rule. It was a profitable business and was such a good fit for Stephensons that

Nottingham City Transport has made a big investment in gas-powered vehicles

“The thing that people forget is that one of the things that causes pollution is congestion. What causes congestion?

It ain’t buses”

NIBS Buses was acquired by Hiron last October. He says it was a good fit

Hiron says “it would have been daft not to buy it”.

In addition to acquisitions, the business has also grown through the capture of local authority contracts to operate non-commercial services. Hiron says that one of the benefits of having depots “everywhere” – Stephensons has five and NIBS

congestion.”

While the issue of air quality is high up the agenda of big cities, he is also fearful of the impact that bus-only solutions could have on less densely populated areas.

“The sort of depots I operate from, which are mainly 20 vehicles or so, to install charging infrastructure in places like that, even if it were physically possible … the proportion of cost per vehicle would be huge,” he says.

“Of course, what those vehicles are mainly doing is providing marginal services in rural areas.

So all you are doing ultimately is making buses so expensive that you push them off the edge off a cliff.”

Hiron believes that more needs to be done to sell the virtues of Euro 6 diesel technology, which offers an attractive combination of low emissions and affordability.

“One of the things that was actually raised at the last ALBUM MDs meeting a couple of weeks ago was that, for whatever reason, and it might be a hopeless task, but we do believe that the industry needs to make more of how clean Euro 6 is,” he says. “Not just to stakeholders but to our customers, because if our customers understand it then we stand the best chance of that message getting through to politicians.” has one – is that you can bid for a much greater volume of work.

He believes that it is harder to start up a bus company today than it was 10 years ago, even five years ago, but he doesn’t think that budding bus entrepreneurs. should be deterred.

However, he advises them not to attempt to start from scratch: “I wouldn’t go and get myself an O licence and buy a vehicle. If people ask me I always recommend [that they] buy something that is there, however small, even if it’s only four or five vehicles and a couple of contracts. Because at least you’ve got a foothold, you have got some staff, however good or bad they might be, you have got premises, and that is much, much easier to build from than trying to find a yard and vehicles.”

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ALBUM has been putting together some facts about Euro 6 and this will soon find its way into campaign materials for member companies. There is a view among some that there is no point in trying to promote Euro 6 because politicians have made up their minds; diesel is ‘dirty’ so electric is ultimately going to be the solution.

I don’t think we should give in that easily,” says Hiron.

He continues: “The thing that people forget is that one of the things that causes pollution is congestion. What causes congestion? It ain’t buses. When you look at the bigger picture, Euro 6 is very clean. And if you put the congestion argument in there as well, anything that penalises buses but not cars really is going around with the blindfold on.”

Hiron is equally scathing about the idea, propagated by transport secretary Chris Grayling, that marginal local bus services can be replaced by a new breed of Uber-style, on-demand minibus services. “Another bloody red herring,” he laments.

He recognises that experimental new Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services like ArrivaClick and Go-Ahead’s PickMeUp might help their respective parent groups earn some much needed enthusiasm from politicians, but he doesn’t believe they can offset the loss of local bus services.

“It hasn’t got a hope in hell’s chance of ever being remotely commercial,” he argues. “The industry’s problem is we are almost giving the politicians false hope.

Politicians are saying ‘DRT, this is a solution to areas where public transport isn’t currently very good’ and it isn’t. It’s going to have exactly the same gap between revenue and cost, if not a greater gap.”

Another headache for Hiron’s company and many others is driver recruitment. He fears that tighter post-Brexit immigration controls could exacerbate the problem. Stephensons has relatively few migrant workers but he knows that shortages elsewhere, such as the nearby large London bus operations, could soon impact on his business. The Department

REPO RT 2019

Transdev Blazefield is one of three new ‘second tier’ bus groups to join ALBUM

for Transport is sympathetic, but can its ministers make the case to a government that only wants to take in migrant workers for jobs with an annual salary of over £30,000?

some changes. However, the way the whole thing was handled was abysmal. It was driven by the big groups thinking they would put together their plan, turn up at a [CPT] council meeting and say ‘just sign here chaps’. That didn’t happen. In fact the opposition was unanimous. Apart from the Big Five, it was unanimously rejected.”

Hiron was part of a group that was subsequently tasked with putting together a compromise solution that everyone could sign up to, but he remains unhappy.

“Whilst we have now come up with a plan which is much better, there has been an awful lot of badwill created along the way and unfortunately we are going to lose some valuable expertise from within CPT,” he explains.

While wanting to cut costs, the agenda for reforming CPT was also driven by a desire to move to a more vocal, pro-active style of campaigning. There was a feeling that CPT’s gentile, behind-thescenes lobbying now belonged to a bygone era. How does Hiron think this new style will work?

“I haven’t got a clue,” he says, but he supports the desire for change.

“That is one of the areas on which I think everyone is agreed, pretty much everyone; politics has changed, where we are has changed,” he says. “The previous CPT way of doing things worked well. Some people have always said there wasn’t enough table thumping. But I do think now,

the industry’s voice Clean Air Zones, the merits of Euro 6, the true potential of DRT and fears over driver recruitment are just some of the issues where the bus industry faces a battle to get its message across. ALBUM is doing its bit, but CPT’s role, with its wider industry remit, is also important. However, there is tension within CPT between the smaller operators and the ‘Big Five’ bus groups – Arriva, First, Go-Ahead, National Express and Stagecoach. It follows a botched attempt by the Big Five to restructure the industry’s trade association and slash costs.

Hiron doesn’t pull any punches: “There is no doubt that, like any organisation, CPT had possibly got a little bit fat in places, and ... probably there was a need for

“It could be argued that the Buses Bill would have been far, far worse for the industry if CPT had not done everything it did”

given the issues that we just talked about, on electric buses, on air quality management, on all that stuff, we do need as an industry to shout a bit louder.

“Now, there is a fine line between shouting louder and upsetting the people that you want to listen to you, but we have a completely new PR and external affairs team coming into CPT who will no doubt be marvellous at all this stuff because that is why they are being selected. I am as fascinated as anyone to see how it develops.”

However, Hiron warns that the bus industry should not take for granted the successes of the previous CPT regime. “It could be argued that the Buses Bill would have been far, far worse for the industry if CPT had not done everything it did,” he reflects.

“We might not like where it sits now, but it could have been 10 times worse. It could have been 100 times worse.” enjoying album Although it’s a much smaller organisation, ALBUM itself is in the midst of its own overhaul.

The long serving ALBUM secretariat, Thomas Knowles and John Owen, are both retiring in May (see page 11). Former Ipswich Buses boss Malcolm Robson is also moving on, although he will continue to do some consultation work. The group will soon appoint someone new to act as secretarial function on a part-time basis.

Hiron says that he thoroughly enjoyed his year as CPT President and now he’s enjoying a year as ALBUM Chairman.

“ALBUM tends to be made up of people who are much more hands-on,” says Hiron. “You are dealing with all sorts at CPT, but if you take the big groups as an example, very few of theese people go anywhere near a bus depot.

With ALBUM that is not the case.

We are really hands-on.

“You are sitting around the table almost entirely with people who might not have been out driving a school bus but they are very in touch with what’s going on. That is good fun.” n

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TRIBUTE

THEY KEPT THE WHEELS TURNING Former album chairman ben colson pays tribute to colleagues who have helped the organisation to grow in strength and become a force for smaller and medium-sized operators hey say that an army marches on its stomach, and an organisation marches on its administration. Get the administration right and the rest follows. ALBUM Chairmen have come and gone, but for many years we have all had the undoubted benefit of a stable and loyal admin back-up.

That’s all now changing, and maybe it’s the right time for change.

The last decade has seen the organisation grow in strength from being a municipal operators’ ‘club’ – and I’m sure they won’t mind me calling it that – to a force for the wider small and medium sized operator sector. As it has grown, and its tentacles spread ever wider, so it has assumed heights of acclaim and hence expectation from outside the club that could hardly have been imagined.

Throughout that, the admin just kept on coming! In turn that enabled the Chair and other key members to focus on lobbying for the sector and highlighting its unique and important position in an industry which is rightly championed as being local. If demand is managed locally, then local management extending to ownership is a key to future growth.

Yet admin is essential. It matters not whether it is the annual call for subscriptions – I always found that one of the most traumatic of annual spectacles – or arranging venues, agendas and minutes for the all-important MDs meetings, or anything in between, they just happened. The mark of a good organisation is that the wheels are oiled so quietly in the background that ‘it just happens’. That was ALBUM.

T

Thomas Knowles (above) or John Owen (below) are moving on from their ALBUM roles

It will be a wrench to think of the organisation without either Thomas Knowles or John Owen.

Each brought their own skill set, and they worked tirelessly for the organisation for, we can now reveal, a pittance. A pittance because of their belief in the sector and the benefits it brings to the wider bus industry, and because they believed strongly in their role.

Of course, the team was not bought ‘off the shelf ’ from the local sixth form college, nor did it come with a long list of specialist admin qualifications, such as one gets used to today. The strength of the team came from it being embedded in the municipal admin structures of a bygone era where

doing things on time, doing them right, ideally first time, came as standard.

John quit the operating industry some 10 years ago when he retired as Managing Director of Thamesdown Transport in Swindon; Thomas some years earlier but he has retained a direct link with it through various non exec directorships. Both would probably admit that they would not be comfortable in today’s demand-responsive digital world (truthfully, despite the hype, who is?), but in their time both would have been at the forefront of whatever the new-fangled ideas of their day were – probably one person operation, perhaps.

“The mark of a good organisation is that the wheels are oiled so quietly in the background that ‘it just happens’.

That was ALBUM”

John had been a President of CPT and brought the special qualities of tact and diplomacy so required of that exalted industry position. As ALBUM Chairman I had to shape how we dealt with the spectacular political farce that eventually found life as the 2017 Bus Services Act. So extremely bizarre was the prospect of a Tory government enacting legislation to allow local authorities to confiscate markets without compensation that it would have been easy to go and erect the barricades outside Great Minster House, and it was John that argued the case for wise, reasoned, quiet and consistent argument against the proposals.

With the then Chancellor deciding bus policy, there wasn’t a hope that transport ministers or officials would listen, but to a very limited extent they did, and we now have the Act. As yet no local authority has followed the franchising route; I think it will happen and my money is on the Tory Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough Combined Authority to pip Manchester at the post. Such is the crazy state of politics these days.

Thomas and John – you’re well out of it! Enjoy. Retirements, it seems, are like buses, none for years and then two come along together.

But wait, we then learn of the next one being turned short, creating an even bigger gap in service. Malcolm Robson who joined the ALBUM team much more recently following retirement from Ipswich Buses, is reducing his workload to only deal with consultations. Good luck with that, Malcolm, I guess, as with the way government increasingly works, it is as good as a full time role! n

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H IGH L IGH TS

Transdev Blazefield began operating a new fleet of eight Volvo 7900 full electric buses on the bulk of Harrogate’s local bus network in August

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018/19 Some of the key events amongst the membership since the last album conference J U NE

EYMS

SHIPP CALLS IT A DAY WITH GO-AHEAD SALE

Mounting industry speculation about the future of Hull-based bus operator East Yorkshire Motor Services (EYMS) ended in June with the news that the business had been acquired by Go-Ahead subsidiary Go North East.

The business was sold in 1987 as part of the privatisation of the National Business Company to a management buyout team, although it has been exclusively

owned by Chairman Peter Shipp for some years. Today the business has over 300 vehicles and 700 members of staff.

Shipp described the decision to sell the business as the hardest one of his life. He said growing demands on investment meant it would be difficult to continue running the business in its current form in the future.

“We had a review of the business, as things have been getting a bit difficult for us, and after taking professional outside advice it became clear it would be hard to sustain the business in its current form,” he said.

AUGUST

TRANSDEV BLAZEFIELD

HARRO GATE ENROUTE TO ‘LOW EMISSION BUS TOWN’

Transdev Blazefield, a new member of ALBUM, began operating a new fleet of eight electric buses on the bulk of Harrogate’s local bus network in August with the ambition of creating ‘Britain’s first low emission bus town’.

The vehicles were the first fully electric Volvo 7900s to enter service in the UK. Their purchase was made possible thanks to part

funding from a £2.25m grant from the government’s Low Emission Bus Scheme.

Launching the scheme at an event for local stakeholders, buses minister Nusrat Ghani said: “Further uptake in zero emission buses such as these are vital in improving air quality. Buses are not the problem, but they are part of the solution to improving air quality. Harrogate are leading the way by aiming to be the first low emission bus town in the UK and that deserves a round of applause.”

Alex Hornby, Transdev Blazefield’s CEO, commented: “It’s the technology which

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REPO RT 2019

powers these new buses using ‘opportunity charging’ via masts on three departure stands in Harrogate Bus Station which really sets these buses apart from anything seen before in this country. We’re immensely proud to be first in the UK to introduce these amazing new buses and in the process, achieve our vision of creating Britain’s first low emission bus town right here in Harrogate.”

LOTHIAN

LOTHIAN EXPANDS INTO FIRST ’ S HEARTL ANDS

Council-owned bus operator Lothian expanded its Lothian Country operation with the launch of new services in West Lothian in August.

It saw Lothian Country, which previously ran services between Edinburgh and Queensferry, enter into head-to-head competition with First Scotland East to the west of the city.

Richard Hall, Lothian’s Managing Director, commented: “For a number of years we have received repeated requests to introduce a service to this area and we are delighted that we can announce our plans.”

From August 19 three new routes were introduced, creating new links between Edinburgh and Bathgate via Livingston (Routes X27/X28), and Edinburgh Park Station and Whitburn via Livingston and Broxburn (Route 275).

The company subsequently announced the three further phases of expansion for Lothian Country in September and October 2018, and February 2019.

OCTOBER

ALBUM

ALBUM RESPONDS TO HOUSE OF COMMONS BUS INQUIRY

In October, members of the ALBUM grouping of ‘unaligned’ bus operators strongly urged that partnership, rather than franchising, was the best way forward for the bus industry in their formal response to the

ALBUM member EYMS was sold to the Go-Ahead Group last June

Robert Williams was appointed as the new chief executive of Reading Buses

House of Commons Transport Select Committee’s inquiry into the bus market.

“ALBUM welcomes any policy for buses which has partnership at its core allowing commercial bus operators to do what they do best with customer responsive bus services,” it said.

“Planning for bus services as part of an integrated transport package in a town or city should not be subject to the usual short term political cycle and if possible moved to a longer term regional structure based on travel patterns.”

Bluntly it added that any franchising scheme “will fail” and certainly will not improve bus services for users. Instead it called on the Department for Transport to create an operating environment that gives operators certainty in the future “so that they can invest with confidence”.

READING BUSES

NEW READING BOSS HERALDS ‘EXCITING TIMES’

In October, Robert Williams, the new Chief Executive of councilowned bus operator Reading Buses, said it is an “exciting time” for him to be joining the operator.

Williams took up his new post following the departure of Martijn Gilbert, who left to join Gateshead-based Go-Ahead subsidiary Go North East as the bus operator’s Managing Director.

Williams highlighted the recent acquisition of Newbury & District following Reading Buses’ expansion into Windsor and Slough with Greenline and Thames Valley at the start of 2018 as the source of his enthusiasm for the future of the business. He said these developments add to what is already a “very well respected, multi award-winning organisation”.

However, Williams, who joined the operator from Stagecoach South West where he was commercial director, said that the operator also faced some “difficult financial challenges”.

N OV E M BE R

NOTTINGHAM CITY TRANSPORT

NCT L AUNCHES TRIAL OF BEACONBASED TICKETING

Council-owned bus operator Nottingham City Transport launched a trial of beaconbased smartphone ticketing in November. It aimed to test the feasibility of a mobile phone solution that detects when and where passengers board and alight buses.

The trial was undertaken in partnership with Touché, a specialist technology business, based in Nottingham and Bristol,

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H IGH L IGH TS

Lothian’s ambition has been to create a passenger environment that that will lure people out of their cars and help stem the current 4% year-on-year decline in patronage on its city network.

The Enviro400XLB is also seen as a solution to worsening traffic congestion, which is slowing down buses. The second door, something which has seldom been specified on buses outside of London, will meanwhile improve the flow of passengers both on and off the vehicles.

The vehicles entered service in March 2019 on routes 11 and 16.

ALBUM

ALBUM TOPS MEDAL TABLE AT BUS AWARDS

Alexander Dennis, Volvo and Lothian revealed the Alexander Dennis Enviro400XLB in November, a new tri-axle double decker

which develops interactive mobile solutions, especially in the transport and parking sectors. It ran until the end of January 2019 with the aim of finding a way of recording point-to-point journeys automatically.

To capture boarding and alighting stops, beacons were installed on buses and at stops. These detected the location of passengers via a smartphone app. NCT says that capturing this information on a routine basis would help the operator with network planning in the future. Looking ahead, the technology could potentially also be used to automatically calculate bus fares on a best value basis with the fare deducted directly from passenger bank accounts.

The trial took place on NCT’s Green 11 bus route, which runs from Nottingham city centre through The Meadows to Trent Boulevard and Lady Bay.

LOTHIAN

LOTHIAN THINKS BIG WITH 100-SEAT TRI-AXLES

Alexander Dennis, Volvo and Lothian revealed the Alexander Dennis Enviro400XLB in November, a new tri-axle double decker for the UK market.

Council-owned Lothian ordered 42 of these high capacity 13.4-metre vehicles.

Offering 100 seats and with standees able to carry up to 129 passengers in total, the Enviro XLB delivers unrivalled capacity for busy routes, while its front and middle doors aim to speedup dwell times at bus stops. It has been built to even higher standards than bus users in Edinburgh are familiar with; comfortable high- backed seating, free Wi-Fi access, USB device charging, LED mood lighting and audio-visual next stop announcements.

The ALBUM grouping of ‘non aligned’ bus companies had the greatest haul of medals at the 2018 UK Bus Awards in London in November. The group won a total of 15 medals, finishing ahead of Stagecoach (13), Go-Ahead (9) and Arriva (6).

The ALBUM grouping’s five ‘Gold’ medals included three for council-owned Nottingham City Transport - Top City Operator, Top National Bus Driver and the Environment Award for the world’s largest fleet of bio-gas double deckers. The other ‘Gold’ winners were Ensignbus (Top Independent Operator) and Uno Bus (Marketing Initiative of the Year).

FE BRUARY

ALBUM

NEW MEMBERS JOIN ALBUM GROUPING

Nottingham City Transport's driver Aaron Johnson was named the UK's best

Nottingham City Transport launched a trial of beacon-based smartphone ticketing

The ALBUM group of ‘nonaligned’ bus operators announced that it had changed its constitution in a move that allowed it to expand its membership to the smaller bus groups. Rotala, Transdev Blazefield and RATP Dev-owned Yellow Buses became members as a result.

The new members offset the loss of others through continued consolidation in Britain’s bus industry. Central Buses (Birmingham), EYMS (Hull), Newbury & District, NIBS (Essex), Rosso (Rossendale) and Thamesdown (Swindon) are

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In March, Transdev Blazefield revealed passenger growth of 9% on Rosso’s main network of routes since it acquired the business

former ALBUM companies that have sold in the past two years.

Independent operators Avon Buses (Birkenhead), Emsworth & District (West Sussex) and Mass Bright Bus (South Yorkshire) have closed down over the same period.

AP RIL

MCGILL’S

£4.75M BUS FLEET HELPS MCGILL’ S BEAT LEZ

MARC H

READING BUSES

READING EXPANDS WITH COURTNEY ACQUISITION

Council-owned Reading Buses announced further expansion into Berkshire in March with the news that it had acquired Bracknellbased Courtney Buses.

It followed the council-owned firm’s purchase of Newbury & District in September and expansion into the Slough bus market earlier in 2018.

Founded in 1973 as a taxi firm, before moving into coaches and then buses, Courtney Buses operated a fleet of 57 buses on a network of services as a familyowned business, including commercial local bus services in Bracknell and Slough, tendered services on behalf of Bracknell Forest, Wokingham Borough and the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead Councils, and several high-profile corporate contracts as far afield as Basingstoke, Didcot and Weybridge.

The acquisition also included Courtney Bodyworks, a vehicle repair and painting operation, and Courtney’s authorised testing facility that is equipped to carry out MoT’s on large vehicles.

Trentbarton Managing Director Jeff Counsell said: “Our whole company is incredibly proud of these amazing ratings from the people who matter most our customers.

“For the people of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire to have the very best or one of the very best bus services in the UK - and for trentbarton’s drivers to be the leading lights in achieving that – is awesome.

“We all work incredibly hard to provide an outstanding service and to make the customer experience so good. It’s tremendously encouraging when our customers tell an independent body such as Transport Focus that we lead the way.”

96% of TrentBarton users were ‘satisfied’ in the Autumn 2018 Bus Passenger Survey

“In just 12 months we’ve welcomed thousands more customers on board as a result of our investment in better bus services right across Rossendale and in Greater Manchester. These are all designed with the customer in mind - with attractive local branding that celebrates the people and places we are so proud to serve.”

TRANSDEV

ROSSO GROWS UNDER TRANSDEV’ S OWNERSHIP

In March, Transdev Blazefield revealed passenger growth of 9% on Rosso’s main network of routes since it acquired the business from Rossendale Borough Council a year ago.

The Harrogate-based operator highlighted a number of improvements at the business over the last 12 months, including new vehicles cascaded into the fleet, improved ticketing offers, and contactless and mobile payment options. It claimed that all of these initiatives have helped to transform Rosso’s fortunes.

Transdev CEO Alex Hornby said: “We promised to keep on improving when Rosso became part of our family of bus companies in 2018, and one year on we’re even more determined to keep on delivering a bigger and better service for our customers.

ALBUM

HIGH SATISFACTION RATINGS FROM BUS USERS

ALBUM member companies scored highly in the Autumn 2018 Bus Passenger Survey, published

by Transport Focus in March.

The highest rated ALBUM operator was TrentBarton in Derbyshire – 96% of its passengers said they were ‘satisfied’ with the service they had just received.

Staffordshire’s Midland Classic received a rating of 95% while council-owned Reading Buses scored 94%.

Spring 2019 saw Scottish independent operator McGill’s introduce 26 new Alexander Dennis Enviro200 vehicles.

Managing Director Ralph Roberts claimed that the investment proved that bus operators are serious about tackling air pollution.

The new vehicles take McGill’s capital investment over the last five years to over £30m, with almost £24m of that spent on new vehicles.

A total of £4.75m has been invested in the new Enviro200 fleet, which were introduced on two corridors; Routes X23/23 between Erskine and Glasgow and Route 26 between Glenburn/Nethercraigs and Paisley.

The vehicles meet the Euro 6 Ultra Low Emission Vehicle standard and exceed the standards required by Glasgow’s Low Emission Zone.

Roberts commented: “Some campaigners claim that bus operators are not doing enough to tackle air pollution but this investment in 26 new vehicles brings our average bus age down to under seven years old - the youngest large private fleet in Scotland - and demonstrates that we’re going the extra mile and taking a long-term approach.” n

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Cynthia Ogbonna has been Managing Director of Cardiff Bus since 2012. She admits that the last couple of years have been challenging for the council-owned bus operator

TURNING IT AROUND Despite some well publicised issues for the operator, cardiff bus MD cynthia ogbonna believes that the operator is turning a corner ynthia Ogbonna, the Managing Director of Cardiff Bus, admits there have been challenges for the council-owned bus operator over the last year.

Meanwhile, congestion is a growing issue and the funding environment and the challenge of competition have helped push the operator to a £1.9m loss for 2017/18.

“The last financial year was very difficult,” Ogbonna admits candidly. “There were a lot of challenges. Some of those

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challenges are well documented in terms of congestion, the impact of online shopping and what has happened to city centres and decline. We’ve also seen a reduction in the number of people who actually work in retail and they are all the unintended consequences of people moving online.”

She claims that this reduction in retail employment is hitting the bottom line of bus operators; as more and more retail jobs are lost, fewer people commute to work by bus. “So you have that decline driven by the fall in retail employment,” Ogbonna adds.

The decline in high street footfall only exacerbates this. Why bother travelling into town to do some window shopping when you can do that in the comfort of your own home using your phone?

“Amazon now have delivery lockers in people’s offices - I wasn’t aware of this, but my daughter is a junior doctor and there’s one in her hospital,” Ogbonna notes. “She finds it so convenient and more and more people are choosing the ‘click and collect’. We should be very, very concerned by that.”

Ogbonna and her team find themselves being squeezed by an

ever-rising tide of congestion too, a growing proportion of which is created by online deliveries that enable the ‘click and collect’ culture. It leads her to talk passionately about her desire to see fewer people in cars and more of them on the city’s buses. However, that vision is being stymied by this inexorable rise in traffic.

“We are finding ourselves channelling more and more resources into keeping our network running,” she says. “There are obvious cost and environmental implications from that. We need the political will to find an alternative path for the future if we are to succeed in keeping the city moving.”

She points out that this congestion can also have implications on bus patronage, indeed it has been suggested that a rising tide of congestion is one of the many reasons for London’s well documented falling bus patronage, particularly in the centre of the

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city. “I mean, patronage is down in London of all places,” Ogbonna notes. “And that’s despite the Congestion Charge there. The issue is that road space is limited and so it can only accommodate only so many vehicles, but the bus is part of the solution.”

Ogbonna expresses a wish for clear political leadership that allows the bus to be a thoroughbred performer, in her own words that means “giving the bus a clear run”. She describes this as a vision for improving bus journey times, reliability and frequency. To her minds it is part of a virtuous circle. But that needs political backing and will.

The other dimension for Cardiff Bus has been fierce competition on some of its corridors and a growing taxi culture that has been exacerbated by the lack of a central bus station. The old facility, located outside the doors of the Welsh capital’s main railway station, closed controversially in the summer of 2015 for redevelopment. Delays in this project mean that work has progressed at a snail’s pace and Ogbonna claims that this too has played a part in some of the company’s issues.

“Work on the new bus station has started but it’s going to take another two to three years to complete,” she reveals. “That means we’ll potentially have had an eight-year period where we’ve had to survive without a central bus station. The impact of that, in terms of congested bus stops, has been significant. That has had a significant effect on passenger confidence within the city centre too, particularly when building works mean we have to continually reroute buses and move stops.

“We are creatures of habit; bus users want to know where their buses are. When we are continually having to shift where the bus stops, it causes confusion. So we are eagerly awaiting the new transport interchange.”

Ogbonna says that the sum of this is that the last couple of years have been a balancing act for Cardiff Bus. She pays tribute the company’s staff, especially those on the frontline who have had to deal with many of the issues arising

from growing levels of congestion.

“One begins to wonder, with such inherent difficulties, whether there is an incentive for people to want to use the bus?” she adds.

“The objective of the city council, and the Welsh Government, is modal shift. We want to encourage that too, particularly as the city grows, but there is this interim period. How do we survive? How do we navigate that? How do we get there?”

Despite these challenges, the city has some relatively good bus priority measures and the city council has traditionally been supportive of their introduction.

Ogbonna also points out that Cardiff is strong on the enforcement of bus lanes and yellow boxes, meaning that in her view the city is ahead of others in the UK in this area. She continues: “People see that as a revenue stream for the council, but what we want to see is movement; we want to see the city moving, getting our customers to where they need to be and that enables it, to some extent.”

All of these pressures have also had a profound financial impact on the company. Ogbonna candidly notes the operator has had a difficult year and has had to make some very difficult decisions.

“We knew we were going to have a difficult year,” she says. “It doesn’t just happen overnight. We were looking at the numbers and we could see things were changing, even back when we were preparing the budget in 2017, we could see what was coming.”

The final results for 2017/18 were not far from where Cardiff

Bus expected to be.

Ogbonna says that it meant her and her team already had interventions in the pipeline that could be mobilised in order to help shore the business up.

“If you feel you have a problem you need to look at the interventions you can put in place in order to mitigate that problem.

There are a few things you can do; you can look at your network and your service provision and investigate how you could thin it down without losing focus.”

She candidly adds that since she joined the business almost 15 years ago, there have been years when the company has swung between profit and loss, but those losses were containable. What contributed to Cardiff ’s more recent woes were two things – cuts to government funding streams and growing levels of competition on a number of the operator’s key corridors.

Ogbonna says that in theory competition should grow the market, but in her view this is very much just that - theory. What has happened is that Cardiff Bus and competitor NAT Group have been fighting for the same customer

“One begins to wonder, with such inherent difficulties whether there is an incentive for people to want to use the bus?”

Cardiff Bus has faced fierce competition on a number of key corridors within the city

base. Cardiff Bus has chosen not to compete on price, but on the network benefits it offers and brand awareness.

But this competitive environment meant some sacred cows had to be sacrificed. The company has always had a very comprehensive network.

Ogbonna describes this as part of the company’s “social dividend” to the city, in other words more profitable corridors contributed towards the underpinning of more marginal parts of the network.

But the financial background meant that Cardiff Bus had to look at the impact of competition, the funding environment, operating costs, and, in particular fuel and staff costs. Ogbonna reveals that staffing costs are in the region of 10% higher than the competition, much of this a legacy of the company’s past as a publiclyowned bus operator. It means that staff enjoy more holidays, and perks like paid meal breaks. “All of these things are wonderful when you are doing okay,” she adds. “But when you have financial pressures it becomes something you have to look into.”

It means that the operator’s fares have come in for scrutiny and Ogbonna and her team have looked at what parts of the network are well used and which aren’t. Operating costs are being probed as are pension entitlements for staff. Meanwhile, Capital Links, the operator’s low-cost operation which operated some of the more marginal parts of the network with fully-depreciated vehicles, has been closed. All of these efforts aim to allow the business adapt to the ‘new normal’ operating environment and provide firm foundations for the future.

The process has been intensive and despite the stresses and strains that would be placed under any business in a similar situation, Ogbonna remains optimistic.

“The city is still growing,” she says. “The projections are that the population will grow by 25% over the next 10 years. How do you serve that population? How do you move them around? How do you keep the city moving? Well, there’s the opportunity for Cardiff Bus. Yes, we have some challenges, but the outlook is promising.” n

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THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP alexander dennis buses and plaxton coaches are an integral part of the f leets of many album operators. The manufacturer sees itself as more than simply a supplier to the country’s non-aligned bus companies, taking a partnership approach when working with customers to support their business needs ith the market’s widest range of low and zero emission buses, technology is a major focus for Alexander Dennis, but for the manufacturer there is more to customer relationships than just building buses with state-of-the-art technology.

“We are proud to partner with a wide range of bus operators, delivering solutions to specific challenges that they face when meeting their daily operational requirements,” says Chief Executive Colin Robertson.

Over the last decade Alexander Dennis has transformed its approach to working with ALBUM operators of all sizes. “The ALBUM group consists of some of the most dynamic and forward-thinking bus companies in the country,” says Robertson. “These companies regularly push boundaries, delivering new and innovative responses in a marketplace that continues to be challenging – it is only natural that they want to see the same approach from their manufacturing partner.”

There is little doubt that bus operators are facing unprecedented challenges. Growing congestion along with reduced funding for supported services and concessionary fare reimbursement can often lead to declining ridership and spiralling costs, at a time when an increased focus on pollution and environmental effects sees increased calls for investment in newer and cleaner fleets.

Alexander Dennis sees partnership working of all stakeholders as the most effective way to solve these challenges – when everyone plays their part and supports the common goal with their expertise, and this includes the vehicle manufacturer.

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Over the last decade Alexander Dennis has transformed its approach to working with ALBUM operators, including Cardiff Bus

bar. “We are now engineering our buses to have flexibility built into the design, allowing us to apply the best solutions for every requirement without compromising on reliability, serviceability or longevity. We want to create desire for ownership with buses which tick all the boxes from the first day of service and will continue to tick the right boxes for the long haul.”

For Alexander Dennis, partnership begins long before the bus is built when its teams sit down with the operator to fully understand their needs, with this level of collaboration continuing throughout the product’s life cycle.

Aftermarket support has long been a focus for Alexander Dennis, with the manufacturer investing significantly to provide what is widely acknowledged as best in class service. The next generation of support takes the form of AD24,

Here, Robertson believes Alexander Dennis has an edge over its competitors. “We are flexible and agile, which allows us to collaborate closely with our customers. However, we also have the size, strength and expertise to ensure that any solution we bring to market is thoroughly engineered and designed to stand the test of time.”

Bus services are a local product that engages with the desires and demands of local populations and economies., The vehicles themselves need to reflect bus operators’ vision and values to continue to raise the

“We are flexible and agile, which allows us to collaborate closely with our customers”

a unified digital platform that has been created by Alexander Dennis, providing an easy to use, efficient access point for operators’ teams.

Launched at Euro Bus Expo last autumn, the new service offers industry-leading usability and a personalised user experience for customers of all sizes. A 24/7 online parts shop is at the heart of AD24, with all makes’ parts easily searched combined with powerful options to display frequently purchased or saved items making it easier than ever to source high quality, original spare parts for Alexander Dennis buses, Plaxton coaches and other OEMs’ vehicles.

However, AD24 goes far beyond parts sales by providing a one-stop solution encompassing online training, manuals, service bulletins, a customer forum and the AD Connected vehicle solutions technology.

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Robertson is happy with the progress so far: “After selected trials, we began the wider AD24 roll out last autumn and the response we have had even at this early stage is phenomenal. We are continuing to develop AD24, continually adding new functions and services to further improve the experience for our partners in the operating industry.”

When talking about partnerships with all stakeholders, Alexander Dennis takes itself to task.

“We are a systems integrator and designing and delivering great quality products is only possible if we collaborate meaningfully with our key supply partners to create a relationship of trust and a shared vision of delighting customers, be it through state-of-the-art technology or passenger-centric interior options that increase bus patronage and create a desire for ridership.”

Alexander Dennis’s technology partners continue to include engine and driveline partners, but the manufacturer has also been the first to bring to the UK market a system to replace exterior mirrors with the SmartVision digital solution (see below).

As digital possibilities develop over the next years, Alexander Dennis expects to harness them

even more to provide additional safety assistance features.

Another major focus continues to be interior features to enhance passenger comfort. For seats, Alexander Dennis has taken the partnership focus a step further with the SmartSeat, developed to the manufacturer’s demanding brief by a market-leading supplier.

It features a contemporary design with ergonomically formed backrests and seat upholstery as part of a robust and durable construction with a low total weight. Passenger amenities will be accommodated by a seatback console. But crucially, Alexander Dennis’s direct involvement means operators will benefit from direct aftermarket support for the SmartSeat through the manufacturer’s own organisation.

In turn, this allows the partnership with operators to be lived more closely, as Robertson explains: “Our SmartSeat is a great example of how we combine agility with thorough processes.

We strive to always give our customers a single point of contact during vehicle specification, build and delivery, as well as to ensure direct and reliable support through our own best-in-class aftermarket network.” n

The Enviro200EV demonstrator provides full zero emissions capability

E N V I RO 2 0 0 E V ON SHOW AT A L BUM At the 2019 ALBUM Conference, BYD and Alexander Dennis are showing their single deck Enviro200EV demonstrator which provides full zero emissions capability even on demonstrations thanks to a compact mobile EV charger that can be transported inside the vehicle and plugs into operators’ existing mains electricity.

The demonstrator has been built to a high specification with an electroluminescent ceiling as well as the provision of wireless phone charging on its two social seating tables and a media shelf

SM A RT V I SION I S N OW AVA I L A B L E Alexander Dennis’s Enviro buses are now available with high-definition digital cameras and interior displays instead of traditional mirrors. The SmartVision system improves visibility and reduces the risk of accidents.

The view from the SmartVision cameras is digitally processed to compensate for lighting, shadows or glare while it is transmitted to the displays, which are mounted inside the cab to eliminate reflections from windows. The system offers the driver a normal mirror view at the top of the monitor and a wide angle view in the lower half. Screen brightness adjusts automatically to give excellent visibility day and night.

The offside display is mounted

The SmartVision system improves visibility and reduces the risk of accidents

on the A pillar, with the nearside display located centrally to avoid obstruction by an open door.

The placement in similar locations to normal mirrors allows drivers to adjust easily.

SmartVision maintains image quality in all conditions. Software

at the first raised row of seats.

Passengers sit comfortably on the high-back SmartSeat, which is available with integrated passenger amenity consoles complete with wireless bell push, USB charger, phone holder, reading light and bag hooks. The demo also features the SmartVision system that replaces traditional mirrors with high-definition digital cameras and displays.

Also on display at ALBUM will be a brand new demonstrator of the Alexander Dennis Enviro400, which continues to be the UK’s favourite double deck bus thanks to its industry-leading reliability and the wide range of specification options available. removes any distortion from rain drops or dirt on the lens, while an optional camera heater clears ice or fogging.

Operators cam also benefit from reduced risk of mirror damage or injury to passengers or pedestrians, potentially saving up to £25,000 per bus. A reduction in aerodynamic resistance is additionally expected to deliver a small fuel economy benefit, especially at higher speeds.

SmartVision is an internationally proven technology supplied by French company Vision-Systems through its UK distributor 21st Century Technology. It is mounted during vehicle assembly and fully supported by ADL’s bestin-class Aftermarket network.

It is fully VCA certified for both the Enviro200 single decker and Enviro400 double decker.

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What the industry has until now called ‘mobile ticketing’ is moving into the centre ground of the industry’s consciousness

DELIVERING A SEAMLESS JOURNEY FOR PASSENGERS What does the digitisation of ticketing mean for bus operators? passenger is working in partnership with ALBUM members to deliver solutions eputy Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and former chief executive of British Airways Keith Williams, recently published The Williams Rail Review. Described as ‘a root and branch review of Britain’s railway’, the report was supported by a panel of experts and was independently chaired by Williams.

Presenting at the Accelerate: The Future of Rail conference in London, Williams set out the scale of the challenge facing both government and the industry, and underlined

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that the changes ahead will not be easy. He commented: “One thing the sector certainly needs to be ready for is the move towards more integrated transport networks, with modes working together to provide a seamless journey ... Doing it successfully will rely on the sector’s ability to innovate and collaborate.

Increasing the digitisation of ticketing is an obvious place to start”.

Williams’ central tenet is the further integration of the transport network as a whole, with a move away from paper-based tickets to what he calls “the digitisation of ticketing”.

What the industry has until now called ‘mobile ticketing’ is moving into the centre ground of the industry’s consciousness. Williams, a respected figure in his own right, is the latest to champion digital transformation as a vital ingredient in achieving a successful passengercentric transport network.

Mobile-based ticketing and contactless payment options have emerged as the front runners in the digitised ticketing landscape of recent years. Smartcards on buses are seeing a natural decline in their wake. Investment in the systems that support them, designed

to keep pace with customer expectations, is becoming harder for commercial teams to justify. More customer-friendly alternatives are being favoured, particularly as the ubiquity of smartphones has become undeniable and the contactless payment card commonplace.

So what does the digitisation of ticketing mean for ALBUM’s many members? How does it affect daily operations and importantly, are the popular new payment options returning revenue growth once they have been adopted? To answer that, you only need look at ALBUM stalwart Blackpool Transport. Back in April 2017, the council-owned operator began their journey to revolutionise the way in which customers access bus and tram information with the launch of a new company website and mobile app, which included digital ticketing for the first time.

Blackpool’s seaside resort grew to prominence thanks to its famous landmarks: the kaleidoscopic Illuminations, the precipitous drops of the Big One roller coaster and the high-rise spire of the Blackpool Tower.

But it wasn’t just the draw of the attractions themselves that made Blackpool a success – it was the convenience of getting to them.

The new Blackpool Transport app, delivered and managed by the team at Passenger, was introduced to make bus and tram travel easier for existing customers and for those people who don’t use the bus very often, if at all.

The app has made it easy for visitors and residents alike to purchase, in advance, a range of tickets via their smartphone.

Tickets available to buy include adult, child, young person and a 24-hour group ticket. These tickets can be used on all Blackpool Transport bus and tram services, and can be bought in advance and simply activated before boarding.

In April 2017, Managing Director at Blackpool Transport, Jane Cole, announced the launch of these new digital services: “The introduction of our new app will make travelling around Blackpool and the surrounding area much easier for so many people. We know

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our existing customers will benefit greatly from not having to look for the correct change for that bus fare every morning! The app means that you can buy your ticket 24/7 so it doesn’t matter when our Travel Centre is open either, you can simply buy via your smartphone.”

In the two years since then, the team at Blackpool haven’t looked back. They’ve smashed their revenue targets for digital ticket sales in both years. As they look to the future, the visitor economy will be key to continue the upward growth trajectory.

This includes a strategic plan based around new digital technology developed by Passenger, in the form of it’s new Business Portal.

The Passenger Business Portal enables businesses, schools, universities and hotels to directly manage high-volume mobile ticket sales for their personnel, students and guests via a no-fuss, self-service online portal – rather than doing so manually through an operator sales team.

Designed to significantly reduce the high production and distribution costs of traditional smartcards, the system gives operators like Blackpool Transport, a unique commercial proposition to support business relationships and drive revenue in this key growth area.

In September 2018 it was announced that a project to improve the experience of disabled people visiting the Fylde coast, became one of 16 coastal projects across the UK to win a share of £6m from the Coastal Communities Fund.

This project has enhanced the Blackpool Transport app, allowing visitors to obtain information on local disabled-friendly businesses, facilities and services; and strengthen direct links with passengers that have additional accessibility needs - a huge part of Blackpool Transport’s customer experience strategy.

Shane Grindey, Marketing Manager at Blackpool Transport comments: “Passenger has proven a fantastic partner in this regard, ensuring that its product follows the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 for the text sizes, colours and contrast

“We’ve been working hard to find a way to deliver our app solution to smaller operators, so that we can support others in starting the journey towards digitisation”

powered ticketing app nearly 12 months ago, the successful project has laid the foundations for further digital transformation in the future.

Passenger ‘Professional’ is a comprehensive white-labelled mobile ticketing solution designed specifically for bus operating companies, like Warrington’s Own, that are starting out on their digitisation journey.

Backed by Passenger Cloud, a market-proven management system and the new Business Portal, the solution provides a risk-free mobile app roll-out for those operators that want to join the digital revolution.

The new app product includes period pass mobile tickets, carnets, group tickets and ticket gifting. Fully integrated with Google Pay and Apple Pay, passengers can buy their mobile tickets in advance, ready for activation before travelling.

With the inclusion of Ticket Gifting, Passenger Professional app customers can gift any available ticket from the mobile app to another user. This feature helps users to look after dependants without needing to give them cash or a debit/credit card, whilst opening up public transport to a whole new generation of travellers through the safe use of a mobile app.

All Passenger Professional deployments are fully operatorbranded and launched live to passengers in as little as four weeks.

As standard, all Passenger apps are released on operator-owned App Store accounts, reinforcing your brand to customers.

Designed for operator teams, Passenger Cloud is a secure, web-

ratios featured in its products.

“From responsive design to fonts, menu navigation and voice-over functionality, it’s impressive to see that Passenger works to ensure its digital product is useful to everyone, including those with disabilities. Passenger is an extremely simple product to use – there’s very little room for confusion, which means that people from all walks of life can make use of the benefits it offers.”

The success story in Blackpool has clearly demonstrated that taking those first steps to adopt mobile app technology doesn’t have to be a giant leap into the unknown. Just as Keith Williams has recommended, an obvious place to start is ticketing. The team at Blackpool spotted this too, and significant enhancements to the customer experience followed naturally from their own ‘digitisation of ticketing’ project.

Under Managing Director, Ben Wakerley, fellow ALBUM member Warrington’s Own Buses are now on their own modernisation journey.

Launching with a Passenger-

Blackpool Transport has smashed its revenue targets for digital ticket sales

based tool that removes complexity and makes it easy to manage mobile ticketing app customers in real time. Unrestricted access enables customer service staff to provide an efficient and immediate resolution to any queries.

Tom Quay, CEO at Passenger comments: “We’ve been working hard to find a way to deliver our app solution to smaller operators, so that we can support others in starting the journey towards digitisation.

Based on what we have learnt in Warrington, where our costs to support the solution have been lower, we’re excited to make this offer available to more operators.

“We think Passenger Professional provides a genuine option to smaller operators, who want to adopt mobile ticketing for their customers, without the headaches that come with settling for a ‘budget’ app solution.

“With full access to Passenger Cloud and our new Business Portal, smaller operators can now access the same high-quality digital technology as their industry peers.”

For operators with plans to grow, Passenger Professional apps have been designed to keep pace with them. The modular system allows easy expansion of functionality with an upgrade path that includes real-time passenger information, journey planning and contextual service updates - the well-designed features that have made Passenger a widely known app provider across the UK. “The Passenger team is the perfect partner to engage on this project with,” says Shane Grindey.

“The team has been excellent in maintaining an open dialogue about their current and future roadmap for developments and have given us the opportunity to input throughout with the needs and views of our business”.

“This open engagement has allowed us to constantly push the boundaries of what is and isn’t possible. That ability to share ideas has been key in shaping what Passenger is and what it can be. The team are switched on, extremely competent and we’re excited to continue working alongside them to see where the ideas we’ve discussed will take the product next.” n

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Untitled-12 1

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TICKE TING TICKETER

A DECADE OF TICKETER

has developed as a result,” says John Clarfelt, the Chief Executive of Ticketer. “Their support has meant that we can develop and grow, but we have maintained the philosophy of providing the same

service to all customers regardless of fleet size. We are also committed to making new software updates and technology developments available to all operators for the lifetime of the Electronic Ticket Machine (ETM), at no extra charge.”

All Ticketer’s ETMs run identical software, with the same features available whether the operator has hundreds of units or just one. The ETMs can accept contactless EMV as well as mTickets, paper QR tickets, ITSO smartcards and cash, enabling operators to tailor payments to the preferences of their passengers.

At the Conference, ALBUM members will be able to understand the benefits of driver defect checks, see Ticketer’s latest solution for DRT services in action, and explore Tap On/Tap Off and account-based ticketing.

Ticketer’s system is the UK’s first to guarantee passengers pay for their actual journey, rather than a flat fare. Passengers Tap On with their contactless card, then Tap Off as they disembark the vehicle.

They no longer need to state their destination or ticket type to the driver.

John concludes: “We are very proud to support the ALBUM Conference and ALBUM Members. The most important thing for us is to have the opportunity to catch up with old friends, welcome some new ones, and understand how we can continue to help them with their ticketing and operational needs.” n

used to and so they don’t have many opportunities to break into notes. As a consequence, carrying enough change on board was becoming an issue.

Now that we have made the switch, services run much more smoothly because boarding is made quicker with a simple tap of the card. Ticketer has made contactless a practical option for smaller operators.”

Another benefit that Delaine Buses have found through using Ticketer ETMs is the tracking feature. The company is able to supply its Twitter feed with up to date information about service

delays and diversions. This has significantly reduced the number of enquires during these periods to almost zero.

Delaine-Smith also paid tribute to the support available from Ticketer during its transition to the new system. “We were under the misconception that switching to Ticketer and contactless would be complicated, but the team at Ticketer made the whole process very easy for us; their support staff were brilliant,” he says. “In the end we only needed a small proportion of the training on offer as the system is so intuitive to use.”

ticketer will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2019 and playing a key role at the album Conference. We caught up with MD john clarfelt t’s a big year for ticketing specialist Ticketer as the company will be celebrating its 10th year in business. To celebrate this milestone, the company is throwing its full support behind the annual gathering of the ALBUM community in Cardiff this month.

The UK-based company won its first customers from the ALBUM member community, and in the following decade there have been numerous technical developments from Ticketer that have helped transform the way customers purchase tickets on buses.

These include the introduction of contactless payments, using QR codes to travel (supporting both app-based mTickets, but also printing QR codes on paper tickets) and, more recently, the development of ‘Tap On/Tap Off ’ and support for Demand Responsive Travel (DRT) services.

These market-leading ticketing technologies are all combined with

I

Ticketer have helped to transform the way customers purchase tickets on buses

the personalised and responsive support that has become the company’s hallmark.

“ALBUM members are the bedrock of our business and have shaped the way Ticketer

T IC K E T E R SIG N S 5 0 0 T H OP E R ATOR Lincolnshire based independent operator and ALBUM member Delaine Buses became the 500th company to make the switch to Ticketer last year. The respected family-owned operator chose the Ticketer because of its reputation in the industry, and the fact that the company was able to go-live with contactless ETMs within weeks instead of months.

Delaine saw a need to make the move to contactless after it became apparent that the number of passengers paying

Delaine Buses have seen great benefits from making the switch to Ticketer

with high denomination bank notes was continually increasing.

Company Director Mark Delaine-Smith explains: “People just don’t use cash like they

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STAY INFORMED AND SAVE MONEY ENVIRONMENT

NCT plans to have 120 gas buses by Christm as

NEWS ROUND-UP

meet the stringent and cleanest Euro 6 emission standards within a year and demonstrates NCT’s commitment to improving air quality for everyone in the City,” Office of Low Emission said Anthony Carver-Smith, Vehicles, 6 levels as the new gas-buses, the to expand the bio-methane operator’s marketing manager. which has been made possible refuelling station at NCT’s The arrival of the new bio-gas Lower through funding applied for by Parliament Street depot. double deckers enables NCT VEHICLES Nottingham City Council Alongside the introduction and to withdraw just under 60 Nottingham City Transport’s Nottinghamshire County of its of the brand new buses, Council oldest diesel NCT is fleet of 53 bio-gas double buses, and will free from OLEV. deck continuing with a programme up some of the younger diesel buses will more than double of “The arrival of a further in retrofitting the Baumot 67 buses that have been fitted size this year, as a further exhaust bio-gas double decks and with 67 join treatment system to 180 the the exhaust treatments system the municipal operator’s diesel retrofitting of our younger for fleet. It buses. This will reduce their diesel re-deployment on four routes. follows the award of funding buses with exhaust treatment by emissions to the same Euro The changes have been the government’s Office technology will see our entire of Low fleet welcomed by Richard Emission Vehicles (OLEV).

Wellings, principal public transport The first of the new batch officer of at Nottingham City Council. buses have now entered service “It’s great to see the ever on the operator’s Brown Line 17 expanding fleet of gas buses between Bulwell, City Hospital, on Nottingham’s streets servicing Hucknall Road and the city more neighbourhoods,” centre. Additional vehicles he said. will be “Not only will more city deployed on three other residents routes by benefit from more pleasant early summer. Later in the year, journeys on new buses, but five further routes will receive Independent Operator’; the biocleaner engines are helping gas double deck buses, increasing Vectare winning the New to improve Nottingham’s air the total to 120 in the fleet Horizons Award for its VectTive quality.” by By the end of the year, the product; Christmas. oldest bus in the municipal This £20m investment in Transdev’s Burnley Bus 67 Company operator’s fleet will date in the Putting new bio-gas buses is supported from Operator has 2010, with NCT’s average by £1.12m of funding from Passengers First category for age one spent £20m on the ‘Make My Mainline’; of the youngest in the UK, more gas buses at less National Express West Midlands than five years old.

winning the ROSCO Award for WORLD’S FIRSTInnovation Petrol in Road vehicles Safetymust meet or exceed for its DriveCam Euro 4project; standards with diesels 24-HOUR ULEZ Lytx RATP Dev

toxic air. A total of 6,950 buses (75% of all buses operated by contractors on behalf of TfL) - including all buses operating in the ULEZ zone to pay the daily £11.50 Congestion - meet or exceed the new emission Social enterprise standards.

Charge,HCT Transport for London’s Ultra-Group winning which operates Monday to All double-deck buses operating Bus in the Fridaythe between 7am and 6pm.

Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) Community Award on routes that go into central came for ‘Drive On’; The London ULEZ will initially operate into force in the central LondonAbellio London’s Twickenham are Euro 6 hybrids. By October in the same area as the current 2020 congestion charge zone this depot winning all single-deck buses operating London Bus week, Congestion in the Charge zone, but from introducing additional chargesGarage of the Year; zone will be zero-exhaust for emission.

October 2021 the ULEZ boundary Uno Bus winning non-compliant vehicles. will By that date every Marketing bus in London will be extended create a single The ULEZ operates 24-hoursInitiative of the Year forto‘The larger meet or exceed the ULEZ a day, zone bounded by standards.

Comet, come fly with us’. the North and seven days a week. Non-compliant “This is a landmark day South Circular Roads. for our cars, vans and motorcycles Uno Bus’s Jim Thorpe winning city,” said Khan. “Our toxic must air is Transport for London says the & Inspiration pay a daily charge of £12.50. the Leadership an invisible killer Nonresponsible for Award. ULEZ is the centrepiece Grouping leads way by winning of a range compliant one of the biggest national Amongstofthe health measures total of 15 medals at 2018 buses and lorries (over 3.5 tonnes), public sector, mayor Sadiq Khan has but ‘Bus Operator of the emergencies of our generation. must pay £100.

Awards, Transport for implemented Year’ is retained by Go-Ahead UK Buscoaches the West Midlands to tackle London’s I simply refuse to be yet another ’s Go South Coast and partners won Silver in the www.passengertransport.co.uk Making Buses a Better Choice UK BUS AWARDS four Gold medals, with Poolecategory for their West Midlands The ALBUM grouping of Metrobus. Its Crawley depot based Go South Coast retaining was PT207p12-13.indd 13 Bus Alliance. Transport for ‘non aligned’ bus companies named National Bus Depot. had the prestigious ‘Bus Operator London and Steps Drama the greatest haul of medals of Stagecoach had set the pace at the Year’ award. The company Learning Development the 2018 UK Bus Awards. had for the awards by won Silver The securing a earlier been victorious in in the Putting Passenger were announced at a ceremony the record number of nominations, First ‘Top Shire Operator’ category category for their ‘Hello attended by over 700 people and almost half of their were London’ at and also took home the Sustained bus driver training course.

Troxy in east London last converted into medals. The week.

Marketing Excellence Award Merseytravel and partners The group won a total of for Perth-based group’s three won 15 its morebus M1 and M2 Bronze in the Marketing services. medals (see table), finishing Gold winners were the group’s Initiative ahead The final Go-Ahead was of the Year category for their of Stagecoach (13), Go-Ahead won by guidance on bus services in ‘Better by Bus’ campaign.

(9) and Arriva (6). First Bus new residential developments went Transport expert David home empty-handed.

(Making Buses Better Award), Begg THE MEDAL TABLE: UKBA and Claire Haigh, chief executive 2017 The ALBUM grouping’s Stagecoach London’s Terry five of campaign group Greener ‘Gold’ medals included three Absalom (Engineer of the for Year) G S B Journeys, were meanwhile council-owned Nottingham and Stagecoach Midlands’ City ALBUM Matt honoured with the ‘Award 6 4 5 15 Begg Transport - Top City Operator, for (Unsung Heroes Award).

Stagecoach Services to the Industry’ 3 6 4 13 Top National Bus Driver this year.

Arriva’s six medals included and Go-Ahead one Full details can be found 4 the Environment Award 1 4 9 Gold, with Arriva London in for the Arriva South’s The Big Book of 1 2 3 world’s largest fleet of bio-gas Big Winners 2018, 6 Rob Hutchings being named RATP Dev the official UK Bus Awards 1 double deckers.

1 1 3 Young Manager of the Year.

Transdev Souvenir Brochure, which 1 1 Go-Ahead’s subsidiaries 1 3 Other Gold winners included: will won Other accompany the next edition 4 4 1 9 Ensignbus winning ‘Top of Passenger Transport.

16 | 23 November 2018 London’s required to meet Anthony Euro 6. Non-exempt London charging scheme Banks-Walker winning also have to continue aims to tackle dirty airLondon vehicles will Top Bus Driver; AIR POLLITION

ALBUM tops med table at bus awardsal

Lothian thinks big with 100-seat tri-axle s

Alexander Dennis is building buses for Edinburgh again. the first of 42 new high capacity January will see double deckers enter service in the city

ISSUE 200 11 JANUARY 2019

First of 53 additional gas-powered buses join municipal’s fleet

Aaron Johnson from Nottingham City Transport was named as Britain’s Top National Bus Driver

NEWS EXTRA ENVIRO400XLB

NE HA W PP YE Y AR !

NEWS, VIEWS AND ANALYSI S FOR A SECTOR ON

‘Bus use declin can be reversede’

politician who ignores it.

The ULEZ is the centrepiece of our plans to clean up London’s air - the boldest plans of any city on the planet, and the eyes of the world are on us.”

Ahead of next month’s UK Bus Summit in Londo n, senior bus industry figures have argued that a sustain ed decline in bus use across Great Britain is not inevita ble.

But the industry needs a long-term investment strateg y and help with congestion

Scheme operates 24 hours a day

19 April 2019 | 13 17/04/2019 14:32

NEWS

INNOVATION & TECH

Stagecoach Smart quits America on WelsPAYG to focus on UK train h s by 2021

03

Group has sold last overseas business

12

Wales & Borders franchise ambition

TRAVEL TEST

‘My hopes and fears for the year ahead’

14

Alex Warner has a wish-list for 2019

THE MOVE

The decline in bus use across the United Kingdom can be halted if the right interventions are made.

That is the message from the UK bus industry to central and local government ahead of next month’s UK Bus Summit in London.

This view is expressed by a number of senior industry figures in the UK Bus Summit Review 2019, which accompanies this edition of Passenger Transport.

“We need a long-term bus investment strategy if we are to reverse this decline and maximise the role the bus can play in supporting jobs, growth and productivity,” writes Claire Haigh, chief executive of pro-bus campaign group Greener Journeys.

Haigh wants this strategy to include: 1. Revenue support for bus services; 2. Increased funding for local transport; 3. Increased investment in local bus infrastructure; 4. Modal switch from car to sustainable transport; 5. Demand management measures to reduce traffic.

Giles Fearnley, managing director of First UK Bus, saw “definite reasons for optimism” in 2018, but argues that congestion continues to be the biggest threat to the bus industry. “It is vital that we continue to address this head-on,” he writes.

COMMENT

‘Chris Grayling has not been cancelled’

16

COMMENT CPT

Let’s free our trade body and back it up

CPT, the trade body for the of a review. Members shouldbus and coach industry, is the subject also review how they might change Prior to writing this companies are rarely aligned and often have column I was asked what competing interests with one another so I want from my trade to effectively represent without body. It is no secret that alienating someone amongst the membership, our trade body, CPT - the takes a lot of diplomatic skill. Not Ralph Roberts Confederation an enviable task of Passenger McGill’s but something that CPT has managed to do Transport - is undergoing successfully. some change at the moment and I am quite And then there are the market sure that there will be no conditions shortage of views on to consider. In times of regulatory how it should organise and slack water, run itself. I worked quiet and unobtrusive diplomacy for a number of years for will always the Freight Transport work best. When policy Association (FTA), both is being reviewed and in Scotland, and legislators are preparing at its head office in Tunbridge to draft rules that Wells. I also govern the industry, it will chaired the organisation certainly take a more in Scotland for three urgent style of representation years as well as chairing CPT . Likewise, when for a year so I trading conditions are declining have some experience on and margins this subject. are constantly under pressure I am acutely aware that there - as they are now, are limits to the representation a trade body can offer.

On the strategic matters, such as government policy and roads management, it is fairly straightforward. Drill down even one more layer, and it becomes very difficult. Member 24 | 26 October 2018

“I do not get a consistent sense of who we are and who we ought to be”

A lone piper order from Lothian. Alexander “Why wouldn’t they?” emerged from Dennis chief executive Colin Hall is very happy to have behind the Robertson hopes to find a market re-established Alexander curtain on the for 50-100 of these vehicles Dennis in the as a supplier to Lothian after shop floor at UK and Ireland every year. a Robert Jack pause that had last longer Alexander than Managing Editor “It might be 100 in Lothian’s a decade. It is a decision Dennis’s factory fleet, that I don’t ever see it being in Falkirk and began playing fits with the council-owned more than that,” he told ‘Scotland the Brave’. It was company’s strategy of supporting a sign Passenger Transport. “But we that the suspense would spent its local supply chain wherever soon be enough on it to try and sell over. Alexander Dennis, more possible. And he’s pleased Volvo and than 100 in with the its product life cycle.”

Lothian had worked hard way that Alexander Dennis has to keep Lothian managing director the details of their collaboration responded to a challenge Richard Hall doesn’t think that he secret, but now the Alexander that set them only six months Robertson will be disappointed. ago - to Colin Robertson Dennis Enviro400XLB create a high spec, tri-axle was (left) and Asked whether he thought double there will be a need slowly forrolling a revised decker for the company. into approach.

Richard Hall review - a new other operators would follow I attended a conference bus product,inbuilt Offering 100 seats and with in Scotland Yorkshire last for his company’s lead and purchase week and there Scotland’s capital standees able to carry up were some city. high level these excellent to 131 vehicles, he responded: The presentations from onlookers fumbled with passengers in total, the Enviro bodies and companies camera outwith the bustheir XLB phones, delivers struggling unrivalled capacity and coach ENVIRO400XLB One to frame the industry. for busy routes, while its dimensions of the contribution, from the CEO front and The Enviro400XLB shares of drinks 13.4-metre its tri-axleadouble middle doors company, enthused decker. will speed-up dwell body structure with the marketabout how some marginal British builders have long times at bus stops. It has and loss making brandsbus been leading two-axle Enviro400, and activities been supplying had built to even higher standards tri-axle double been stopped and, whilst which has been designed deckers to Hong turnover for was than bus users in Edinburgh Kong anddown the requirements of British as a result, the bottom are Singapore, and linebut was familiar with; comfortable looking not their domestic a Irish bus operators. This ensures highlot healthier. I immediately market. In January, backed seating, free Wi-Fi thought however, of how the a high degree of commonality access, great it must be,first of 42 of to to be these USB device charging, LED able capacity pullhigh back from between the models for ease mood prior to the handover ceremony. a marketplace that vehicles of will enter lighting and audio-visual service is losing in with money next stop “How do we without maintenance and repairs.

Lothian in Edinburgh. In entice people out of It has suffering calls and announcements. the days threats from politicians different body structure to their cars without using that followed this month’s to the immediately rethink purgatory Hall’s ambition has been launch and Enviro500 tri-axle double to these lossmeasures to do so?” event thesereplace decker. mammoth vehicles create a passenger environment making activities or suffer the consequences.

The Enviro400XLB is the The Enviro400XLB is also captured first the imagination of that that will lure people You see, the bus industry out bus for the UK to be mounted seen as a solution to worsening outside people who would London, on of their cars and help stem ordinarily have as we are all acutely aware, Volvo’s recently launched the traffic congestion, which no interest inisbuses. supposed threecurrent 4% year-on-year is WhentoI had decline be a fully commercial axle B8L chassis, powered slowing down buses and my hairmarketplace. by the cut in Edinburgh in patronage on Lothian’s making Why a few city efficient 350hp Euro 6 D8K then, must we be them a less attractive option. days subject engine. later Lewis, to controls network. my barber, The and knew second door, something expectations that all no about them! other which has “We will not be content industry is? to seldom been specified on Some say that because Barbers cities across sit there and see our business buses weinreceive the government outside of London, will improve UK(Bus support via BSOG might soon be talking about change, so we have to innovate Service Operators the flow of passengers, speeding Enviro400XLB. Alexander Grant), we mustthe in terms of how we carry behave in a quasi-public body our up boarding times and winning Dennis and chassis customers, the product we manner. That argument manufacturer offer doesn’t hold water back some of the time lost didn’t develop our customers,” he explained to this product though. Lots of Volvo industries receive significant to congestion. solely the basis of the initial Michael Matheson, Scotland’s government support on yet are not expected to The vehicles can also combat transport secretary, in a meeting behave in anything| but a congestion by reducing the 18 23 November commercial 2018 manner.

Indeed, some of the largest corporations in the UK that receive support PT197p18-19 from the public 18 purse don’t even pay much in the way of tax at all, yet they expect to receive the benefits of safe streets, a healthy and well-educated workforce and a transport infrastructure that enables them to do what they do.

How then, do we find ourselves in the position that we do? I could give examples of all the once public-owned entities that are now in private hands but are absent the expectations that are upon the bus and coach sector but it would serve no purpose other than to further entrench senses of grievance and prevent open dialogue toward a solution.

I have spoken to some who believe it is because of insufficient trade body representation. I do not concur with that view.

When I speak to my industry colleagues, I do not get a consistent sense of who we are and who we ought to be.

Indeed, the situation up and down the UK in terms of pricing, ticketing, service delivery and network coverage, differs so greatly that I often wonder if we all understand what it is that the customer actually wants. Little wonder then that there are mixed messages at

www.passengertransport.co.uk

22/11/2018 16:55

www.passengertransport.co.uk

PT195p24-25 24

24/10/2018 17:39

Norman Baker reflects on 2018

www.passengertransport.co.uk

PT197p16-17 16

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22/11/2018 17:30

09/01/2019 17:58

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SOF TWARE O MNIBUS

Omnibus will be revealing more about its plans for future developments during this year's ALBUM Conference. Don't forget to visit their exhibition stand in the Foyer

OMNIBUS PLANS FUTURE IN THE CLOUD omnibus has been working continuously in recent years to refine its range of solutions for the industry. andrew garnett spoke to Managing Director peter crichton to find out more echnology moves on all the time and scheduling and planning technology specialist Omnibus has outlined a number of new developments it has in the pipeline. All are designed to help operators achieve financial savings by improving business efficiency.

The company has been at the

T

forefront of a number of firsts in the scheduling systems area.

Omnibus was the first to offer a timetable editor and the company has always had a flexible data model that has been improved and expanded over the years. However, software cannot stand still and Managing Director Peter Crichton says the company has a huge ongoing development programme to ensure that technological

advancements are exploited to the benefit of its customers.

This perhaps counters some misguided perceptions about so-called ‘legacy’ products failing to develop further and take on board new features and options as time and technology progresses. It means that the company’s growing developer team, led by experienced and respected developer Paul Smith, are working to improve

existing products and create innovative new ones too.

“We have always undertaken continuous development,” Peter adds. “but we’ve tended in the past to only shout about things when they’ve been finished and polished with everything ready to go. I think it’s quite sensible for us to now say, ‘Look, this is what we are developing and have been perfecting for several years’. We’ve

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TH E AL BUM

been working to get the platform and infrastructure right and we’re already utilising that platform and infrastructure. We are delivering on it.”

This medium and long-term strategic development programme has seen significant investment being made by Omnibus. While the company also continues to undertake a number of shortterm projects in response to direct customer requests or requirements, or opportunities the company identifies in the market that it can offer rapid solutions for, significant efforts are being made in three major workstreams.

These will improve the company’s range of solutions with cloud development, enhancements to the data model and changing the algorithms behind the software to streamline processes and enhance the company’s already excellent user-friendly credentials.

“Everyone is talking about cloud development and what they can do in the cloud,” says Peter. “This is something we’ve been tackling for several years; we already have several products that are web-based.

But underlying all that is the framework we have put in. It will allow all of our products to use the same platform in the cloud.

It’s all going to be seamless and the natural advantage of creating a cloud-based system is its scalability.”

Omnibus has made significant progress in this area and already has a cloud-based beta version of OmniTIMES, its well-regarded solution for producing working timetables. This was launched at the EuroBusExpo show in Birmingham last year and Peter says his team have been working to refine the product further, adding more features and functionality that aim to create a solution that is both powerful yet intuitive. It can generate complex timetables with differential running times, as well as differing daily variations, for example school holidays or weekends, all in a matter of seconds. Being cloud-based means it can be accessed from anywhere at any time, without the need for local installation. Meanwhile, OmniBASE, the company’s powerful and respected scheduling

REPO RT 2019

“The key thing is our data model is not designed by technologists and developers alone, it’s actually based on our wealth of real-world industry experience”

package, is now evolving as part of this road map too.

“It’s all starting to come together.

Everything is about enhancing the experience for the user,” he says. “We’re not saying this is the finished product as we’re keen to work with our customers, show them what it looks like at the moment and gain feedback on how they think it can be refined to make it even better in a live working environment.”

The enhancements also encompass data, a topic that is coming to the fore within many organisations, especially as open data is such a hot topic.

Peter’s team say customers are increasingly wanting access to new forms of data in order to enhance reporting and other business processes. This has seen the data model completely redesigned allowing that seamless integration mentioned earlier.

“The key thing is our data model is not designed by technologists and developers alone, it’s actually based on our wealth of real-world industry experience,” he says. “So, it’s about having data that meets the needs of the customer in a very flexible way. We’ve spent a lot of time looking at how our customers use the data and developing a data model that is suitable for the transport market. It really is key, but a lot of our development work was behind the scenes; it was hidden.”

Other solutions on the market have based their data around the Transmodel structure, but

Omnibus claims this leads to some significant disadvantages as there can be an inherent inflexibility within that structure. Instead Peter and his colleagues have chosen to design a more flexible data model that, while supporting all the requirements of Transmodel, TransXChange, VDV and more, also allows greater flexibility for the user, for example by allowing real-time analysis.

“These are the advances behind the scenes that people don’t see, but it’s what drives everything else we do,” Peter adds. This knowledge and expertise within the transport data arena has also seen Omnibus helping to inform the DfT’s own plans for open data in the bus industry.

Finally, the third stream of work is on algorithms, so automating processes and improving functionality for the user.

However, this is not about putting the computer in charge; instead it’s about giving the user options that

The Omnibus team are delighted to support this year's ALBUM Conference

will allow them to automate more of the process if they so choose, while also guiding them to make better and more robust solutions that can help to cut costs and improve efficiency. These features are designed to benefit advanced users as well as those with less experience of computer-based systems.

“You’re in control of it,” Peter adds. “You’re the driver, but it gives you the options should you wish. A lot of people throw these terms up about ‘artificial intelligence’ – we could have a whole philosophical debate about what that actually is and involves – but we’re working to simply improve the experience for users, giving them the tools to do more complex tasks, while giving them greater control.”

Peter says that Omnibus took the view that the user should be able to work in the way they feel most comfortable, without restrictions. If the user wants to add a timetable on a freehand basis, they can. The systems then analyse this information and push the data to the downstream systems.

“What we’re doing is making life a lot easier for schedulers,” he adds.

“What we’ve always said is we want the scheduler to be free to do what they want to do. They create a timetable and effectively we create a method to translate ‘scheduler speak’ into VDV or Transmodel, for example. So, we look at it, we analyse it and we then interpret it. In essence we’re using artificial intelligence to translate the data put in by the scheduler that can then be picked up by those downstream systems.”

This continuing development of its range of products has been the core strategy for Omnibus since its inception. Peter remarks that it is a task rather like painting the Forth Bridge – it’s neverending. “We don’t say, ‘Data?

Right, we’ve done that!’ We go out and we meet people and we pick things up from those conversations that spark ideas amongst us for further development. It’s a continuous process – it always has been and it always will be. We always have something new to offer our customers and that won’t change.” n

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Software designed and engineered to effortlessly solve the complexities of Britain’s passenger transport scheduling and operational requirements Proven in use for all types of operation on road and rail, powered by diesel, gas or electricity • • • • • • • • • •

Easily and quickly create complex timetables Intelligent, rapid automatic vehicle and crew scheduling Assisted crew rota creation Real time crew and vehicle allocation Public transport stop displays Cutting-edge mapping with satellite imagery and automatic routing NaPTAN and asset management TransXChange, GTFS, VDV, Real Time & open data tools Electronic Bus Service Registrations Vehicle and crew scheduling training and consultancy

Robust, reliable and proven with continuous development: trust Omnibus for all your passenger transport software requirements with support that is second to none

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SOF TWARE CITYSWIF TER

CIT YSWIFTER HARNESSES THE POWER OF DATA cityswifter is optimising local bus networks by harnessing new and innovative technology an you accurately predict what will happen on any given bus trip 100 days from now?

Thanks to the power of data and rapidly evolving technology, Cityswifter co-founder Alan Farrelly believes his company can.

It’s technology that aims to help operators improve the efficiency of their business and reduce cost by optimising capacity to demand.

And Cityswifter has a unique knowledge of the bus industry thanks to Farrelly’s background.

35 years ago, his parents bought an old bus. It was the start of something that Farrelly says “just grew and grew”. As he notes, it wasn’t long before the family discovered they had a fully-fledged and rapidly growing bus depot at the end of their back garden.

“I essentially grew up with that,” he says. “I was always very interested. I’d help out in the yard and I got my bus licence when I was 21. I still do a bit of driving when I’m home - my parents like to keep my feet on the ground.”

Farrelly undertook a number of roles within his parent’s business, including looking after the books.

As part of that process he realised how poor the industry was at matching vehicles with demand.

“It seemed at the weekend there were a lot of buses just sitting in the depot,” he says. “The thing is when they’re sitting there looking at you, the wheels aren’t turning and they aren’t making you any money.”

It led him to experiment, trialling what would today be termed a ‘pop-up’ coach service.

He says it was an interesting learning experience and it led him to discuss his ideas about inefficiencies in the bus industry

C

Cityswifter co-founders Alan Farrelly (left) and Brian O’Rourke

To achieve this data is taken from the operator’s Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) systems, ticket machines, scheduling systems and driver behaviour data in order to build a picture of what’s happening on the ground.

“Our big belief is that if you understand the past, you can accurately predict the future,” believes Farrelly. “We analyse around two years’ worth of data, crunch it all up and then a huge amount of regression analysis.

During that process we begin to look at data from other sources, everything from school holidays, traffic, weather etc.

“We pull all that data together and then correlate it to the results

with Brian O’Rourke, an old friend with a background in technology and data.

“We put out heads together and the combination of a data science background and a deep understanding of the bus industry led to Cityswifter,” he says. “It really started from there and we began building a product that would allow operators to turn an asset that was just sitting there in the depot into something with real value.”

After initial work with some operators in Ireland, the last 12 months or so have seen the company opening a dialogue with those in the UK. It’s an idea that has already won backing from some serious investors, including Ryanair co-founder Declan Ryan’s Irelandia Investments, ACT Venture Capital and former CarTrawler Chief Executive Mike McGearty.

Cityswifter uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to scrutinise data that bus operators already hold and mix it with other data strands from society at large. The aim is to probe what can influence passenger demand and/or the journey time.

“We are able to accurately predict, up to 100 days in advance, how long each bus is going to take to complete its trip”

of what actually happened and by doing that we are able to accurately predict, up to 100 days in advance, how long each bus is going to take to complete its trip. We even know how many passengers will board at each stop.”

Traditionally timetables allocate a set amount of time to undertake the trip and a certain amount of layover time at the terminus.

In Farrelly’s mind this creates inefficiencies – not only can the average speed of the vehicle fall as they wait for time enroute, but also the terminus layover time may not be realistic or appropriate.

However, after crunching the data, Cityswifter’s systems push the result out to the scheduler, allowing them to import the data into their existing scheduling system. It means on high frequency routes, running times can be tailored to match demand and traffic conditions. Layover times at the terminus can also be optimised too. Meanwhile, on lower frequency routes, reliability can be enhanced with a timetable that reflects reality.

The potential is huge. On some high frequency routes, the savings can be such that the frequency can be enhanced. “In essence, you’re getting an extra vehicle for free you’re using an existing resource and redeploying it more efficiently.

That could allow you to increase the frequency.”

Farrelly and his colleagues have now worked with a number of UK operators, including Reading Buses, to analyse networks in a number of cities. “The certainty we create allows the operator to schedule its network more efficiently as well as improving reliability, on-time performance and customer service,” adds Farrelly. “Everyone benefits.” n

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PASSENGERS TRANSPORT FOCUS

The survey shows how there are still huge variations in satisfaction with value for money ratings across the areas surveyed in England

SATISFIED CUSTOMERS How do passengers rate their journey on local bus services? transport focus is helping inform the industry with its Bus Passenger Survey lmost 50,000 bus passengers in England and Scotland have had their say in Transport Focus’s annual Bus Passenger Survey. Almost nine in 10 passengers using buses were satisfied with their last journey.

Significantly nearly half of passengers surveyed in England say the bus is the only real means of transport available to them, so a service that’s on time, reliable and offers good value for money matters. As the most common mode of public transport, with over four billion journeys made last year, people rely on a good bus service to get to work, places of education, vital appointments or just go to the shops or a day out.

This year’s survey results show some interesting variations where local decisions are making a positive difference to passengers’ journeys.

Work to improve the customer service offered by hardworking bus drivers, the onboard experience,

A

and initiatives to improve fare deals for specific groups of passengers is making a difference.

However, it’s not all great. The survey shows how there are still huge variations in satisfaction with value for money ratings, ranging from 81% to 44% across the areas surveyed in England. So, there’s clearly still room for improvement.

Overall satisfaction ratings for younger bus passengers have improved this year. Satisfaction among 16 to 18-year olds has risen to 80% (from 77% in 2017). This builds on recent campaigning by Transport Focus to make bus a better deal for young passengers.

It’s apparent from the value for money ratings of some bus operators and groups that many passengers are reacting to fare increases and the way that these extra costs are hitting their pockets. Are some passengers so sensitive to the absolute cost and any fare increases that they are voting with their feet?

The industry – bus operators,

local authorities and governments together – needs a relentless focus on delivering these basics. Getting the essentials right, alongside a more effective and targeted approach to customer retention, will help build trust and loyalty to make using the bus a real long-term proposition.

More operators and authorities must also work together to attract new passengers and ensure bus continues to provide an essential lifeline to communities.

Where local authorities and operators do or can work closely together – with the political will - the results can be

“Significantly nearly half of passengers surveyed in England say the bus is the only real means of transport available to them”

impressive. Swindon, Derbyshire, Bournemouth and Poole, Cheshire West and Chester, Nottinghamshire and East Sussex all clear 90% overall satisfaction, with others not far behind. By contrast, Worcestershire lags behind.

The reasons for these scores are a complex amalgam of funding, history, politics, geography, wealth, choice and will. Passengers who can or do choose bus seem to like their choice – we now just need more services to choose from, especially at weekends and later in the evening.

As air quality worsens, car use rises and bus ridership fluctuates around England and Scotland, the need to make bus a better choice (or a choice at all!) has never been greater.

Transport Focus’s bus survey team is now out on the road with these results, helping local authorities and operators understand the results and shape new action plans. A total of 92 meetings scheduled across England and Scotland will help ensure the passenger voice is heard.

As part of a new programme of research, Transport Focus is currently talking to bus users about their priorities in order to understand how passengers’ experiences of travelling by bus compare to their expectations, and what improvements they would most like to see to the services they use. This builds on similar work last published in 2016.

As part of this programme of research we will be also talking to those people who cannot, or choose not to, use the bus. We will identify the barriers to them using the bus and what can be done to attract them to give bus a go. Vital understanding that should help governments, authorities and operators attract more people to become the passenger of tomorrow.

As the bus industry grapples with how to encourage people to use buses, or existing customers to make more journeys, it should not lose sight of how these results demonstrate that those who use bus both value it and, broadly speaking, enjoy the experience. It’s time for the bus industry to make use of these results to make the case for bus! n

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development of the V600 – a vehicle DVR supporting the latest highdefinition AHD cameras. With up to 20 channels of a combination of AHD, IP and analogue (SD) cameras, the forthcoming V600 adds to Timespace’s range of vehicle DVRs, including hybrid analogue/IP products. The V400, R500 and V500 DVRs offer one, four and eight high-quality IP camera inputs respectively, and use H.264 compression to capture crystal-clear images. Timespace DVRs are available with up to 2TB recording media with additional

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08:54 26/04/2019 13:40

BRITAIN'S MUNICIPALLY-OWNED AND INDEPENDENT BUS SECTOR

brought to you by

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organised by

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sponsors

26/04/2019 12:57

TH E AL BUM

RE PO RT 2018

Cardiff is the venue for the ALBUM 2019 Conference. Pictured is Cardiff Bay at night

WELCOME TO WALES ~ CROESO I CYMRU t is with great excitement and pleasure that we welcome you all to the 2019 ALBUM conference taking place in the capital city of Wales – hosted by Cardiff Bus. This conference is taking place at a very interesting time politically and environmentally. The most important being that ‘buses’ are now part of the political debate and are now being considered as part of the solution to the environmental and sustainable challenges we all face. Recently, Cardiff Council in partnership with Cardiff Bus were awarded grants by DfT in the current ULEB bid to acquire 36 electric buses

I

the vibrant and cultural heritage Cardiff has to offer. Interesting places to visit include the Welsh Millennium Centre, Principality Stadium, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff Castle, National Museum Cardiff, St Fagans National Museum of History, the vibrant St. David’s shopping complex, bars and restaurants. Cardiff has something for everyone.

In today’s environment we are all reminded of the need to be greener both in our professional and private lives and we are making great endeavours for the 2019 Conference to be a cleaner greener environment with less paper and less waste. I would encourage you all to download the conference app from albumbus.

as part of the Council’s strategy to tackle air quality issues. This is an important development and one which firmly establishes Cardiff ’s credentials in the drive to environmental sustainability. We look forward to continuing along this direction in the months and years to come.

The theme of our conference ‘the bus as a force for good’ captures the current thinking. We have assembled expert speakers who will provoke, inform and inspire you. It will also be an opportunity for suppliers to the bus industry to meet and network with decision makers and other key groups.

Visitors to our city will have the opportunity to experience

co.uk to keep up to date with the plans for the conference.

Please join us for an unforgettable conference.

Goodbye for now - hwyl fawr am y tro.

Cynthia Ogbonna

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TH E CO NF E RENCE PRO GRAMME

1 :3 5pm

T U ES 7TH M AY

Cynthia Ogbonna Opening address

Golf day at Royal Porthcawl Evening entertainment

1 :45pm

•

Claire Haigh, Greener Journeys •

2:1 5pm W E DS 8TH M AY 8:00am

Exhibition area opens up for set up

Ray Stenning, Best Impressions •

2:45pm

Refreshments in Lower Hall Sponsored by Alexander Dennis Exhibition Time •

•

3 :45pm

10: 00am

Catriona Henderson, Department for Transport

Registration opens Exhibition area opens Refreshments on arrival Sponsored by Alexander Dennis •

This year's gala dinner will be held in the sumptuous surroundings of Cardiff's City Hall

•

4:1 5pm

John Clarfelt, Ticketer

THUR 9TH MAY

•

11:00am

5:0 0 pm

ALBUM Executive Meeting Council Chamber

Close of day one

1: 0 0 pm

Lunch in Lower Hall Sponsored by Alexander Dennis Exhibition Time

•

9 :15 am

•

•

7:30pm

2: 3 0 pm

12:00pm

Dinner Sponsored by Mercedes Benz (held in the Hilton Hotel) Dress code: Smart Casual

Exhibition Time Refreshments on arrival in Lower Hall Sponsored by Alexander Dennis

•

9:0 0 pm

9 :5 5 am

1:30pm

Entertainment Sponsored by Mercedes Benz Wine Sponsored by Mercedes Benz

Conference opens Staging sponsored by Alexander Dennis and BYD David Guest sponsored by Portland Fuel welcomes and opens the event

Lunch/Refreshments served in the Lower Hall Sponsored by Alexander Dennis Exhibition Time Conference opens Staging sponsored by Alexander Dennis and BYD David Guest sponsored by Portland Fuel welcomes and opens the event

•

•

•

1 2:0 0am

Night cap at Hilton Hotel Sponsored by Mercedes Benz

•

•

3: 0 0 pm

Ken Stakes, Cabinet Secretary for Economy & Transport (or deputy Lee Waters) •

3:4 0 pm

Closing address •

4:0 0 pm

ALBUM AGM Council Chamber

10:00am

•

Meera Rambissoon, TAS Partnership

6 : 3 0 pm

Anthony Smith, Transport Focus

Pre dinner drinks Marble Hall, City Hall Sponsored by Fivebars Dress code: Black Tie encouraged (lounge suit acceptable)

11:00am

7:00pm

Richard Turfitt, Senior Traffic Commissioner

Gala dinner The Assembly Room at City Hall Sponsored by Allison Transmission Wine sponsored by Michelin Tyres Entertainment sponsored

by Alfatronix & Volvo Gala dinner gift bags sponsored

by Omnibus & Volvo Table raffle prize sponsored

by Freeway

•

10:30am

•

•

11:45 am

Refreshments in Lower Hall Sponsored by Alexander Dennis Exhibition Time •

The venue for this year's ALBUM conference is Cardiff's prestigious Hilton Hotel

Refreshments in Lower Hall Sponsored by Alexander Dennis

•

12:15 pm

•

Keith Watson, Alexander Dennis and Mike Kerslake, BYD

1:0 0 a m

Bar open until 3:00am at the Hilton Hotel

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TH E AL BUM

REPO RT 2019

YOUR LINE-UP OF SPEAKERS Our speakers will provide food for thought over two days, offering perspectives about a number of issues affecting our industry. Read the biographies below to familiarise yourself with our expert line-up

DAVID GUEST

Conference Host Sponsored by Portland Fuel Dave considers himself an honorary member of ALBUM having hosted the annual conference for more than a decade now.

His day job as Chief Reporter with BBC Northwest Tonight, sees him covering a range of weird, wonderful and sometimes grim stories for the TV news.

So a couple of days spent examining the major issues facing the bus industry always comes as a welcome change. It’s also a chance to meet up once again with some familiar faces!

When he isn’t chasing the news - or hosting conferences for the bus industry - Dave enjoys reading, listening to classical music - and entertaining his three grandchildren (though not necessarily at the same time).

A NT H O NY S M ITH

Chief Executive, Transport Focus Anthony is Chief Executive of Transport Focus the independent statutory consumer watchdog for Britain’s rail passengers, users of the Strategic Road Network and

bus, coach and tram passengers outside London.

Transport Focus uses its substantial evidence base to drive change for all transport users.

Anthony qualified as a solicitor then worked for five years as principal consumer lawyer for the Consumers’ Association, publishers of Which? This was followed by a year as the legal consultant for Consumers International, a worldwide federation of consumer groups.

Prior to joining Transport Focus, Anthony was Deputy and Acting Director of ICSTIS, the then regulator of premium rate telephone services. Anthony is a member of the Civil Aviation Authority’s Consumer Panel.’

was Deputy Head of the Joint Air Quality Unit, where she worked on tackling air pollution from diesel vehicles.

RICH ARD TURF ITT

Senior Traffic Commissioner Richard Turfitt has 25 years of experience as a barrister, half of which has been spent in the public sector. During this time he helped to found the Health and Safety Lawyers’ Association. He was appointed by the Secretary of State as Traffic Commissioner for the East of England in 2008 and most recently Senior Traffic Commissioner for Great Britain in 2017. Richard is also a serving Justice of the Peace.

Partnership (Low CVP). She also chairs the Delivery & Impacts Independent Review Panel for the Government’s Joint Air Quality Unit; and, has been an Advisor and Board Member of Transport for Greater Manchester. Previously she was Project Director for Journey Solutions, where she was responsible for PLUSBUS. Other previous roles include Sales Director for Chameleon Press printing company; and, Account Executive for DDB advertising agency. She read History and German at Magdalen College Oxford. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce.

CATRIONA HENDERSON

Department for Transport

RAY ST E N N I N G

Catriona has been head of the Buses and Taxis team at the Department for Transport since November 2017. Currently her team’s priorities are implementing powers in the Bus Services Act 2017; supporting the industry through Bus Service Operator Grant and other funding streams; exploring options for reform of the taxi market; and considering the implications of changes in technology for buses and taxis.

Catriona has spent over nine years working at the Department for Transport, with roles covering rail, road safety and acting Private Secretary for two former Transport Secretaries. Most recently, she

Ray is well-known in the public transport world. He is colourful, charismatic, outspoken, a bit outrageous and rather unconventional. You probably wouldn’t want to take him home to meet your mother.

However, under that threatening exterior he is a very talented, enthusiastic, dedicated professional, and displays a passion that can be quite breathtaking.

Ray is the leading light behind the London-based creative design, marketing and advertising agency Best Impressions. For over 30 years Best Impressions has been raising the bar and changing how public

Best Impressions

CL AIRE H AIGH

Chief Executive, Greener Journeys Claire Haigh is Chief Executive of Greener Journeys, a coalition of the UK’s major public transport groups and other supporters committed to encouraging people to make more sustainable travel choices. She is the Executive Director of the Transport Knowledge Hub; and a Director of the Low Carbon Vehicle

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THE CO NF E RENCE SPEAKE R PRO F IL ES

transport is presented, perceived and sold. It has created many commanding transport brands and countless successful (and often award-winning) projects in bus, coach and rail sectors. Ray himself was given a special award in 2015 for his outstanding contribution to the industry.

Ray’s team of dedicated designers and account handlers all believe in public transport and are passionate about good design.

They are committed to turning out work of the highest calibre, and certainly never afraid to tell the client when he is wrong!

At a personal level, Ray’s other interests include film, art and architecture and he thrills to live opera. What a hero! Listen to what he has to say - it’s stirring stuff.

a range of Passenger Apps, to ensure the whole travel process for passengers is both easier, and more enjoyable.

The fact that Ticketer has succeeded in delivering on this vision is down to John’s lack of appreciation of the technical challenges involved. For that he is assisted by his immensely talented colleagues developing, delivering, and supporting the vision, whilst John is tasked with taking all the kudos for their efforts.

KE N SKATES

Cabinet Secretary for Economy & Transport Ken Skates was born in 1976 in Wrexham, educated at Mold Alun School and went on to study Social and Political Science at Cambridge University.

In his free time, Ken enjoys running, swimming, hiking and golf as well as having an interest in gardening, art and architecture.

Ken was previously a journalist and assistant to Mark Tami MP. In 2008, he was elected a Community Councillor.

Ken’s policy interests include manufacturing, mental health, sport and leisure, eliminating poverty and political economy.

His political interests include skills training, tourism, environmental protection, mental health, sport and fitness and social inclusion.

In June 2013 Ken Skates was appointed Deputy Minister for Skills & Technology. In September 2014, Ken was appointed Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport & Tourism. In May 2016 he was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Economy & Infrastructure and in November 2017 to Cabinet Secretary for Economy & Transport.

M EERA RAMBISSO O N

TAS Partnership

J O H N C L A RFELT

CEO, Ticketer John is CEO of Ticketer. He originally qualified as a Barrister, with an unrivalled lack of legal knowledge, and promptly became a butcher. He first became involved with bus ticketing, via a circuitous route, in 2008, and was so enthused that in 2009 he co-founded Corvia Ltd (Ticketer) which is now the largest ticket machine supplier in the UK excluding London. 100% focussed on his customers, and their passengers, John is a passionate advocate of delivering transport operators, their authorities, and their passengers highly advanced, and integrated, smart solutions which are simple for their drivers and back office staff to use in practice, properly supported, and constantly evolving to meet both operator and passenger needs.

With a multiple array of payment options including contactless and QR/m-ticketing already in place, Ticketer is now exploiting the move to open data to develop

Meera is a passionate advocate of bus travel and raising awareness on mental health issues in passenger transport. With a well-respected reputation in the bus sector, she has worked to raise the profile of public transport in the UK for 15 years through campaigning, journalism and consultancy roles.

Meera joined passenger transport consultancy, the TAS Partnership in 2013 where she works as a senior consultant on a variety of projects. She is currently engaged on a bus passenger survey and market opportunity study for a municipal operator and leading a campaign to prevent bus cuts.

Having experienced depression and anxiety for many years on and off, Meera writes articles in the trade press, presents research and gives talks to help others in the passenger transport sector by sharing her experiences and suggesting ways in which operators can look after the well-being and mental health of their staff and passengers. Her suggestions are based on a survey of passengers and bus and rail operators in 2016 to explore who feels what, who needs what, what is being done and what more can be done to make life easier for passengers and staff alike.

KE ITH WATSO N

Customer Development Director, ADL Keith’s role is Customer Development Director for Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL).

He spends most of his time working with bus operators and

their customers (the passenger) to understand their evolving needs and how ADL can provide a product which meets or exceeds these expectations.

Keith started working life as an Apprentice with Cummins Engine Company at Shotts in 1979 and his career path has seen him running Cummins on-highway Service Support and European on-highway Truck Account Management teams. After his time at Cummins Keith moved to Terex Construction and Mining where he was responsible for sales of rigid and articulated dump trucks before moving into the role of Product Management for the Construction Division. Keith has been with Alexander Dennis for the last 12 years.

MICH AE L K ERSL A K E

Technical Manager, BYD Mike Kerslake began his career at Leyland Vehicles before joining the then London Buses organisation for four years. He started his relationship with the ADL family in 1988 as a design engineer at Dennis Specialist Vehicles.

From 1999 he spent two years as Engineering Manager at Thomas Dennis LLC, a joint venture between Mayflower Corporation and DaimlerChrysler, before moving back to Guildford in 2001, becoming Head of Product Development and then Group Technology Manager for Alexander Dennis.

Mike moved to ADL’s electric bus partner company BYD in 2017, becoming BYD’s Technical Manager. In this role he has established BYD’s involvement in UK-based collaborative R&D, developed techniques for bus route energy modelling and analysis, and has helped the Chinese-based company understand and support the particular needs of the UK bus market. n

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TH E AL BUM

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Isringhausen Camira Datik Voith Alfatronix Powersystems Hanover ISmartdrive Muirhead Passenger Lazzerini Mckenna Brothers Fältcom Fivebars Actia 21st Century Technology Invertec Tek Seating HJS Emission Technology Q’Straint Passenger Lift Services

FOYER

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STAND 22 Groeneveld Lubrications Solutions STAND 23 Flowbird STAND 24 Servision STAND 25 Traveline Cymru STAND 26 The UK Bus Awards STAND 27 Transport Benevolent Fund STAND 28 Premier Pits STAND 29 Backhouse Jones STAND 30 Mix Telematics STAND 31 EPM STAND 32 Timespace Technology STAND 33 Traffilog STAND 34 First Corporate Clothing STAND 35 Synectics STAND 36 Kneitz STAND 37 Optimum STAND 38 Omnibus STAND 39 Init STAND 40 Ticketer STAND 41 Freeway Fleet Systems

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Floorplans not to scale

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Mellor Optare Alexander Dennis Alexander Dennis Mercedes-Benz Scania Wheely Safe EVM

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ENTRANCE RESERVED

GRASSED AREA

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• Telematics Compatible

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Connecting today with tomorrow.

For over 100 years ZF has been at the forefront of technological leadership. With its trusted brands, connectivity solutions and efficient maintenance of buses, ZF Aftermarket supports transportation fleets today while making them fit for the future.

Visit aftermarket.zf.com

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THE E XH IBITIO N E XH IBITO R PRO F IL ES

OUR EXHIBITORS A whole host of companies and organisations are exhibiting this year. Learn more about them here E X HIBITIO N HALL

STAND 1: ISRINGHAUSEN

Isringhausen is part of the worldwide Aunde group, a market leader in the development and production of innovative seating systems. The group comprises of 109 plants in 27 countries, manufacturing driver and passenger seating systems, textiles, foams and springs for many different applications including the passenger transport market.

Isringhausen GB has been manufacturing in Wrexham for 29 years with an on-going commitment to local job creation and new investment.

At ALBUM 2019 we will be exhibiting the latest additions to our passenger seat range alongside products with a long standing pedigree within the bus industry.

We look forward to greeting you on our stand.

STAND 2: CAMIRA

At Camira we never underestimate the power of the journey. We know that those minutes spent travelling from one place to the next can be the most peaceful, exciting, or anticipatory of a person’s day.

Through our fabrics, we make sure they are as comfortable and safe as they can possibly be. Using decades of design and manufacturing experience, we make forwardthinking textiles for bus, coach and rail interiors, ensuring style always has substance.

With an extensive option of stocked fabrics, a bespoke design service and the supply of ancillary fabrics, Camira is a total textile interior solutions provider – offering moquette, wire-woven and flat-woven fabrics, alongside vinyl

and leather options. Producing over nine million metres of fabric a year and supplying to more than 80 countries across the world, we have firmly established our position as a leader in the textile industry. We’re proud to be the background to thousands of people’s journeys every day.

Camira will be showing its full portfolio of products at ALBUM, from traditional moquette to textured vinyl.

are installed in more than 7,500 bus applications with over 1500 transmissions operating with stop/ start technology in both single deck and double deck buses

STAND 5: ALFATRONIX

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, Alfatronix is the UK’s leading manufacturer of wireless charging for desktop installation into tables, media benches, and passenger seat integration, 12/24VDC USB chargers, dc-dc voltage converters, power supplies and low voltage disconnect products. Based in Poole, Dorset, the company is proud of its manufacturing capability and the 50 employees from R&D, engineering, production and sales that make the organisation the success it is today.

Alfatronix’s demonstrated expertise in vehicle electrics and knowledge of automotive applications is at the heart of the company to enable the production of totally fit-for-purpose products.

Its manufacturing facility comprises the latest Surface Mount Technology machines. They not only provide the foundation to produce reliable products on exceptionally short lead times, but also manage supply to offer branding, bespoke business, changes in the market, and future innovation too.

With experience of supplying OEM customers, bus and coach operators, and equipment suppliers for system integration, Alfatronix understands the importance of flexibility and compliant products for vehicle build and retrofit in the aftermarket.

STAND 3: DATIK

Datik is an engineering company specialised in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), working exclusively for the coach and bus industry. We help public transport operators reduce cost, improve efficiency, and enhance passenger & driver experience.

Our key solution is the iPanel®, a simple, centralised and connected fleet management system that enables integration of transport services, such telematics, CCTVs, Wi-Fi, infotainment and more.

The aim of iPanel® is to reduce costs, increase safety and improve service quality of public transport operators, from the comfort of the Depot or anywhere, at anytime.

STAND 4: VOITH

■ Voith Turbo Economical Drive Systems.

■ DIWA Transmission for buses.

The Voith DIWA Bus transmission is supplied to transport operators and OEMs throughout the world.

They have proven themselves in large city applications and are perfectly matched for all Euro 6 engine applications. We match the driveline components to optimise drivability and maximise fuel consumption.

In the UK Voith Turbo’s automatic DIWA transmissions

STAND 6: POWERSYSTEMS

Powersystems UK Ltd are part of a nationwide team that design,

install, commission and maintain electrical vehicle infrastructure for bus and vehicle manufacturers as well as fleet transport operators.

As a leading high voltage specialist partner; delivering electrical engineering excellence since 1977 we have worked across the UK on grid connections, high voltage electrical power infrastructure, and the renewable energy sectors.

STAND 7: HANOVER

Hanover Displays is a family owned, UK-based company designing and manufacturing passenger information systems for the public transport industry since 1985. With subsidiary offices in France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Australia, plus a second production facility in the US and representatives all over the world, Hanover Displays has satisfied customers in over 75 countries worldwide. The security afforded by more than 30 years’ industry experience, financial independence and a continuous product development program is further assurance of the company’s dependability.

STAND 8: SMARTDRIVE

SmartDrive provides video-based driver risk management and safety solutions for bus and coach fleets, giving companies unprecedented driving performance insight and analysis, helping to lower operating costs and save lives.

Along with offering protection for passengers, drivers and the ability to proactively reduce distracted driving, SmartDrive have amassed the world’s largest database of more than 250 million risky driving incidents. SmartDrive has the transport intelligence and

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expertise to help bus and coach fleets run more safely and more profitably.

STAND 9: MUIRHEAD

Established in 1840, we are one of Europe’s oldest tanneries, still independently run by the family of our founder Andrew Muirhead.

He set out to establish his business as a frontrunner in three key areas: the quality of the manufacturing, innovation and service. Muirhead is today regarded as one of the finest leather companies in the world. We currently export to over 60 countries. As well as our manufacturing site in the UK, we have sales offices located in the USA, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.

Sustainability is fundamental to our business. Not only do we source our raw hides as locally as possible, but we are committed to transparency and traceability in our supply chain and have adopted industry-leading Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to independently measure the impact of our manufacturing. Our mass transit sector team cover a variety of clients across bus, coach and rail applications. Many manufacturers and operators are choosing our low carbon leather to replicate or even enhance the level of luxury and comfort of their customers’ own ‘in-car’ experience.

STAND 10: PASSENGER

Passenger Technology Group delivers scalable digital technology to bus operators. This includes mobile ticketing, passenger information apps, voice assistant technology, websites, data feeds for operators and customer support teams, kiosks and display boards.

Passenger empowers the operator with the smart tools necessary for better travel experiences for their customers, while connecting passengers to their services in real-time.

Operators striving to achieve total customer accessibility across their

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services gain from collaborating with a team who hold this at the heart of product innovation, without compromising on product stability. Customer satisfaction is the ultimate success metric in every project.

We have deployed Passenger in several cities and towns in the UK, each application receiving considerably higher than average customer feedback for operatorbranded mobile apps. We have had incredible success launching Passenger in even more locations, as the product has developed into a key retail channel for the industry.

and a variety of web-based fleet management applications to improve efficiency, saving time and money, whilst future-proofing the technology investment.

Fältcom is part of Telia, the new generation telco. With over 160,000 global installations, Fältcom are the established leader in on-board vehicle technology, being a strategic partner of ITxPT, serving to develop open standards in Public Transport Solutions.

STAND 15: FIVEBARS

Fivebars are the only telecoms company that specialise in providing the very best rates on 4G data sims for passenger Wi-Fi to the bus and coach industry.

Operators can expect to realise an average saving of 50% compared with their current suppliers and in many cases don’t even need to change their sim cards over.

You can choose from packages up to 200GB on individual sims or bespoke aggregated multiple terabyte packages. We can also supply and install Wi-Fi hardware directly from Icomera with no money upfront. Stop by Stand 15 and see Katie, Sid or Martin to find out how much you could be saving or call 023 8020 0680.

STAND 11: LAZZERINI

Lazzerini is a national and international reference point for the design, development and production of seats for buses, school buses, trains, ships, cars and specialist automotive sectors.

Committed to the most stringent and recognised qualifications, Lazzerini is qualified to ISO 9001, ISO TS16949 automotive standard and also the environmental qualification ISO14001.

STAND 12: M CKEN N A BROTH E RS

As McKenna Brothers enters its 41st year in the passenger information systems industry we have much to look forward to, our partnership with Mobitec and Luminator Technology Group enables us to offer the most complete range of destination displays, onboard information systems, talking buses, vehicle location, smart blinds, printed destination blinds and full vehicle livery and graphics.

STAND 16: ACTIA

Actia (UK), was founded in 1994 in Newtown, mid-Wales. The company is part of the ACTIA Group, a global network of companies specialising in vehicle electronics and diagnostics solutions to OEM’s and operators throughout the world. Actia is the leading supplier of multiplexed electrical systems to UK bus and coach manufacturers, as well as one of the few global suppliers for diagnostic tester and software development tools.

Diagnostic tools: ACTIA’s three core diagnostic tools – Multi-AID, Multi-MUX, and Multi-DIAG – provide complete solutions to meet the many needs and requirements of multi-make workshops. By offering two-way communication with the vehicle

STAND 14 FÄLTCOM

Fältcom helps bus and coach operators to manage their vehicles and drivers remotely from the comfort of the office. Using our versatile Public Transport Platform

from an embedded system level, technicians receive a fast diagnosis of performance and faults, including body electronics, engine, transmission, brakes and suspension, thereby providing a thorough maintenance and preventative solution.

A Helping Hand: Actia customers benefit from a technical Helpdesk providing telephone helpline support for their extensive range of products, with remote and onsite support if required. Actia also offers training sessions for users to make sure they are getting the most from Actia’s products and solutions.

STAND 17: 21ST CENTURY TECH NO LO GY

21st Century Technology provides tailored solutions to the transport community, solving complex operational requirements both on-board vehicles, through 21st Century Fleet Systems, and into towns and cities through 21st Century Passenger Systems. With over 20 years’ experience in the transport industry, 21st Century combines its R&D and domain expertise to create technologically converged solutions, leveraging the Internet of Things to deliver more deeply integrated solutions to complex, regulated, safety-critical applications such as on-board CCTV, automatic passenger counting and telematics.

STAND 18: INVERTEC

Specialists in Custom Designed Lighting and Interior Systems for Public and Commercial Vehicles Worldwide.

STAND 18A: TEK SEATING

TEK Seating, the UK’s largest independent OEM and aftermarket vehicle seating distributor, offers a wide selection of quality bus and coach driver seats for a range of applications and budgets from leading seat manufacturers

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including KAB, Grammar, FISA, Isringhausen and Be-Ge. A comfortable, ergonomically designed seat is an essential consideration for drivers and should be part of health and safety practice for all operators. Drivers need to understand how their seat works and that it’s correctly fitted for their height and weight, so they stay well and safe when driving long distances.

We also supply quality parts and spares and offer a superior trim service from our Rearsby factory in the Midlands.

STAND 19: HJS EMISSION TEC H NO LO GY

HJS Emission Technology was founded in 1976 with its headquarters in Menden, Central Germany. HJS employ approximately 450 people who are engaged in the development, production and marketing of modular exhaust systems for reducing exhaust emissions on all road, rail, construction and marine applications.

In the UK our business is supported by our dedicated sales, project management and technical teams operating from our facility in Swindon, Wiltshire. From this base, our engineering team provide nationwide installation and technical support.

HJS are the pioneers of Selective Catalytic Reduction Technology (SCRT®) which can be retrofitted to significantly reduce NOx emissions and virtually eliminates particulate matter. The HJS SCRT® system meets Euro VI standards and is both ULEZ, LEZ and CAZ compliant. System performance has been certified at Millbrook Proving Ground and meets all of the requirements set out by the Energy Savings Trust’s ‘Clean Vehicle Retrofit Accreditation’ scheme (CVRAS).

As a company, the thought that we can make the world a little cleaner with our products motivates us, to find out more contact us on 01344 566050 or email us sales-uk@hjs.com

light weight electric fold over book leaf ramp, light weight manual fold over ramp & super silent electric blade ramp with sensors on all platform edges. Please come and see us on Stand 21 we look forward to showing our range of low bus ramps.

STAND 20: Q’STRAINT

Q’STRAINT is a world-leading specialist in wheelchair passenger safety. For more than 30 years we have pioneered the most universal Wheelchair and Occupant Restraint Systems whilst delivering the highest levels of safety, durability and reliability.

At ALBUM 2019 Q’STRAINT will demonstrate the QUANTUM System alongside its renowned QRT Retractors.

Designed and dynamically sled tested to handle loads of up to 200kg and up to 150kg respectively, Q’Straint’s QRT 550E and QRT 350E Retractors are built to safely securing today’s heaviest wheelchairs.

QUANTUM is the transportation industry’s first fully automatic rear-facing wheelchair securement station. Combining transportation insight, intelligent technology and high-quality construction QUANTUM lets wheelchair and scooter passengers board a bus or train, position their chair and simply push a button to secure themselves in a stable and safe rear-facing position - all in under 25 seconds without requiring the driver to leave their seat to help.

Quantum ensures the highest level of passenger safety whilst also giving wheelchair users the independence to automatically selfsecure without driver assistance.

STAND 22: GROENEVELD LUBRICATIONS SOLUTIONS

Groeneveld Lubrications Solutions, part of The Timken Company, is a global leader in automatic lubrication, oil management through Groeneveld Oilmaster and fluid level controls with the Fluidmaster system along with Greensight Ultrasonic safety support systems.

Groeneveld products enhance uptime, safety and productivity, while reducing costs.

Groeneveld products are supplied for ex-factory installs to leading manufacturers of trucks, trailers, buses and mining and construction equipment. In addition Groeneveld systems are installed in the after-market for a wide variety of on- and off-road, agricultural, port equipment and industrial applications. Groeneveld develops and manufactures all of its products in-house in an ISO/TS certified manufacturing operation.

STAND 23: FLOWBIRD

Flowbird Transport Intelligence is a world leader in the development and delivery of transportation retailing platforms, ticketing infrastructure, mobile solutions and back office systems.

Flowbird works with transit authorities and bus operators across the UK and around the world, applying technological solutions that enhance operational efficiency and improve the end user experience.

■ Open payments and accountbased ticketing - from contactless EMV and mobile solutions to ID-based transactions ■ Retailing platforms – on-andoff vehicle systems that create operator value and transform

STAND 21: PASSENGER LIFT S ERV ICES

Part of the global Mobility Networks Group, Passenger Lift Services (PLS) has been the UK’s largest manufacturer of wheelchair lifts for passenger accessible vehicles since 1991. It is also currently regarded as the UK market leader in vehicle cassette lifts and ramps that provide unsurpassed reliability, safety, and performance.

On our stand we will have our

customer relationships ■ On-board Surveillance integrated CCTV technology for asset protection and passenger safety ■ Analytics & Big Data – system monitoring, analysis and real-time journey monitoring ■ Delivery & Support Services front line expertise and technical help desks ■ Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – enabling travelers to consume mobility solutions as a service ■ Back office platforms – smart, secure cloud-based systems optimised for network management and operational excellence Our mission is to make it easier, safer and quicker for people to access and use public transport and to provide operators with the tools they need to serve their customers better.

STAND 24: SERVISION

SerVision manufactures professional video recording and transmission systems for the security and transportation sectors. Its portfolio includes a range of Video Gateways: DVRs with live video streaming capabilities over cabled, wireless and cellular networks. At the core of its technology is advanced video compression which has been optimized to provide the best available video streaming quality over cellular and other low bandwidth networks. All SerVision solutions enable remote centralized monitoring of any site, from any location, at any time.

STAND 25: TRAVELINE CYMRU

Traveline Cymru is a public transport information service funded by the Welsh Government.

We work in partnership with operators and local authorities to provide public transport information across Wales for bus, coach and train, as well as walking and cycling routes.

Our purpose is to offer a ‘onestop-shop’ for travel information, where you can find all the journey information you’ll need in one place, in a few simple steps.

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STAND 26: THE UK BUS AWARDS

The UK Bus Awards sole purpose is the promotion of the UK bus industry, our aim is to provide a stage for the very best to be recognised and rewarded, by this inspire others and themselves to greater things. The bus industry provides a constantly high level of service and customer satisfaction to its passengers. It is only right that this is highlighted and celebrated.

Our scheme is independently run as a not for dividend company.

Each year we have the pleasure of seeing hundreds of entries in categories that cover the best in, Operations, Technical, Professional and People Awards.

All entries are judged by a panel of Industry experts who represent all areas of the Industry, and are fully independent of the awards scheme.

The awards are the premier event in the bus industry calendar, with networking and business opportunities second to none.

Attracting circa 700 guests from 200 companies and organisations within the bus industry. If you would like to know more visit us on Stand 26 at the conference, or go to www.ukbuswards.org.uk

STAND 27: TRANSPORT B E N EVO LE N T F U N D

Helping to make a difference.

The Transport Benevolent Fund CIO, known as TBF, is a nonprofit making membership charity offering a wide range of health, welfare and financial benefits to those working in public transport, should need, hardship or distress arise. Anyone engaged in the public transport industry in Great Britain is eligible to join. Membership costs just £1 a week, covering the member, their partner and dependent children. The membership fee can be deducted through the company payroll facility or, if this is not possible, paid by standing order. Increasingly, membership is being paid for by the employer;

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acknowledging the advantages of membership in helping to improve members’ work-life balance and reducing staff turnover.

TBF currently has nearly 62,500 members and the volume of awards to members, which amounts to more than £2.6million during the past 12 months; best illustrates the continuing relevance of the Fund’s work. The Transport Benevolent Fund CIO, known as TBF, is a registered charity in England and Wales, 1160901 and Scotland, SC047016.

synonymous for legal advice to the transport industry and we trust as distinctive. We are uniquely industry specific which explains why we advise most of the major operators in the UK in addition to many smaller family owned enterprises.

The company is regularly appointed to advise trade associations and their members (the CPT, RHA, FTA, BAR and IRTE) and the Independent Chambers Guide 2019 describes Backhouse Jones as a “marketleading practice with specialist expertise across the full spectrum of road regulatory matters.”

By concentrating its expertise within just the road transport industry, Backhouse Jones provides an identifiably bespoke service completely tailored for logistics. Being uniquely industry specific and fluent in road transport, clients do not have to start their consultation by explaining what an operator’s licence, PG9 or an OCRS actually is. Backhouse Jones already has a thousand first-hand experiences of a client’s requirements and through this clear and unequivocal strategy, provides operators with a commercial advantage.

STAND 28: PREMIER PITS

Premier Pits, the longest established pit manufacturer in the UK, have been manufacturing and installing pits for 40 years, with 4,000 pits installed to date.

The range includes inspection, maintenance, ATF and washdown pits, supported by various pit accessories and H&S equipment.

Under-chassis, wash pits and ramps are also available. When choosing a pit manufacturer it is vital the product meets the highest manufacturing standards. You can buy in confidence knowing that every Premier Pit and Ramp complies to CE and BS EN 10901: 2009 + A1: 2011, BS OHSAS 18001:2007 SSIP. Premier Pits are the UK distributer for BrakeMate®, the revolutionary elevated platform designed to improve the safety and efficiency of replacing brake disc assemblies. Premier Pits are the UK distributer of BrakeMate®; it significantly reduces manual lifting during the brake disc maintenance process and reduces service time.

Traditionally a two person job, disc replacement can now be achieved with one mechanic whilst reducing downtime by up to 50%.

For more information, call Premier Pits on 01775 821 222, visit www.premierpits.com or email info@premierpits.com.

STAND 30: MIX TELEMATICS

MiX Telematics is a leading global provider of fleet and mobile asset management solutions delivered as SaaS to more than 714,000 subscribers in over 120 countries.

The company’s products and services provide enterprise fleets, small fleets and consumers with solutions for efficiency, safety, compliance and security. MiX Telematics was founded in 1996 and has offices in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uganda, Brazil, Australia and the United Arab Emirates as well as a network of more than 130 fleet partners worldwide. MiX Telematics shares are publicly traded on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE: MIX) and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MIXT). For more information, visit www.mixtelematics.com

STAND 29: BACKHOUSE JONES

Just as the Routemaster bus is iconic for London as Big Ben, Backhouse Jones is equally

STAND 31: EPM

With over three decades of bus industry experience, EPM are the leading provider of specialist integrated transport software, BSOG certification and concessionary fares consultancy.

With a keen eye for detail and accuracy, we provide an unrivalled and unique service for clients who are looking for support and guidance in achieving best practice in the transport industry. Highly regarded as the ‘go-to’ company in the bus industry, our flexible products and scalable services can be tailored to best suit a client’s needs.

EPM, 20 Harris Business Park, Hanbury Road, Bromsgrove B60 4DJ - 01527 556 940 - www. epmorris.co.uk

STAND 32: TI M ES PAC E TECH NO LO GY

Timespace Technology is the UK’s market-leading developer and manufacturer of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) for vehicle CCTV, and has been designing and manufacturing products in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, since 1997.

Timespace’s X300, V400 and V500 DVRs are now installed in thousands of buses and coaches.

With DVRs supporting up to 24 video inputs, including several hybrid IP/analogue recorders, the Timespace range now includes the R500 and X300-16M, new to market this year. Simple installation and a reputation for reliability make Timespace products a great choice for the bus and coach industry.

Timespace’s LANLink fleet management software provides footage downloads (manual, scheduled or triggered by alarm, G-Sensor or CAN thresholds), fleet CCTV health information, email alerts and GPS vehicle tracking.

Timespace PCLink footageviewing software includes file password and encryption features, and an object-blurring tool.

Timespace products are sold

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through a network of installers, and Timespace is committed to working closely with installers and bus and coach operators to continually develop and improve products. All products are supported with training, service repair and full technical documentation.

with you to deliver first class solutions for all of your uniform requirements from design through to delivery. We pride ourselves on our ability to create a corporate wardrobe that enhances your brand, is comfortable and practical to wear and will be delivered on time and within agreed budget for the lifetime of our valued business relationship

STAND 37: OPTIMUM

At Optimum, we aim to get it right first time, every time.

We’ve been providing fully approved products and services to our customers in the Bus & Coach industry since 1997. More than that, we provide the right products and the right services at the right time. Our customers have a relationship with us that’s built on trust. They trust us to take the time to understand their business.

We take that time and bring value that can be measured and we offer that same care to our new customers too.

Talk to our experienced, expert team on Stand 37 to get a solution that makes sense for your business, whatever stage you’re at.”

STAND 33: TRAFFILOG

Traffilog is a full service provider of telematics solutions for the auto manufacture, insurance, SVR and fleet management industries. Founded in 2003, Traffilog, entered the ever evolving world of telematics, presenting to the world its unique, state of the art, predictive mechanical, diagnostic solution. Traffilog’s unique expertise is based on in-depth automotive engineering knowledge, strong real-time programming skills and modern web-based applications all serviced by a vast network of leading experts in the fields of transportation, communications, logistics, operations, and software development. Traffilog’s solution has been deployed in over 28 countries worldwide offering a wide range of solution based products, providing, not only increased driver and vehicle safety, but also constant fleet monitoring from anywhere at any time, leading to overall improved utilization of auto vehicles and reduced operational expenditure on vehicle fleets of all sorts.

STA N D 3 4 : F I RST CORPORATE CLOT H I NG

First Corporate Clothing are specialist suppliers of uniform and first choice supply partner to bus and coach operators throughout the UK, including many companies within the ALBUM Group. We have a strong presence within the passenger transport sector which is testament to our understanding and ability to manage this sectors specific requirements.

Our dedicated passenger transport business team will work

STAND 35: SYNECTICS

With over 30 years of on-vehicle systems experience, we specialise in complex projects that require innovative, tailored solutions with high reliability and flexibility. Our camera and integration expertise, and comprehensive support services, ensure bus and coach fleets serving the world’s towns and cities are safe, secure, and profitable.

FOYE R

STAND 36: KNEITZ

From the heart of Austria, KNEITZ is one of the leading manufacturers of premium interior textiles in the automotive and transport industry. Design, manufacturing and deliver of complementary and technical fabrics come from one and the same team of professional designers and engineers. KNEITZ is regarded as a pioneer in the production of upholstery, decorative textiles and curtains in different production technologies, which meet the strictest design criterias as well as the highest safety and quality standards – all from one hand! As an innovation leader in the automotive sector, as well as a global supplier of bus and train textiles, our products convince through quality, innovation and creativity.

The personal relationship with our customers is our highest bid!

The benefit of reliability, speed and security offered by KNEITZ enjoys the highest appreciation across our customer structures and guarantees service far beyond delivery. This win-win situation creates sustainable, successful partnerships.

STAND 38: OMNIBUS

Omnibus is a market leader in passenger transport software, with a range of products used around the world to create timetables, vehicle and driver duties, publicity and manage all aspects of depot allocation, all of which are designed to save customers time and money.

Our software is employed by some of the world’s largest passenger transport organisations and some of the smallest too, covering bus, light rail and ferries.

Omnibus products are robust and proven in use, with over 25 years’ worth of evolution and development.

The Omnibus development team is continuously working on improving the software for everyone and has made significant progress on a major cloud-based development programme.

The team is also working on adding ‘internal intelligence’ to our scheduling products to provide the option to automate more of the process if users choose and also guide towards better and more robust solutions.

Omnibus recently acquired

TransACT from the well-known industry figure Jim Hulme.

Included is the popular public transport training course, designed to teach the principles of vehicle and crew scheduling.

STAND 39: INIT

INIT is the worldwide leading supplier of integrated planning, dispatching, telematics and ticketing systems for buses and trains. For more than 35 years, INIT has been assisting transport companies in making public transport more attractive, faster and more efficient. More than 600 customers rely on our integrated solutions to support them with their daily tasks.

STAND 40: TICKETER

Ticketer is here to personalise public transportation, through ticketing software and devices that are customised for operators, and individualised to the lives that passengers lead.

Committed to making public transport better, Ticketer drives transportation income, insight and operations for operators, and makes travel easier for passengers. Operators can access ticket sales data, view performance and manage fares from anywhere with an internet connection.

Nothing needs to be installed on site as the system is supported by a hosted service, and the annual per ETM license ensures that there are no hidden costs, giving the product the lowest Total Cost of Ownership around.

A UK-based company with all software and devices manufactured here, Ticketer offers market-leading ticketing technology, combined with personalised, responsive support.

STAND 41: FREEWAY F L EET SYSTEM S

Freeway Fleet Systems supplies comprehensive fleet and asset management software featuring

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mobile apps and integration with operational systems for end-toend paperless working. Designed to improve asset management, compliance and fleet maintenance, Freeway has quickly become the system of choice as bus and coach operators switch to digital working.

Recent developments being shown for the first time at ALBUM include integration with Omnibus and Ticketer. Freeway will also show the latest tools for managing compliance, including developments that simplify the switch to, and management of, the DVSA Earned Recognition scheme. Also on show will a new Freeway mobile app for managers that allows Purchase Orders to be raised and signed-off from a smartphone.

Visit Freeway’s stand to find out why operators such as Go Group, Ascendal, National Express, RATP, Rotala and trentbarton have switched to Freeway in the last year, joining existing users including Reading Bus, Cardiff Bus, Tower Transit, CT Plus and Abellio.

MARBLE HALL

PSV G L ASS & G L A ZIN G

PSV Glass & Glazing has been at the forefront of supplying and installing glass to ALBUM members fleets for over 29 years and are now widely recognised as the UK’s leading service provider for specialist glazing demands across four disciplines: bus, coach, rail and motorhome.

Working with the leading bus and coach builders, PSV Glass & Glazing represent the majority of bus and coach manufacturers in the UK for warranty and installation support, holding regional stocks spanning some 56,000 unique product lines, with local stock profiles matched to operator’s vehicle fleets enabling industry leading response times to VOR’s.

PSV Glass & Glazing can confidently say that they are now the only specialist installer who

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truly works a rolling 24/7 shift pattern, covering the whole of the UK and Ireland bringing a truly unique and unrivalled service offering to the industry.

PSV Glass & Glazing will have representatives from their sales team available throughout the conference on hand to discuss your ever-changing glazing demands.

The business is pleased to be supporting ALBUM year on year.

public transport passengers and systems. Our solutions serve millions of Wi-Fi users and tens of thousands of vehicles daily.

The future of transport is undeniably digital. Vehicles have numerous onboard systems that need to receive and transfer data in real-time using fast, reliable and secure wireless connectivity.

Icomera provides operators with the possibility to support a host of onboard systems aimed at improving the passenger experience, increasing operational efficiency and managing safety and security. It is this platform that allows us to deliver a return on investment against a wide range of business cases.

The opportunity to increase productivity while travelling is key to influencing a change in society’s attitudes towards public transport.

Icomera is a promoter of “green mobility”. Our technology makes public transport a more attractive option for passengers, supporting our mission to help contribute to a reduction in carbon emissions of 3.5 million metric tons by 2022 To learn more, please join us at the Marble Hall exhibition space.

SU RE TRAN S P ORT

SURE Transport was established in 2003, and began by supplying security systems to the police.

They subsequently moved into installing CCTV in the blue light sector; traffic police vehicles and fire appliances then bus and coach.

Over the last six years SURE have developed their systems and work force to help satisfy the demands of bus operators.

Offering CCTV fitting during the manufacture process of the vehicle means all new buses are supplied to the client direct from the factory with CCTV already on board.

Pairing with CCTV, SURE’s inhouse software development team have created ‘Helpdesk’, a platform that aids in the management of service and repair for vehicles within a multitude of fleets.

Helpdesk fully integrates with many current depot operations management software allowing SURE to automatically capture fleet repair jobs from this thirdparty system and assign engineers accordingly.

SURE can provide equipment to fit all budgets and applications, including top-of-the line British manufactured Timespace or a complete custom one-box solution provided through SURE’s MDVR range.

Come to our stand in the Marble Hall for a demo of our new product ‘SUREVIEW’.

AL L ISO N TRANSMISSIO N

Allison Transmission is the world’s largest manufacturer of fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Allison transmissions are used in a variety of applications including refuse, construction, fire, distribution, bus, motorhomes, defense and energy. Founded in 1915, the company is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA and employs approximately 2,900 people worldwide. With a market presence in more than 80 countries, Allison has regional headquarters in the Netherlands, China and Brazil with manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Hungary and India.

Allison also has approximately 1,400 independent distributor and dealer locations worldwide.

For more information, visit allisontransmission.com.

ICOM ERA

Icomera is the world’s leading provider of internet connectivity and application platforms for

SCANIA (GRE AT B R I TA I N )

Scania (Great Britain) Limited - Scania is a major supplier of heavy trucks, buses, coaches and engines. Within the UK, Scania dealers offer sales of new and used vehicles and, through a nationwide network of 86 service points, provide a wide range of services to support transport operators’ individual needs.

Scania’s vision is to be the leading provider of sustainable transport. In addition to developing low-impact products, this means integrating sustainable practices and processes fully into the business and working with others to tackle impacts, transform our industry and create lasting value. As part of its sustainability work, Scania offers the widest selection of alternatively-fuelled vehicles available on the market today. Of particular interest to UK bus operators is the company’s dedicated gas-fuelled option, which can run on either Compressed Natural Gas or Biogas. When operating on biogas emissions of carbon dioxide are reduced by up to 90%. Among UK operators benefiting from Scania’s gas-powered option are Reading Buses and Nottingham City Transport, the latter of which operates the world’s largest fleet of gas-powered double deck buses.

Scania also exhibiting outside City Hall.

AL E XANDE R D EN N I S L I M I T ED

Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) is the leading bus manufacturer in the UK and the world’s largest manufacturer of double deck buses. It also offers coaches through its Plaxton brand.

With a history and heritage of design, engineering and manufacturing excellence that spans more than a century, ADL has offices in the UK, USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand. As a pioneer embracing the latest technology,

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THE EXH IBITIO N E XH IBITO R PRO F IL ES

ADL has brought the widest range of low and zero emission buses to market and is recognised as one of the fastest growing bus and coach builders in Western Europe.

ADL employs 2,500 people worldwide and has more than tripled its revenue in the last ten years, with an increasing proportion resulting from its expanding international footprint.

This growth is attributable to its clear strategic focus – delivering lightweight, fuel efficient vehicles with industry-leading reliability, lowest cost of ownership and world class aftermarket support.

ADL also exhibiting outside City Hall.

buses, having designed, built and delivered over 50,000 globally.

Since BYD’s inception in 1995, the company quickly developed expertise in rechargeable batteries and became a relentless advocate of sustainable development, successfully expanding its renewable energy solutions to over 50 countries and regions.

In the UK it works in partnership with Alexander Dennis (ADL) with BYD’s advanced electric chassis fitted with ADL’s stylish and lightweight bodywork. A full range of Britishbuilt vehicles is available with the latest – a striking, high capacity double decker – on order from a range of cities including ALBUM’s host, Cardiff.

produce diesel, gas, hybrid, electric and hydrogen powered single deck and double deck buses and coaches, selling into 137 different countries.

Pelican are the UK and Irish importer for Yutong, and are celebrating 100 years of business in 2019. We have been importing Yutong for five years, and have over 500 vehicles in service and on order. We offer exceptional sales and aftermarket support to our customers across the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland.

OUTS I DE CI TY HA LL

of expertise in using the latest technologies in urban bus design and manufacturing to deliver the vehicles of today and tomorrow.

Low cost of ownership and ease of maintenance are key to the Optare philosophy and this is backed up by extensive aftermarket and parts support. Its awardwinning range of innovative buses feature a light weight integral space frame design and efficient diesel engines, plus an industry-leading choice of electric units utilising the latest low carbon technology.

For the past 10 years Optare has been a pioneer in the UK in electric bus design and development with over 100 of their award-winning buses currently in service in the UK and Europe.

M ELLOR MERC E D ES - B E NZ

Unlike many other brands, Mercedes-Benz stands for innovation. In this respect we attach great importance to the fact that innovations are not aimed at what is technically feasible, but always how they can benefit our customers. This applies in particular to the new Citaro hybrid which boasts 8.5% lower fuel consumption, achieved by the intelligent combination of available, proven and affordable serial production technology.

As equally customer-oriented as innovative is our OMNIplus service organisation with the new OMNIplus On online platform, where all current and future digital services are combined. Using the latest OMNIplus Uptime service, it will be possible to automatically transmit malfunctions and problems whilst driving to the service organisation and the customer. The aim is to prevent breakdowns, minimise unplanned visits to the garage and reduce costs.

Mercedes-Benz is also exhibiting outside City Hall.

Mellor is one of the industry’s longest established, leading manufacturers of small, easily accessible buses, a business that has consistently inspired the loyalty of customers across the UK for more than 50 years.

The company’s key product ranges are the Strata, Maxima, Orion and Tucana II. Taking centre stage at this year’s ALBUM Conference is Mellor’s class-leading Sprinter-based Strata Ultra. Featuring high passenger capacity and low running costs, the vehicle provides comfortable seating for up to 30 and a large low floor section with space for two wheelchairs.

An array of features enhance the operator and passenger experience, including destination signage, interactive next stop audio-visual displays, climatic control, Wi-Fi connectivity and USB charging points.

All Mellor vehicles are designed, built and finished to the most exacting standards, ensuring the delivery of innovative, best value and quality vehicles, while at the same time remaining committed to the needs of customers.

EVM

EVM manufacture bespoke Mercedes-Benz Sprinter minibuses and minicoaches from eight to 22 seats in low and high floor variants and accessible options. We deliver to customers all over the UK from our sales office located near Gatwick Airport – and Ireland from our 31,000 sq. foot facility which is conveniently based in Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath.

Our success is built on our core values of innovation, creativity, commitment and enthusiasm – keeping our customers’ needs and desires at the heart of everything we do.

With our new model sprinters entering the market, we aim to take EVM to the next level – offering enhanced safety, navigation, digital, driving features and much more.

We’ll be showcasing our low floor sprinter which offers accessible transport for all levels of mobility, suitable for city and community transport. Come and visit us outside the front of City Hall and see what we can offer you.

P ELI CA N - Y U TO N G

Yutong are the world’s largest bus and boach manufacturer, with over 60,000 buses and coaches produced each year. Yutong have been the market leader for eight consecutive years, and have a market share of 15% in 2018. We

BY D

O PTARE

BYD is the world’s leading supplier of full-size pure electric

Optare is a leading British manufacturer with over a century

WH E ELY-SAF E

Wheely-Safe the world’s first inmotion driver alert system which detects the onset of wheel loss.

The Michelin Wheel Security and TPMS System for heavy fleet is also able to monitor heat generated from the wheel hub. If the hub temperature exceeds 90ºC the driver is alerted, and a hub fire is averted.

The TPMS system monitors both tyre pressure and the temperature of the air inside the tyre. The driver is alerted if the calibrated tyre pressure drops by 15%, an enhanced alert at a 24% pressure drop or fast leakage of 2psi per minute. The same sensor also monitors over pressure and warns if the tyre air temperature exceeds 100ºC. Our intuitive technology requires no programming as the system will fully auto pair by the very action of the wheels rotating.

Complemented by a hand-held pressure checker, tyre pressures can be hygienically checked in seconds. The same checker will also display the highest temperature recorded by the hub sensor over the last 24 hours.

The solution is solar-powered and compatible with all telematics systems. ■

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