Coach & Bus Week : Issue 1072

Wednesday January 30, 2013 Issue 1072 | £2.95 www.coachandbusweek.com

COACH:

New Adventure Travel orders two Plaxton Elite i Volvos p9

INSIGHT:

Pushing forward public transport at Stansted Airport p34

BUS:

First agrees £1.5m sale of Redditch & Kidderminster p4

PROFILE:

Pride and quality from Reading's railair.com coach service p26

for recruitm

Airside and Landside buses at Manchester

JOB ADVE ent EVERY WERTS EK

RECRUIT N

OW

p20

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this week

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Rotala Worcestershire

R

otala’s agreement to buy First’s Kidderminster and Redditch depots has come as no surprise. First has made no secret of its desire to dispose of both operations. However, you may not be aware that last autumn another plc in the region was on the cusp of announcing a deal but backed out at the last minute. I know another operator has also looked at Kidderminster but decided against it as it was felt the finances didn’t add up.

Therefore, it was logical (or the last resort?) for Rotala to buy it, complementing its current Worcestershire operations, which had previously competed in a high-profile way with FirstGroup. In finance terms, Rotala said in December it had secured £11m “in facilities” from the Royal Bank of Scotland to support the group’s growth, both organically and through acquisitions. Note the key word – facilities. Since then it’s spent £1.8m of that on acquiring the freehold of its hitherto leased Avonmouth depot in Bristol.

Whatever your views of the firm’s operations out on the street (good,

bad or indifferent) I must say I have to admire Rotala’s ability to break a deal. £1.5m for two commercial properties (Redditch & Kidderminster)? Crickey. I don’t pretend to be a financial expert but its seems to be a good price for the land and 36 vehicles – although we’ve yet to hear formally exactly what those buses are.

It could be argued Rotala’s move to acquire properties is a very astute move. This helps to secure the firm for the longer term and ensures money is not being burnt each month with nothing to show for it and the risk of rents rising in a flash – we’ve all heard of greedy landlords. In future too, if the bus market takes a turn for the worse, it can transform itself into a property firm.

I’m sure I’m not alone among you but I would be surprised if the OFT doesn’t launch an investigation into the deal. According to the OFT, this is a “standard development” in this type of transaction. I don’t wish extra cost and stress on anyone but there is also the matter of fairness.

Gareth Evans Editor

CONTENTS 4

20

34

The latest from across the coach and bus industry in the UK

14

A rare look behind the scenes at MAN’s intensive bus operations

26

The network with a 500% increase in passengers in 12 years

What’s happening across the country’s regions. Plus Events Diary

16

The oft overlooked but successful First railair.com operation

30

Oxford Bus Company’s premium Gatwick and Heathrow airport link

...From tourist attractions and events. Plus ideas for group visits

18

The long running Arriva-operated express coach service

32

A lighthearted look at the industry.

Plus Office Diary column

A summary of what you can expect in this dedicated airport issue

An Irizar-bodied Scania coach run

by Excalibur for Terravision

All the latest people moves from across the industry

News

Regional News Tour News

Airport Intro

Manchester Airport Service Profile

The Green Line Big Picture

Stansted Airport

38

Oxford’s airline

61

Last Stop

62

People

The opinions and views expressed by authors and contributors within Coach & Bus Week are not necessarily those of the Editor or its publisher Coach and Bus Week Ltd.

Putting your training in safe hands www.wts.co.uk www.coachandbusweek.com

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news

“Six years ago, the thought that we could achieve 50% arrival rate by public transport was laughable and very blue sky...”

Steve Mills Public Transport Development

briefly The Office of Fair Trading has cleared Arriva Midlands’ acquisition of Wolverhamptonbased operator Liyell, trading as Midland. The watchdog said the full text of its decision will be “available shortly”. Arriva announced the deal in August and the OFT said it would probe the deal in October.

The Potteries Omnibus Preservation Society (POPS) is marking the final day of Hanley Bus Station before its redevelopment with a ‘Hanley Finale’ bus running day on February 17. According to POPS, the new station will not see preserved bus events take place. Tours will depart every 10 minutes between 1000 and 1500hrs. Buses promised include a Daimler Roadliner SRP8, a Bristol RESL6L and Leyland Atlanteans. The closing date for entries is February 1. Visit potteriesomnibus.wordpress.com The vehicle engineering division of Epsom Coaches Group, Epsom Fleetcare, has achieved a 100% MOT test standard. The company said the result is testimony to the high standard achieved in the facilities available. MD Steve Whiteway said: “You can’t take safety seriously enough and we go to enormous lengths to achieve a high standard.

The annual test is an important barometer of our quality and safety and I am delighted the hard work is recognised in the results.”

At a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Light Rail Group on January 22, Greg Mullholland MP (Lib Dem, Leeds NW) outlined the progress on the planning of a TramTrain link to Leeds-Bradford International Airport (LBIA). The Leeds City Region Transport Strategy (2009) contained a proposal for conversion of the Leeds-Harrogate-York Line to TramTrain operation, including a link to LBIA. More recently, the Harrogate Line Strategy (2012) proposed overhead electrification of the route, with TramTrain at either end of the route from LBIA to Leeds, and Poppleton to York.

A link from LBIA to Bradford via Guiseley is also being considered. www.coachandbusweek.com

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Stansted Airport p34

Premiere Travel ceases trading RSM Tenon said a buyer could not be found for the now defunct Midlands firm Nottingham-based Premiere Travel ceased trading on Friday (January 25).

The operator was looking for a buyer, but accountancy and business advice firm RSM Tenon, which had been appointed to help Premiere find a buyer, said no buyer could be found.

Paul Finnity, partner at RSM Tenon, said: “Several parties, including RSM Tenon, were working together to find a suitable buyer for Premiere.

“However, we have been unable to secure one and are now carrying out an orderly wind-down of the business.

“We are hoping Premiere employees will be taken on by the companies which take over the

routes Premiere has been running.”

Both trent barton and NCT have stepped in to fill the void, registering new services and taking over former Premiere routes.

NCT started operating new services 47, 47A on Monday (January 28) which will follow the same routes as former Premiere services Red 7 and 7.1: n 47 from Calverton via Lambley, Woodborough, Mapperley Plains and Mapperley to the city centre n 47A from Calverton via Arnold, Mapperley Plains and Mapperley to the city centre.

The 47, 47A will operate seven days a week, with buses generally every half hour Monday to Saturday daytimes between Calverton, Mapperley Plains and the city centre. Evening buses will also run.

NCT is accepting Premiere’s tickets for a short-period on every

Premiere Travel’s Red 9 service has been taken on by Kinchbus

DVLA driving licence changes New rules affecting driver licence rules in the UK came into effect January 19. The changes mainly impact PSV and HGV drivers passing their test after this date and drivers who passed their test prior to this will not lose any of their entitlements but are affected by some of the rule changes.

Minibus, bus and lorry drivers passing their test in categories C, CE, C1, C1E, D, DE, D1 or D1E get a licence valid for five years – as opposed to the current 10. Every five years up to age 45, drivers now have to sign a declaration to show they still meet the required medical standards. Drivers have to submit medical examination reports after the age of 45 every five years to renew their licence.

For more details, visit https://www.gov.uk/ newlicencerules

NCT service in Nottingham to allow customers to use up existing travel they have purchased and switch to NCT tickets.

David Astill, NCT Commercial Manager, said: “I am pleased to confirm NCT has been able to muster from within its resources the additional buses and drivers required to restore a bus service to Nottingham from Woodborough, Lambley and Mapperley Plains following the sad and abrupt end to the operations by Premiere.”

Jeff Counsell, trent barton MD, said: “We will be taking steps to ensure bus users who hold Premiere travel tickets will be able to use them free of charge on our services and we will exchange their period tickets for a trent barton or Kinchbus equivalent.

“We have extra staff and buses in place to help, including a replacement Kinchbus 9 service between Loughborough and Nottingham.”

Stagecoach, Doyles, Tiger European, Sharps, Paul Winson and AOT have also stepped in to take on Premiere’s services.

Premiere Travel was started up in 2002 with just two Leyland Nationals. At the time of its demise it ran 19 bus routes across Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.

Paul Finnity added: “Premiere has over-traded. It has expanded quickly and was under-capitalised.

It is an excellent business but expanded perhaps too rapidly.”

Every five years up to age 45, drivers now have to sign a declaration to show they meet required medical standards

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January 30, 2013 | COACH & BUS WEEK | 5

Join the discussion on Twitter by following us at @cbwtweets and find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/coachandbusweek

First releases third quarter statement FirstGroup plc has released a thirdquarter trading update from October 1 to December 31, 2012 (“the period” or “the third quarter”).

Trading for the Group during the third quarter was in line with its expectations, excluding the one-off effect of Hurricane Sandy which First claim adversely impacted the operating profit of First Student by $15m.

Continued strong support from fixed income investors in November led to FirstGroup’s issue of £325m of 10-year bonds being significantly oversubscribed. The proceeds were used to pay down debt, to reduce reliance on bank borrowings and extend its debt maturity profile.

First’s transit division “generated good operating results from its

range of operations, the majority of which require low capital investment.” First said it continues to see good contract retention rates and develop opportunities from a healthy pipeline of new contract bids, and is proactively working through a small number of historic legal claims within First Transit, with settlement discussions scheduled for February 2013.

During the period like-for-like revenue growth within Greyhound was 1.6%, with US operations continuing to achieve a strong performance. During the period Greyhound expanded Express service to new states including Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nevada and Ontario, Canada.

Like-for-like passenger revenue growth in First UK Bus was 2.1% over the period. First continues to work through its programme of disposals. In November 2012 First agreed the sale of its Birkenhead and Chester operations for £4.5m and recently announced the sale

A new Authorised Testing Facility (ATF) lane has opened in Leicester, while a North Wales-based haulier is awaiting permission to open its own facility, Commercial Motor has reported.

Leicester-based Alltruck opened its second ATF lane in anticipation of increased demand, following confirmation of the planned closure of a VOSA Test Station at Cannock Street, Leicester.

In 2011 Alltruck invested £300,000 building a two-lane ATF facility, which opened January 2012 operating just one lane. A second lane was built at the same time, in anticipation of the eventual closure of the VOSA station.

Meanwhile haulier OJ Jones & Son has submitted plans to Gwynedd Council to build a new yard with a vehicle testing lane.

Director Dewi Jones said: “I was hoping to go for an ATF because we are in a rural community with 18 miles to the nearest Vosa testing station. Some operators have to travel 50-60 miles to get their vehicles tested [in Aberystwyth and Caernarvon].”

New and upgraded ATFs

Refuelling specialists to the Coach & Bus industry

of its Kidderminster and Redditch bus businesses to Rotala PLC for a gross consideration of £1.5m. First expects UK Bus operating margin to be approximately 8% for the full year.

First’s rail division continues to benefit from strong passenger growth across all franchises and

Tim O’Toole is confident the actions First is taking will strengthen its prospects for long term growth

like-for-like revenue increased by 8.1% in the period. During the period the Scottish Government announced the ScotRail franchise will end on March 31, 2015, from its previous end date of November 9, 2014.

Tim O’Toole, Chief Executive, said: “We are confident that the actions we are taking will strengthen our business and its prospects for long term growth.

While there is significant work still to do, we are satisfied with the progress of the actions taken so far, though we remain cautious in respect of continued economic weakness.

“As previously stated, following the uncertainty caused by the Department for Transport’s decision to delay its refranchising programme the Board held the interim dividend at last year’s level. We will consider the full year dividend in May 2013, by which time the prospects for our rail division are expected to be clearer.”

Malcolm Robson appointed 2013 CPT President Malcolm Robson, MD of Ipswich Buses, has been appointed CPT President for 2013. He takes over from Arriva’s Operations & Commercial Director, Mark Yexley.

Robson joined Ipswich Buses in 1989. He has worked in the industry since 1980 and is a past Chairman of ALBUM. Malcolm said: “I am delighted to have been appointed and look forward to working closely with CPT members and staff. Our industry continues to meet the

• • • • • •

challenges of the economic climate, and the future is looking good. I pay tribute to Mark Yexley, who did a fantastic job juggling his CPT role and his responsibilities with Arriva during the Olympics and Paralympics.”

CPT Chairman Ian Morgan said: “I am very much looking forward to working with Malcolm as we continue to represent the industry and help our members do what they do best – deliver first class services for their passengers.”

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news › BUSeS

1980

The year which the main service between Luton Airport and London Airport was launched

briefly Dorset County Council (DCC) is set to take over responsibility for bus pass applications from district and borough councils. It is hoped the new centralised service, which begins April 1, will provide a more consistent service across the county and give better value for money. DCCl concessionary fare applications will be processed by Euclid Ltd, a Hampshire-based company specialising in producing and issuing ID cards. Cllr Peter Finney, DCC Cabinet Member for Highways & Transportation, explained: “The old system of paying District and Borough Councils to provide this service on behalf of the County Council no longer represents the best value for money. Local councils will still be able to choose to fund any additional concessions, such as subsidising travel at peak times.”

First agrees sales to Rotala

ended June 30, 2012, these depots reported combined revenues of £5.2m and an operating loss of £0.27m.

They employ about 120 staff.

Rotala said the deal would enable it to expand and consolidate its position in those areas of Worcestershire which are contiguous to its main Birmingham operations. “By integrating these depots into its current network, the company can take advantage of operating efficiencies generated by the acquisition.”

On the financial aspects, Rotala said: “The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on earnings in this financial year.

Once integration of operations and overheads has been implemented, the acquisition is expected to have a beneficial effect in the following years. On the basis of information available the acquisition is expected to generate a small amount of negative goodwill.”

Giles Fearnley, First UK Bus MD, told CBW: “Redditch and Kidderminster are businesses

where we have previously seen lower than average margins. They are not core to our operations and fit better with Rotala’s existing portfolio in the area.

“This marks further progress in disposing of selected assets and businesses as we review the scale of our portfolio and reposition it for the longer term. We are progressing our programme to recover performance and equip our UK Bus division to achieve sustainable revenue and patronage growth.

“The decision is business driven and does not reflect on the effort or performance of the staff. We will fully supporting them as they transfer to their new employer.”

Asked by CBW whether the deal was notified to the competition authorities, a spokesman for FirstGroup replied: “The deal is not conditional on any OFT clearance.”

CBW understands the depots have yet to be transferred to Rotala, with contracts of intent only having been signed at this stage. It will probably be four to six weeks before the deal concludes, assuming the OFT does not get involved.

Asked by CBW whether it was intending to investigate the deal, an OFT spokesman replied: “We tend not to be able to comment as to whether or not we will be investigating. We certainly cannot speculate. However there is currently no live investigation.”

However in relation to Stagecoach’s acquisition of First’s Wigan business, an OFT spokesman pointed out in last week’s issue: “Merging parties don’t have to notify us prior to a transaction but it can be done voluntarily – and the OFT can carry it out before or after completion. We have four months from the point it reaches the public domain or when the transaction completes to reach a decision.”

Optare has begun delivering new buses to Arriva. They are part of the contract, valued at over £6m, placed in December.

Arriva has ordered 49 Versas.

Both the 11.1m version and the recently introduced low-weight 11.7m model are being supplied. A single 9.0m Solo SR has also been

ordered to meet a specific contract requirement.

The contract was awarded following successful trials of Versa by a number of Arriva operating divisions. Arriva acquired its first Versa in 2007 and since then the model has featured in every annual fleet replacement programme.

The decision to order 21 of the 11.7m Versa is particularly significant as it follows on from trials of four such vehicles by Arriva during last year. The model has a seating capacity of 44, equivalent to a 12.0m single-decker, but weighs

£1.5m deal for Kidderminster & Redditch garages remains subject to completion of contracts First has agreed to sell its Kidderminster & Redditch garages to Rotala. The £1.5m deal includes two freehold depots, 36 vehicles, and various items of plant and equipment.

Built in 2001, the two-acre Kidderminster depot can hold up to 60 vehicles but has an allocation of 20. Notably, the garage is located in the middle of a roundabout – at the junction of the A451 and A442.

Redditch’s Plymouth Road depot, built about 35 years ago, has a slightly smaller useable area. It can accommodate about 50 vehicles, but has an allocation of 31. In the year

It remains to be seen which vehicles will be included in the deal

Optare begins Arriva deliveries

www.coachandbusweek.com

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28/01/2013 16:34

10

The number of coaches allocated to First’s railair.com service

New Bristol Airport to Bath direct bus link announced The Bath Bus Company is set to start new bus service from Bath to Bristol Airport. The hourly service will commence on March 24, 2013 and will serve Bath, Saltford, Keynsham, South Bristol and Bristol Airport.

The announcement comes a fortnight after the airport announced it is to strengthen its links with the important South Wales market with the extension of First Greyhound’s Swansea to Cardiff service.

Martin Curtis, MD of the Bath Bus Company said he had been planning the link for some time and but had kept his plans under wraps until last week.

Mr Curtis said: “It’s a commercial service. Fares will be competitive and in line with other transport providers. During 2012, 5.8m passengers used Bristol Airport.”

Mr Curtis told CBW there has been a lot of interest in the route since its announcement. The link will operate with five refurbished ex-London Volvo B7TLs with Alexander bodies. The buses will sport a traditional green livery harking back to Bath’s original buses. “Volvos are favoured by our Engineering Director, and they are common in our existing fleet. So when the opportunity arose it was an obvious choice,” he said.

The route will travel through South Bristol, Keynsham and Saltford on its way from the airport, taking passengers to Bath city centre in just over an hour. less than eight tonnes. This low weight has contributed to good fuel efficiency with Arriva reporting in excess of 10 mpg from the model on intensive urban operations and up to 13mpg elsewhere.

The 11.7m Versas are powered by the Cummins ISBe six-cylinder engines rated at 201bhp, while the 11.0m models have Mercedes-Benz 900 Series four-cylinder engines delivering 154bhp.

Optare’s Deputy CEO, Glenn Saint, said: “Beginning the year with an order of this size is a major boost following a year in which we

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January 30, 2013 | COACH & BUS WEEK | 7

26%

The proportion of air passengers travelling through Stansted which use bus and coach

SHARE WATCH

Industry share prices at the close of the Stock Exchange on Monday, January 28. Rotala saw the greatest proportional rise, while Optare saw the greatest proportional drop.

Most figures obtained from www.iii.co.uk

344.65p

Price: Year High: 367.50p Year Low: 268.52p

203.55p

Price: Year High: 318.20p Year Low: 174.60p

+1.65 on last week

+11.85 on last week

London’s route 24 will exclusively be served by the NBfL by the summer

Borismasters to exclusively serve London route London’s route 24 will become the first bus route in the capital to be served entirely by a fleet of Borismasters.

The service, operated by Metroline, runs from Hampstead Heath to Pimlico, via Camden, Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square, and Victoria and operates 24 hours a day. During peak hours, 27 of the new buses will be in operation for the 28,000 passengers who use the route daily.

Delivery of 600 NBfLs over the next four years has been approved by the TfL Board, in line with the Mayor’s election manifesto. This represents the largest order of hybrid buses ever placed in Europe.

Arriva has ordered 21 11.7-metre Versas from Optare successfully completed a three-year turnaround of the business.

“Our interim results for the six months to the end of September

Boris Johnson said: “I am thrilled to confirm that route 24 will be the first in London to be converted to run an entire fleet of these new buses, which will be the cleanest and greenest of their kind. That particular route runs right through the throbbing heart of the capital and Londoners will be able to hop on and off at their pleasure via the open rear platform.”

Leon Daniels, TfL’s MD of Surface Transport, said: “These new buses, which carry the latest green technology, have proven immensely popular with passengers. We are now introducing more and more of them as we build and expand the biggest hybrid bus fleet in Europe. But it’s not just about the technology – I’m sure passengers on the route 24 will also be delighted with the ease of access and the iconic and spacious design, which echoes the best elements of London’s bus heritage.”

TfL hopes to have to route fully converted by the summer. show revenues were up by 106% and we returned to profitability in the third quarter of 2012.

Registration statistics show our market share in the eight to 13 tonne bus sector was almost 34% in 2012 and we secured substantial overseas contracts.

“Winning this order shows large operators can include our products in their annual fleet replacement programmes confident in the knowledge we will deliver high quality, fuel efficient products, on time and in line with their operating needs.”

1328.5p

Price: Year High: 1390.0p Year Low: 1074.0p

213.35p

Price: Year High: 256.20p Year Low: 162.90p

310.50p

Price: Year High: 321.500p Year Low: 227.90p

0.44p

Price: Year High: 0.93p Year Low: 0.24p

46.50p

Price: Year High: 46.50p Year Low: 36.00p

81.69p

Price: Year High: 85.26p Year Low: 62.29p

14.00p

Price: Year High: 20.00p Year Low: 8.50p

+57.50 on last week

+1.05 on last week

+5.40 on last week

-0.05 on last week

+4.00 on last week

-1.65 on last week

+0.12 on last week

FTSE 100

6,293

Index: Year High: 6,293 Year Low: 5,260

+125 on last week

www.coachandbusweek.com

28/01/2013 16:34

8 | COACH & BUS WEEK | January 30, 2013

news › coaches

briefly Overnight work on the A11 at Barton Mills started at 2100hrs on Monday, January 28, and, weather dependent, will be carried out over six nights, excluding the weekend. While work takes place sections of the A11 will be closed. Work takes place between the Barton Mills and Red Lodge roundabouts between 2100 and 0600hrs and should be completed by 0600 on Tuesday, February 5.

The southbound carriageway is closed between Thursday, January 31 and Monday, February 4.

Southbound traffic will be diverted onto the A1101 at the Barton Mills roundabout and will then follow the B1102 (The Street) and Worlington Road to rejoin the A11 at the Red Lodge roundabout.

Construction of a road scheme to upgrade the last remaining single carriageway section on the A11 has begun. The £105m scheme will widen 5.5 miles of the A11 and build a new 3.6 mile bypass around the village of Elveden, from Chalk Hall Farm to Thetford roundabout. A completion date is set for December 2014. A 40mph speed limit along of the whole length of the A11 scheme (between Fiveways and Thetford roundabouts) is in place for the duration of the works.

Work has started to replace sections of existing barriers on the M1 between Barnsley and Wakefield. Sections of the steel central reservation barrier between junctions 38 and 40 will be replaced with a concrete barrier.

A 50mph speed restriction operates between junctions 38 and 40, 24hrs a day, until mid-March. During the day, three narrowed lanes are maintained in each direction. At times, overnight lane and slip road closures may also be required, with clearly-signed diversions in place.

Beeline is applying for planning permission to build a new depot at Warminster Business Park. The firm, which has been based at Bishopstrow Road for more than 30 years, has seen an increase in business and needs more space for its fleet of 40 vehicles. www.coachandbusweek.com

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Vision Travel stripped of operator licence Firm and drivers called to appear before TC for Drivers’ Hours infringements maintenance Vision Travel International has been told to surrender its O-licence following a Public Inquiry (PI).

The operator, run by Peter Sharpe, was called to the PI in September after a large number of its drivers and managers were convicted of infringing Drivers’ Hours laws over driving time and not recording journeys properly.

It was also summoned because of poor maintenance standards, revealed after an unannounced visit from VOSA in July 2012. The firm’s Transport Manager, Trevor Byng, also lost his repute.

In the Traffic Commissioner’s report, Sarah Bell said of Vision Travel International: “I pose the question – how likely it is that the operator will, in future, operate in compliance with the operators’ licensing regime? The answer must be unlikely.

“The operator has given assurances in the past and failed to meet them and from the evidence I heard I am not satisfied on balance that Mr Sharpe will change.

“I can no longer allow Vision Travel International to stay in the system. The risk to road safety is too great and there has been unfair competition to the detriment of the legitimate industry for too long. It is time to draw the line.”

TC Sarah Bell was satisfied with giving the drivers formal warnings

At the same PI, held at Portsmouth’s Guildhall, the firm’s sister company, Vision Travel Minibuses, also had its O-licence revoked for similar reasons. Vision Travel Minibuses was liquidated in August 2012. However, the firm’s Transport Manager, David Sharpe, was told to surrender his licence, meaning he will be banned from operating a coach company anywhere in the UK or Europe and cannot reapply for his licence for at least 18 months.

Assuming it does not submit an appeal, Vision Travel International will cease trading at 2359hrs on February 22.

Three of the former Vision Travel Minibuses drivers and 12 from Vision Travel International were summoned to a Driver Conduct Hearing and were given warnings for not entering times correctly on a tachograph. The latter drivers were also warned, with only one exception, for not taking rest breaks.

Mobile megabus website Stagecoach has launched a mobile version of its megabus UK website.

The mobile site offers megabus passengers a full range of functions, making it easier to search for journeys, book tickets, manage reservations and check for service updates. The new mobile website supports all mobile platforms and can be viewed using any device including smartphones and tablets.

From now on, customers who visit the megabus UK website using a handheld device will automatically link to the mobile version of the site. Similarly, passengers who use a mobile device to visit www.megabusplus. com – the company’s integrated coach-rail service – and www. megatrain.com which offers budget train journeys, will also be automatically directed to the

A megabusplus.com-branded Plaxton Volvo coach is seen in Victoria mobile site.

Once on the mobile website, customers can access service updates for all three ‘mega’ products as well as search for journeys and buy tickets.

In addition, passengers can also access stop or station information and manage their reservations as well as linking from the mobile site to the full megabus website should

they wish.

Ian Laing, General Manager of megabus, said: “More and more of our passengers are using mobile devices to plan their busy lives and their travel. This mobile website makes it even easier for our customers to make travel arrangements and find out journey information while they are on the move.”

28/01/2013 18:33

January 30, 2013 | COACH & BUS WEEK | 9

“Some drivers prefer airside but it’s a very different world driving there. You could have a 767 coming up behind or a 737 pushing back in front.”

Leslie Addie Manchester Airport

New Adventure signs up for two Elite I coaches South Wales-based New Adventure will become the first independent coach operator to acquire Plaxton’s flagship Elite i coaches. The company is to take delivery of two in the spring.

Kevyn Jones, MD of New Adventure, is excited at the prospect of taking delivery of the biggest luxury coach ever built in Britain. He said: “The Elite i is a stunning vehicle and we’re really looking forward to them joining the fleet. We already operate 15m single deck vehicles with 65 seats, so we know there’s no difficulty in running vehicles of this length and the additional capacity will give us a significant advantage.”

The Elite i is fully wheelchair accessible without the need for a lift and offers exceptional capacity, 23% more than a conventional single deck, thanks to some clever packaging which allows seating the full length of the main deck and up

Breathalyser requirements in France

The British Embassy in Paris has liaised with the French Ministry of Transport and confirmed French law states the maximum permitted alcohol levels for drivers of coaches/buses must be lower (0.2 grams alcohol/litre of blood) than the standard level (0.5 grams/litre).

However, the obligation to carry

to four seats adjacent to the driver.

Believed to be the largest luxury coach ever built in Britain, the first examples of Elite i are now entering service with Stagecoach.

Unveiled to the public at November’s Euro Bus Expo, the

Operator Profile p20

Elite i is built on Volvo’s new B11 chassis which is integrated into the all stainless steel structure of the Elite i. This arrangement gives unprecedented locker capacity.

New Adventure’s decision brings the total number of Elite i orders to 25 for Plaxton, all of which are due to enter service in 2013. These will be the first new Plaxtons added to the fleet where they will join Enviro buses from the same ADL stable.

An impression of how the new coaches will look in NAT livery single use breathalysers is completely separate, and professional drivers, including coach drivers, are not required to carry single use breathalysers measuring at this lower level. All drivers in France are required to carry single use breathalysers measuring at the standard level. Fines for noncompliance with rules on single use breathalysers will not be imposed until March 1, 2013.

After several coach operators contacted CBW for clarification, Stephen Smith, CPT Operations Director, helpfully responded:

“While drivers may be able to pass when tested by the breathalysers they carry, they had better not be at 0.3, for example.”

Stephen said he could not confirm whether the single use breathalysers provided accurate measurements of lower levels.

He added: “One of the problems we’re seeing for a number of operators is acquiring breathalysers which measure the lower level.

Currently they can only be acquired from two manufacturers in France, since they have to be French marked to be accepted.”

Carlisle competition a sign of the times Staff at family-run coach operator Irving’s Travel were left “furious” after rival firm Reays chained a billboard advertising its business to a signpost outside their door, local newspaper The News & Star reported.

Paula Irving, part of the family which owns Irving’s Travel, said she came in to work to find the sign for the company Reays outside Irving’s office in Carlisle city centre.

It advertised day trips and coach excursions for the Wigton-based firm, which has a travel centre in nearby, and was chained to a metal pole on a signpost displaying parking information.

Paula Irving, whose family have run the Irving’s business in Carlisle for nearly 50 years, said: “It must have been done late at night or through the night. I got here and it was just outside.

“You don’t do that to a small company. This is a family business.

I wouldn’t dream of doing this to them.”

Paula claimed she was given “no prior notice” and said there was no dispute with the rival firm.

Reays is a family-run business which operates the City Hopper bus network in Carlisle, a range of public bus routes and school services across Cumbria as well as a fleet of private coaches.

A spokesman from Reays confirmed the board had been removed.

www.coachandbusweek.com

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news

North East QC decision delayed The oft fractious relationship between Nexus and NEBOA continues as a recent report is tabled to the Tyne and Wear ITA The Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority and Nexus have delayed their decision on how to deliver improvements for Tyne and Wear’s buses until the ‘late spring/early summer 2013.’

In a report to the ITA, tabled at its meeting on January 24, Nexus claims this is to allow “further engagement with adjacent local authorities, to ensure any quality contract scheme proposals provide benefit to their areas.”

Tom Dodds, secretary of the North East Bus Operators’ Association (NEBOA), said: “This delay gives NEBOA more time to work with Nexus to further improve the partnership agreement, to which NEBOA remains firmly committed.

Transdev boosts York Unibus

Transdev Blazefield has enhanced its York Unibus route 44 by increasing the frequency to run every seven minutes throughout the day, Monday to Saturday. The service, which links the city centre with the University of York and York Sport Village also runs regularly during the evening and on Sundays.

The increase in frequency has been made possible by the introduction of three extra buses.

These comprise Wright Renownbodied Volvo B10BLE which joins one already in the fleet and two Plaxton President-bodied Volvo B7TLs, again joining the two already in the Unibus fleet. The other two Unibuses are MAN single deckers.

The firm has launched a new app to coincide with the increased frequency, which allows passengers to locate their nearest stop and access real time information on arrival times. www.coachandbusweek.com

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“The partnership offering already contains savings for Nexus and savings for passengers amounting to up to £1.7m. The partnership proposal produces a stable network with changes and improvements being presented to Local Partnership Boards.”

However Chairman Kevin Carr has written directly to the 15 members of the Tyne and Wear ITA to express his concerns regarding the move.

In the letter, Mr Carr said: “I am becoming increasingly concerned the reports being put to the ITA continue to ‘talk up’ the proposed quality contract scheme, while ‘talking down’ the proposed partnership agreement and ignoring the considerable progress we’ve made.”

The letter goes on: “The report to the ITA repeats a number of concerns about the partnership proposal. Unfortunately, the

Paul Nicholson, Managing Director of Voith Industrial Services

Voith Industrial Service buys ThyssenKrupp Voith Industrial Services has acquired ThyssenKrupp Services Ltd, which will create a combined business with a workforce of over 2,000 employees at 35 locations.

Warwick-based Voith Industrial Services prepares over 1,000 buses each evening in the UK for service

report does not say I have already addressed many of these concerns in long correspondence with Nexus’ Director General.”

Mr Carr said: “I wrote to Bernard Garner on December 7 showing that initial work by NEBOA suggests our partnership proposal will increase ridership by more than half a million trips a year, save the ITA money and produce great fares deals for passengers worth up to £1.7 million. Yet none of this was reported to the ITA.” “While councillors are continuing to hear the case for quality contracts, they’re not hearing the case for partnership working.”

NEBOA Chairman Kevin Carr the following day.

Voith Industrial Services’ MD, Paul Nicholson, said: “Strategically this is an important acquisition as it will provide us with a combined organisation which will raise considerably our profile as a leading provider of technical services in the automotive industry.

“Our customer base will be significantly strengthened creating future growth opportunities as we strive towards our goal as the preferred supplier of industrial services to the UK automotive industry.”

ThyssenKrupp Services’ business in the UK, based in Coventry, includes providing technical cleaning and technical services to Jaguar Land Rover at its manufacturing operations in Solihull, Castle Bromwich, and Halewood.

Other major customers include BMW and Ford along with several other automotive and non-automotive customers. ThyssenKrupp Services Ltd was the last remaining industrial services business within ThyssenKrupp group after the sale of ThyssenKrupp Industrieservice GmbH, Safway and Xervon in 2009 and 2011.

Midland Bluebird fined £15k The Traffic Commissioner for Scotland, Miss Joan Aitken, has imposed a financial penalty of £15,000 on FirstGroup subsidiary Midland Bluebird, following a Public Inquiry in Falkirk. The hearing was called to consider complaints made about the operator’s bus services.

During the inquiry, the Traffic Commissioner examined 13 complaints made to her office and heard evidence from directors of the business. Miss Aitken’s office had received complaints that the firm, which operates a total of 155 registered services, ran late journeys and that buses had failed to stop to collect passengers or not turned up at all.

In her written decision, which will be covered in a future Legal News, the Traffic Commissioner concluded passengers’ complaints were not being taken seriously and that not all of the firm’s drivers were respectful. However, she also acknowledged the operator had provided evidence of good customer service.

Summing up her findings, Miss Aitken said complaints reflect how important compliant operating is: “The consequences of a bus not turning up can be dire for the passenger. These complaints illustrate just how important and how much the public relies on [a bus company] to deliver buses to them when they need them and when they have a legitimate expectation of them turning up because of the timetable.”

Concluding she had seen evidence from Midland Bluebird and the FirstGroup that they were serious about serving the local area and improving their services, Miss Aitken ruled the operator’s repute remained intact.

However, the Traffic Commissioner added: “I am not satisfied they have shown reasonable excuse behind the eruption of public concern in the Falkirk area. It can’t all be blamed on road works. The network required to be reviewed and better information gained as to the on road experience. Everyone needed to re-focus on serving the passenger.”

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news › international

Australia hot debate over contract service prices Figures show investment in bus services is 16 times more costefficient than in tram and rail Australia A renowned public transport academic has criticised the South Australia State Government’s decision to competitively tender Adelaide’s public transport bus services.

Professor David Hensher, Director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at the University of Sydney and member of the BRT Centre of Excellence, agreed with advice provided to the South Australian Government to not competitively tender the state’s public transport bus services.

This advice was ignored by the Government, which competitively

Wrightbus completes 300th SBS delivery

Singapore Wrightbus International recently completed delivery of 300 double deckers to SBS Transit at a special handover ceremony in Singapore. The 300th vehicle was the last of a second batch of double decks to be delivered as part of a wider export order won in tandem with Volvo Bus Corporation.

Work is now underway on the next contract – a further three year deal between SBS Transit and Wrightbus International with Volvo Bus Corporation to supply a further 550 double deck bus kits on Volvo chassis to SBS Transit by 2015.

A total of 450 are now in service with SBS Transit.

Handover of the 300th Wrightbus Volvo double decker to SBS www.coachandbusweek.com

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tendered the services in 2010.

Since then there has been widespread dissatisfaction with the performance of the bus system and patronage has declined significantly.

The advice, from former public transport chief Heather Webster and two former consultants to South Australia’s transport department, favoured a process of negotiated contract extensions.

Prof Hensher agreed with Webster’s criticism of the investment in light and heavy rail, as compared to the bus system.

A study he had undertaken comparing the operating costs of Sydney railways with buses, both private and public concluded a train costs about 14 times more to operate per service kilometre than

a bus. Statistics also showed Sydney buses carried 13% more passenger trips than trains, meaning trains are close to 16 times more costinefficient compared to buses. “This is a staggeringly different sum and raises some serious questions about value for money in investing in rail versus bus,” he said.

Webster questioned the spending on trams and trains, when the bus network shouldered so much of the public transport burden in Adelaide and at a much lower comparative cost. Figures from the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure showed in 2011/12, buses were responsible for 50.99m boardings, while trams accounted for 2.9m and trains 9.62m.

Minister for Transport Western Australia, Troy Buswell, receives the keys for the Volvo Hybrid from Robyn Thomson, Commercial Development Manager, Volvo Bus Asia-Pacific

Volvo hybrid delivered down-under Australia Volvo Buses has delivered its first hybrid to the Asia Pacific region and Australia.

Minister for Transport Western Australia, Troy Buswell MLA, celebrated the launch of the new Volvo B5R Hybrid bus at the Volvo dealership in Guildford, Perth. It will begin operations in March in Perth’s free inner city CAT service

run by the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia.

The hybrid entered commercial production in 2010.

“Hybrid technology is an important option for reducing vehicle emissions. As the technology develops and we have the opportunity to test its suitability in new markets like Australia, we expect demand to keep growing worldwide,” said David Mead, General Manager of Bus Australia. ” The Volvo B5R Hybrid was assembled locally with a body designed and built by Australian coachbuilder Volgren.

Two Fuelcell Citaros for PostAuto switzerland Two Mercedes‑Benz Citaro FuelCELL (sic) Hybrid buses will provide both shuttle and regular services from January 23–27, 2013 at the prestigious “World Economic Forum” in Davos.

At the 43rd annual meeting of the charitable foundation, leading international economic experts, politicians, intellectuals and journalists will be discussing the world’s most urgent challenges with regard to health and the environment. PostAuto Schweiz AG will operate the vehicles for transporting participants.

PostAuto is the first bus company in Switzerland to use fuel cell technology in public transport.

Since the end of 2011, five Mercedes‑Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid Postbuses have been employed on PostAuto regular service routes in and around Brugg (Aargau canton) where a long-term test of fuel cell drive systems is being conducted. They use only environmentally-friendly and sustainably produced hydrogen as a fuel. PostAuto estimates approximately 2000 tonnes of CO2 will be saved during the five-year test phase.

The new Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid boasts fundamental innovations: hybridisation with energy recovery and storage in lithium-ion batteries, highperformance electric motors with 120 kW continuous power in the wheel hubs, electrified PTO units and further developed fuel cells.

These will achieve an increased durability of at least five years or 12,000 operating hours. Both stacks are located on the vehicle’s roof.

The lithium-ion batteries which store recovered power during braking also move to the roof. The energy reservoir means the new Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid can travel several kilometres using only battery-electric power.

The improved technology means the new Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid can save over 50% hydrogen in comparison to the previous generation. As a result the number of tanks has been reduced from the previous nine to seven and a total of 35 kg of hydrogen. The range is now greater than 300 kilometres.

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news › REGIONAL

NORTH

Statistics released by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) show incidents of crime and antisocial behaviour on the bus network have dropped by almost 17% over the past three years with a 10% fall in the past year alone.

TfGM spearheaded the Crime Reduction on Public Transport (CROPT) initiative alongside Greater Manchester Police and bus operators.

Between December 2009 and November 2010, there were 7,389 incidents reported on bus services and at bus stations.

Between December 2010 and November 2011, there were 6,871 incidents reported – a 7% reduction. The same figures for 2011/2012 show 6,163 incidents –a further drop of more than 10%.

Furthermore, figures for October to November 2012 show there were just 269 incidents compared to 472 for the same period in 2011, a reduction of 43%.

It follows a series of CROPT-led initiatives and enhancements, including CCTV technology and an increase of on-duty Special Constables at stations over the past two years.

Joint Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and TfGM safety operations have also been stepped-up, including detecting passengers carrying harmful weapons and visiting school assemblies to present on positive and safe transport behaviour.

In addition, following encouragement from TfGM, 25 separate bus operators have installed CCTV equipment on over 1700 Greater Manchester buses over the last two years.

Michael Renshaw, TfGM’s Bus and Rail Director, said: “We are pleased that in partnership with bus operators and GMP we have been able to secure such positive results. A number of initiatives have been put in place to help reduce crime and anti-social behaviour and, as the statistics show, these have been very successful.

However, there is still a lot of room for improvement and we will continue to prioritise safety at bus stations and on routes as part of our future plans for bus travel in Greater Manchester. These plans also include £80m of investment in new and improved transport interchanges throughout the region, all of which will provide a wide www.coachandbusweek.com

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meeting their needs as much as possible.”

KEY

SCOTLAND NORTHERN IRELAND REP OF IRELAND NORTH WALES MIDLANDS EAST LONDON SOUTH EAST SOUTH WEST

range of features to enhance the safety and security of the travelling public.”

NORTHERN IRELAND

A fleet of more than 40 new buses and a funding boost for roads has been announced after executive Stormont ministers had more than £40m to disperse after a number of departments failed to spend their total budgets. Regional Development Minister Danny Kennedy was the chief beneficiary with £18m which should help maintain almost 300 construction jobs with £1m to improve street lighting in some areas.

Some £6.7m is earmarked for bus fleet replacement which is being used to buy six single deck buses, 13 Goldliner coaches and a separate batch of 23 interurban buses before March. Mr Kennedy said 23 buses will be used on inter urban routes not covered by Goldline and would improve the fleet’s average age.

WALES

A series of new bus services being launched in Chepstow next month aim to improve public transport in the town and give more people the opportunity to use the bus.

The three commercial services, due to be launched on February 6, will be operated by Newport Bus and join together key parts of the town such as Bulwark and Thornhill to other areas including the town centre, community

SOUTH EAST

hospital, schools and supermarket.

They will operate from Monday to Friday from 0810 until after 1730hrs with a day ticket costing £2 and single fares starting from only 80p. ADL Enviro200s will be used on the services.

In January, Newport Bus began operating two local authorityfunded services in the town. It also operates commercial services linking Chepstow to Newport as well as town services in Monmouth.

Morgan Stevens, Operations Manager, said: “We’re very pleased to be giving people more opportunities to use public transport in Chepstow. Last year we attended a bus users’ surgery there and the overwhelming feedback from customers revealed they wanted us to operate more buses in the town.

“Our network already provides a vital link between Newport and Chepstow and it seemed only right to invest further to provide people with more transport opportunities in the town. These new services give people an affordable and reliable way of getting to where they want to go in Chepstow.

“We are also making our PASSPORT smartcard technology available on the services so this means people can use our top-up cards to pay for their journeys rather than carry cash. We hope people in Chepstow like the new services and we will be engaging with them to make sure we are

With the awarding of three additional TfL routes in 2012, Epsom Coaches Group covered over three million miles in a 12-month period up to December 31 for the first time ever.

“Whilst it is pleasing to secure further contracts and indeed be re-awarded two existing routes for another five years, the tough business is to actually run the service in accordance with the timetable in these difficult times of increased road works and traffic,” said Commercial Director Huw Barrington.

“Despite all this, Epsom Coaches Group bus division Quality Line constantly features in the top five out of 20 bus operators in London for mileage coverage and has run 98.87% of its scheduled mileage in 2012. With the majority of the losses down to traffic congestion, where a mere 0.81% of miles has been lost. To reach this milestone and to be returning these impressive figures clearly demonstrates great teamwork, with managers, supervisors, drivers and engineers all pulling together resulting in providing the best possible service to our customers.”

Having reviewed the feedback from passengers in relation to the new Portsmouth, Gosport and Fareham bus network, First has registered some changes to a number of its services.

The amendments, which affect services 0, 1, 2/2C, 3/3A, 7/7/C, 8/ X8, 9/9A, 10, 11, 12, 22, E2 and X40, will take effect from March 17.

A change is also being made to remove the evening hub arrangement which had been put in place in parts of the city. From March 17 services will be amended to run through to key destinations, rather than requiring passengrs to change buses at Cosham and in the City Centre as had been the case following the November 18 revamp of the network.

Marc Reddy, Regional Commercial and Business Growth Director for First in South West and Wales, said: “We know there were a few teething issues when the new network was introduced, and we’ve been looking at these carefully over the past few months.

“Some of the changes will mean slight timetable alterations or extra journeys being added in, but in one

28/01/2013 15:16

Coach & Bus Week takes a look at the big issues where you live in our round-up of the regions. If you’ve got a local issue you’d like us to cover, contact James Day on james. day@coachandbusweek.com.

Measures to improve air quality, which included antiidling campaigns and the fitting of Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) on 120 buses on routes 10, 148, 205, 49 and 7 in the capital have proved successful – according to a new report by Transport for London (TfL). A conference held at City Hall on January 22 heard the Mayor’s Cleaner Air Fund programme had met its objectives and also improved air quality at a number of hotspots across the capital.

The Government provided £5m for the first phase of the programme, which used targeted short term measures to reduce local particulate matter emissions and concentrations in the capital.

The Mayor also implemented an

long term package of measures to improve air quality in London by tightening the Low Emission Zone standards for heavy vehicles, introducing tough age limits for taxis and private hire vehicles, leading to the retirement of the older diesel taxis, increasing the capital’s green infrastructure and increasing the number of hybrid buses in fleet to 1,600 by 2016.

Leon Daniels, MD of Surface Transport at TfL, said: “The Clean Air Fund programme has delivered improvements, and it provides us with extensive research which we will be sharing with other public bodies and interested stakeholders.

The majority of London already meets its EU limit values for annual mean PM10 concentrations, but the programme allowed us to target measures at sites which were at risk of exceeding daily limits as part of our commitment to reducing pollution levels across the capital.”

Norman Baker, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, said: “It is encouraging to see London is taking ambitious steps to improve air quality. The challenge is to build on the success of the programme to ensure best practice is spread across the country. Of course, one of the best measures to tackle poor air quality is to move as quickly as possible to full roll out of low emission vehicles.”

The Bournemouth-based Yellow Buses has nearly 30 female drivers and this year aims to encourage even more into training. The operator found many women had never considered driving as a career, and is urging them to think about it as it believes a mix of men and women driving the buses will result in a better service.

UK Bus Awards finalist Vanessa Knowling, 38, has been driving Yellow Buses for almost three years and is proving a great success along with others including Sam Bowen, a driver and mentor, and Alison

Mountford who drives coaches for Nat Ex and has received lots of customer praise. Vanessa said: “I had never thought about driving a bus but I filled in the application form and went for an interview and then I started training. Driving is not a career many women think about, but I definitely think more should consider it. It requires so many different skills and really helps if you’re a people person. The hours can be flexible so it’s suitable for mums. I’m glad I changed career.”

Jenni Wilkinson, Yellow Buses’ Head of Marketing, said: “Traditionally it is a maledominated world, but there is no need for it to be like that. We provide full training and the job suits women who are juggling a busy family life and are well used to multi-tasking. The men at Yellow Buses are very welcoming and those women who do decide to come on board are all enjoying their careers.”

case a whole route is being split to create two new routes. Specifically route 0 is being withdrawn, to be replaced with a service 17 and a service 18, which will offer connections between Tipner, North End, Copnor, Eastney and Southsea (route 17) and QA Hospital, North End, Fratton and Southsea (service 18). We have also reinstated bus services in the San Diego Road area of Elson, Gosport following feedback about this.”

Full details of the service changes can be found at www.firstgroup. com/hampshire.

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January 30, 2013 | COACH & BUS WEEK | 15

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

The Clacton Bus Rally & Running Day will be held at the Clacton Factory Outlet on Sunday, June 2. It will feature modern & heritage vehicles

2013 n February 9 ‘Great Days Out’.

EventCity, Manchester, 0161 237 1010.

www.greatdaysout.com

n February 24-25 Coach Holiday Conference. Bristol Filton Holiday Inn. www.coachtourismcouncil.com n March 13-14 Best of Britain and Ireland (BoBi). Travel Trade Forum at the NEC in Birmingham. 01926 834796. www. bestofbritainandirelandevent.co.uk n March 19-21 The Cleaning Show. NEC, Birmingham. 01737 855 086 www.cleaningshow.co.uk n March 20-21 UK Bus Awards Annual Conference. The conference is booked to take place in Fareham and will feature a visit to Hampshire’s Eclipse BRT project. www.ukbusawards.org.uk n April 6 South East Bus Festival 2013. Kent Showground, near Maidstone, Kent, brought to you by the organisers of ‘M&D 100’ and ‘M&D and EK 60’. www.facebook. com/southeastbusfestival n April 9-11 CV Show 2013. NEC, Birmingham. www.cvshow.com n April 20-21 UK Coach Awards & UK Coach Rally. Alton Towers, Staffordshire. 01753 631170. www.coachdisplays.co.uk or www. ukcoachawards.co.uk n April 21 London Bus Museum Spring Gathering. Cobham Hall, Weybridge, Surrey. 01932 837994. www.londonbusmuseum.com n May 14-15 ALBUM Conference.

Belton Woods Hotel near Grantham, Lincolnshire. www.albumconference.

co.uk

n May 26-30 UITP Congress & Exhibition. Palexpo, Geneva.

www.uitp.org. +(00)32 2673 610 n June 2 Clacton Bus Rally & Running Day, Clacton Factory Outlet, Essex. Classic and current vehicles. Entry forms & more details available at http://www. colneestuarypb.co.uk/ n June 11-13 ATCO Summer Conference. Merseytravel HQ, Liverpool. www.atco.org.uk n June 16 Swansea Festival of Transport. Free to enter & attend. Call organiser Ashley Lovering on 07814958379 or email swanseatransport@aol.com. Visit www.ntfwswansea.co.uk. n July 21 Alton Bus Rally. Anstey Park, Anstey Lane, Alton, Hants. www.altonbusrally.org.uk n July 28 The Annual Peterborough Bus & Commercial Vehicle Rally. Sacrewell Farm (A47/ A1 junction). Free entry. 07828 754412 or 01462 626750 n September 7-8 Bus Driver of the Year Final. Blackpool. Call 01303 251462. www.bdoy.co.uk n September 8 Bus & Coach Wales 2013. Rhyd y Car Leisure Centre, Merthyr Tydfil n September 10 Association of Trainers AGM. 1400hrs, Wembley.

For details call 01797 344251. n September 22 Showbus 2013.

Long Marston Airfield, Warwickshire. www.showbus.com n October 2-3 Coach & Bus Live 2013. NEC, Birmingham. www. coachandbuslive.com

Send your event details to gareth.evans@ coachandbusweek.com www.coachandbusweek.com

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news › TOURISM

1951

The year Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, the biggest festival of Irish culture anywhere in the world, was first held

brIEfly Encore Tickets now gives the option for group organisers to offer individual on-the-spot menu selections instead of pre-order set menus. Johan Oosterveld, Sales Director, said: “Some of our most popular restaurants such as Sophie’s Steakhouse and Covent Garden Grill are offering this unique service, exclusively through Encore.

Adding a meal to your theatre booking has never been easier so make sure you take advantage of this opportunity.” Prices per person start at £10 and all the restaurants offering this service are within close proximity to all the West End Theatres. All enquiries should go through to the Groups department groups@encoretickets.co.uk or 020 7492 1525.

Roald Dahl’s dark tale of young Charlie Bucket and the mysterious confectioner Willy Wonka comes to life in a brand new West End musical directed

by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes. The musical opens at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on May 18 and runs through to November. Spectators can expect to see a chocolate garden, an army of squirrels and the curiously peculiar Oompa-Loompas. Parking is available at the coach bays near Theatre Royal at £4 per hour. There is a four-hour maximum stay.

Winkworth Arboretum, in Godalming, Surrey, features more than 1,000 different shrubs and trees, many of them rare.

Spring has the most impressive displays, with the magnolias, bluebells and azaleas flowering, while autumn and summer also have their unique features. The gardens are best viewed in April and May or September and October.

This year, the attraction has added a viewing platform to give sweeping views of the arboretum to less able visitors. There is parking for two coaches, 100 yards from the entrance. Admission is £5.60 per group member and the site is open all year round. The average visit length is one hour 30 minutes. The day can be combined with a trip to Clandon Park, just 12 miles away. For bookings visit www.nationaltrust. org.uk/groups www.coachandbusweek.com

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Soak up the culture Northern Ireland city to host a series of events throughout the year, including music festivals and a visit from the Royal Ballet For 2013, the city of DerryLondonderry in Northern Ireland will be the UK’s first ever City of Culture.

A world-class programme has been announced which includes the UK’s most famous art award, the Turner Prize, being presented outside England for the first time; a new commission by the London Symphony Orchestra; awardwinning dance choreographer

Hofesh Shechter; local Nobel Prizewinning poet Seamus Heaney; and the first visit to Northern Ireland of the Royal Ballet – Britain’s largest and most famous ballet company – for over a decade.

Other highlights include Walls 400!, which will mark the construction of the city walls, with activities which will explore their history and look at the walls’ potential to unite rather than divide; Music City! on June 21, which will be devoted to music in Derry, from rock, pop and electronic to jazz, classical and opera; and Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann between

City walls of Derry celebrated this year in Walls 400 events

August 11 and 18, the biggest festival of Irish culture anywhere in the world, celebrated in Northern Ireland for the first time since it began in 1951.

Free coach parking is available at Foyle Coach Park on Foyle Street, BT48 6AT, which is a five-minute walk from the city walls.

Any coach driver using this car park is eligible for a discount voucher to be used for them/their passengers at Foyleside Shopping Centre. This can be collected from the adjacent Tourist Information Centre.

Derry is one of the oldest inhabited places anywhere in Ireland. It is surrounded by stunning countryside and historic landmarks to visit and is the gateway to the incredible Giant’s Causeway coastline, a UNESCO Heritage Site, which has a new £18.5m state-of-the-art visitor centre, providing an enhanced experience for nature lovers. It now boasts excellent audio guides explaining more about the legends surrounding the unique stretch of coast, as well as the geological explanations for its unusual appearance.

For more information visit www.cityofculture2013.com

Panoramic views of the south coast The Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth is one of the south coast’s ‘must-see’ attractions.

The iconic 170m-tall viewing tower offers visitors spectacular 350° panoramic views.

Its unique position provides views stretching out for up to 23 miles over the historic harbour, the Solent and the Isle of Wight.

Visitors glide to the first of the three glass encapsulated viewing decks in just 28 seconds, via the internal high speed lift. Located 100 metres up, visitors literally step out of the lift doors into the magnificent views, which are uninterrupted on account of the floor-to-ceiling glazed windows.

Visitors enjoy panoramic views from Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower View Deck 2 is located at 105 meters and features self-contained multimedia ‘Time Telescopes’, which detail the vivid history of the harbour below. View Deck 3, ‘The Crow’s Nest’, is the highest viewing platform at 110 metres high and is open to the elements.

The attraction offers discounted

rates for groups of 15+, free admission for the group organiser and coach driver, free tea/coffee voucher plus many other benefits.

For coach parking information download the Group Organisers Guide at http://tinyurl.com/bx84ase

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£5.60

Admission per group member for Winkworth Arboretum in Godalming, Surrey

Celebrating Scotland’s natural beauty Scotland is celebrating its natural surroundings with the Year of Natural Scotland 2013, a year-long celebration of Scotland’s outstanding natural beauty, historical outdoor heritage, varied wildlife and breathtaking landscape.

The aim is to promote Scotland’s natural beauty and biodiversity, and promote ways for visitors to enjoy its landscapes, wildlife and heritage responsibly.

The programme for the Year of Natural Scotland includes the Dumfries and Galloway Wildlife Festival (March 29 – April 14), celebrating all things natural, packed full of exhibitions, food demos and wildlife walks; The Open 2013 (July 18-21); Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight (September 7-22), with the very best of Scotland’s larder in venues across the country; and Enchanted Forest (October 10 – November 2), where a spectacular light show brings magic to the forest, using the beautiful Faskally Wood in Perthshire (two hours from Edinburgh) as a backdrop.

For more information on the Year of Natural Scotland 2013 visit http://tinyurl.com/ arx8af5

DEALS OF THE WEEK Canterbury Cathedral, one of the oldest Christian structures in England, offers special rates for pre-booked groups of £8 adults, £7.50 full-time students and £6.50 under 18s plus an opportunity to book combined tickets for the cathedral and St Augustine’s Abbey. The site’s guides are experts at making the Cathedral and its history come to life. Tours are available in several languages and special tours of an

110m

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The height of ‘The Crow’s Nest’, the highest viewing platform of the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth

diesel prices

Ghostly 'goings on' as Sam and Molly sneak a supernatural snog

Ghost on tour GHOST the Musical, based on the Academy Award winning film, is to tour throughout the UK from April, opening at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.

GHOST the Musical tells the story of Sam, who is trapped as a ghost between this world and the next, trying to communicate with girlfriend Molly through a phoney psychic in the hope of saving her from his murderer.

The musical is directed by the Tony award-winning Matthew

extended or specialised character can be arranged, starting between 0900 and 1530hrs (Monday – Friday) and 0900 and 1330hrs (Saturday). There are no guided tours on Sunday. Cost for entrance and guided tour is £13.00 for both adult and concessions. n For more information email visits@canterbury-cathedral.org .

Oxburgh Hall, near Swaffham in Norfolk, a romantic, moated manor house, was built in the 15th century. The Bedingfeld family have lived in the hall ever since it was finished. Inside, visitors can hear the family’s Catholic history, see the secret

Warchus (Matilda, Art) and has music and lyrics by Grammy awardwinning Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and Glen Ballard and features the iconic song Unchained Melody.

The tour starts in Cardiff on April 8 – 27. It then hits the New Wimbledon Theatre in London between April 30 and May 11 before heading to the Edinburgh Playhouse between May 14 and June 1, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre between June 3 and 15 and finally Leeds Grand Theatre between June 17 and 29.

For full touring schedule and to book tickets visit www.ghostthemusical.com

Majestic: Canterbury Cathedral

Cost per litre in pence: Great Britain Italy Sweden Czech Republic Ireland Netherlands Belgium Hungary Greece Portugal France Germany Austria Slovenia Poland Spain Luxembourg

140.40 137.56 134.46 126.45 124.39 122.20 121.30 118.16 117.89 117.81 117.48 117.24 114.64 113.33 111.03 109.76 102.28

holiday pound £1 will get you: Euro 1.17 Switzerland (Franc) 1.46 Norway (Kroner) 8.69 Hungary (Forint) 349.42 Czech Republic (Koruna) 30.06 Poland (Zloty) 4.92

priest’s hole, an astonishing needlework by Mary, Queen of Scots and a private chapel built with reclaimed materials. Parking for two coaches is 20 yards from the entrance. On-board coach welcomes and guided tours are available. The house, garden, shop and tea-room open from March 9 to November 3 on Mondays to Wednesdays and at weekends, as well as selected Thursdays and Fridays. Admission is £7.65 per group member or £4.25 each for the garden only. n Book group visits, tours and catering at www.nationaltrust.org. uk/groups

20 Years supplying accommodation for Coach Operators – Costa Brava, Costa Dorada, Benidorm & Lake Garda For a quote please contact Richard on 0161 655 3645 richard@northern-holidays.com www.northern-holidays.com

• • • •

Costa Brava Oct. 3★ H.Top Hotels H/B fr. €13, A/I fr. €19 Christmas now available 3★ H.Top Hotels H/B fr. €21, A/I fr. €28 Now taking bookings for 2013 Special EBD for group bookings

• NO deposit required • We can also arrange group by Air under our ATOL5139 • Book with confident fully ABTA bonded W3565

www.coachandbusweek.com

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AIRPORT OPERATIONS

The National Express A6 express coach route to London Victoria is one of several frequent coach services between Stansted Airport and the Capital

A �lying visit

Coach & Bus Week’s Gareth Evans sets the scene for this week’s airport transport-themed features

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ith our super features on the Big Five coach and bus operators over the past year being so successful, we’re once again aiming to cover fresh ground.

This week we’re taking a closer look at the industry’s relationship with the UK’s airports, and as a result we’ve been fortunate to gain insights into Manchester Airport, London Stansted, First’s Reading to Heathrow railair.com service, Oxford Bus Company’s (OBC) www.coachandbusweek.com

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airline and Arriva’s Green Line to provide an overview of this oft overlooked but no less important sector of the bus and coach industry.

As with the Big Five, we’ve not pretended to compile comprehensive coverage as it would have taken us into ‘bookazine’ (to use the contemporary publishing term) territory. Instead we’ve provided a snapshot of some of the less well known operations but we’ve clearly not forgotten some of the big names, of which OBC’s airline is a prime example.

While visiting Stansted, Steve

Mills, the Airport’s Public Transport Development Manager told James that 50% of all air passengers arrive by public transport. This is an impressive milestone, considering not so long ago Stansted was said to have an unhealthy reliance on private cars and taxis, and transport links to it were always cited as an issue.

I was also surprised by the intensive nature of First Berkshire’s railair.com coach service and the determination to provide a high quality premium service.

Furthermore, I found the flexibility offered to passengers who book online most refreshing. The ability to simply hop on the next coach should you miss your booked service because your flight or train was delayed is certainly very useful.

Not only are passengers rewarded financially with lower fares online but they’re not constricted to using a particular departure.

In addition, Alex spoke to the OBC regarding the firm’s well known airline service and was impressed by both the scale of the operation and the hardiness and high standards required of the

coaches which run on it.

And for the record our Andrew was, somewhat fittingly, on a flight during the production of the features in this issue. However, while at Luton Airport he was taken aback by the presence of The Green Line 757 which provides forward travel to London. He admitted though, that while in Budapest he spotted a “great Big Picture opportunity” of a coach going across one of the city’s famous bridges but unfortunately he didn’t have his works camera to hand, something which our Vicky doubtless breathed a sigh of relief at.

We would also like to take the opportunity to give a big thank you to Melvyn Nice, Stansted Airport Media Relations Manager, who helped facilitate and was present at James’ interview with Steve Mills at the airport. Our thanks are also extended to railair.com’s Matthew Wooll and Andrew Taylor, Arriva Regional Marketing Manager Linsey Frostick, OBC’s Phil Southall and Phil Ashworth and last but by no means least the highly enthusiastic team at Manchester Airport.

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Operator profile› manchester airport

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The inexorable bus service Much of the landside fleet is made up of light weight buses like Dennis Darts PICTURES: IAN HOWARTH

Tim Deakin visits Manchester Airport to investigate its airside and landside bus operations, staff recruitment and running at peak hours

2

4/7 bus operations in the UK remain rare, with only a handful of service providers scheduling their vehicles to work around the clock. Such coverage 365 days a year is even less common, but it does exist in a certain part of the industry.

This niche and rarely-examined part of the business contains the courtesy operations at the nation’s airports. At Manchester, the north of England’s busiest air travel hub, a fleet of buses is on hand to meet the needs of passengers and staff around the clock, every day of the year.

The requirements of an airport bus operation bear both some similarities and some striking differences to the hire and reward sector. Leslie Addie is Manchester Airport’s Head of bussing, responsible for over 50 vehicles and a workforce which varies in strength from 108 during the winter to over 160 in summer months. “While the buses are much quieter at night, we still need them,” she said. “There’s no rest time; they’re workhorses.”

Leslie explained there are two almost entirely separate fleets in operation at Manchester. One is for ‘landside’ operations – car park shuttles and inter-terminal work – and the other for ‘airside’, largely carrying passengers between remotely-parked aircraft and the terminal buildings. A smaller component of airside work is the conveyance of transfer passengers between flights, for which a handful of 17-seat Optare Aleros are used.

Constant improvement The bussing department has worked extremely hard over the past two-and-a-half years

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operator profile› manchester airport

and during this time has achieved some significant goals, explained Transport Manager Andy Willis.

“We are the first airport in the UK to have all our bus drivers complete their DCPC training and the first to operate hybrid vehicles, thanks to the Green Bus Fund,” he said. “We are also the first airport to join the CPT, which has been very useful.

Additionally we are members of the North West Maintenance Committee, which gives us up-todate information from the Traffic Commissioner and VOSA. Even though our operation is totally different to normal bus and coach work, it is very important that we get involved with the rest of the industry.”

need to get them repaired. Of the four we had, one died. It was of such a catastrophic cost to repair that it’s now at our aviation viewing park. It’s a sightseeing addition to Concorde there,” she noted. “I’m not a bendybus girl, really. We have three others, one of which is on the road. Two are in need of repair.”

Andy also explained that of this other duo one is a completely unique vehicle, a Volvo B7LA with Spanish-built Hispano bodywork which saw use as a demonstrator in both London and Edinburgh during

its early days. Unsurprisingly as a one-off, extended downtime has been experienced awaiting parts for its bodywork. It is currently for sale.

Nevertheless, artics have served a useful purpose thanks to their ability to move large numbers of people. With as keen an eye on costs as any other operator, Leslie is aware it would take a pair of Darts, Versas or VDLs to move such a volume of passengers at times of peak demand. Equally important is that this option would also take two drivers, rather than one in an

Landside work

“There are around 23,000 employees [at the airport], and huge staff car parks,” Leslie explained. “Ours are all courtesy bus operations. There are no fares collected on board.” Much of the landside fleet is made up of Dennis Dart SLFs, with a number of newer VDL vehicles also present. Two ADL Enviro 200s were purchased during September 2012 while six dual-door Optare Versa hybrids are also on hand.

The Dart’s driveline of Cummins engine coupled to Allison transmission draws praise from Andy, who describes it as “unbreakable”. Although the core of the landside fleet is made up of lighter-weight types, a number of vehicles at the opposite end of the scale are also present in the form of articulated buses.

At first glance these would seem to be ideal for an essentially point A to point B airport operation.

In reality the opposite is the case, although their three-door layout is useful. “We did have four bendybuses, which were purchased before I became head of section,” Leslie explained. “They’re probably really good for taking large numbers of people along straight roads, but here at the airport we have lots of roundabouts which are quite tight and we have lots of speed calming measures in the form of rumble strips.

Neither are conducive to bendybus operation. The rams in the ‘joint’ are something we’ve had particular issues with, and they’re very costly to fix.”

“The bendybuses do about 4mpg.

They’re also a very expensive piece of kit to keep on the road when we www.coachandbusweek.com

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Above: Steve Knight in the control room. Top: Optare Versa Hybrids. Below: Leslie believes artics are great people movers but expensive to run

articulated bus.

“In the peak, getting 100 people on a bus is great. When staff are going on shift we need high capacity. We’re all aware of costs in the current climate, so the only fix – the only alternative – to a bendy is a double-decker,” she explained.

“We had a brand new doubledecker demonstrator for a week.

It was really nice, and we do need to try and get something like that again,” Leslie continued. “But among the airport community we have cabin crew with a lot of luggage, which you wouldn’t get elsewhere. There’s a little bit of nervousness among them about going upstairs and leaving their bags downstairs.”

A further double-deck demonstration in the future is likely.

“We want to get some buy in [from passengers], so what we’d need to do is get another and do a survey.

We’d get on the bus and ask staff if it could work and see how many people go upstairs. There’d be no point in us buying double-deckers if passengers only filled the lower saloon,” she added. “We did have two of the bendies running on red diesel, because the staff car park to the terminal is entirely along

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Leslie Addie: a brief history

Above: Transport Manager Andy Willis and Head of Passenger Services Leslie Addie. Below: Hybrid branding private roads. We were saving money there – until they broke down. What we were also doing outside the peaks was taking an artic off and putting a Dart on if we could, which was saving us fuel.”

Airside operations

The artics are unsuitable for transfer airside as they’re unable to access a particular part of airport property adjacent to the bussing lounge. For this area of operations vehicles familiar to travellers worldwide are used, in the form of Caetano subsidiary Cobus’s distinctive products.

Designed specifically for airside operation and not able to run on the public highway, those at Manchester are four-door models with few seats and are able to carry almost as many passengers as one of the bendybuses.

Both Leslie and Andy spoke very highly of the distinctive Cobuses, Andy describing them as “the best bit of kit you’ll ever buy”. He added: “They have 95% of the world market for airside buses. Neoplan have got 2.5% and the other 2.5% is with Chinese manufacturers.”

Leslie continued: “If we’re buying an airside bus, it’s Cobus every

ManchesterAirport.indd 23

time. They’re a quality product.

We’ve been to the factory in Porto to have a look at them being built.

It’s fantastic. They cost more to purchase in the first place but given their whole life costs and how long they last – 25 years – they’re the best option.”

Airside operations ran with smaller buses until 1997, when continuing expansion meant higher capacity was needed. “We went to Dublin Airport to have a look at their Cobuses and then we went to Birmingham. We then visited Gatwick, because they were the first to have them,” Andy recalled.

“Gatwick had the six-door ones, which were too big for us. So we bought four-door examples. They hold 83 passengers and just run and run and run. We have 18 now.”

Although landside routes are scheduled in much the same way as conventional bus operators’ services are, albeit with sometimes heavy duplication, airside operations run completely differently. “It’s much more reactive there,” Leslie said, adding that factors such as flight delays or technical problems with aircraft and baggage-related issues can all have an effect on requirements,

Leslie has been a Manchester Airport employee for almost 26 years, her previous duties having included a stint on the information desk, stand allocation and most recently head of car parks. As part of her current role she is also responsible for trolley operations and contract managing wheelchair provision for passengers with reduced mobility.

“I took my operator’s CPC last year,” she explained. “I did that whilst I was still coming in for 10 hours a day. I was still revising at two o’clock in the morning. Of the 14 who sat the test only me and two others passed first time.”

The next step is to obtain a PCV license. “In all my other jobs at the airport I’ve never asked anybody who works for me to do something I’m not prepared to do myself. But I wasn’t qualified to drive a bus.”

Under the tutelage of technical trainer Ronnie Singh lessons have already begun, using the resident Neoplan coach. sometimes at very short notice.

“What we do airside is use a computer [dispatch] system,” she added. “Drivers are assigned tasks via on-bus terminals. When a job comes in we send it through to them. They accept it and do it. They might wait in their rest room, where there is also a screen [detailing jobs]. But in the morning, when it’s busy, they’re on the go all the time.” All aircraft-related goingson are transmitted via the bussing unit’s control desk.

Peak performance

“We normally go out to recruit during January. Because we’re an airport we have to carry out security checks in a way that other operators won’t have, especially in relation to airside work.”

Leslie Addie

As would be expected at an airport which serves a large number of leisure travellers, Manchester’s peak period is during summer, at which time 26 buses are engaged on landside work. With most of these utilised 24/7, a higher factor of spare cover is required than would be the norm at a commercial provider.

“The industry standard is about 10%,” Leslie explained. “We try to run with 20%. That’s another fundamental difference between us and most conventional bus operators. At night they have a much reduced service and most of their vehicles are

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OPERATOR PROFILE › MANCHESTER AIRPORT

parked. Ours aren’t. We’re running 24/7 because passengers arrive at all times of the day and night.”

The landside morning peak starts very early. “If the buses go out on a 15-minute service, we’d possibly need four vehicles at 0400hrs in summer months just to get the volume of passengers on board and to the terminal in time,” Leslie explained. “Come 1100 we’re still on a 15-minute frequency but we might only have 10 people on the bus. But those 10 people still need to get to the terminal.”

Maintenance periods also differ from the industry norm thanks to the buses’ heavy workload, said Andy. “Every three weeks they have a full safety service. Our engineering arm works 24hrs a day; it has to.” More extensive checks are undertaken at every 12 and 26 weeks, while at annual MoT each vehicle is taken out of service for a week to receive a thorough going-over. Leslie notes despite the buses’ arduous schedules, the all-important pass rate at first presentation for test is a perfect 100%.

Staffing solutions

With security around airports much enhanced for passengers and staff alike since the events of 9/11, driver recruitment is a more complicated process than it would be in other areas of the industry, although Leslie noted staff turnover is low, particularly amongst those employed on airside work.

All recruitment is handled via Manchester Airport’s website.

“Usually the advert will be on there for two weeks,” she explained. “We normally recruit during January.

Because we’re an airport we have to carry out security checks in ways other operators won’t have to, especially in relation to airside work.

“We have to start early to get all that done in time. If people are shortlisted there are specific questions we have to ask. Then our technical trainer, Ronnie Singh, takes them for a driving assessment. If they pass, they have an interview at the same time.”

Those whose driving ability fails to meet the required standard proceed no further.

High retention levels are something Leslie puts down to the lack of fare collection duties and not having to deal with issues familiar to all drivers who have worked late shifts on conventional stage work www.coachandbusweek.com

ManchesterAirport.indd 24

at weekends. Some staff have only ever driven professionally at the airport; others are former coach or taxi drivers, while still more have previously been employed by other operators in the Manchester area.

Most drivers can work either airside or landside, or “both sides of the fence,” Leslie explained. “Some prefer airside only but it’s a very different world driving there. You could have a 767 coming up behind and a 737 pushing back in front.

There are very stringent rules to follow.”

Tuition for staff new to airside work is handled by the technical trainer Ronnie but all personnel regardless of vehicle type must first pass a test to be allowed to drive there. “It’s not necessarily just aircraft movements,” she continued.

“There are only certain routes they can go down. It’s being so aware of whatever else is going on there.

You’ve got fire appliances, mobile steps, lifts, fuellers and caterers.”

Immediate supervision of operations is handled by a team of allocation managers, who predominantly work rotating 12-

hour shifts on a rolling four on, four off basis. A small number of drivers are trained to cover as allocation managers during busy periods.

Maintaining standards

Above: Covered bus wash is also available for visiting operators

“Manchester Airport is an exciting place to be. It’s growing and getting bigger all the time, and hopefully this will continue.”

Leslie Addie

Landside buses are based a short distance from the terminal buildings on a secure plot which also houses the bussing unit and offices. Comprehensive maintenance facilities are provided here, most noticeable of which is a high-specification covered bus wash, recently installed at a cost of £170,000.

This is available to third parties such as coach operators whose vehicles may be laying over at the airport awaiting an incoming flight; a local haulier has already signed a contract to use the wash for cleaning its trailers. Also available on-site are toilet drop facilities, diesel and Ad-Blue and regular customers may set up an account.

Maintenance and repair of airside vehicles is handled elsewhere, at the airport’s central facilities. “It’s a huge area there. They don’t just look after our buses. They look after snow kit, fire appliances, everything – all motorised vehicles,” Leslie explained.

Future plans

Above: Funky branding on a car park shuttle bus. Below: Landside buses are based on a secure site a short distance from the terminal buildings

Projections suggest air travel will grow considerably over future decades, which will have a bearing on the direction Manchester Airport’s bussing unit takes. Moving up to double-deckers on landside work would cover bases there and increase efficiency at the same time.

Airside, things aren’t quite so simple. Infrastructure currently precludes the use of Cobus’s largest product, the six-door 3000, and also mitigates against a move to articulated buses, but requirements airside are not entirely tied to passenger growth figures.

“It’s dependent on remote aircraft operations,” Leslie said. “The airport could bring in more passengers, but if the aircraft they travel on can all fit on stand it doesn’t actually mean more buses. During the peak we’re full technically; we couldn’t fit any more on stand. But if an airline wanted to come in at 1100 they probably could do and so wouldn’t require any bussing.”

Manchester Airport, she sums up, is “an exciting place to be. It’s growing and getting bigger all the time, and hopefully this will continue. We’ve got a great bunch of guys and girls here – and I don’t think anybody ever gets bored.”

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service profile › reading-heathrow railair

Sky High Coach Standards Coach & Bus Week’s Gareth Evans talks to Andrew Taylor and Matthew Wooll about First Berkshire’s flagship Reading to Heathrow coach service, railair.com, where quality of service and pride reign supreme

C

hances are you’ve heard of First Berkshire’s railair. com coach service but like me, you didn’t really know too much about it. Yes, it’s high profile and runs between Reading and Heathrow Airport using coaches – as opposed to buses – but that’s about it until now.

“Longevity undoubtedly differentiates this service from other airport routes. Established in March 1967, it started in Slough the previous year but it was changed because all fast rail services stop at Reading,” explained Andrew Taylor, Commercial Director at First Berkshire.

“Half the business on railair.com originates by train. There is more than one rail route to Reading but the principal flows are from South Wales and the West of England.

Reading also benefits from a good local rail service from places on the Oxford, Newbury and London Waterloo lines. There are some odd journeys from people who perhaps understandably have an aversion to going via London.

“In terms of train fares, it can be a lot more expensive to go via Paddington. In any case, our 20-minute frequency is similar to the interchange time at Paddington.

Terminal 5 is the main hub – it’s by far the most popular, which is one of the reasons we go there first, plus www.coachandbusweek.com

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the fact it’s the closest to Reading.

The service then goes to Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, followed by picking up in Central Bus Station. Terminal 5 is just 38 minutes from Reading on railair.com.”

Matthew Wooll, the company’s Revenue & Marketing Manager, said railair.com is a separate coaching product but is part of a portfolio of services to Heathrow from the west.

Others include the 7-series from Maidenhead, Windsor and Slough, comprising routes 71, 75, 76, 77 and 78 operated using a fleet of Mercedes-Benz Citaros. Green Bus Fund-supported Volvo single-deck hybrids are due in March.

Coaches rather than buses?

Back to railair.com, why is the service operated using coaches rather than buses? Andrew replied:

“The service was established in the old state-owned bus and rail days.

Standing Joint Committees were an assembly of rail and bus people regionally. The idea of a coach service from the Great Western Main Line to Heathrow was born out of lack of a rail link and the then realistic lack of one being created.

Above: Andrew Taylor and Matthew Wooll. Top: A railair.com Plaxtonbodied Volvo B9 approaches Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 1

“Reading being further away with an easy motorway connection means it’s always been natural for it to be operated by coaches.

“We’ve never been drawn into operating a cheap and cheerful shuttle bus service. We could possibly orientate our business that way but it’s not the way forward for us – we want a limited-stop, fast coach service.

Despite the headlines, the M4 is not that bad. We run a reliable service. Our drivers know a lot of creative diversionary routes when the M4 is in trouble. In that way we’re fortunate the service is not registered as a local bus route. “railair.com also has a standby coach. Some people would doubtless view that as an expensive luxury but we see it as justifiable as it helps to maintain service quality. It’s also on hand should we need to run an additional journey due to demand.”

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OPERATOR: First Berkshire ESTABLISHED: 1967 FLEET: 10 CONTACT: 0118 957 9425 www.railair.com

January 30, 2013 | COACH & BUS WEEK | 27

ability to wait in a dedicated lounge at Reading, which is comfortable and warm compared to standing outside in the cold at a bus shelter, or perhaps worst still, the open air.

However, Reading station is currently undergoing major redevelopment. Andrew said the firm will go to “great pains to describe different drop-off points around the station during the redevelopment work. The departure bays won’t be any different but the walking routes will change.

“The rather narrow pedestrian footbridge on the station will be replaced by a wide ‘transfer deck’ to deal with an increased flow of passengers. It will be a great improvement for our passengers.

Fortunately the railair.com is well signposted on the ground. You’ll also find little traces of railair.com at stations throughout the FGW network. Reading station itself has also got its act together on local bus service information.”

Just the ticket

The four Ps

Marketing professionals will be all too familiar with the idea of the ‘four Ps’ – Product, Price, Place and Promotion. The marketing mix is often crucial when determining a product or brand’s offering. Where does railair.com lie with this?

Andrew took up the story: “Over the years we’ve developed non-rail business. A lot of development has taken place in the greater Reading area, including international businesses and residential – to the extent that it’s now 50/50 split between passengers from rail or ‘kiss & ride’, taxis, local bus services and walking.

“We do a lot ourselves to promote the service in the greater Reading area, including press, radio and TV advertising. When we started the latter, we were very much at the forefront. To justify the level of service we offer, we’ve got

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to remind people all the time. The problem is most people only need to go to the airport periodically so we need to remind them.

“People are quite sophisticated about the way they travel today.

Because this service is on rail timetables and publicity, it gets considerable exposure, including fares promotion. It can be found on the National Rail website for example.”

As for demographics, Andrew noted: “railair.com is in a class of its own. A very broad brush but the split between business and leisure is 50/50. We get a lot of people who travel first class on the train and the use the coach service which offers a similar level of comfort.”

The first journey departs Reading at 0400hrs, with the last departure being 2305. The first service leaves Heathrow at 0500, with the final departure at 0005.

An attraction of the service is the

First Berkshire: a brief history

First in Berkshire operates as a business unit under the overall management of First in London.

The local senior management team comprises Commercial Director Andrew Taylor and acting Chief Operating Officer Simon Goff.

The firm has depots in Bracknell and Slough, with outstations in Chertsey (for the Runnymede yellow school bus contract) and Reading (for the railair.com service).

“If you don’t offer internet booking, you really are missing a trick today.”

Andrew Taylor

railair.com operates on a turn up and go basis. This allows some flexibility as flights and trains can be delayed, not to mention passengers at border checks for example.

Andrew said on-line fares are also offered. “With the increasing complexity of public transport fares in recent years, people will play the system. There has definitely been a steady increase in online bookings.

If you don’t offer internet booking, you really are missing a trick today.”

Providing a booking is made before 1700hrs on the day before travel, passengers can book and print their e-tickets from the comfort of their home or office and simply show their e-ticket to a member of staff when boarding.

“Adult fares start from £15 single online. It’s £3 cheaper than on a turn up and go basis,” explained Matthew.

While full details can be found on the railair.com webpages, for completeness an Adult Day Return is £16, while a Period Return costs £23. In addition to Family tickets and special rates for Groups of more than eight, concessions are also available for children, plus 16–25s, Seniors, the disabled and HM Forces upon presentation of the appropriate railcard.

A team effort

“railair.com enjoys a large number of commendations it has to be said,” Matthew enthused.

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SERVICE PROFILE › READING-HEATHROW RAILAIR

“People praise our drivers’ ability to get to Heathrow on time. We monitor our feedback rigorously.”

A 35-strong team of people work on railair.com, including drivers, controllers and ticket sellers.

Matthew continued: “We have our own ticket desk inside the lounge at Reading station. People often turn up at the station without pre-booking. While they can buy from the driver in an emergency, the practice is discouraged.

“We don’t think it’s right for our drivers to be held up selling tickets – we want to run a punctual, quality service. However, we’re certainly not going to turn people away either. Fortunately, our drivers understand the important part they play in customer satisfaction.

“If you give drivers the right tools for the job, including high-spec vehicles, they give back 10 times the value in customer care.

“It’s small but significant details – like having heaters on very early in the morning. The last thing people want to do is board a freezing cold vehicle. We have for example, fitted Webastos to our Citaro buses on the 7–series services which operate their first journey at 0330hrs. If you buy a quality vehicle, you get quality comfort and the improved specification of the latest railair.com vehicles has been recognised by customers.”

Fleet

The 10–strong fleet comprises: Four 49-seater Plaxton Panther-bodied Volvo B9Rs, – two 11-plate & two 62-plates; Two 53-seater, 04-plate Irizar Century-bodied Scanias; Three 07-plate 53-seater Plaxton Panther-bodied Volvo B12Bs; and Last but by no means least is the spare coach, an 03-plate Irizar Century-bodied Scania.

“Each year we buy two new vehicles,” explained Matthew. “Four Volvo B9s have joined the fleet in the last two years. Prior to that we acquired a small batch of B12s.

“The idea is to continually invest each year to keep the age profile down. We’ve now adopted as standard a 49-seater configuration.

This includes black leather seats, increased legroom, a table, power sockets at each pair of seats, RealTime Information (RTI), full airconditioning and complimentary WiFi. RTI is provided thanks to the Connextionz system which is www.coachandbusweek.com

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railair.com:

a brief history

Above: The latest additions to the railair.com fleet. Below: Marketing is a vital part of the operation, which includes taxi advertising

common on many bus services in Reading. “Our controllers can see exactly where the coaches are, which helps to ensure we operate a smooth and reliable service.

Historically this has been a feature of the service,” Matthew continued.

Two new coaches have just entered service. Following the many positive comments from passengers, these two new coaches are very similar to the two purchased last year.

The railair.com fleet is maintained by municipally-owned Reading Transport (RTL) at its Great Knollys Street depot. The fleet has been parked overnight at RTL’s for some years now, and the arrangement has been described as a logical progression from this.

Previously the vehicles were cared for by First’s Slough depot. With Great Knollys Street located just down the road from the Reading Station terminus of the railair.com route, the arrangement has resulted in improved service delivery, in addition to providing greater engineering efficiency. RTL carries

out maintenance, routine checks, annual MoTs as well as washing, interior cleaning and parking.

Conclusion

Looking ahead to the future, railair. com looks set to remain a coach service rather than a local bus route. Matthew said: “We’ve fought hard to keep this service, which is expensive to operate. There are lots of alternatives to railair.com today.”

Andrew agreed: “Getting to airports is a very competitive business. National Express run direct routes to airports these days.

Our partners at First Great Western have helped us with timetable distribution. The decrease in rail passengers has been offset by organic local growth. TV adverts can be targeted in certain geographical areas.

“It’s vital for us to retain the railair.com brand name as a substantial part of our passengers still come from the trains. We need to keep reminding people – that’s why we spend such a significant sum on marketing.”

At 0600hrs on the morning of March 6, 1967, the first coach departed from Reading station. At the time the service was called the ‘Air Road Rail Service’, operated by the Thames Valley Traction Company Ltd, but over the years various improvements and changes of ownership have resulted in the service you see today.

The Reading Evening Post had this to say about the new service ‘The four vehicles are the newest luxury coaches to carry passengers on a £1 return journey to and from 80 main-line intercity express trains from Reading every day. The service is also available to people from Reading. All four coaches are equipped with radio equipment so they can be in two-way touch with British Rail’s Western Region Tower offices in Reading’.

These days railair.com continues to be operated using a modern fleet of vehicles. However, radio contact has been replaced with mobile phone technology and a GPS tracker system, giving very accurate information about the position of each vehicle on the route.

Over the years the service was operated using contemporary durable coaches, including Plaxton Elite-bodied Bristol RELHs, Plaxton Supreme-bodied Leopards, Plaxton 3500-bodied Leyland Tigers, Duple 425s and Berkhof-bodied Scanias.

The profile of RailAir was raised again in August 2003 with the introduction of five new fully air-conditioned Scania Irizar coaches. These striking vehicles replaced four of the tri-axle Volvos purchased in 1999. These were joined by three similar examples in April 2004, replacing all older coaches.

On March 6, 2007, the fortieth anniversary of a direct coach service between Reading and Heathrow was celebrated by giving passengers special railair.com coach-shaped cakes and putting balloons and banners up at the Reading end of the route. railair.com continues to be one of the best examples of coach/rail integration within the UK and the quality of the service is always top of First Berkshire’s agenda.

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insight › green line 757

Green Line’s enduring 757 Luton-London airport link Coach & Bus Week’s Alex Tyler talks to Arriva Regional Marketing Manager Linsey Frostick about the history, vehicles, operation and future of the Green Line 757 www.coachandbusweek.com

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he Green Line coach services which celebrated their 80th anniversary in 2010 and provide links between London, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Berkshire also maintains the only direct link between London and Luton Airport with the popular 757 route.

Since its introduction the route has been tailored to those who use it most and Linsey Frostick, Regional Marketing Manager for Arriva, stressed the importance of customer service on such a route.

“We have launched a multilingual website to encourage those travelling from mainland Europe to use the service,” she explained.

“Also, we invested in extra training for the drivers with help from our Original Tour company, as they deal with tourists on a regular basis.

Tourists are looking for more these days, so we helped to improve service in that regard, in addition the 757 has a dedicated support desk at the airport and people on

the ground to help passengers with luggage and to assist drivers when necessary.”

How it all began

The main service between Luton Airport and London Airport was launched in November 1980, on an hourly daytime headway where there was initially an element of competition with Seamarks Coaches of Luton who were already running a service from Luton Airport to Kings Cross.

At the time Luton Airport was the base of two major charter carriers, Britannia and Monarch and enjoyed a package holiday catchment across the south of England. Airport and commuter coach traffic grew steadily and core frequency was increased to two per hour in January 1982 when the service was branded “Flightline 757”. Growth continued and as well as the first night runs, additional early morning and late evening journeys were added.

The route then passed to London Country Bus North East Ltd (LCNE) in September 1986 when London Country was subdivided in

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re-equipped Green Line 757 was in the perfect position to convey the new airline passengers to and from London.

Partnership

readiness for privatisation. LCNE entered a period of industrial relations difficulties during 1988 and before long employee owned Luton and District Transport Ltd began a rival commuter service, numbered 575 and LCNE handed their 757 operation over to Luton and District who ran their coaches in a red and grey livery.

The recession of the early 1990s reduced the number of charter passengers from Luton and unfortunately their numbers did not recover with the economy, and Luton and District suffered accordingly.

When British Bus acquired Luton and District in July 1994 there was rapid recognition of the need to restore 757 to the recognised “Green Line” brand and livery.

This bought a measure of recovery which encouraged the renewal of the entire coach fleet in 1997; the first investment in the service since privatisation.

In the meantime, new management at Luton Airport had coincided with the increase in low cost flying from the UK and the

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“Green Line 757 has become very important to Arriva,” said Linsey.

“It was decided to pursue a policy of partnership, which we run with National Express, Terrravision, easyJet and easyBus. We also operate a policy of ticket sharing between partners.”

The long standing “add on” ticket arrangement with National Express has developed so that 757 is sold as integral part of the nationwide coach network. After a period of contracted operation, the easyBus service has been integrated with the 757 and all the coaches feature a combined Green Line and easyBus livery. The Italian provider of airport coach services, Terravision, uses 757 for its Luton-London link The logos of all three partners now appear on the Green Line coaches.

As part of the partnership, easyJet customers who buy their coach ticket online can travel on Green Line 757 service between London and London Luton Airport for a discounted price advertised on its website. In addition, Green Line services from Luton Airport will accept Euros.

Clockwise from top: A Van Hool T917; A Caetano Levante; and a demonstration of the wheelchair lift

In addition, the service offers a competitive price with rail services in the area, as Linsey outlined: “An anytime day return form Luton Airport to London Victoria is £30.90 including the bus and tube. Our fare on a return within 24 hours is £19.

A return within the month on the train, valid at any time is £31 and our period return, valid for three months is £25.

Obviously the trains have off peak deals as well but these examples show the significant savings that can be made.”

Vehicles: then and now

Green Line 757 was launched using AEC Reliance coaches with Duple Dominant II Express bodies. With lightly-stressed 12.4 litre engines, they were very competent vehicles.

In July 1982 new Leyland Tiger 218 coaches were delivered to 757 but increased loadings led to double deck operations for many journeys from March 1985 using long-wheelbase Leyland Olympians with ECW bus bodies containing coach seats and disguised by styling changes including large and vulnerable upper-deck screens. The Olympian ‘coaches’ were not as reliable on Green Line duty as shorter versions on local bus services and regular passengers found upper-deck travel disconcerting; especially during motorway lane changes.

With the switch to Luton and District in 1988 came a revision to single deck coaches in the form of Leyland Leopards and Tigers with Duple and Plaxton bodies and Plaxton bodied Volvo B10Ms. They performed satisfactorily and many were still at work nine years later but with Green Line livery under the aegis of British Bus. By 1997, following the acquisition by Cowie, there was a

need for fleet replacement. Luton Airport was beginning to grow scheduled services and 10 new DAF SB3000s with Plaxton Prima bodies were put in place to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the expansion of easyJet. Another 10 almost identical vehicles arrived in 2000 for service augmentation and to release some of the earlier delivery for other Green Line routes. The SB3000s reportedly gave a particularly smooth ride and have proved remarkably resilient to the demands of a rigorous 24-hour operation.

In January 2006, five VDL SB4000s with Van Hool Alizee bodies joined the Green Line 757 fleet. They were amongst the first fully wheelchair accessible coaches to enter service in the UK with a lift set in a second doorway ahead of the front axle resulting in an extension in overall length to 12.2 metres.

However, in 2008 the SBs made way for 16 Van Hool T917 integrals.

The coaches have 63 seats and are 14.4 metres long with three axles.

“The coaches are wheelchair accessible, but we encourage pre booking as seats have to be taken out but it is a feature that is well used,” commented Linsey.

The future

Asked about the future of the operation Linsey had a positive outlook: “We aim to grow the service, and increase patronage and we will be introducing the summer timetable in March which will boost frequency to coincide with summer holidays.

“In addition, Luton is one of the airports projected to grow significantly in the next few years and we hope to grow with it. The vehicles will be five years old at the end of the year. A number of them will have clocked up over 75,000km by then so we will have to look into upgrading again, at least in the next couple of years. We tend to buy rather than lease, as we cascade our vehicles. The ones which were replaced in 2008 were moved onto Stevenage services, which saw an improvement of the vehicles there.”

“We will be maximizing our online presence and any potential partnership work,” she added. “We will be focusing on other digital campaigns and social media with the aim of increasing our search engine optimisation to ensure we are at the top of the list when people are searching for onward travel from Luton airport.”

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THE BIG PICTURE

With this week being an airport coach and bus services-themed issue, it is perhaps worth remembering the contribution Terravision makes to the highly competitive city to terminal market.

The Italian-based firm boasts of offering a value for money service between low-cost airports and city centres across Europe. Pictured here is Irizar Century-bodied Scania K340, registered ‘YN08DFG’.

According to the legal lettering at the time of photography, this particular vehicle was operated by South East London-based Excalibur Coaches. The vehicle is seen laying over at Elizabeth Bridge, across the road from Victoria Coash Station, on the morning of Tuesday, July 31 prior to picking up passengers from Bulleid Way Coach Station round the corner. Route A50 operates broadly half-hourly between Stansted and London Vicoria. While Terravision runs two other services to Stansted, it also operates a service between Liverpool Airport and Manchester Shudehill Interchange in the city centre.

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analysis › london stansted

A network in good standing James Day travels to London Stansted Airport, which has made huge strides in the last decade to make its surface transport network one of the best and most extensively used in Europe

I

had some limited experience of Stansted Airport’s coach and bus station when I travelled to Stuttgart for Daimler’s IAA 2012 preview event. I caught a shuttle bus back to the hotel I stayed at the night before, and it was easy to see the thought given to the layout of the station, which is situated between Stansted’s shortstay car parks right outside the front of the main terminal building.

Much of the waiting area is well covered and there are several small shops offering refreshments and magazines. You can walk between the departure/arrivals area and your coach or bus within the space of a minute, with only a single small escalator or ramp on the way. The airport’s rail station is similarly well situated.

However what took me by surprise was just how successful the airport’s public transport network is. The percentage of people who travel to the airport by bus and coach was a modest 6.9% back in 2000, approximately 760,000 people. Now, it’s closer to 26%, or 4.3 million, an increase of over 500% in terms of passengers carried annually. To put this into perspective, Stansted had one million air passengers in total in 1991, while now the coach and bus station alone sees more air passengers travelling through it than Aberdeen and Southampton airports combined.

When this figure is put together with the 24% of visitors arriving by www.coachandbusweek.com

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rail, a figure which has remained quite consistent since 2000, public transport is the chosen method of travel for half of all air passengers travelling to Stansted, the best record of any airport in the UK by some distance and one of the highest in Europe. Heathrow has 42% of passengers arriving via public transport, while at Manchester the figure is just 10%.

Gatwick Airport’s public transport network caters for 43% of airline passengers, although its coach and bus services carry half of what Stansted’s do, despite the airport having double the number of visitors annually (35 million compared to Stansted’s 17.5 million).

I met with Steve Mills, Stansted Airport’s Public Transport Development Manager, to find out more on the importance of surface transport to Stansted. Steve has been in his current role for 12 years, originally joining the airport in 1994.

The London Stansted coach and bus station is very well situated

Leading airport public transport

Construction on Stansted’s current coach and bus station was completed in 2007. With its 38 bays and multiple operators, it’s a real hive of activity, with approximately 34 scheduled services per hour, 15 of which go directly to London, and over 630 departures per day.

However, it hasn’t always been this way.

“When I started this role in 2000, the coach and bus station had a tiny waiting room, no bay coverage and a tiny plastic ticket desk. It wasn’t fit

Less than 50% of visitors to Stansted need to use the car park shuttles

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Stansted Airport:

facts and figures

Stansted currently serves around 17.4m passengers a year, operating at less than half capacity. Planning permission is in place to extend the airport to handle 35 million passengers per year and 264,000 flights The airport uses a single runway. A second was earmarked but scrapped when the Coalition Government came into power, and there is currently no vision to revisit this. Gatwick handles 35 million passengers per annum on a single runway.

Stansted is the fourth busiest airport in the UK and third busiest in London after Heathrow and Gatwick Stansted is the second largest airport in the UK in terms of inbound visitors for tourism and business

Flights leaving Stansted travel to 150 destinations across 30 countries Stansted has a catchment area with over 12m people resident in the East of England, London and wider South East 200 companies are located on the airport, currently employing around 10,200 people - mainly from Essex and Hertfordshire The airport’s cargo operation transported 214,689 tonnes of goods in 2012 Stansted won the Sky Trax award for the World’s Best Low Cost Airport in 2011 and 2012, and was awarded the ISO14001 environmental standard in 2011

for purpose,” Steve Explained.

“National Express was the only coach business serving the airport and as a result there was a real lack of competition. When Terravision came in there was a marked difference. National Express brought in new fleets, improved frequency and extended operating times. Through this competition the passenger benefited and it made a real difference.”

One key benefit of the competition which Steve highlights was pricing. Currently, a ticket to Stratford from Stansted costs £6, with fares to Victoria Station and London Liverpool Street costing £8.

“You can’t drive there for that,” Keith claimed. “Keeping the fares at that level has been a big achievement.

“Fleets have also been consistently enhanced. Nowadays the majority of vehicles have leather seating, have online ticket sales and mobile ticketing systems and include WiFi and air-conditioning.

“We’ve even developed our own welcome video for use on selected coaches with DVD players, which plays 10 minutes prior to arrival.

The video shows where to go and helps customers plan their journey through the airport, making their airport experience easy and preparing them for the airport mindset.”

Work on the station is still ongoing, with developments in health and safety, as well as some potential for more advanced vehicles in the future.

Steve continued: “As patronage has grown we’ve continued to improve on health and safety. We implemented the safety barriers in 2010. They’re very important with the volume of people around the station now and also force vehicles to slow down a bit more.”

Steve said the extensive public transport network at Stansted could prove an extremely useful asset for achieving growth at the airport.

“Surface access is important to attract new airlines, to the point where it can make or break their decision on whether to fly from an airport,” Steve explained.

“We’re campaigning for better rail links now. We’ve done extremely well to have such a large number of air passengers arriving by rail without having a main line station going through the airport.

We’re also continuing to promote coach and bus use.

“Six years ago, the thought www.coachandbusweek.com

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analysis › London Stansted

that we could achieve the 50% arrival rate by public transport was laughable and truly very blue sky.

Developing over a number of years to be a top performer and break the 50% barrier has been a significant achievement.”

Steve said the Airport will create more new, similar services in response to demand. He also wants to use new technology to tap into the airport’s “young European” market.

“A lot of our arrivals have access to smartphones, so we’re pushing online purchase. Terravision already has stands in other airports selling tickets to passengers before they have even boarded their flights and some operators have set up commercial deals with airlines, which creates a more seamless process allowing passengers to purchase tickets throughout their journey.

“We have our own android and iPhone app now providing travel information and we’re looking at other forms of new technology for a means of getting information to travellers.”

An award winning airport forum

The Stansted Area Transport Forum (SATF) was set up in 1999, with the aim of establishing a partnership approach to the way in which surface access to and from the airport and within the surrounding area could be improved. The forum is one of the largest private/ public partnerships in the UK, with over 70 organisations now being represented, including members of local authorities and national government, transport operators, airport companies, Stansted Airport Consultative Committee (STACC) and other local businesses and interested parties.

Government guidance has set out three objectives for airport transport forums, which are: agree short and long term 1 To targets for increasing public transport a strategy for meeting 2 Devise these targets, which can be incorporated in the Local Transport Plan and Regional Transport Strategy the implementation 3 Monitor of the strategy.

The forum’s “Steering Group,” made up of representatives from STACC, local authorities, Network Rail, TfL and the Highways Agency, keeps the forum focused on achieving these goals, acting as an www.coachandbusweek.com

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executive board.

“The steering group meets quarterly to discuss visions for the future, while the rest of the SATF is split into working groups which each look after a specific mode of transport,” Steve explained.

“The working groups meet quarterly, independently chaired by representatives from local authorities. Through meeting with the bus and coach working group we’re delivering the changes needed to the network around Stansted. The group has overseen a number of new services implemented.”

The SATF’s Bus and Coach Working Group is chaired by the Head of Passenger Transport from Essex County Council, with representatives from other local authorities, TfL and all the coach and bus operators with services travelling from the airport.

“It’s not just about the airport, we’re looking at surrounding areas too,” Steve added. ”The network helps people get to work, leisure

activities and so on. It’s about the wider picture rather than just the airport. One of the local services now operates 24 hours, even on Christmas day.”

The airport directly promotes modal shift through it’s Public Transport Levy. From every car park transaction, 31p goes into a pot which is spent on public transport. “The money is spent on any activity which we see as delivering positive change,” Steve said. “We also keep up to £2m set aside as part of our airport expansion planning permission which is used to promote services.

The SATF bus & coach working group oversees this funding.”

The STAF has been recognised both nationally and internationally for successfully delivering new transport initiatives and changing the way people travel. Recognition includes the 2008 International Transport Forum Award for an outstanding mobility plan in a major company, and highly commended status at 2008

All London bays at the station are covered and use safety barriers

Stansted Airport: catering for the staff

Stansted has seen a dramatic rise in the number of staff using public transport to get to work on top of the impressive figures for air passenger public transport use.

In 1997, 96% of workers at the airport drove to work on their own. Now, only 69% do this, with 12% of workers using bus and coach services.

“We’re quite a way out, very rural,” Steve said. “In 1997 we had 6,000 staff employed at the airport, while now that figure is closer to 10,200, so it’s definitely a growing number we’re seeing using public transport.”

As well as a car sharing initiative, Stansted has an Airport travel card for staff, granting a discount of about 80%, with the savings taken on the nose by operators. Currently 1,400 of these cards are used each month on the Air Commuter Scheme.

“Some of our staff can’t use the cards but we provide a whole range of options. There are various shift patterns, but the largest proportion of the workforce has a 0400hrs start.

“We’ve worked with the coach and bus network to make sure vehicles are arriving before 0400hrs to get staff to work on time.”

UK National Transport Awards in the Partnership of the Year category. The airport itself was highly commended at the 2007 UK Bus Awards for the Winning New Customers Category, after increasing the number of air passengers using public transport by 250%.

Special Occasions

During the London Olympic Games in 2012, approximately 2,000 athletes, coaches and VIPs came through the airport. Special flights were organised specifically to carry some of the teams, such as the Australian team, which had its own chartered Qantas 747.

The team from down under returned to the airport by coach, requiring 20-30 coaches and support vehicles carrying various sporting equipment. All of the vehicles had to have staggered arrival times to avoid disrupting regular services with sheer volume of vehicles, with staff at the airport having a list of the expected arrival time for each individual vehicle making sure the coach operation fitted in with the rest of the day’s scheduled arrivals.

The Paralympics posed a similar challenge, with a particularly large amount of specialist equipment used by the athletes.

“All the extra flights coming in for the Olympics made it a daily operation,” Steve said. “The night before the opening ceremony we had 165 aircraft – a record number – parked up all around the airport, including private jets owned by Jackie Chan and Mitt Romney.

“The summer was a really enjoyable time and brought admin staff together with the operations staff to help out. The LOCOG volunteers and Essex Ambassadors based at the airport were fantastic, and welcomed every single Olympic flight and directed them to where they needed to go. A lot of our staff worked extra hours too.

“We’re the closest airport to Stratford as the crow flies – about 30 minutes away. We were finding a lot of people were coming in from Europe for a day or two.”

In May 2011, Stansted was heavily involved in transport for the Champions League Final at Wembley, hosting the Barcelona team and about 10,000 fans. With the final at Wembley again this year, there’s potential for the airport to host a team again.

“May and the summer are

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Bus & Coach: expanding the network

Above: Citaro artics are used on the car park shuttle. Below: easyBus and Terrorvision both provide London routes already a busy times, but the final and the Olympics made quite a difference.” Steve added. “We like to get involved in events which take us over and above business as usual.”

Carbon neutrality

Stansted Airport is making a considerable effort to be environmentally friendly. A biomass boiler, which was the largest in the UK when it was installed in 2009, provides a substantial amount of power through burning woodchips.

“The boiler ensures any expansion of the airport will be carbon neutral,” Steve stated. “It was part of the £50m terminal expansion completed in 2008 and was designed to support the gas fire boilers which have heated the terminal since it opened. However, it’s performance since installation has proven so effecient that it’s now the airport’s primary boiler, helping to reduce its gas consumption.”

Building on this, lighting and signage around the airport is solar powered and some consideration has been given to implementing pressure plate activated lighting, turning on when a vehicle drives over a plate on the road.

The roof of the coach and bus station is made of a corrosionresistant plastic called ETFE, which is the same material used in the construction of Beijing National Aquatics Centre (often called the

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Water Cube, built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the largest structure in the world made of ETFE film) and the Eden Project, which uses ETFE cushions.

While there is a taxi firm using an entire fleet of Toyota Prius hybrid cars, the coaches and buses at the airport have yet to move into new green engine technology aside from a trial on a hydrogen-powered Ford Transit minibus from ITM Power.

The majority of vehicles serving the airport do already meet Euro 5 emissions standards however (Euro 3 or 4 is the minimum standard accepted by the airport).

“We’ve tried to make the airport as environmentally friendly as possible,” Steve said. “We’re looking into other ideas as the technology develops and will work with

local authorities to bring the new technology to Stansted. As the cost comes down we may see operators looking into these vehicles.”

The next chapter

In the near future, Stansted is investigating the feasibility of passenger shelters over more bays in the coach and bus station, along with improved real-time information. However, the biggest change on the horizon is that Stansted Airport is being sold by Heathrow Airprt Holdings Limited (LHR, formerly BAA), following a Competition Commission ruing.

LHR announced on January 18 that Stansted will be sold to Manchester Airports Group for £1.5bn, in a sale expected to close at the end of February.

The Stansted bus and coach network covers a wide area using a variety of operators, with all coach routes to and from the airport running every day of the week.

National Express covers the majority of the airport’s scheduled long distance coach routes, with coaches travelling to Norwich, Ipswich, Nottingham & Leicester, Birmingham, Oxford, Cambridge and Heathrow & Gatwick airports, several of which are effectively 24 hour routes. The exception is First’s Aircoach’s X30, a route which runs every 90 minutes between the airport and Southend. The airport has enforced a minimum frequency of every two hours.

NatEx, Terravision and easyBus all run services to London, with frequencies usually peaking at every 30 minutes, though the NatEx A6 to Golders Green and London Victoria peaks at every 15 minutes. Both the A6 and A9 Natex routes run 24 hours a day.

NatEx and Terravision compete on routes to Victoria and Liverpool Street stations and Stratford, while the easyBus EB2 travels to Baker Street, a stop on the A6.

Local bus routes serving the airport are run by several operators. Tellings Golden Miller, part of the Arriva Group, runs six routes – the 510 to Harlow, 301 and Village Link 5 to Saffron Waldon, 308 and Village Link 7/7A to Bishop’s Stortford and the hourly Airport by Bus 133 service to Colchester. First runs the hourly 42A to Chelmsford and Galleywood, while Centrebus runs a service to Hertford every two hours. A UnoBus route, number 700, travels through Bishop’s Stortford to Stevenage every two hours.

Bus routes have also benefited from a voluntary Quality Bus Partnership between Stansted Airport, local authorities and operators, which has been in place since 2006. This affects the First X30 and TGM’s 510, 308 and Village Link 5.

Stansted has two direct rail links – the Stansted Express, which calls at Bishop’s Stortford, Tottenham Hale and London Liverpool Street, and a CrossCountry service through Cambridge, Ely and Peterborough, finishing at Birmingham. www.coachandbusweek.com

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insight › the airline

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Promoting seamless travel Coach & Bus Week’s Alex Tyler provides an overview of Oxford Bus Company’s the airline service and talks to Operations Director Phil Southall regarding the particulars of the route

T

he airline, as a bespoke service, grew out of the coach link with London which was introduced in 1978. At first those services ran via Heathrow and in the mid 80’s a dedicated route from Oxford to Heathrow was introduced . A few years later due to demand, another route to Gatwick was started. Formerly known as the X70 and X80, the frequency of the routes has improved over the years and now the renamed LHR service to Heathrow runs up to every 20 minutes, while the LGW to Gatwick is hourly.

Vehicles

The airline currently consists of a fleet of 18 Plaxton Panther/Scania K360 EB which were introduced 14-months ago replacing a fleet of Plaxton Volvo coaches.

“We reduced the number of seats to 44 and increased the legroom,” said Phil. “We believe they are amongst the most spacious scheduled coaches on Britain’s roads” The coaches are also equipped with ‘magilifts’ a special lift which allows wheelchair users to have full access to the service. The new fleet represented largest single investment in new vehicles in the company’s history.

“The airline fleet is fully wheelchair accessible,” added Phil.

“Each driver has been trained on the deployment of the “magilift” at the door of the coaches. It is

TheAirline.indd 39

Above: Operations Director Phil Southall Left: One of the routes 18 Plaxton Panther Scanias important wheelchair users feel able to “turn-up and go” in common with the fully ambulant. We don’t need wheelchair passengers to book ahead or tell us about their travel plans. However, like everyone wheelchair passengers can book ahead if that offers reassurance and helps their travel plans.”

Asked about possible vehicle changes, Phil replied: “With such a young fleet of coaches there are no plans at the moment to replace them just yet but our policy has been to keep the fleet refreshed and maintain the high quality and comfort which is now synonymous with the airline” “Passenger feedback was used in the design of the latest coaches,” he continued. ”Business travellers asked for a more generous seat pitch so that laptops could be opened fully, along with at-seat power sockets and Wi-Fi. All these features have been

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INSIGHT › THE AIRLINE

provided. Leisure users asked for many of these features too, but also a service which was easy to use for casual travellers. We responded to this by “renumbering” the services to reflect the international airport designations of LHR and LGW. Oxford is designated OXF.” Phil enthused that the criteria when ordering the new vehicles was “what is the best coach the company can provide for our customers” and not how cheaply the maximum number of seats could be provided.

“Feedback from passengers shows that while they like the Wi-Fi and recharging facilities on board, they appreciate the calming atmosphere and tranquility on the coaches before or after the bustle of the airport,” he said.

The vehicles have 44 seats in order to maximise leg room, as demonstrated above by 6ft6 Michael McCulloch

Passengers

In the latest Passenger Focus survey of Oxford Bus Company customers, 92% were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with services.

“From our customer feedback we could predict the figure for the airline would be even higher than that,” commented Phil. “We recognise we serve a number of discrete markets with these services. For the leisure and academic markets, demand is peaked around schools holidays; while for the business market it is more evenly spread.

“We are operating in the most competitive market in the region.

Other coach companies serve both Heathrow and Gatwick but the airline is the only service linking these airports with Oxford.

“However, we have lots of competition on the corridors from cars and also private taxi firms, there are a lot of ways of travelling to the airports. As such, we have to maintain our standards with the aim of increasing patronage.”

The service has grown steadily in recent years which Phil said “reflects the efforts the company has made to constantly provide a “first-class” service to passengers.”

“We have a wide cross section of people using the service, you will find commuters and also foreign students from oxford onboard. We work with the rest of Oxford Bus Company to maximise patronage.”

A range of customer service initiatives are employed by the operator as Phil explained.

“Our express services have their own Service Delivery Manager whose identity and photograph is www.coachandbusweek.com

TheAirline.indd 40

promoted; this is the person with whom customers can relate as the person responsible for delivering their service” “There is also a comprehensive range of communication media,” he added. “We have a locallybased customer services team operating daily which deals with all enquiries whether by email, phone, letter or social media. All customer comments are analysed and discussed at director level, to identify where improvements can be made.”

The airline also maintains a presence on social media, predominantly Facebook and Twitter, and like more and more operators, is using it proactively to provide customers with information.

“For example, special offers are broadcast by this media, and at times of disruption, such as the recent snowfall, the number of our friends/followers has risen dramatically,” explained Phil.

“This is a significant development in customer care as we can now communicate directly with passengers and their families who

may be making arrangement to meet them. In the event of incidents beyond our control which affect our services we can divert passengers to alternative stops and travel arrangement at short notice. In the past there would have been no way of contacting them unless they contacted the company.”

Network

Asked how the airline route fitted into the wider network Phil said: “We did a lot of research to understand how our passengers use our services. The airline service is designed to cater for passengers arriving at the coach stops by a variety of means.

“Perhaps, surprisingly, many arrive on foot, others use the local bus network, changing at our stops in the High Street, Headington or at the Thornhill Park and Ride.

Most of our local services operate extremely frequently, some as often as every four minutes, making interchange with the airline quite straightforward. We acknowledge that a family of, for example four with large suitcases, may find it

easier to be dropped off at a stop by car or taxi and the facilities at Thornhill Park and Ride are ideal for that.

“We work in partnership both Heathrow and Gatwick airport teams where operational and strategic matters are discussed,” he added.

“All services are pay-as-you-go but we do offer an online advance booking facility which guarantees a place on a coach. This is particularly welcomed by passengers who may be experiencing quite enough stress as they start their journey without the added worries of uncertainties in reaching or travelling home from the airport.”

“In addition, one of the main advantages which the airline has over rail is that the idea of interchanging scares people. For example, catching the train with luggage and catching a shuttle bus or another service can be off putting. We know from experience, when they sit on one of our coaches customers give a big sigh of relief, as their part in getting to the airport is essentially over. We help with the loading of luggage and aim to make the whole experience as seamless as possible. Our directness is a big attraction for people and overall, we are very happy with the way it works.”

Though the route has proven popular Phil was clear a wholesale expansion of the service is not being considered.

“We frequently flex frequency to match demand,” he said. “At Christmas and Easter we tend to increase the frequency to Heathrow from every 30 minutes to every 20. However we keep our services under constant review as it’s important to be able to respond to changing trends.”

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2007 Daf SB4000 – Van Hool Alizee T9

Network Warrington have the following vehicles for sale

48/9 seats, rear floor mounted toilet & servery, A/C, 368,000 kms, one owner, mainly used for tours and private hire.

Sold with 12 months MOT, excellent condition.

ÂŁ100,000 +VAT Phone Ernie 07932 734273 or office 01253 725999 ask for Pam G-Line Holidays Ltd www.g-linecoaches.co.uk

2 x 2005 Optare Solos

2010 MAN Beulas

9.2m, 33 seats, Mercedes engine, approx.

220,000 miles, good order throughout, new MOTs – more pictures available.

71 seats, LEZ, Glory Euro 5 + EEV, WC, climate control, hot drinks, amazing luggage capacity, fantastic condition, MOT 31/10/2013, fully DDA, only 149,000km, sale due to fleet restructure.

ÂŁ32,500+VAT (Discount for both)

ÂŁ230,000 + VAT

Dartline 01392 872900

Florida Taxi Coaches 01787 477701

2008 Scania K340 Irizar PB

2006 Vario 814D

Dennis Dart SLF 10.8m 2000/2001 V & Y Plate, Cummins 6BT, Allison AT545 4 speed auto, Marshall body, 40 seats.

Contact Ian Parker (Engineering Manager) Warrington Borough Transport Ltd Wilderspool Causeway, Warrington WA4 6PT. Tel 01925 634296

MAN Tourliner

UNVI RIADA GT -2008

ÂŁ149,000

24 seats with 3 point belts, power swing entry door, forced air, panoramic windows, coach back, drop boot, Euroliner wheel trims, 155,342 miles/250,000 km.

Scania Bus and Coach 01909 553102

EVM – 07749 103203

2003 VW LT35 TDI

Peugeot Boxer 3.5 ton

13 seat medium roof minibus, diesel, 86,000 miles, excellent condition, 12 months MOT.

17 seat, 2.8 diesel, side entrance, two rows of seats on quick release Unwin tracking to take two wheelchairs, underfloor tail lift.

ZF automatic, 49 seats, climate control, centre sunken toilet, Euro 4 EGR (no AdBlue required).

460bhp Euro V engine, 12 speed AStronic gearbox, white with removable vinyls, no scrapes or scratches, Durabright alloys, many extras, MOT till September 2013.

POA

ÂŁ168,000 Milligans Coach Travel 01290 550365

ÂŁ5,495 NO VAT

ÂŁ7,495

Ben Weaver Commercials 0114 275 7076

Pembridge Vehicle Management 01633 485858

Mercedes-Benz 0816 Vario chassis with rear air suspension, 29 passenger seats with 3pt lap and diagonal seat belts, courier seat, dark tint double glazed windows, air con, radio/CD & PA system, DVD player and monitor, full draw curtains, large boot space and side lockers. Full service history. ÂŁ56,900 + VAT Call Dougie at HAGGIS Adventures on 0131 554 9192

Take the photos, write the ad and change it later if you want to, all from your online dashboard.

Selling a vehicle is simple on . . .

Telephone Jade Cassidy on 01733 293247 or email jade.cassidy@coachandbusweek.com

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2009 Renault

2002 Iveco Daily 50c13

16 reclining seats, perfect for airports, takes 20 big suitcases, A/C, TV, DVD, hot drinks & fridge, 3 point belts, overhead racks, front entry, 166,000kms, great on fuel, sale due to fleet restructure.

13 seat wheelchair accessible minibus, white, diesel, 65,000 miles.

2000 W Reg MINI POINTER DART

ÂŁ16,495

Cummins/Allison, 8.8m, 29 seats.

Florida Taxi Coaches 01787 477701

Ben Weaver Commercials 0114 275 7076

EnsignBus 01708 865656

Scania K360 Irizar Century

2003 Iveco Daily 45c13

2011 Ford Torneo

2006 Volvo B12B Enigma

Back off contract hire. Euro 5 EGR (no AdBlue), 2-pedal Opticruise automated gearbox, 49 seats, climate control.

13 seat front entry wheelchair accessible minibus, white, COIF, tacho, 129,000 miles.

Choice of 5, mileage between 60-100k, 60 plate. ÂŁ9,100 + VAT For further information please contact: Nigel Busbridge on 01303 261870 or email nigel@buzzlines.co.uk

ÂŁ19,500 + VAT

ÂŁ175,000

ÂŁ6,495 + VAT

Scania Bus and Coach 01909 553102

Ben Weaver Commercials 0114 275 7076

2010 EVM Mercedes Sprinter 515CDI

2000 Dennis Dart SLF Plaxton Pointer 10.1m

EVM – 07749 103203

28 seats + 29 standees, Cummins/Allison, DDA compliant, very clean ex-lease vehicle, supplied with new MOT. ÂŁ8,000 + VAT Southdown PSV 01342 711840 email: bussales@southdownpsv.co.uk www.southdownpsv.co.uk

2011 EVM X-Clusive Sprinter 519CDI

20098 Scania K340 Irizar Century

16 seats with 3 point belts, TV, DVD, plug door, air-con, 60,000 miles, mint condition, under warranty to April.

ZF automatic, 49 seats, climate control, TV/DVD, Euro 4 EGR (no AdBlue required).

ÂŁ59,950

Scania Bus and Coach 01909 553102

16 seats with 3 point belts, TV, DVD, plug door, air-con, 140,000 miles, new engine/ gearbox/diff, mint condition, warranty to May.

ÂŁ39,950

EVM – 07749 103203

ÂŁ145,000

POA

49 seat exec coach, centre toilet, DVD, drinks machine, 580,000kms from new, MOT until end May, Eminox LEZ exhaust to Euro 4, excellent condition, drives superb.

£69,950 – PX considered

Llew Jones 01492 640320

1993 Volvo B10M VanHool

200 DAF SB120

T8 bodywork, 12 months MOT, toilet, DVD/ monitor, 49 seats with belts. £10,250 Maypole Coaches – Tel: 0151 547 2713 or 07802 235778

Cummins/Allison, Wrights Cadet body ramp, wheelchair space, Hanover LED’s, CCTV, 39 retrimmed individual seats, from our own fleet and very tidy.

2004 Setra S415 HD

2002 Futura

ASTronic, retarder, aircon, 2 x monitors, radio/cassette, crew seat, fridge.

Vehicle currently undergoing MOT preparation and test.

Full exec spec, Eminox euro 4 exhaust, 49 seats, green cloth, manual, 792K kms, new MOT on sale.

ÂŁ79,500

Evobus - 02476 626046

POA

EnsignBus 01708 865656

ÂŁ55,000 + VAT L.J. Edwards: 01323 440622 option 2 or John 07974 369570

Telephone Jade Cassidy on 01733 293247 or email jade.cassidy@coachandbusweek.com

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2003 Futura

54 plate Dennis Dart SLF Plaxton Pointer 2

Full exec spec, Eminox euro 4 exhaust, 49 seats, green cloth, manual, 695K kms, new MOT on sale.

31 seater with one passenger door, 15 standees, automatic gearbox, manual destination and front ramp. In good condition, a good work bus.

ÂŁ65,000 + VAT L.J. Edwards: 01323 440622 option 2 or John 07974 369570

Ventura Sales 01342 835206

2000 SCANIA T9

2007 Ford Transit

53 seats, excellent condition, PSV 26/5/13, Taxed 30/4/13, service records. Lovely bus all round and just had an interior re-trim.

12 seats, twin slide loading doors, 61,000 miles, 2 months MOT, excellent condition.

ÂŁ24,750

Ben Weaver Commercials 0114 275 7076

Tel:

All Vehicles Direct Fleet Many With COIF’s, PSV’s, Wheelchair

Access Lifts

& Ramps

Contact Eric on 0792 138920

New MAN 14.250 SLF CitySmart 10.8m

37 seats, MAN Euro V engine, ZF auto gearbox, Mobitec destination, bonded glazing, Kiel high back cantilever seats . £16,000 – PA/Finance Available Southdown PSV 01342 711840 email: bussales@southdownpsv.co.uk www.southdownpsv.co.uk

Neoplan Starliner

32 leather seats, full rear servery, airline style overhead lockers, 240V inverter and onboard generator, Blaupunkt sound system with DVD & Sky TV, ASTronic gearbox, A/C, WC, fully carpeted, removable ski box.

ÂŁ67,000 + VAT o.n.o.

Florida Taxi Coaches 01787 477701

2006 Setra 416 GTHD

49 reclining seats with lap belts, toilet, fridge, hot water boiler, CD/DVD player, Euro 4 certified, owned by us from new, good condition. ÂŁ92,500 + VAT For further information please contact: Nigel Busbridge on 01303 261870 or email nigel@buzzlines.co.uk

2009 Scania K340 Irizar PB 12.2m

49 seats, climate control, WC, TV/DVD, Euro 4 EGR (no AdBlue).

ÂŁ159,000

Scania Bus and Coach 01909 553102

2004 Iveco Daily 45c13

11 seat front entry wheelchair accessible minibus, white, diesel, 80,000 miles.

ÂŁ37,000

ÂŁ8,995 + VAT

1998 Volvo B10M Jonckheere Mistral

ÂŁ10,000 - no VAT

Converted to 70 seater in September using Cogent 3+2 seating all fitted with 3 point belts, MOT till Oct 2013 and has no known defects.

Ben Weaver Commercials 0114 275 7076

ÂŁ35,000 Milligans Coach Travel 01290 550365

Dennis Plaxton Coach

6 x 2007 (57) Optare Solo M950 Slimlines

Cummins 420, Plaxton Paragon body, Asotronic gearbox, air con, long MOT, excellent MPG. Has been used exclusively on our tour programme. Regd March 2004.

£48,000 – choice of 5 Contact Tom Smith or Peter Tetlow on 0845 130 5777 for more details

32 seats + 17 standees, Cummins engines, Alison gearboxes, full service history, all with current MOT, average mileages.

POA

Courtney Buses 0118 973 3486

Telephone Jade Cassidy on 01733 293247 or email jade.cassidy@coachandbusweek.com

68639-1072-Heatons

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The North West’s Premier Minibus Sales, supplying nationwide for over 40 years

08 CITROEN RELAY

09 FORD TRANSIT MWB 115

LEZ

LEZ

LEZ

Wheelchair Accessible

Wheelchair Accessible

08 VAUXHALL MOVANO

06 MERCEDES SPRINTER 411 CDI

LWB, low mileage, 8 highback seats, lots of Unwin tracking, Ricon internal fully automatic tailift, SLD with cassette, step totally immaculate £13,995

Covered 63,000 miles, external PLS cassette tailift, SLD with cassette step, 12 highback passenger seats plus wheelchair spaces, lots of Unwin tracking, Euroliners, totally immaculate in every way POA

Wheelchair Accessible

LWB covered 16,500 miles, 8/9 highback passenger seats in coach trim, Unwin tracking, full carpetlined, Ricon internal Clearway tailift, SLD with electric side step, totally immaculate inside and out POA

LEZ LEZ

55 MERCEDES SPRINTER 413 CDI

58 VAUXHALL MOVANO

Covered 5,100 miles, totally totally like new, 8/11 highback passenger seats, twin SLDs, central locking, electric windows, unmarked silver metallic, where can you find these £12,995

15 highback passenger seats all quick release, lots of Unwin tracking, SLD with side step, external PLS cassette tailift, analogue tacho, Euroliners, 12 months PSV test, drives and looks superb, ready to work £12,495

LWB covered 41,000 miles, 8 highback passenger seats, lots of Unwin tracking, Ricon internal fully automatic tailift, totally showroom condition, SLD with cassette step £15,995

ES 5,000 MIL

PSV’d

LEZ

Wheelchair Accessible

PSV’d

LEZ

LEZ

PSV’d

Wheelchair Accessible

LEZ Wheelchair Accessible

LEZ

58 IVECO 50C15 IRIS BUS

09 VAUXHALL MOVANO

56 FORD TRANSIT

55 IVECO 45C14

Powerdoor front low step entry, 15/16 highback passenger seats, euro 4, soft trim, totally immaculate, plant on panoramic windows, 12 months PSV test £15,995

LWB, PTS spec, covered 41,000 miles, 8 highback passenger seats, Ricon internal tailift, lots of Unwin tracking, SLD with cassette step, totally totally immaculate, LEZ compliant, choice of 2 £16,995

39,000 miles, factory spec, 8 high back passenger seats plus lugguage space. twin SLDs, totally immaculate £7,495

Only covered 45,000 miles, fitted 16 highback passenger seats in coach moquette with matching centre panel, lots of Unwin tracking, Cant rail powerdoor, front low step entry, external Ratcliffe fully automatic cassette tailift, LEZ compliant, totally immaculate POA

55 IVECO 50c15 IRIS BUS

LEZ

57 IVECO 45c14 LEZ

LEZ

Wheelchair Accessible

Wheelchair Accessible

05 RENAULT TRAFFIC

08 FORD TRANSIT LWB

LWB, highroof, covered 66,000 miles, 7/8 highback passenger seats, lots of Unwin tracking, Ricon internal fully automatic Clearway tailift, SLD with cassette step, showroom condition inside and out, excellent value £8,995

High roof, covered 38,000 miles, external Ratcliffe fully automatic tailift, totally immaculate, 12 highback passenger seats lots of Unwin tracking £17,995

LEZ Wheelchair Accessible

Wheelchair Accessible

16 highback passenger seats, lots of Unwin tracking, powerdoor front entry, external cassette tailift, plant on panoramic windows, low miles, totally immaculate POA

LEZ Wheelchair Accessible

Wheelchair Accessible

54 RENAULT TRAFFIC

06 VOLKSWAGEN LT 35

LWB highroof, 6/8 highback passenger seats, lots of Unwin tracking, Ricon internal fully automatic Clearway tailift, SLD with cassette step, good value £7,995

MWB covered 30,000 miles, 8 highback passenger, seats lots of Unwin tracking, SLD with cassette step, Ricon internal Clearway tailift, showroom condition inside and out £10,995

Only covered 58,000 miles, 8 highback seats plus wheelchair spaces or would up seat, Unwin tracking, powerdoor, front low step entry, external Ratcliffe fully automatic cassette tailift, totally immaculate, choice of 2, excellent value £9,995

Tel: 01942 864222 • WWW.HEATONSMOTORCO.CO.UK Contact us 24/7 07818 031725 - Wayne 07715 231694 - Phillip

ALL PRICES PLUS VAT We guarantee quality vehicles, right prices, no pressure sales.

Come and have a coffee while you browse at your leisure.

Junction 23, M6 or 20 miles from Manchester/Liverpool airport.

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Ensig DOUBLE DECK 85

SEAT S

2000 DENNIS TRIDENTS Alexander ALX400 bodies, converted to high capacity 85 seat school buses.

LEZ

COMPLIANT

Cummins/Voith, LEZ compliant for 2012 with traps to Euro 4, CCTV, Alexander ALX400 bodies, DDA compliant or upseated to 80 seats.

1999/2000/2001 V/X/51 PLATE DENNIS TRIDENTS

1999 T/V REG DENNIS TRIDENTS

1999 T/V REG DENNIS DART SLF’S

Cummins/Voith, LEZ compliant with traps, Plaxton President bodies, 62 seats dual door (£13,000) or 70 when converted to single door (£16,000).

1995 M REG OPTARE SPECTRA’S

6 speed manual, very clean for its age, 48 seats, toilet.

1998 R/S REG OPTARE SOLO’S

SWB, CCTV, particulate traps so LEZ compliant, Plaxton President bodies, dual door 62 seats or single door 71 seats.

Caetano Compass bodies, 39 seats, ramps.

1995 PP BOVA FUTURA

DAF engines, Voith gearboxes, low height, 77 seats.

1999 VOLVO B7TL’S

Merc engines , 8.5m long, 30 seats. £4500 each plus tyres.

2001 Y REG DENNIS DARTS

Plaxton Pointer 2 bodies, 10.1m , Cummins Euro 2 engines, DDA, 31 seats, CCTV, particulate traps fitted, LEZ compliant, only £6000 each plus tyres.

2010 ENVIRO 400

Euro 5 Cummins engine, currently 62 seats with tables and luggage area but can upseat to 70.

OPEN TOP BUSES A SPECIALITY -

Juliette Close, Purfleet Industrial Telephone 01708 865656 Fax: 01708 8 Visit our website for current s

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nbus

K ER SPECIALIST 1998 R REG VOLVO B10BLE’S Manual, Ikarus body, 53 seats, air-con.

1998 R REG DAF SB300

ZF 6 speed manual, Plaxton Premiere 350, 53 seats.

1998 R REG DENNIS JAVELIN

Cummins / Allison, East Lancs bodies, 40 seats, Mobitech LED’s.

1997 DENNIS DARTS

Cummins L10 / ZF, Alexander RH body, 78 seats with retractable belts, MOT Oct 2013, tacho.

1992 LEYLAND OLYMPIAN

2000 VOLVO B7TL’S

Voith automatic gearboxes, SLF, Alexander ALX300 bodies, 44 seats and 27 standing, heavy duty low floor buses. They can also be converted to be DDA compliant.

10.7m , Euro 5, 35 e-leather seats, very low mileage, Hanover destinations, DDA compliant.

2011 ENVIRO 200’S

2002 02 PLATE DENNIS TRIDENTS

Euro 3 Cummins engines, DDA compliant , Plaxton President bodies, Hanover LED’s, 67 seats converted to single door or 62 seats as dual door.

LWB, CCTV, particulate traps so LEZ compliant, Plaxton President bodies, dual door 67 seats or single door 77 seats, DDAS compliant.

2000/2001 VOLVO B7TL’S

ZF 6 speed manual, Caetano Algarve body, 49 seats, centre sunken toilet, very smart for age.

1995 M REG VOLVO B10M

ZF 6 speed manual, Plaxton Premiere 350, 53 seats.

1995 M REG VOLVO B10M

Alexander ALX400 bodies, 74 seats.

- BRITAIN’S BIGGEST BUS DEALERS Park, Purfleet, Essex, RM15 4YF 8 864340 e-mail: sales@ensignbus.com t stock at www.ensignbus.com

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www.staffordbuscentre.com email: martin@staffordbuscentre.com Telephone: 01782 791774 Mobile: 07803 222552

View our latest arrivals on www.staffordbuscentre.com

DENNIS TRIDENT EAST LANCS BODY EXLWB 1999 T/V REG

VOLVO OLYMPIAN, NORTHERN COUNTIES “LOW HEIGHT” BODY 1998 R REG

DAF SB220 ALEXANDER 1998 R REG

VOLVO OLYMPIAN NORTHERN COUNTIES (Low Height) 1998 R REG

Volvo engine/ZF gearbox, 76 seats plus 8, can be belted if required.

42 seats + 26 standing, good quality replacements for those unreliable, expensive to run Darts.

Phone For More Details

Fitted with 76 high back seats with 3 point belts, fully repainted and new test.

DENNIS DART PLAXTON SUPER POINTER 1999 V REG

DENNIS DART MARSHALL BODY 2000 W REG

DENNIS DART WRIGHT BODY 1999 V REG

MERCEDES 815D MEDIO 2005 05 REG

From £12,950

£6,950

78 seats and wheelchair space, could be re-seated to 88/90 and belted.

£17,950

Undergoing total internal re-fit to include 45 seats with belts.

DENNIS JAVELIN PLAXTON PREMIER 2002 51 REG Fitted with 70 highback coach seats, new MOT, manual gearbox.

£39,950

FORD TRANSIT 17 SEAT FACTORY BUS 2008 58 REG

27k miles, tacho, PSV COIF etc.

£12,450

£11,950

Fitted with up-dated body panels, new MoT and paint, 35 seats plus wheelchair.

BLUEBIRD AMERICAN SCHOOL BUS 2000 W REG

60 high back coach seats with 3 point belts, Cummins engine and (reconditioned) Alison gearbox, very simple and rugged construction

Phone For More Details

Fitted with 25 high back coach seats plus belts, super low floor, wheelchair accessible, only 9mtr long, choice of 2

Mercedes built mini coach with 25 seats, large boot etc. Currently being repainted white.

FORD TRANSIT 15 SEAT FACTORY BUS 2011 11 REG

OPTARE SOLO M920 1999 V REG

£5,950

C.O.I.F plus PSV MoT, very low miles, as new.

£15,950

FORD TRANSIT 15 SEAT BUS 2007 07 REG

MERCEDES SPRINTER 413 UVG BODY 2002/3/4 REG

£9,950

£8,450

Very low mileage, suitable for school use if required as its 3500 cwt, can be driven on any full car licence.

OPTARE SOLO ALL MERCEDES ENGINE ALLISON BOX W Reg, 25 seater, very short with new belts plus new paint. £12,950 W Reg, 29 seater, 9.2mtr with new belts plus new paint (in build now). £12,950 52 Reg, 29 seater, 8.5 mtr with belts plus new paint. £16,950 MERCEDES 814D VARIO PLAXTON BEAVER R 2004 04 with manual box, 33 removable seats, power door and destination, tail lift etc. £16,950

£13,950

16 seats plus wheelchair space, super clean condition, tacho, PSV test etc, choice of 3.

£27,950

Currently being panelled/painted and belted to 31 seats plus wheelchair.

£12,950

FIAT DUCATO TRI AXLE PSV 16 SEAT BUS 2002 - 02 REG Power door etc.

£4,450

1999 V with auto box, 33 bus seats with belts (cert for 31), new paint and test. £8,950 1999 T with auto box, 29 coach seats but LWB, so plenty of room, destination and power door. £8,950 FORD TRANSITS x 10 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 Mostly PSV - all 17 seats, tacho etc, all below 60k miles.

WE ALSO HAVE AVAILABLE

Vehicles available for short or long term lease

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MINIBUS AND WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE VEHICLES

Gardiners Lane North • Crays Hill • Billericay • Essex • CM11 2XE Tel: 01268 521033 • Mobile: 07860 894331 • Fax: 01268 284951

Email: sales@hwpickrell.co.uk - www.hwpickrell.co.uk Finance available on all vehicles (subject to status) Written details on request.

WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE MINI BUSES For latest stock arrivals follow @h_w_pickrell

06 REG IVECO DAILY 50c13 IRIS BUS 3.0

NEW UN REG IVECO DAILY 50c17 IRIS BUS 3.0

56 REG RENAULT MASTER MM33 2.5TD

07 REG F ORD TRANSIT 100 350 2.4 TDCI

Manual gearbox, high roof, PAS, LWB, tacho, power front entry door, 16 rear high back seats, Unwin tracked flat floor, Eberspacher climate control, underfloor PLS tail lift, COIF, 67,671 kms.

Agile gearbox, high roof, PAS, LWB, tacho, power front entry door, 16 rear high back seats, Unwin Innotrax flat floor, underfloor Ratcliff t/lift, COIF/IVA to take up to 5 wheelchairs.

Manual gearbox, high roof, Widnes conversion, PAS, side loading door, side step, 9 rear high back seats plus 1 x w/chair, Unwin tracked floor, Ricon tail lift, 42,300 miles only.

Manual, MWB, high roof, PAS, DL conversion, side loading door, AVS side step, 8 high back seats, fully Unwin tracked floor, Eeberspacher heater, Ricon tail lift, 28,779 miles.

06 REG MERCEDES SPRINTER 411 CDI

59 REG VAUXHALL M OVANO LM39 2.5TD

56 RENAULT MASTER MM33 2.5TD

60 REG F ORD TRANSIT 330 2.4TDCI

Auto gearbox, LWB, PAS, Frank Guy conversion, n/s full height electric power door, 16 high back removable seats on NMI quick release, Eberspacher, PLS underfloor tail lift, ex local authority, COIF’d, 103,080 kms.

Manual 6 speed, high roof, PAS, LWB, Mellor conversion, side loading door, new AVS side step, 14 high back seats, new AMF m2 fully tracked floor, AMF tail lift, tacho fitted only 35,749 kms. (22,214 miles).

6 speed manual gearbox, high roof, O & H conversion, PAS, side loading door, side step, 6 rear high back seats plus 1 x w/chair, Eberspacher heater, Unwin tracked floor, Ricon tail lift, 14,300 miles only.

6 speed manual gearbox, high roof, PAS, MWB, tacho, SL door, 12 rear standard factory high back seats, no tracking (can be fitted), underfloor Ratcliff tail lift, one owner local charity, 20,104kms.

06 REG MERCEDES SPRINTER 413 CDI UVK T REKA

07 REG VOLKSWAGEN CRAFTER CR50 UVG TREKA

57 REG RENAULT MASTER LM35 2.5TD

08 REG FORD TRANSIT 430 JUM BO 2.4 TDCI

Auto gearbox, LWB, PAS, climate control, n/s/f electric power door, 16 high back removable seats on NMI quick release, Eberspacher, PLS underfloor tail lift, ex local authority, COIF'd, 82,180 kms.

Auto gearbox, climate control, n/s/f electric power door, 16 high back removable seats on NMI quick release, Eberspacher, PLS underfloor tail lift, ex local authority, COIF'd, 81,280 kms.

Manual gearbox, PAS, LWB, Euromotive conversion, SLD, AVS side step, 12 rear high back seats, Unwin tested Innotrac floor, Ricon tail lift, ex local authority, 20,775 miles.

Manual gearbox, high roof, PAS, LWB, tacho, side loading door, electric side step, 11 high back seats, Unwin tracked floor at rear, Eberspacher heater, underfloor Ratcliff tail lift, tacho, 34,955 miles.

10 REG RENAULT MASTER LM 39 2.5TD

2008 57 REG VAUXHALL VIVARO LH28 2.0 TD

57 REG PEUGEOT BOXER 2.5TD

2009 59 REG VAUXHALL VIVARO SL28 2.0 TD

Manual, high roof, PAS, LWB, new conversion, side loading door, AVS side step, 14 high back seats, AMF m2 fully tracked floor, full air con, Ricon tail lift, tacho fitted, only 46,750kms.

Manual gearbox, hi roof, O & H conversion, PAS, side loading door, side step, 5 high back seats plus 1 x w/chair, Eberspacher heater, Unwin tracked floor, Ricon tail lift, 30,280 miles only.

Manual gearbox, high roof, PAS, LWB, O&H conversion SLD, AVS side step, 8 rear high back seats plus 1 x wheelchair space, Unwin tracking, Eberspacher heater, Ricon tail lift, ex local authority, 20,286 miles.

Manual gearbox, low roof, O & H conversion, PAS, twin side loading door, side step, 4 high back seats plus 1 x w/chair, modified low floor, electric winch & fold out ramp, 15,491 miles.

08 REG RENAULT MASTER LM 35 2.5TD

58 REG IVECO DAILY 50c13 IRIS BUS 3.0

06 REG FORD TRANSIT 430 JUMBO 2.4 TDCI

54 REG MERCEDES SPRINTER 413 CDI UVG TREKA

Manual gearbox, high roof, O & H conversion, PAS, side loading door, AVS side step, 8 high back seats plus 2 x w/chairs & driver, Unwin tracked floor, ricon internal tail lift, 33,175 miles only.

Manual gearbox, high roof, PAS, LWB, tacho, power front entry door, 16 rear high back seats,Unwin tracked floor, Eberspacher heater, destination board, underfloor Ratcliff tail lift, COIF, 63,371 miles.

Manual gearbox, high roof, PAS, LWB, tacho, side loading door, side step, 11 rear high back seats, full Unwin tracking, Eberspacher heater, underfloor Ratcliff tail lift, 31,813 miles.

Auto gearbox, LWB, PAS, climate control, n/s/f electric power door, 16 high back removable seats on NMI quick release, Eberspacher, PLS underfloor tail lift, ex local authority, COIF'd, 104,180 kms.

08 REG FORD TRANSIT 430 JUMBO 2.4TDCI

09 PEUGEOT EXPERT TEPEE 1.9 HDI

57 REG CITROEN RELAY 2.5TD

07 REG MERCEDES SPRINTER 313CDI 2.5 T D

Manual gearbox, high roof, PAS, LWB, tacho, side loading door, AVS side step, 13 rear high back seats, Unwin tracked floor, Eberspacher heater, air con, underfloor Ratcliff tail lift, tacho, 53,946kms.

Manual 5 speed gearbox, PAS, CD player, air con, twin side loading doors, 2 high back seat in rear, double passenger seat front, cut out floor, fold down ramp, blue metallic silver, alloy wheels, 14,932 miles.

Manual gearbox, high roof, PAS, LWB, Atlas conversion, side loading door, AVS side step, 12 rear high back seats, Unwin tracked floor, Ricon tail lift, ex local authority, 11,587 miles.

Manual, semi high roof minibus conversion, twin side entry sliding door with electric step, 14 x high back seats plus driver, air con front & rear, fully tracked floor, Ricon tail lift, ex NHS, only 25,000 miles.

682251-1072-Ventura

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52 | COACH & BUS WEEK | January 30, 2013

RA RE O P P O RTUN ITY Single Deck, Double Deck & Hybrid

2005 28 st Pointer

2005 Scania E/Lancs

2007 Wrightbus Electrocity

For more details or to arrange a viewing call 07979 295668

AVAILABLE NOW 8QO L PL W HG RQO L QH Y H KL F O H

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TEMSA SAFARI HD Full Stainless Steel, 12.2 mtr 53 rec seats with 3 point belts, Full Exec

01274 681144

Gomersal, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, BD19 4BJ Email: busandcoachsales@arriva.co.uk Web: www.arrivabusandcoach.co.uk

Bus and Coach

take a test drive today

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January 30, 2013 | COACH & BUS WEEK | 53

Southdown PSV - 01342 711840 www.southdownpsv.co.uk

EX STOCK! New MAN 14.250 SLF CitySmart 10.8m 37 seats - choice

MAN Euro 5 engine • ZF 5 speed gearbox • Mobitec destination • Bonded glazing £116,000 + VAT Finance available – subject to status

01342 711840 www.southdownpsv.co.uk

Southdown PSV Silverwood Snow Hill Copthorne West Sussex RH10 3EN

682633-1072-Eastwoods DPS

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DUE TO ILLNESS OF THE MD, MASSIVE SALE WITH HUGE REDUCTIONS – ALL MUST BE SOLD!

2003 DENNIS JAVELIN PLAXTON PROFILE Registered Dec 2003, double glazed tinted glass, Cummins 275 engine, 6 speed manual gearbox, 49 seats, toilet & washroom, ready for immediate use, MoT tested, 120,000 miles, choice of two.

Straight from MOD.

£P.O.A

Straight from MOD

1995 PLAXTON PREMIER B10 engine In excellent condition throughout MOT

£16,000 +VAT

06 MAN EVOLUTION

14/220, 37 seats, SLF automatic, wheelchair ramp, superb condition throughout, fully MoT’d.

£45,500

Part exchange considered

BERKOF RADIAL 1998

53 seats, Cummins 300 engine, ex council, manual box, air cond, MoT, very low mileage, super condition.

£19,500

CAETANO (SALVADOR) 1998

57 seats, in white, Cummins 245 engine, MoT Sept 2012, very clean vehicle.

£19,500 + VAT

BMC AIRPORT BUS

32 seats, 220 Cummins, new MoT this week.

QUICK SALE WANTED.

£15,000

DRIVER TRAINING VEHICLE

MERCEDES VARIO 612

1998, 20 new seats, wheelchair lift on wheel tracking, 20 new seats.

Choice of 6.

TRADE SALE OR SEPARATE

1995 DENNIS JAVELIN PLAXTON PREMIER HIGHLINER

53 recliner seats, 290 Cummins, automatic, continental door, toilet, full years MoT, must be seen.

£POA + VAT

02 LDV

Minibus with 12 seats, long MOT, wheelchair lift and very clean.

£P.O.A.

DENNIS JAVELIN

47 seater, ABS brakes, new Class 5 for driver training, Cummins 220 engine, 6 speed gearbox, new stretch panels repainted white, ready for service

£4,250

682633-1072-Eastwoods DPS

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IVECO SERVICE BUS

67 seats (moquet), new 2006, only 12,000 miles since new,Vihixel body, auto gearbox, air-con, MOT full year, LEZ, must be seen, superb condition.

£65,000 + VAT PX considered

PLAXTON PARAGON

48 reclining seats plus courier seat, air-con.

£49,500 + VAT

03 MERCEDES VARIO

With wheelchair lift, 13 seats, low mileage.

£12,000 + VAT

02 SETRA

1996 VOLVO PLAXTON PREMIER HIGH LINER

B10 engine, 14 months test, 70 seats, tinted double glazing, curtains, continental door, must be seen.

Model S-315 GT HD, 6 cylinder MAN engine, manual 6 speed gearbox, 49 seater, full air conditioning, many extras, full year MOT

£45,000 + VAT

Part exchange considered

682190-1070-Rotala

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HEAVY DUTY STEEL BUILDINGS

BUILDINGS

INSURANCE

• Bus Workshops • Secure Storage

• Supplied any width, any length

• Building to BS5590

• Doors high enough for Double Deckers

• Finance available Phone for further information

BLUELINE BUILDINGS 01709 578333 anytime checkpoints

AUDIO & VISUAL GARAGE EQUIPMENT

Wheel Nut Indicators and Retainers

++44(0)1524 44(0)1524 2271200 71200 checkpoint-safety.com

www.

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CRAIG TILSLEY Suppliers of Reconditioned

engines

Tel: 01782 791524 or 01782 791527 Fax: 01782 791316

Email: info@craigtilsley.co.uk www.craigtilsley.co.uk

DAF MAN MERC, VOLVO SCANIA, GARDNER LEYLAND, CUMMINS ENGINES CYLINDER HEADS CRANKSHAFTS CRANKCASES CAMSHAFTS PUMPS ETC

Moorfields Industrial Estate, Cotes Heath, Stoke-on-Trent ST21 6QY

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LIVERY

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TRAINING

REFUELLING TANKS

Refuelling specialists to the Coach & Bus industry

THE DRIVER CPC IS HERE SAME DAY J.A.U.P.T. REGISTRATION SAME DAY C.P.C. CERTIFICATES DELIVERED AT YOUR OWN DEPOTS

REMEMBER-REMEMBER 10th SEPTEMBER Refuelling Tanks for sale or on short and long term hire options from just ÂŁ75 PER WEEK

WE WILL HOLD OUR PRICES FOR 5 YEARS

PCV DRIVER HIRE 0800-731-5007 CORPORATE DEALS AVAILABLE

+44 (0) 1992 451101 www.taylorfuelcontrol.com

MERIDIAN PCV DRIVER LTD Rising above all others

www.meridianpcv.com

TRIM

TRAINING

COACH TRIMMERS LTD

Supplying the Bus and Coach Industry with quality seat retrims and interior refurbishment.

Full floors re-laid and centre gangways.

Collection and delivery service anywhere in the UK, seven days a week.

Email: info@eastgate-coachtrimmers.co.uk Web: www.eastgate-coachtrimmers.co.uk

Tel/Fax: 01751 472229 TYRE EQUIPMENT

Now taking bookings for driver CPC training at our centre in Lincolnshire.

Companies and individuals catered for.

For information contact Jemma: Call 01529 414242 / 303333 or visit: www.sleafordian.co.uk

PVC DRIVER CPC TRAINING CREATED BY A COACH COMPANY FOR THE COACHING INDUSTRY

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TYRES

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MANAGEMENT & REPAIRS

MOUNTAIN TYRES LTD VEHICLE CERTIFICATE AGENCY

QUALITY AVON TREAD USED

Mountain Tyres is a newly established company making commercial retreaded tyres. We have a modern retreading plant based near Caerphilly, and we only use Grade One Tyre Casings in the production of all our tyres to produce a top quality tyre. All our tyres are guaranteed against failure.

• FREE DELIVERY FOR ALL ORDERS OVER 10 TYRES • Our staff have over 25 years experience in the Retreading industry and we are Certified by the Vehicle Certificate Agency

PRICE LIST

205-75-17.5 from ........................................................£50.00 215-75-17.5 from ........................................................£50.00 245-70-19.5 from ........................................................£60.00 275-70-22.5 from .....................................................£120.00 295-80-22.5 from .....................................................£125.00 315-80-22.5 from .....................................................£125.00 385-65-22.5 from .....................................................£135.00 MAJOR REPAIRS ..........................................................£35.00 MINOR REPAIRS ..........................................................£15.00 All Prices Plus VAT

Email: bernard.llewellyn@btopenworld.com Ffynonau-Duon Farm, Pentwyn, Bargoed, Caerphilly, CF81 9NP

VEHICLE SPARES

Trevor Wigley & Son Bus Ltd

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TW FULLY LICENSED END OF LIFE VEHICLE CENTRE

TW REDUNDANT AND SCRAP VEHICLES TAKEN TW PROFESSIONAL, EFFICIENT SERVICE TW ALL REQUIREMENTS CATERED FOR

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TW VARIOUS SPARES AVAILABLE TW CONTACT US FOR FULL AVAILABILITY

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Call 01226 723147 Night Service 01226 716479 Fax 01226 700199 Email wigleys@btconnect.com

www.twigley.com

January 30, 2013 | COACH & BUS WEEK | 61

Seen something funny? Send it to gareth.evans@coachandbusweek. com or write to: Last Stop, Coach & Bus Week, 3 The Office Village, Cygnet Park, Forder Way, Hampton, Peterborough PE7 8GX

Do I know you?

The BBC ‘magazine’ on its news website is often an interesting and unusual part of its online content.

Sometimes it is simply more indepth analysis of big news stories, other times it attempts to answer basic questions about why people do certain things which aren’t usually thought about at length.

Food for thought, if you will.

And sometimes it works as an opinion piece, usually resembling the less important debates on Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show. Case in point – an article released on Monday, where Colm O’Regan voices his irritation at the “over-familiarity” of websites and web browsers.

The more computer savvy among you may use browsers like Firefox and Chrome. Colm points out that the screen popping up when Firefox cannot load a window or tab carries the title “well this is embarrassing.”

“Really, is it?” he writes. “I don’t think so. Until the Firefox Internet Browser drops a pint in a pub in front of a group of its friends, it will never know embarrassing.” Colm also pokes fun at how Facebook and Twitter say “oops!” when something goes awry, like an “adorable sparrow-like old aunt who has forgotten you don’t take sugar.”

The tendency for websites to say “how are you doing, [name]?” is also flagged up, with Colm stating there are sites all over the web which want to be your friend. He describes it as “an informality which I find irrationally grating.”

What’s your verdict? Irritating, or pleasant?

The article can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/news/ magazine-21196793

Dilbert

While this ‘low bridge’ doesn’t even threaten the tallest of double-deckers, the 11 foot 8 is a very different storey...

A low blow…

We thought we should draw your attention to an American website which was recently discovered in the CBW office.

11foot8.com is a website which showcases some quite spectacular collisions with a railway bridge in Durham, North Carolina. The bridge has just 11 foot 8 of clearance underneath it, giving the site its rather apt name and sees incidents so frequently despite numerous warning signs and flashing lights that a steel I-beam crash barrier was installed to protect it. This crash beam has had to be replaced at least once.

The website’s owner has since set up two cameras in nearby buildings to watch the bridge, and the result is the footage seen on the website. One of the highlights has to be a pair of lorries carrying hay – the first has the top of its

load knocked off by the bridge, but the second follows on completely oblivious and suffers exactly the same fate. There is also a coach which sees its roof-mounted air conditioning completely obliterated and even a shot of a lorry avoiding the bridge but flattening a nearby stop sign.

On a more serious note, while it is American based, the site could serve as a useful resource for those of you seeking material for training courses, with the benefit of the anonymity which the drivers are given through being on the other side of the Atlantic. Nobody can dismiss it as being “typical of one of that lot.” Don’t bash it, it’s sure to be a hit with your trainees, and not a bridge too far…

The site is found at http://11foot8.com, while the Youtube channel it draws from can be found at www. youtube.com/yovo68

Monday Hello there CBW readers, Alex here. Gareth foolishly delegated the column to me this week, so without further ado, here goes! I return from a week off with my better half Lizzie. She had been in India for three-months and we enjoyed some much needed time together. I appreciate that absence makes the heart grow fonder…so it was with joy I came back to the office. It’s press day but luckily the main sections were designed on Friday and we finish in good time.

Good thing too, because the snow was proving to be a nuisance to everyone and everything in the country, including us at CBW. Tuesday I interview Linsey Frostick from Arriva about The Green Line 757 route for this week’s focus on airport networks. She is no stranger to my colleagues Andrew and Gareth who assured me she is very pleasant. She lived up to her friendly and informative reputation. James, presumably to avoid being eaten by yetis on the way to the office, works from home updating the website.

Wednesday Conduct another interview – this time with Phil Southall from the Oxford Bus Company about the firm’s airline service to Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Andrew is visiting Sleafordian for a forthcoming issue, before jetting off to Budapest with Vicky until Monday…skivers.

Thursday Spend most of the day putting the finishing touches to my features and sending copy to the magazine’s genius Art Director, Keith. A relatively quiet but productive day all told.

Friday A busy day in the office spent tracking down news, following up leads and getting as much ready to be designed as possible before the infamous press day on Monday. By the end of the day I’m happy with this issue’s progress and ready for the weekend. www.coachandbusweek.com

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RECRUITMENT & people Deadlines Booking: Monday 5.00pm Full artwork: Monday 5.00pm Contact Ian Gillis T: 01733 293484 E: ian.gillis@coachandbusweek.com

New Volvo MD: Nick Page Volvo Bus has announced the appointment of Nick Page as Managing Director of Volvo Bus in the UK & Ireland, succeeding Steve Dewhurst, who retires at the end of February.

Nick Page, 53, has been with the Volvo Group for 17 years, having joined from HSBC in 1995. He held key roles in Volvo’s UK truck and finance businesses before joining Volvo Bus in 2001, where he currently holds the position of Coach Sales Director.

Commenting on the announcement, out-going MD Steve Dewhurst said: “As a key member of the Volvo Bus Executive Team, Nick has been actively involved in setting the strategy and vision for the company through to 2020 and this journey will now continue under his stewardship.”

He added: “Already a well known

figure in the business, he brings to his new role a vast amount of industry experience and knowledge and is ideally placed to lead the next phase of development of the Volvo bus and coach brand in our marketplace.”

Nick Page commented: “Volvo has a long history and tradition on these shores and I am honoured to be entrusted with the task of helping to write the next chapter of that story. We have a strong product range, an excellent team - both here at Warwick and right across the Volvo dealer network.”

Nick Page replaces Steve Dewhurst

Get your vacancy seen by quality candidates Full colour as standard All vacancies posted to www.coachandbusweek.com/jobs Details of all vacancies posted to our Facebook, Twi�er & Linkedin pages

eek, get a w e n o k o Bo alf price h k e e w d secon ! week FREE d ir h t a d an 013 l 27 May 2 un� Offer valid

Contact Ian Gillis

tel 01733 293484 or email ian.gillis@coachandbusweek.com

www.coachandbusweek.com

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January 30, 2013 | COACH & BUS WEEK | 63

In association with

New MD appointed for Brighton & Hove Go North East Commercial Director Martin Harris has been appointed Managing Director of Brighton & Hove Bus Company.

Martin will take up the role on April 1, 2013 when current Managing Director Roger French retires.

Martin has 32 years’ experience in the bus industry, having begun his career in Brighton as a senior management trainee for Southdown in 1980. He returned to the Sussex coast after two years with West Riding and was later part of the management team which formed Brighton & Hove Bus Company. Martin spent 11 years as Business Manager for the company before taking up the role

Rob Lyng joins Hardings

Rob Lyng, previously MD of the former Bowen Travel Group, has been appointed General Manager at Hardings Coaches. In his new role, Rob, who has worked in the coach industry for 34 years, is based at Hardings’ headquarters in Droitwich and supporting Director John Dyson.

“This is a great opportunity for me,” declared Rob. “Hardings is a well-established brand with an excellent fleet of luxury coaches and a very healthy order book. It is committed to a strategy of growth

as Director/General Manager at Go North East in 1996. Since then, Go-Ahead said Martin has excelled in his role as Commercial Director and has been pivotal to Go North East’s success.

David Brown, Go-Ahead Group Chief Executive, said: “Martin has played a key role in the success of Go North East and will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to his new position as Managing Director at Brighton & Hove.”

Martin Harris said: “I’m thrilled to be taking up this appointment and returning once more to Brighton & Hove. It’s a company with a well-deserved reputation for excellence with an outstanding

First time PCV pass for Epsom’s apprentice driver Martin Harris was part of the original management team which formed Brighton & Hove leader. This is the one job in the industry that could tempt me away from Go North East and I am looking forward to working with the Brighton & Hove team to continue to build upon their successes for the future.”

Rob Lyng, right, with Hardings Director John Dyson and I’m looking forward to playing my part in its future success.”

Birmingham born and bred, Rob landed his first job in 1979, as

a reservations clerk with Wallace Arnold. His CV includes eight years spent as a tour driver on both British and Continental work, and

Epsom Coaches’ Fleetcare division says it is very proud of its Apprentice, Mathew Mutter, especially as he has recently passed his PCV test first time. His boss, Steve Appleby who heads up Fleetcare, commented: “Matt has proven himself to be a first class trainee and can now drive any of our vehicles. His all-round ability increases by the day and we look forward to Matt achieving full accreditation in the near future and a rewarding career ahead.” stints with Park’s of Hamilton and Evan Evans.

However, it was with Wallace Arnold that Rob had spent most of his career, before he was headhunted by Bowen Travel Group in 1996. As MD he was responsible for 250 employees and a fleet of 130 coaches, which operated from five locations nationwide.

“There’s a lot of goodwill in the Hardings name and John and Roger have built a great platform from which the company can now move forward,” continued Rob, who lives in Sutton Coldfield, and recently remarried after being widowed in 2005. “The fact that I’m working alongside John is an added bonus.

We’ve known each other for many years and he’s an iconic figure in this business.”

www.coachandbusweek.com

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