50 years of Routemasters on route 9

It is 50 years since Routemasters first arrived on route 9. The trolleybus conversion at Poplar in November 1959 enabled RMs to venture out on Sundays on route 9. Now 50 years later there are still Routemasters on the route thanks to the heritage overlay between Royal Albert Hall and Aldwych.

So what better way to celebrate it than with another ‘new’ Routemaster. This time RM1005 which was the first Marshall refurbishment (their “M.RM001”) which last worked on route 13 for Sovereign on 21st October 2005 and today re-entered service on route 9 from Westbourne Park.

Newly painted and prepared, it ventured out today with its owner Commissioner for Transport in London Peter Hendy at the wheel and me as its conductor. The bus is currently on loan to First.

On a bright November Sunday London was teaming with tourists and we were very busy on our trips between Royal Albert Hall and Aldwych. Great to see so many friends come and join us too.

Passengers are still raving about the heritage routes – we had them taking us even though it was off their planned journey and also to get them half-way to where they wanted to go. Some asked if it was only for today!

Peter Hendy and I with RM1005 during the briefest break between trips. Silver Routemaster SRM3 was also in service on route 9 today and for one brief moment they were together too!

Lord Mayor's Show

Well I did say it was a busy weekend and it started on Friday as our Managing Director for First Rail Support Maurice Duckworth received his MBE from HM The Queen and I was delighted to join him and his family for a celebration in London last night.

Not too late for me as this morning I was off early to Westbourne Park to take RMC1510 out to the Lord Mayor’s Show. Although I have been to this event many times the last time I drove a bus in it (Obsolete Fleet’s D142 with the Chelsea Pensioners) was about 1979 so it was great to do so again today.

The weather was dreadful – it was howling at dawn but the main parade itself was fine and it only started to pour down again after the lunch break at 1pm.

What a great thing to continue to celebrate the new Lord Mayor of London each year with this splendid pageant. It’s a shame it’s in November with the attendant weather risks but there we are.

I saw a few First uniforms in the crowds (we were going really slowly!) so well done team for being there.

The coverage on BBC1 was superb and we got tremendous exposure on television.

Brian Wadsworth, Master of the Worshipful Company of Carmen, was my conductor and he took great care of my priceless £sd Gibson machine and it is back home safely once again. (So is he, I think!)

Timebus’ RM479 also took part as did RM644 – a great event and we know now, it really is only 40 days to Christmas.

Another busy day tomorrow – keep reading.......!

Photo - I am dressed for battle (and weather) - Brian my conductor is in ceremonial mode, despite the Gibson machine! My very old friend Michael Banfield was there and that's his Austin Taxi on the left.

UK Bus Awards 2009

I’m told that one should update these sort of sites at least twice a week and I am doing my best but it is my first night at home for ages.

The week started in Aberdeen and has been through London, Preston (nothing to do with the Competition Commission requirement on Stagecoach to sell the local bus company – honest!) and Bristol.

The flight down from Aberdeen on Monday night was 30 minutes late but thanks to those clever schedulers at BA we arrived “on time” thanks to the padded schedule. Everyone on board felt we were late but the statistics will say otherwise.

Anyhow – to the important part of the week it was the UK Bus Awards this week at the Hilton in Park Lane and we at First were delighted to win two prizes both in London. The Greenford team won a prize for their outstanding efforts in taking over route 195 from Ealing Community Transport in four days as did Winston Dotting who is Top London Bus Driver of the Year and who has 38 years’ service.

His manager said: “Winston's nomination does not just stem from his excellent driving history or exemplary attendance record, but from his selfless and inspirational work for and with the community. His dedication and drive is infectious and I believe he is a true hero who is making a difference.”

Well done to our winning team and to all of the other winners. The UK Bus Awards is an excellent occasion to celebrate success in our industry and in these tough times very welcome.

And now a busy weekend to follow – watch this space !

Food glorious food

Well I ought to be 5 stone heavier this week having had three evening dinners out.

On Monday I had supper with the Master of the Worshipful Company of Carmen. One of our topics will be the subject of something I will tell you about next week. It’s a bit secret until then.

On Tuesday I was one of a large number of attendees at a very nice dinner at Cutlers’ Hall as a guest of former Traffic Commissioner Chris Heaps. Chris remains a huge supporter of high standards for public transport generally and also champions the need for continuing progress in his native South West.

And on Wednesday it was time to say farewell to my former co-Director Douglas Downie who left FirstGroup last month. Douglas had been our Finance and IS Director for UK Bus and was a wise man and great supporter. We presented him with a caricature drawing of himself with his UK Bus Board colleagues. It is not fair of me to reveal everyone but I have no problem of showing my part of it. It shows, typically me with my phone in my ear and trademark bright tie in my soup.

I have no hesitation in recommending the artist who you can find at http://www.picassogriffiths.com/index.php .

Somehow in the middle of this I managed lunch with my daughter as well. You must think being in the transport business is all about eating - literally feast or famine as on many other days we miss several meals completely. Probably not the healthiest lifestyle but there we are.

We’re having a bit of a dust up in Dublin at present. Irish bus service licensing is still based on the 1932 legislation and getting a licence is a long and protracted process. We have just finished getting all the approvals for a service from Dalkey to Dublin Airport and the only problem is there is an operator, the Patton Flyer, there already, operating entirely without a licence.

He was actually offered a licence – sometimes in Ireland they offer to make illegal operators legitimate – but declined it. Now he is making a huge fuss as he sees us getting ready to commence operations and is describing to the media how this big international corporation is about to trample all over this small family business.

Well, we have no wish to do any such thing but Ireland has a regulated bus system, based on a 1932 Act which is a bit like we had here before 1986. Everyone has to operate under the same rules and over the years I have learned that whilst people can have their moment of fun by doing as they please, it is those who devise ways of delivering quality within the rules that survive and prosper.

And if the rules are bad – there are ways to get them changed, as Ireland will shortly demonstrate with its new transport legislation later this year.

Thanks for all your comments - your suggestions and thoughts are valued and (anonymously of course) passed to the appropriate people in the organisation.

Wednesday already

I had a funny experience at the end of last week as I headed back to London from Rotherham. With a bit of care I can do this using Hull Trains which is our open acces rail operator. During the journey we suffered one of those delays and the staff did a great job in announcing them and explaining why.

Having only sat with to Hull Trains MD James Adeshiyan in Aberdeen earlier that week I fired off an email to him saying what a great job they were doing only to discover he was also on the train! Great to see key First employees riding the service and leading from the front! In fact UK Bus Board Directors are all required to sample the bus service somewhere at least once a week and we discuss our experiences every Monday.

I don't think I've mentioned Glove Love. Take a look at www.dothegreenthing.com which is an environmental initiative we are supporting. Once of their campaigns is to make sure we use things for their lifetime and not discard it prematurely for the next new thing. As part of this orphaned single gloves which are left on buses (and indeed elsewhere) which are unclaimed are being sent by all our companies to their central location where interns sort through them and make up new pairs - to be sold again for £5.

Hectic week, three consecutive nights out, and the announcement of our half year results today at www.firstgroup.com, which was at 7am this morning so we've all been up VERY early!

Photo from my collection of interesting road signs - not much of a limitation is it?

Half Term

Thanks for checking in again.

This is a busy week as it is also school half term holidays.

On Monday I was able to see the progress on RT8 at EnsignBus. It is getting on really well and will be absolutely spectacular when it is finished next year.

However it has its own blog and you can follow its progress easily enough on

http://restoringrt8.blogspot.com/

We were all in Aberdeen this week for a Directors’ Safety Conference – a subject we take very seriously in First. The results are exceptional – we have, as a result of all our efforts, made significant inroads to injuries, fatalities and collisions but there is still much to do. Critically delivering improvements gets harder as the results get better but we are driven on in the knowledge that since we have locations able to deliver zero injuries then we can do that everywhere else.

The usual mad scramble out to Aberdeen airport in the evening peak traffic and down to London. As is so often the case we made good progress and landed ahead of schedule only to wait on the taxiway waiting for the aircraft parking guidance lights to be switched on (by which time we were late). I wonder why they don’t leave them on all the time, I wonder? All in all it caused me to arrive at the Heathrow Express platform at Terminal 5 with display I like least – NEXT TRAIN 14 MINS – which means you’ve just missed one.

Passenger Focus today announced the results of the Bus Mystery Traveller Survey – a task it has taken over from the DfT. It’s all at http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/what-we-are-doing/bus-and-coach/

This is in addition to the new survey work being undertaken by Passenger Focus in preparation for when their role becomes formalised in 2010. We already carry out our own surveys and taken together these provide a good guide to what’s hot and what’s not in the minds of the passengers.

If you ride with us, even if you don’t get surveyed, do please tell us what you think and tell us quickly so we can attend to it. You will find contact details on our company websites.

Lastly if you Twitter than I always use it to announce new messages on this blog. If you are a follower than you’ll always know when a new message is here. Try it!

Advertising pays

I'll come to the picture and title eventually, I promise.

Earlier this week I was in what is now Derwentside, but more familiar as County Durham. The trip was entirely business but co-incidentally included the village of my earliest upbringing which was a small mining community and whilst the coal mines themselves have gone the miners' homes of my infancy are still there.

And for those who wonder why I don't have a Geordie accent I was removed south before I learned to talk.....

(I'm not saying where I was or you'll work out who I was seeing!).

Anyhow, back out of Newcastle Airport, through Bristol, London, and today in York which brings me to the subject of today's blog.

Earlier this year I launched the two prototypes of my scheme to put double-deck advertising sites on single-deckers. The double-deckers command much better revenue than single-deckers but in some places we just don't have the numbers of double deckers in the local fleet.

Well I am delighted to learn that these units have withstood the ravages of low trees and bus washes, they have not worsened fuel consumption nor wind resistance, and have been sold out since their inception. A further eight buses are therefore now added to the York fleet and again they are fully sold to blue-chip customers - Fenwicks, York Dungeon and others.

In this difficult economic climate, commercial advertising is an easy saving so I am especially grateful to those organisations who have chosen to advertise with us. York Dungeon told me that their research shows an amazing percentage of visitors learned or were reminded of their venue as a result of bus advertising - far greater than other media, so bus advertising does work!

My greatest supporters have been the people at Wrights who designed me an advertising module which looks 'designed in' rather than 'planted on' and is light and simple; and CBS Outdoor who took the idea, ran with it, and sold it so successfully.

Thanks everyone and now we have a successful product which we can 'roll-out' elsewhere too.

Left to right, the girl who did it for us Wendy Mullins from CBS Outdoor who sold all the sites, me, and Linda Gray from Fenwicks - already one of my most satisfied customers!