First Bus, the UK’s leading bus operator, has been nominated for 15 prizes at the UK Bus Awards, the industry’s equivalent of the Oscars.
The company has been nominated in many different categories, including: ‘Making Buses a Better Choice’, ‘Depot of the Year’ and ‘Innovation’. Meanwhile several First employees have been nominated for a string of individual awards, including ‘National Bus Driver of the Year’ and ‘Engineer of the Year’.
Nominations were announced today (9 October) at an event at the London Transport Museum ahead of the UK Bus Awards on 18 November.
Giles Fearnley, Managing Director, of First Bus said: “After winning a number of prizes at the Scottish and National Transport Awards, I’m delighted that First features so strongly on the shortlist for the ‘Bus Oscars’. It’s shaping up to be an excellent awards season for First Bus.
“Our successes reflect how hard we’re working across the UK to improve our business, improve services for customers and deliver our ‘Better Journeys for Life’ promise. I’m extremely proud of the commitment of all my colleagues across our operations and hope that we can enjoy great success when the awards are announced on 18 November.”
First has been nominated in the following categories:
- Shire Operator of the Year: York
- Top National Bus Depot: Rotherham and Balfron
- Making Buses a Better Choice: simpliCITY (First Glasgow)
- Innovation: Better Journey Card (First Bus)
- Top National Bus Driver: Malcolm Burton (Doncaster), Claire Akehurst (Oldham), Jaison Annear (West of England)
- Unsung Heroes: Joint entry - Andrew Wright (Oldham) & Neale Murphy (York)
- Young Manager of the Year: Rob Hughes (Bolton)
- Engineer of the Year: Stuart Drummond (West Yorkshire)
- Marketing Initiative of the Year: ‘Fairer Fares’ campaign (Bristol) and ‘No Scary Bears’ student campaign (Manchester & Yorkshire)
- Sustained Marketing Excellence: Growth Strategy (Manchester)
- Environment: Carbon Smart Project (First Bus)
ENDS
For more information, please contact Niall Dowds, Head of Comms for First UK Bus, on 01224 650011 or 07860 936671 or email [email protected]
NOTES TO EDITORS
FirstGroup plc
FirstGroup plc is the leading transport operator in the UK and North America with revenues of more than £6.7 billion a year. We employ approximately 117,000 employees and transport around 2.5 billion passengers a year. Our vision is to provide solutions for an increasingly congested world… keeping people moving and communities prospering.
First UK Bus
FirstGroup is one of Britain’s largest bus operators with around a fifth of bus services outside London. A fleet of some 6,400 buses carries approximately 1.6 million passengers a day in a huge number of communities including 40 of the UK's largest towns and cities. We operate Greyhound UK providing regular intercity coach services linking South Wales and Bristol Airport, and we also operate some US-style yellow school buses and have a fleet of coaches available for charter. We also operate the Aircoach network in Ireland.