Leeds Staff Manager, Avtar Mudhar, with the 'Pulse' buses
FIRST Bus in Leeds has today unveiled a new, easily recognisable brand named ‘Pulse’ for its extensive network of high frequency buses.
Many customers across the First Leeds bus network already enjoy the high-frequency convenience of services every ten minutes or better Monday to Friday daytime. This convenience together with excellent connectivity across the network and great value fares is now being brought together under one recognisable brand, ‘Pulse’.
The ‘Pulse’ branding will be applied to over 250 buses of the 400 bus fleet with distinctive front and side pink vinyl to deliver strong impact. First's high-frequency 'Pulse' network extends across all the main corridors in Leeds providing Monday to Friday daytime buses of at least every ten minutes on over 50% of the bus network.
The exercise is being carried out by First to help further increase customer numbers by promoting the simplicity of using the bus with high frequency services, great connections and value for money fares. By promoting the convenience of using the bus in a relaxed atmosphere with no parking hassles or congestion worries, First believe that more people can be attracted out of their cars.
In the last 12 months First has grown total customer numbers by over 3% across the bus network with frequent services and value for money fares including the introduction of the (mTicket) mobile ticketing in July last year. Customers can buy the 10-trip £18 ticket as well as the popular day (£4), week (£14.50) and month (£52) tickets via the mobile phone.
As part of the new brand launch, First will be sending out leaflets to nearly 500,000 households and launching an extensive media advertising campaign both on and offline to spread the word.
The move follows the recent announcements by First that the entire Leeds bus fleet is now completely accessible for customers and First customers have a high satisfaction level of 85% according to independent research conducted for Passenger Focus.
Paul Turner, Head of Commercial for First in West Yorkshire said, “Pulse brings together high frequency, network connectivity and great value fares into one simple distinctive brand. The benefits of using the bus in Leeds are wrapped up into one simple brand that helps customers and new customers know what to expect. Whilst we continue to work hard improving our services, we believe this new campaign will help promote the simplicity of using the bus and attract more people out of their cars.”
ENDS
For further information please contact Brandon Jones, Head of External Relations on 07775-824829
NOTES TO EDITORS
First bus in Leeds: serve nearly 50m customer journeys a year with a team of 1000 drivers
FirstGroup plc is the leading transport operator in the UK and North America with revenues of more than £6.7 billion. Our services help to create strong, vibrant and sustainable local economies. During the last year around 2.5 billion people relied on us to get to work, to education, to visit family and friends and much more and, each day, every one of our 117,000 employees works hard to deliver vitally important services for our passengers.
Our vision is to provide solutions for an increasingly congested world… keeping people moving and communities prospering.
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 some US-style yellow school buses and have a fleet of coaches available for charter. We also operate the Aircoach network in Ireland.