Big year for new buses
£6m deal for top brands

With a complete new fleet of buses on the cards for rainbow 5 it’s looking to be a big year for our top brand. The existing buses are barely 5 years old but we’re taking the opportunity to upgrade rainbow 5 with designer interiors, air conditioning and the latest low emission engines.

26 Volvo B7RLE single deckers with Eclipse bodies by Wrightbus of Ballymena will be plying the route from this Autumn. And it’s not just rainbow 5 which will be seeing new buses, early in 2009 calverton connetion and the mickleover will get new buses too.  

For each of the brands top London Designer Ray Stenning will be working his magic inside and out.

The interiors will pick up the theme started with our X38 and black cat brands last year:  full air conditioning, designer colour-coordinated interior and leather seats. And unlike the current Wrightbus-bodied Scania buses, there will be no unpopular rear-facing seats.

The three brand liveries will be brought bang up to date by Ray and there will also be some other special features that we’ll be keeping under wraps until the launch.

MANGO
Popularity Builds

Since our unique smartcard MANGO has gone on sale to everyone on rainbow 4, over 350 have already signed up, and new customers are continuing to join every day. They are now getting 25% off cash single fares and no longer have the hassle of worrying about change for their bus journey.

Cardholders apply and register on line, charging up their MANGO card so that no cash ever has to change hands on the bus. This results in quicker boarding times and better timekeeping.

Commercial Manager Mark Greasley said:

“We’ve recently conducted some research into how customers are finding MANGO. Nearly all the comments we’ve had have been complimentary, we’re also delighted that our marketing campaign has delivered around 95% awareness of MANGO amongst our customers so quickly.’

rainbow 4 customers can sign up for MANGO by logging on to www.trentbarton.co.uk/MANGO 

harlequin beats targets
trend-setting brand leads the way again

A route which won national awards for being designed from scratch from customer input is continuing to break records.

The Heatherton-Littleover-Derby harlequin, which recently doubled in frequency and gained a new night service through to 3am, is hitting its passenger targets in record time. 

Commercial Manager Mark Greasley said:  

“When we boosted harlequin from half hourly to every 15 minutes back in May we gave ourselves two years to double the number of passengers, but we’re almost there in less than half the time. This is a tremendous credit to the harlequin team and also speaks volumes for the pulling power of Derby’s new Westfield Centre”.

Everything about the original harlequin – right down to the size of buses, fares and stopping places, was built up from household research in Heatherton.  And customers continue to have their say in the design of the night service which now leaves from The Wardwick, to be handier for Derby’s Pubs and Clubs, rather than the daytime Gower Street stop.

Ring and Ride
getting people on the bus pizza style

Getting on the bus is now as easy as phoning for a pizza. We’ve distributed hundreds of leaflets in Bingham, Radcliffe and Keyworth inviting people to give us a call to get free tickets. The scheme is designed to get people to try the bus instead of taking their cars into the city.

Marketing Manager Sarah Taylor said:

“All people have to do is call us and we’ll send out free tickets and an information pack.

“We know that we represent excellent value for money compared against the price of parking – let alone the rising cost of fuel.  And if people haven’t been out by bus for a while they’ll be very pleasantly surprised at exactly how good our service is.

“So it’s a winning combination:  this sort of promotion is very good at attracting new customers, and our teams are very good at making sure they keep coming back”

To date over 500 packs have been distributed and our drivers have been busy giving a really good welcome to loads of new customers.

Over 500 years on the buses
at the really good long service awards

Loyal long service totalling over 500 years was celebrated at a presentation dinner in February.  Of these, a century of service was achieved by just two people: Kath Gent, formerly a secretary at the company’s headquarters in Heanor, and John Orson, a skilled trimmer at the Langley Mill, engineering support unit.

trent barton has a distinguished history of long service.  Currently, one in eight of the 1,000-strong workforce has achieved 25 years or more.

Really good service awards 2008
Line up completed…

Neil Wass (pictured with Brand Manager Glenn Pearson) took the driver of the month title for December, completing the line up for the really good service awards in April. Based at our Hucknall depot Neil can often be seen driving on our connect route. Commendation winners in December were Phillip Coleman & Philip Bower from Sutton and Michael Drew at Langley Mill.

So now it’s a matter of counting down the days to Wednesday April 16th and the really good service awards to see who will be going away with the big prizes including the prestigious £1,000 Driver of the Year title.

All the Drivers of the Month, Commendation Winners and Award nominees (and their guests) have received invitations to the presentation dinner which will be held at Derby’s Pride Park Stadium.  Catchphrase TV star Roy Walker will be the celebrity host – and the winners’ names will only be revealed when he opens the sealed envelopes after dinner.

…and Peter gets next year’s contest underway at Broadmarsh

In January Peter McNeill (Pictured with Director of Service Delivery Jeff Counsell)took the title for Broadmarsh. Terry Charles at Hucknall and Nigel Oliver at Broadmarsh were commendation winners.

Get on the Bus
with a little help from the inland revenue

Over 12,000 council employees will be able to take advantage of a new tax benefit when paying for their bus travel. trent barton have teamed up with with Derby City Council and a specialist travel planning agency to set up a scheme allowing workers to have the cost of bus travel taken out of their salaries before tax is applied.

Commercial Manager Mark Greasley said:

‘We are delighted to be working with our partners on this scheme. We hope that the tax benefit will make it even more attractive to travel by bus, with the cost of fuel and parking going up all the time, this measure might be just what’s needed to get commuters to leave the car at home and try the bus. And that can only be a good thing for the city if it leads to less congestion and pollution in Derby”.

Local Transport Bill
Second reading date fixed

The Local Transport Bill has now completed its progress through the House of Lords and received its First Reading in the House of Commons in January. The Second Reading has been fixed for March 26th but two Early Day Motions have also been tabled in the meantime which could do damage to bus services. We have written to local MPs to warn of the consequences.

We continue to support the Local Transport Bill but the Early Day Motions tabled by Graham Stringer use emotive language to garner support by suggesting that bus operators will be able to veto plans for Quality Partnerships, and that quangos will sit in judgement on local authorities’ plans for Quality Contracts.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In actual fact bus operators will only be allowed to make tightly defined Admissible Objections to Quality Partnership schemes - a failsafe mechanism to protect against unreasonable or unworkable proposals.

And on Quality Contracts the Bill merely proposes an independent Approvals Board, managed by the Senior Traffic Commissioner - a perfectly reasonable measure.

We firmly believe that the greatest benefit for bus passengers, bus employees and investment, will be generated by Bus Operators and Local Authorities working together in partnership. Derbyshire County Council, Derby City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, and Nottingham City Council all share this view and their respective Local Transport Plans make it clear that these authorities all prefer the partnership approach and they would only wish to resort to Quality Contracts as a last resort. They all express their satisfaction with the working arrangements with us and the other local bus operators

We share this view which is central to the Government’s thinking. Working against each other, however, is almost certain to have exactly the opposite effect.

We have successfully grown the market for bus travel in the East Midlands against the national trend, and bus satisfaction levels are at an all time high. Our fleet is one of the most modern in the country and we continue to increase frequencies, and extend timetables as demand increases. Much of our success relies on the strong partnerships that we have developed with the local authorities and we do not want to see those relationships destroyed.

MPs in the trent barton patch have been consistent supporters of public transport and many have taken a keen interest in our success.  We have written to all local MPs warning them that the Early Day Motions could cause serious and widespread damage to bus service levels and investment.

East Midlands Airport link goes 24/7
partnership venture pays off

From Easter Sunday the route linking Derby and Loughborough with East Midlands Airport will run 24 hours a day 7 days a week with brand new buses in a striking yellow livery.

As part of the change the present airline shuttle will be renamed skylink Derby Loughborough – bringing it into a family of services now serving the bustling Airport., The 6 new Plaxton bodied Volvo B7RLE buses represent an investment of £750,000 by the East Midlands Development Agency in partnership with Derby City Council, the Airport and our sister company Kinchbus. 

The Airport service has grown from very humble beginnings.  Its last boost up to half hourly with late night buses gave thousands of people in the thriving Airport-based community a sound alternative to car commuting.

Skylink offers trent barton customers a handy link from Derby to the airport.

The new timetable can be viewed at www.skylink.co.uk