This month The National Transport Awards took place in London, celebrating the dedication, expertise, success and innovation of those working to continually enhance the transport networks across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Five of FirstGroup's bus and rail businesses either won or were highly commended in six of the award categories.
Avanti West Coast won the 'Campaign of the Year' award for their campaign to increase new female driver recruits, which included a large, eye-catching mural of one of the first female train drivers, Karen Harrison, at Euston station. As part of the campaign, Avanti pledged to increase the percentage of female recruits to 50% by 2030, by breaking down the barriers for women entering the rail industry, including changing the way the business recruits to make it more female friendly.
Lumo, FirstGroup's all electric rail service between London and Edinburgh, was highly commended in the 'Rail Operator of the Year' category, beaten only by the new Elizabeth Line in London. Lumo offers an affordable and greener travel alternative, helping to drive modal shift from private cars to public transport.
Great Western Railway (GWR)'s colleagues Coral, Dan and Robin were highly commended in the 'Frontline Employee / Community Champion of the Year' category, for their role as accessibility mentors. GWR has several colleagues who act as accessibility mentors across its network, providing assistance on trains and in stations, to ensure every customer's accessibility needs are met on their journey.
South Western Railway (SWR)'s efforts in collaboration with Network Rail to support the King's Coronation was named as one of the winners in 'Excellence in Cross-agency Collaboration' award category. SWR put on seven special trains to help facilitate the biggest movement of military personnel by the rail industry since Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965. After months of planning, and with major operations across four of its stations, 5,000 serviceman and women were transported by rail to and from London Waterloo.
Transport for Cornwall won the 'Best Alliance / Collaboration of the Year' award for its streamlined, integrated, and effective delivery of transport services in the region. Transport for Cornwall is a partnership which includes FirstGroup's GWR and First Bus South businesses, to work together as one network to provide the best possible bus and rail services, fares, and information for customers.
The Leicester Buses Enhanced Partnership, which is a partnership between Leicester Council and all local bus companies including First Bus, was also highly commended in this category. The Partnership was commended for their collaborative work to review, rationalise, and simplify services in the area, delivering better coordination amongst operators and an enhanced customer experience.
First Bus were highly commended for the UK wide rollout of Tap On, Tap Off technology across their entire fleet in the 'Digital and Technology Excellence in Transport' category. The roll out of the Tap On, Tap Off payment technology across over 4,000 buses completed in April this year, making First Bus the first UK operator to achieve this milestone. The technology not only allows First Bus to offer fairer and more personalised fares, but customers can travel as much as they like knowing they cannot spend more than their daily or weekly spend cap.
The awards, which are organised by Transport Times and endorsed by The Department for Transport, celebrated their 20th anniversary last week. Jeremy Vine hosted the event with Richard Holden MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport and Lee Waters MS, Welsh Deputy Minister for Climate Change as keynote speakers.
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