Stagecoach Group’s bus employees and companies won top honours at the 2014 UK Bus Awards

• Transport group wins three Gold Awards
• Two Stagecoach employees come out on top
• Marketing Excellence win for Stagecoach East Midlands
• Special award for Stagecoach South West

PERTH, Scotland, 2014-11-20 — /Travel PR News/ — Stagecoach Group’s bus employees and companies have won top honours at the 2014 UK Bus Awards. Several Stagecoach Group businesses were recognised across a range of award categories at the 19th annual awards ceremony held in London yesterday (Tuesday 18 November), with gold, silver and bronze awards being handed out.

Stagecoach East Midlands won the Gold Award in the Marketing Initiative of the Year category for its successful marketing of its Skegness Seasider routes. The company, which has delivered passenger growth through a range of marketing initiatives, impressed judges by turning six open top buses into named classic seaside characters to take people to top tourist destinations in and around Skegness. The ‘Seasiders’ have become an attraction in their own right and Stagecoach has used story books, a song and video, giveaways and incentives to encourage families to use the services.

Former Stagecoach Manchester Service Performance Manager, Chris Icely – who retired in August – was named the Gold winner of the Unsung Heroes Award. Chris, who joined the bus industry as a conductor in 1978, was praised by the judges for his sustained career and commitment to delivering excellent service over many years.

Stagecoach Merseyside Engineering Director Tony Cockcroft won the Gold Award in the Engineer of the Year category. Tony, who joined the Stagecoach Merseyside team two years ago, was praised by judges for introducing a fresh, approachable manner and for his professionalism and passion for developing staff at all levels.

A special award was given to Stagecoach South West for its response to major transport problems caused by severe storms in the Devon area last winter. The award – for Keeping Communities Connected – was handed over in recognition of the fact that Stagecoach South West widened its ticket boundaries and introduced extra services to help people who were cut off after the railway line at Dawlish was severely damaged by stormy weather.

In addition to the Gold Awards, Stagecoach also picked up several other honours. Stagecoach Manchester was awarded Silver in the City Operator of the Year category – just a year after winning the overall Bus Operator of the Year title at last year’s awards.

Stagecoach London’s Romford Garage also scooped the Silver award in the London Bus Garage of the Year category while Stagecoach Yorkshire Assistant Operations Manager Shayne Howarth was Highly Commended in the Unsung Heroes Award.

Stagecoach UK Bus Managing Director Robert Montgomery said: “It’s fantastic to see our companies and individual employees being rewarded for their hard work and excellence. It is particularly pleasing to see three of our staff recognised for their commitment and quality of work – it is our people who make us the customer focussed business we are and Tony, Chris and Shayne thoroughly deserve their awards.

“Across the UK, we are delivering high-quality bus services for our customers day in, day out, delivering the country’s best value fares, high customer satisfaction and smart ticketing. Along with our partners, we look forward to continuing to improve services for our customers and to encouraging even more people to make use of our greener, smarter bus services.”

Congratulating all the successful finalists, UK Bus Awards chairman Tony Depledge added: “In my first year as Chairman of the UK Bus Awards, I’ve been delighted to see at first hand so many great projects from bus operators and local authorities. Where authorities and operators align their priorities and develop schemes together, the results can inspire the whole industry for the constant improvement in service quality that our passengers deserve.”

Stagecoach Group had 10 finalists at this year’s awards. The full list of the shortlisted nominees is as follows:

• Stagecoach Manchester (Top City Operator)
• Stagecoach North East (Top City Operator)
• Stagecoach, megabusGold.com (Innovation)
• Stagecoach East Midlands (Marketing Initiative of the Year Award)
• Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire (Putting Passengers First)
• Shayne Howarth, Stagecoach Yorkshire (Unsung Heroes Award)
• Chris Icely, Stagecoach Manchester (Unsung Heroes Award)
• Tony Cockcorft, Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire (Engineer of the Year Award)
• Stephen Reed, Stagecoach West Scotland (Top National Bus Driver)
• Romford Garage, Stagecoach London (London Bus Garage of the Year Award)

For further information on Stagecoach UK Bus visit www.stagecoachbus.com

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact: Stagecoach Group Communications on 01738 442111 or email: media@stagecoachgroup.com

Notes to Editors:

Stagecoach Group

• Stagecoach Group is a leading international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, United States and Canada. The Group employs around 35,000 people, and operates bus, coach, train, and tram services.
• Stagecoach is one of UK’s biggest bus and coach operators with around 8,000 buses and coaches. Around 2.5 million passengers travel on Stagecoach’s buses every day on a network stretching from south-west England to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The Group’s business includes major city bus operations in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge. Low-cost coach service, megabus.com, operates between around 60 towns and cities across the UK.
• Stagecoach is a major UK rail operator, running the South West Trains, Island Line and East Midlands Trains networks. It has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group, which operates the West Coast inter-city rail franchise.
• Stagecoach also operates the Supertram light rail network in Sheffield.
• In North America, Stagecoach operates around 2,900 buses and coaches in the United States and Canada. Megabus.com links around 130 key locations in North America. Stagecoach is also involved in operating commuter and transit services, contracted bus services, charters, sightseeing tours and a small number of school bus services.

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