Pre-Covid, more journeys were made by bus than on the National Rail network, London Underground and all tram and metro systems combined. It will be impossible to hit the country’s carbon targets without more people on buses. So it’s something of a concern that bus was, in the last decade, not a growth sector. Indeed, bus use grew meaningfully in just four places: Bristol, Bath, Brighton and Reading. So it’s a remarkable fact that, of those four places, three of them had their buses managed by the same man for at least some of that decade.
If there’s one person who knows how to get more people onto buses, it is James Freeman. James was MD of Reading Buses most of the first half of the decade, then MD of First West of England (incorporating Bath and Bristol though, slightly surprisingly, not the actual West of England) for the second half.
The most popular episode of The Freewheeling Podcast so far was when I spoke to James to understand if it was fluke, or if there is a reason why everywhere he goes, bus use increases.
THE FORMULA FOR GROWTH
What was interesting from our conversation was the sense to which there is a formula. James didn’t quite put it this way, but it is clear that he operates to a three-point plan:
- INTERNAL FOCUS: GET THE PEOPLE CULTURE RIGHT
- QUALITY: DELIVER THE BASICS
- MARKETING: HYPER-LOCAL IDENTITY
