Buses Minister visits Transdev in Harrogate
Transport Minister Richard Holden has toured Transdev’s Harrogate base, seeing the work that was done behind the scenes to keep the Yorkshire spa town on the move following heavy snowfall.
Mr Holden, who was accompanied by Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, visited Transdev’s Academy training centre, before catching a Harrogate Electrics bus to the town’s bus station to meet staff and visit their recently upgraded welfare facilities.
The Minister was welcomed to the bus operator’s headquarters by Transdev Operations Director, Vitto Pizzuti; Training Manager, Dale French and Commercial Manager, Matt Burley. Mr Holden spoke with trainee drivers about their reasons for choosing to join Transdev’s team, and the process they go through to gain the skills needed. The Minister also met younger colleagues starting out in the bus industry, as well as older recruits taking up bus driving as a change of career.
“The Minister was also impressed to learn of the success of our Government-supported £2 Price Drop, which has helped us to attract record numbers of motorists to leave their car keys at home and choose the bus instead” – Vitto Pizzuti, Transdev Operations Director
Vitto Pizzuti said: “We’re delighted to have welcomed the Buses Minister, who saw for himself the lengths we go to during wintry weather to keep our buses on the road serving our customers.
“The Minister was also impressed to learn of the success of our Government-supported £2 Price Drop, which has helped us to attract record numbers of motorists to leave their car keys at home and choose the bus instead.
“Fare-paying customer numbers are now at 96% of 2019 levels, and on Friday 3 February we saw our busiest day ever, with 131,000 customers travelling on our network on just one day. We’ve also seen numbers travelling on Coastliner rise by 75%, and on The 36 linking Harrogate with Leeds and Ripon by 11%, as the £2 cap on single fares continues to prove popular.”
“Having invested more than £2 billion to support bus services since the pandemic, it’s fantastic to see so many people using the bus here in Harrogate” – Richard Holden
Richard Holden said: “Having invested more than £2 billion to support bus services since the pandemic, it’s fantastic to see so many people using the bus here in Harrogate.
“Our £2 bus fare cap is helping to turbocharge the return of passengers, and we will continue to work hard with local authorities and operators like Transdev to get even more people to hop back onto the bus.”
The Minister was also briefed on progress towards the introduction of 71 electric buses across Transdev’s Yorkshire networks, in a jointly funded programme over the next three years which will see the operator’s entire fleet based in Harrogate replaced by new zero-emission electric vehicles.