Aircoach’s CEXi survey high ranking

A customer experience survey, organised by CEXi, has ranked Ireland’s private bus and coach operator, Aircoach, 17th, out of 151 Irish ‘brands’. The company, which is part of First Bus, provides a range of scheduled coach services to and from Dublin City Centre and Dublin Airport as well as non-stop express services to Cork and Belfast and was ranked higher than any other bus, coach or rail provider in Ireland.

Grayline Coaches expansion

Bicester coach company, Grayline Coaches has moved to new 19 acre premises in Blackthorn as part of a £2.5m expansion project that has created five new jobs. The family owned business operates 22 coaches in Bicester and the surrounding area. The move followed a compulsory purchase order on their previous site linked to the Bicester Village station which will be opening soon.

Operations Manager of the company, Paul Gray, commented, ‘It was important that we maintained continuity for our workforce because some of our drivers have been with us for 30 years and we are a key supplier to schools and businesses.’

Busworld visitors up 9%

Busworld 2015 held in Kortrijk, Belgium recently welcomed 34,932 visitors from 118 countries, 9% higher than the previous edition. On a visitor number level, this edition was the biggest ever in terms of visitor numbers and also exhibitor numbers with 411 companies coming from 36 countries.

New Routemasters for route 149

London bus route 149 is the latest service on the TfL network to operate with New Routemaster buses. The route, which links London Bridge Station with Edmonton Green has commenced the phasing in of the buses, with the Arriva operated service due to be wholly New Routemaster by mid-November. The conversion of route 149 will see the 600th New Routemaster bus enter passenger service, with 200 more scheduled for delivery by mid-2016.

Iveco wins Norwegian contract at Kortrijk

Nettbuss, one of Scandinavia’s largest operators, placed an order for 132 buses and minibuses from Iveco Bus at Busworld 2015. The order consists of 107 Crossway Line and Crossway Low Entry models from the company’s intercity range, and 25 Iveco Daily minibuses.

Reading recognised at CILT awards

The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport’s Annual Awards Dinner saw Reading Buses presented with the accolade for Environmental Improvement.  The award was presented by the Institute’s Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, accompanied by the Institute’s President, Beverley Bell FCILT. Heathrow Airport won the award for Passenger Transport Best Practice.