In recognition of the hard work behind the scenes, and growing support from our increasing number of customers, Bluestar has been short-listed in a number of award categories which celebrate the best in Britain’s bus industry.
The Route One Operator Excellence Awards are promoted by leading bus and coach industry magazine Route One. People and organisations from across the UK are nominated by fellow operators, suppliers and local authorities. As a result of this process, Bluestar has been short-listed in the Medium-sized Operator of the Year category, plus Steve Prewett, our Engineering Manager, has been short-listed as Bus Engineer of the Year. After being nominated, we were then asked to compile our submission for both awards, which majored on the turnaround in operational performance, customer satisfaction and business development at Bluestar. This has been achieved through the hard work of all our team here, who are thrilled at the prospect at being recognised on the national stage.
The presentation evening takes place on October 7 at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, and it has become one of the most celebrated nights in the coach and bus industry with over 400 industry colleagues in attendance. Well-known and highly-respected BBC sports commentator and ‘anchor man’ John Inverdale and ever-popular comedian Roy Walker will be in attendance.
Then, at the UK Bus Awards, to be held at London’s famous Hilton Hotel on Park Lane in November, Bluestar’s name will again up in lights as we are nominated for the Marketing Award in celebration of our efforts on our Bluestar 1, the £1.5m investment earlier this year. Since the launch in February with 7 new double deck Scania OmniCity buses in stylish starburst two tone livery, the route between Southampton and Winchester has already enjoyed passenger growth of 12% year-on-year.
The UK Bus Awards Scheme is designed to recognise and reward excellence and good practice in a wide range of disciplines associated with the operation, design and promotion of bus services. Its mission is also to use the inspiration of the winning projects to inspire others to emulate the winning schemes, projects or organisations. John Owen, chairman of the UK Bus Awards Management Committee, was delighted with the standard for 2009. He commented: "We’ve had a fantastic response this year with a record entry of 210 and we're hugely impressed by the commitment to quality and innovation shown by the industry, especially against such a harsh economic background.
The standard of the entries is once again extremely high, and has generated one of the toughest first round judging sessions in the 14 years that UKBA has been running. The final decision is going to be very difficult indeed and I wish all the nominees every success at this year’s event in November.” Over 210 nominations were received this year, which is a record number of entries, and this has been short-listed to around 80 across 20 award categories.
“We are very optimistic, and are thrilled at the prospect of being nominated, but the real winners are actually our customers who use our buses and our people who work hard to deliver our services day-in and day-out. We’re very proud of all that they do to help us deliver one of the best transport services around!” said our Operations Manager, Alex Hornby, seen here at the UK Bus Awards short-list announcement at Cambridge University with our Brand Manager Leon Wellman.
