Ruddington’s main public transport operator is celebrating yet again – after receiving no less than THREE “Gold” UK Bus Awards, including the ‘Environment Award’.
Of course, the benefits of ‘Green NCT – Home of the World’s Largest Fleet of Bio-Gas Double Deckers’ have been felt directly in our village – since Nottingham City Transport (NCT) replaced all our Green 10 buses with these brand new, environmentally friendly vehicles last year. They use fuel produced from waste through anaerobic digestion. These buses prevent harmful pollutants being emitted into the atmosphere from landfill and have an almost neutral well-to-wheel carbon footprint. Fuelling buses with bio-gas helps reduce the amount of food, farm and sewage waste going to landfill or not being reused. NCT has invested £16.4m in a total of 53 brand new bio-gas buses plus the installation of a biogas fuelling station – with the aim of making a significant contribution towards Nottingham’s aim to be the UK’s greenest city.
Not content with stopping there, the company ALSO won Top National Bus Driver AND Top City Operator at the prestigious bus awards ceremony at Troxy in London this week (20th November 2018).
Newly crowned, Top National Bus Driver Aaron Johnson, fought off competition from tens of thousands of bus drivers nationwide. The award, sponsored by Volvo, recognises outstanding achievements in delivering exceptional customer service, always going above and beyond to exceed passengers’ expectations, as well as driving safely and considerately.
The organisation also took Gold in the highly coveted Top City Operator category sponsored by Init. This award recognises companies that provide an outstanding service, embrace technologies and are truly committed to their customers and employees. The company scored top marks in mystery travelling tests, and achieved the second highest scores in the UK’s independent Transport Focus customer satisfaction survey. It was recognised as offering a travel experience that is accessible to all – by providing larger bays on all buses for pushchairs and wheelchairs, as well as next stop visual announcements on every bus – with 90% of these offering audio announcements too.
The company was awarded Silver in the ‘best in show’ – UK Bus Operator of the Year. They were just held off the top spot by Go South Coast, based in Dorset. Graham Smith, Nottingham City Transport’s Engineering Manager received a special commendation in the Engineer of the Year category.
Mark Yexley, Chairman of the UK Bus Awards, said: “A massive congratulations to Nottingham City Transport, what an amazing achievement to take home three gold awards and a silver. The progress they’re making in helping Nottingham achieve its clean air targets is highly commendable.”
Anthony Carver-Smith, NCT Marketing Manager added: “Wow. We are exceptionally delighted to be coming home from the UK Bus Awards with three gold awards, a silver award and a special commendation. Being recognised as City Operator of the Year again is fantastic and this is great recognition of the hard work and dedication by everyone at NCT in providing Nottingham with a high quality bus service. Recognition for our investment in green buses, with Nottingham having the largest bio-gas double deck fleet in the world, is fantastic and just the beginning of our commitment to significantly reduce emissions from our fleet.”
The introduction of these bio-gas buses marked the start of a 3 year programme by NCT to upgrade its entire fleet to Euro VI by 2020. This has been supported by grants awarded to Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council to retrofit diesel buses – including Ruddington’s Navy 3 single-deckers – with an exhaust treatment system that is said to lower emissions by 90%.
Congratulations NCT! Why not ditch the car and travel with a multi-award winning bus company, instead? You can find some inspiration for your next NCT Buses’ #RuddyGoodDayOut >>HERE<<!
{Top photo of the the NCT team courtesy of UK Bus Awards}
