Award-winning Reading Buses has been placed in the top five of the latest Transport Focus Bus Passenger Survey covering the UK.

The latest placement of the UK’s ‘Bus Operator of the Year,’ out of 50 others in town and city regions across the UK, has seen an improvement in Reading Buses’ overall satisfaction score to 93% against the highest of 97% - well above the national average.

Almost 1,000 customers were surveyed by Transport Focus, formally known as Passenger Focus, the independent transport users watchdog, between September and December 2015.

“The rise in our overall satisfaction score reflects our commitment to continually improving our services and growing customer numbers,” said Martijn Gilbert, Reading Buses Chief Executive Officer.

“This is achieved through an unrelenting focus on the needs of our customers and is backed up with ongoing investing in the latest technology and facilities both on and off our buses.”

The research showed that the improvements had predominantly been driven by customer satisfaction with the following key elements:

• on bus journey time
• punctuality
• route and destination information
• drivers giving customers enough time to find a seat
• the driver’s appearance

Said Martijn: “We are particularly pleased with the result given that the surveys took place between the busy period of September and December last year when there were some road closures and notable traffic disruption, as well as the ramp up for the festive period”.

“Customers still rated us highly and appreciated our efforts to get them where they needed to go.

“Most encouraging is recognition of the vitally important role of our frontline employees in delivering the best possible service to our customers and these results show the best-ever scores for our hardworking team of drivers.

“We are in the top six in the UK for the seven driver attitude and driving style areas.” 

Notable scores for drivers were being second for the nearness of buses to the kerb at stops and third for the safety of driving, showing the effect of our award-winning driver training programme.

Said Martijn:  “The helpfulness and attitude of our drivers was rated third best, proving that the Reading Buses company value of ‘unrelenting customer focus’ really shines through to customers.”

Reading Buses was also ranked the second best for its route and destination information and scores for value for money rose from 62% to 69%, outstripping industry trends and clearly influenced by our recent great value fares freeze and cool summer fares campaigns.

Other notable statistics include an 86% satisfaction rating - sixth best in the UK - with bus stops being free from graffiti and vandalism.

Said Martijn:  “This recognises the great work of the respective Borough Councils and bus stop supplier partners. Reading Buses also ranked third overall in the survey at 86% for its on-bus information and gained a satisfaction score of 81% for each of reliability and punctuality.

“We remain committed to continuing to deliver the best possible services to our customers, often against a backdrop of challenging congestion in our town. 

“We will continue to work with our stakeholders to champion the use of the bus as the best way to get around and also deliver further improvements wherever opportunities allow”.