Conversations going on everywhere: If there’s one picture that encapsulates the atmosphere at last week’s show, then this might be it.
Now reinvented as Coach & Bus UK (nothing to do with Brexit), the former Coach & Bus Live event was one of the best for years. Not only were the halls packed – but also there were people actively doing business.
While it’s now traditional that some vehicle manufacturers receive ‘on-the-spot’ orders, i.e. ones that haven’t been pre-arranged, this year in addition to coach and minibus sales made at the show, there was an order for ‘pods’ out of the blue. Now who would have expected that?
In a way it shows the rapid technological advances made by our sector in the last few years. Things that not so long ago were just far-off concepts, such as cloud computing, digital mirrors, real-time passenger information and bus loadings through an app, are now here and available to buy.
Speaking in The Theatre, First UK Bus MD Giles Fearnley put it simply: “At long last we have the tools to deliver modal shift, of which we have talked so much.”
He is also positive about the Bus Services Act, which gives new powers to local authorities to deliver the kind of deep partnerships that can really work.
Meanwhile, he argues that the industry is well placed in the current debate about air quality. “We all have a responsibility to engage with stakeholders to really sell the bus and coach proposition,” he says. And, he’s right.
