Reading Buses has opened a next-generation engineering hub at its Great Knollys Street depot in the town.
Overhaul work has seen office refurbishment coupled to technology upgrades to enable the municipal operator’s engineering function to run more smoothly and efficiently. A workshop control room is the central hub for all vehicle maintenance and the upgrade is a first major change since the building opened in 1998.
Inspiration has been taken from Reading Buses’ 24/7 operations control room along with third-party car service centres and larger shops, says CEO Robert Williams. The new facilities “are both practical and properly represent the company’s values and ethos,” he continues.
A suite of computers and screens handle and display live information. They have displaced a combination of computers, whiteboards and noticeboards, and paper. The new units are configurable and display workshop status indicators including:
- Buses in for maintenance and the reason
- Scheduled inspections and MoTs
- A live view of driver daily safety inspection data
- Buses currently being worked on and by which technician
- A list of parts on order for specific jobs.
With the first of Reading Buses’ Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV battery-electric double-deckers complete, two additional screens will be added to the engineering hub in coming weeks to support those vehicles, including live battery monitoring and charging status.
Also part of the overhaul is a central workstation with four terminals for engineers to update job cards and seek information, with space for diagnostic equipment below. That replaces an enquiry counter that dates from before information technology entered widescale use in bus maintenance.
Desks are provided for the engineering supervisor, night chargehand and engineering administrator along with a small meeting room and an Engineering Manager’s office. Automatic doors to the workshop floor have been chosen to assist with getting equipment in and out.
Completing the investment is use of on-brand Reading Buses vinyls to create a coherent look.
