About Stagecoach North East

Key facts May 2016 – April 2017

• Over 65 million passenger journeys were made on Stagecoach North East buses
• Over 19 million miles operated across the North East
• 1,409 staff employed across six Stagecoach North East depots
• 437 buses across Newcastle, South Shields, Sunderland, Hartlepool and Teesside
• 99.3% reliability 
• 92.5% punctuality 
• £9 million investment in new buses

Follow us and tweet your questions and comments to @StagecoachNE

 

Our people

We are a major employer in the local economy, with 1,409 staff, of whom 1,111 are drivers, 182 are engineers and 116 are administration and managerial staff. The majority of our employees live within the local communities in which our buses operate.

Over the past year, 84 new drivers were trained to become PCV licence holders. In total, 146 drivers (including existing licence holders, new recruits and transfers) have been placed in our local depots. Our drivers also attend certified classroom courses during the year to maintain their Driver Qualification Card, which requires them to maintain and improve their skills through regular training updates.

We also work with drivers continuously to improve driving skills and use a monitoring system on the buses called GreenRoad. Using a traffic-light LED system on the dashboard, GreenRoad gives drivers instant feedback on their driving manoeuvres, encouraging smoother, safer, and more fuel-efficient driving.

In the last year, 280 drivers (25%) received Fleet Elite awards for their exceptional driving standards. An impressive 182 these drivers achieved the Gold badge for consistently maintaining the Fleet Elite driving standard for three consecutive years.

We are active in getting more young people into our company through the Stagecoach Apprenticeship Scheme, and currently employ 14 engineering apprentices from within the local community.

Many of our employees have shown impressive commitment and loyalty to Stagecoach and the bus industry in general. Each year we hold Long Service Awards and, in 2016/17, 88 of our North East team achieved milestones of 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 and 45 years service with us.

Our customers

Our customers made a total of over 65 million journeys on our buses throughout the year, in the same period, we received 2813 complaints, equivalent to one complaint for every 23,159 passenger journeys.

Our established Twitter account provides regular service updates from our depot teams and also a contact point for enquiries and comments. We also have a local customer communications team to maintain and improve customer services through social media, telephone, email and web based channels. These channels are used as platforms from which to engage our customer base in our promotional and operational activities.

Our environment 

Our buses

We operate a fleet of 437 buses and have invested millions in new buses for local areas over the last couple of years, all of which are fully accessible and meet the latest Euro emission standards. In the last year, we have introduced 42 brand new buses into our fleet for services operating in Newcastle.

In September 2016, we welcomed 24 new buses to our fleet as part of a £5m investment to improve services 62 and 63. The new double deck buses feature fuel efficient Euro 6 engines, improved seating for customer comfort, free WI-FI and USB charging points and were launched at a Green Transport Event in Newcastle. In December 2016, an additional £4m was invested in 18 new buses to serve routes 30 and 31. The new single deck fleet of Enviro 200 buses also feature those same great features and will benefit customers in Newcastle city centre, Fenham, Benwell, Gosforth, Fawdon and Montagu Estate.

In January 2017, we also introduced three Scania Omnilinks to run on our new inter-urban express route between Sunderland and Newcastle. Service X24 features free WI-FI, bespoke branding and offers a speedy option for commuters and shoppers in both cities. X24 customers have made more than 84,000 journeys since the service was introduced.

A total of 208 buses in the North East are now fitted with free WI-FI for the convenience of our customers and more will follow during 2017/18.

Our services

We operated over 19 million miles over the last year and passengers made over 65 million journeys. The key measures of our performance are the reliability and punctuality of those journeys.

In the past year, we operated 99.3% of our scheduled services and, of the 0.7% of scheduled journeys that we did not operate, 0.04% was due to factors within our control, such as driver and vehicle allocation, and 0.66% was due to factors out of our control such as bad weather, road closures and traffic congestion.

We monitor our services for punctuality and, in the past year, we manually monitored 5% of all scheduled journeys. Despite another year of an exceptional number of work schemes across the region, of these, 92.5% operated within 5 minutes of their scheduled time. We continue to seek improvement both through rescheduling services and in discussions with our local highway authorities.

 

Investments

Following the launch of our new website in 2015, digital investment continued this year with the introduction of the Stagecoach Bus App, making bus journeys even easier for passengers across the region.

The new app offers a simple journey planning tool which uses interactive maps and the smartphone GPS system to help customers identify their nearest bus stop and the most suitable bus service for their journey requirements. Passengers can also find out information on journey length and available fare options and access live running times via their smartphone to check the status of their journey before catching the bus.

In addition, the app enables customers to pinpoint their location during their journey, helping them determine where they are on the route at any one time, how far they are from their destination and when to get off the bus, which is particularly beneficial to those who are not regular bus users.

Daily and weekly mobile tickets are now available via the app for the first time, allowing customers to use one app to instantly buy and download tickets straight to their smartphone.

In December 2016, Stagecoach North East became the first bus company in the group to introduce contactless payments across the entire fleet, a method which now captures up to 9.6% of our on-bus sales. The introduction of contactless, smart ticketing and mobile tickets offers yet more convenience to customers and helps to reduce dwell times whilst speeding up customer journeys.

Young people and the unemployed continue to benefit from our industry-leading discount travel schemes; ‘VIP’ for under 19s and ‘Back on Board’ for job seekers.

 

Our community

During Green Week, North East depots get heavily involved with schools, events, recycling and energy saving competitions. At Christmas, Green Santa visits schools to award environmentally friendly prizes and community groups are given the opportunity to apply for eco grants.

Additionally, staff at the depots are encouraged to reduce, reuse and recycle and even cycle, all year round, with hundreds of employees signed up to the company’s cycle to work scheme.

We are also a major employer in the local community and enable thousands of people to go about their daily activities. We work with many local organisations to improve transport access and information.

The North East team is tireless in its dedication to supporting local communities. Through campaigns like Green Santa, Catch the Bus Week, Green Week and National Customer Service Week, we’ve given away goody bags, free travel vouchers and grants to local schools, individuals and groups.

In September 2016, we were delighted to become involved in the Great North Snowdog trail, Tyne and Wear’s biggest ever mass-participation, public art event in aid of St. Oswald’s Hospice. A bespoke snowdog was created for, and sponsored by, Stagecoach North East. The trail of dogs encouraged locals and tourists to flock to the trail in their droves, supporting local shops and businesses in the process and providing a catalyst for Sunderland’s short-listing in its bid to become the 2021 UK City of Culture.

We also support our local employees, through both funding and practical help, in the many and various ways they fundraise across the region. Our depot teams regularly take part in sporting events, quizzes and collections to raise money for local charities and community projects.

Once again, bus drivers from across the North East depots raised thousands for charity by spreading Christmas cheer as they drove their buses dressed as Father Christmas and his festive friends. Passengers showed generosity in their thousands and we were able to donate £26,498 to local charities.

Meet some of our team

Head Office:

Depots: