T is for trentbarton

Saturday 9th September 2023

It’s the only former National Bus Company to still be owned by its original management buy-out team.

It’s the pioneering and original trend setter of a whole host of marketing ideas in the bus industry that have stood the test of time and been much copied elsewhere including individual route branding and a tap-on tap-off smartcard.

It’s renowned for providing a quality bus service which people aspire to use and not being afraid to operate as a commercial enterprise.

It is of course trentbarton so named after the bus company formerly known as Trent purchased the long standing independent Barton Transport in 1989 and then merged the two operations.

Although they are still owners of parent company the Wellglade Group, it’s been many years since the hugely respected Brian King and Ian Morgan were controlling day to day operations at the helm of trentbarton. Until February this year that was overseen by managing director Jeff Counsell but following his retirement his worthy successor is Tom Morgan.

I’ve long admired the way trentbarton has trail blazed quality bus provision. To do this consistently over the decades takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Many years ago you could always bank on trentbarton being worthy award winners at various industry events but for a long time now the team has chosen to plough on with its highly regarded policies and practices rather than constantly seeking industry adulation and peer recognition.

There’s something to be said for that approach. It’s the ultimate example of just getting on with the job with attention to detail rather than needing an annual massage of the corporate ego.

I know from my own travel experiences post Covid in what’s called “trentbartonland”, the “really good bus company” (as it’s also called), like everywhere else, has struggled to maintain its usual high standards due to driver shortages but it was one of the first to fess up to this in public and regularly publish a list of journey cancellations on social media so passengers were aware of the situation.

The absence of those regular bulletins of late indicates the worst of that period is now over and reliability is much improved.

I should also add I’m not a dewy-eyed fan of everything trentbarton does; for example the company resolutely refuses to operate double deck buses which I have a personal preference for especially on long journeys with scenery to enjoy but I accept it’s just a personal thing and trentbarton has always said its single deck only policy is based on customer research of passengers’ preferences.

I also wasn’t a great lover of the company’s current website design which I initially found awkward to navigate especially on a smartphone with confusing menu headings but as I’ve been delving into it more in researching for this blog, I’ve grown to like it.

And there’s so much else to like about the company and its operations, those minor issues pale into insignificance.

For example, there’s a plentiful supplies of colourful timetable leaflets all in keeping with each route’s brand.

These are readily available at Travel Shops the company operates in Nottingham’s Victoria bus station, Derby bus station and in Sutton.

In Derby bus station there’s a window where a trentbarton member of staff provides information and leaflets while the larger adjacent Information office which is marked as Arriva, but I doubt is still looked after by them,…

… contains a supply of leaflets for all bus services … except Arriva’s.

A brochure I picked up in Nottingham when I visited on Tuesday called Explore had some great suggestions for destinations to travel to on the company’s bus network.

This includes a colourful map depicting the routes.

There’s also a network map online which shows the extent of the company’s operations stretching across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire with cross border forays to Staffordshire and Leicestershire.

It also offers maps showing how networks radiate from the ten main towns where you can find trentbarton’s bus routes. For example here’s the map for Derby.

There are also maps based on city centres, hospitals, the universities and East Midlands Airport.

Although the company mostly uses brand names rather than traditional route numbers for some routes it uses a number with sub-numbers rather than letters to distinguish route variations.

For example the two, threes, sixes and nines.

The sixes provide a combined 15 minute frequency between Derby and Belper made up of the 6.1 hourly onward to Bakewell, 6.2 and 6.3 half hourly to Ripley and 6.4 hourly to Belper. There’s also an hourly 6X between Derby and Belper via a slightly different route. Just to add to the mix evening journeys on the 6.2 and 6.3 are referred to as 6E and late night/early morning weekend journeys are 6N.

I understand the logic of it all but I do wonder if potential passengers understand it enough?

The nines similarly have 9.1 and 9.3 route variations between Derby and Mansfield while the threes use an A B or C in the timetable and map and on destination blinds to distinguish between the options for the routes between Nottingham and Mansfield.

There also seemed to be two variations of livery for the threes – one yellow based and one orange.

The company’s flagship route must be the high profile Red Arrow branded non-stop service between Derby and Nottingham which runs 24/7 with a very attractive 10 minute daytime frequency and every 20 minutes on Sundays.

At one time some journeys were extended beyond Derby to Chesterfield but that section of route is now in the hands of the hourly ‘comet’ branded route.

Other 24/7 routes include the indigo route between Nottingham and Derby via Beeston and Long Eaton and the two Skylink branded services between Derby as well as Nottingham and East Midlands Airport.

Frequencies across the trentbarton network are very attractive and I am sure are in tune with the market each route is serving.

Ten minute frequencies can be found on the company’s pioneering branded route – rainbow one from Nottingham as far as Eastwood where the route splits to either Alfreton (two an hour) or Heanor (four an hour) and Ripley (two of the four an hour from Heanor) but using the same brand.

The relatively local route in Derby to Mickleover runs every 10 minutes with alternate journey encircling the residential area denoted by a green or blue dot on the timetable and on the bus destination blind and the mainline branded route between Nottingham and Bingham runs a simple end to end ten minutes timetable. The H1 between Derby and Heanor uniquely runs every 12 minutes, with one journey an hour extended to Alfreton.

After that most other routes operate a 15 minute frequency with a 20 minute offering on the Derby to Heatherton ‘harlequin’, the Nottingham to Cotgrave and West Bridgford and the jointly operated non-stop route X38 between Derby and Burton. Two other routes between Derby and Burton branded as ‘the villager’ and V3 run every 30 minutes and hourly respectively.

There are a small number of other routes on hourly frequencies including ‘swift’ between Derby, Uttoxeter and Ashbourne .

Finally in this snapshot summary there’s a network of four routes numbered 31, 32, 33 and 34 based on Ilkeston which provide hourly connections to Kirk Hallam, West Hallam and Derby, Sutton and Mansfield and Hucknall.

The exclusively single deck roughly 250 strong fleet comprises Optare Solos and Versas (the favoured purchase up to 2009), Volvo Wright Eclipses (purchases between 2008 and 2015) and ADL Enviro200s (purchased up to 2020 and with around 100 now being the largest bus type in the fleet). There are also nine eight year old Volvo B11RT Plaxton Elites for the Red Arrow service.

The fleet is housed in bus garages in Derby, Langley Mill, Belper, Nottingham and Sutton in Ashfield.

The large Derby site is the original Trent bus garage – as Google maps reminds us (below) – but also houses a large fleet of buses (including double decks) operated by sister Welglade Group owned business, Notts & Derby.

The garage in Belper famously doubles up as a bus station during the day.

Over the years I’ve had many enjoyable journeys across trentbarton’s network and, the Covid inspired driver shortages era aside, have come away impressed with the quality service provided. I travelled between Derby and Nottingham again on Tuesday taking the prestigious Red Arrow for the eastbound journey and the i4 for the westbound.

Both vehicles were well presented with a lunch time journey on the former carrying nine passengers …

… with 16 leaving Nottingham on the i4 and about the same number boarding during the journey across to Derby with the 10 minute frequency as far as Stapleford definitely the busier section of route compared to the 20 minute frequency from there into Derby.

On the way into Derby there was a driver changeover alongside the bus garage which took about four minutes to enact which being only the same amount of time from the bus station was a frustrating interlude and interestingly one passenger alighted while the chat between the drivers continued. There would have been a time when such an arrangement causing inconvenience for passengers would have been unthinkable, and it did make we wonder whether the driver shortage challenge has led to a perhaps temporary lessening of the high standards trentbarton has always stood for.

Two other minor not-quite-getting-attention-to-detail-right observations I spotted on Tuesday were a missing vinyl on a mickleover branded bus in Derby…

… and the clock on the next stop display showing a widely incorrect time on my i4 journey.

However, I did like the ledge to put your smartphone while it charges using wire-free on the first pair of raised seats towards the rear of the bus …

… and the three roof windows really do make the bus feel light inside.

And the cove panels are always brilliant and well presented.

As are the clever promotional messages at bus stops.

I paid the £6 single fare for the journey over to Nottingham on the Red Arrow as local authorities have excluded this route from the concessionary pass scheme but I reckon that is a good value price especially as an after 09:00 day ticket across the network (a zigzag ticket) costs £7.60 (making a Red Arrow return ticket that price) with attractive deals also for two or up to five people travelling together (£13 and £17 respectively)

In addition to zigzag, trentbarton’s ticket range includes its long standing mango brand which has now morphed from a smartcard to a smartphone app and offers 10% off adult prices as well as daily (peak and off-peak), seven day, and 28 day caps. As in many bus companies, this involves passengers tapping in when boarding and out when alighting but I noticed that there aren’t readers for the latter so passengers were using the ticket machine by the driver which did slow the alighting process down a little.

Credit has to be added to the mango app from which fares paid are deducted (Oyster style) and passengers can also pay for tickets using contactless or cash.

In the Nottingham area there’s a range of zonal tickets under the Saver brand with weekly, four weekly and annual versions across three geographic areas centred on Nottingham which increase in size by three permutations. The ticket is also available for travel across all trentbarton’s services including routes operated by sister Welglade Group owned company, Kinch Bus and for an annual ticket costs £1,350.

Two more great attributes from trentbarton are firstly the ease to make contact with the company.

There’s no hiding behind Traveline or making it hard to phone the company – I made a call to the contact number and was delighted there were none of the usual press 1, 2, 3 etc for a range of menu options where you often end up in a loop getting nowhere, and the call was answered within three minutes with a very helpful and knowledgable member of staff.

There’s an email address to use without the faff of filling in an online form so loved by the big Groups (and often then ignored) and the company is active on social media. And, as you can see from the above image, there’s even a postal address to use if you want to write a letter.

The second very long standing initiative is of course the company’s unique on-the-spot no-quibble money back guarantee where drivers will give you your fare back without any challenge if asked. I meant to try it out arriving into Nottingham on my Red Arrow journey but I enjoyed the journey so much I completely forgot.

That’s trentbarton for you.

They really are the “really good bus company”.

Roger French

Previous AtoZ blogs: Avanti West Coast, Blackpool Transport, Chiltern Railways, Delaine Buses, Ensignbus, Faresaver, Grand Central, Hull Trains, Ipswich Buses, JMB Travel, Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, Lynx, Isle of Man Transport Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Nottingham City Transport, (London) Overground, Preston Bus, Reading Buses, Southern Vectis.

Blogging timetable 06:00 TThS

Advance warning: The BusAndTrainUser.com website will be undergoing a design makeover on tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon meaning normal access and display of content may be interrupted.