London Bus Garage of the Year sponsored by sponsored by Transport for London

Winner, Gold Award, Norwood – Arriva London

Team Norwood continually strives for excellence and has implemented further improvements over the past year. We have consistently performed in the top quarter of the TfL league tables. The garage has built upon its performance strategies to include enhanced root cause analysis as part of our Transformation Programme aimed at reducing waste and improving efficiency to not only help prevent breakdowns but improve service reliability. Staff engagement and morale has been strengthened with personal development initiatives for supervisors, open forums and newsletters to keep everyone motivated towards target areas. The garage has recently invested in new toilet and canteen facilities as well as various engineering improvements from diagnostic tools to new lifting equipment. The team also works closely with the local community, and have created an acclaimed wildlife garden in partnership with local volunteers – the ‘Norwood Bzz Garden’. We also run regular awareness campaigns, recently focusing on vehicle accessibility with the help of TfL and local user groups. To reinforce high standards, the garage award drivers ‘pride in our performance’ vouchers and also maintain a hall of fame photoboard which enables managers to congratulate and recognise staff achievements.

The judges commented that Norwood is one of Arriva London’s larger garages in a difficult operating area and has not always been associated with high performance – but it is now! This comprehensive entry detailed many good initiatives including the Bzz Garden and a focus on safety. The systematic approach by the Norwood team has pushed them ahead to be worthy gold winners.

Winner, Silver Award, Romford – Stagecoach London

Romford Garage has been providing services to the community since 1953 and has always been at the top of its game. For many years there was a long waiting list of drivers wishing to transfer in, resulting in a mature and experienced workforce. Times change and new people are now joining, bringing the latest ideas and knowledge. There’s no “them and us” at Romford, we are one team, 300 drivers, 19 engineers and 8 managers and administrators are in it together to provide the best service we can to the customers. The garage is an established part of the local community, being involved with schools and charitable organisations, Macmillan Cancer Care in particular, as well as fostering an enviable relationship with the local police. Behind the scenes, our engineers are skilled and motivated to keep our buses in top condition. If a driver is given a great bus, they’ll be better placed to give great service – it’s that simple!

The judges were impressed with the amount of community outreach by this garage, pledging to raise fifty thousand pounds over two years MacMillian Cancer care, and making the garage a designated Safe Haven for people with dementia.

Winner, Bronze Award, Croydon – Go-Ahead London

Croydon is a forward thinking, well managed and collaborative garage. Our performance results show that our routes are well managed and reliable, with notable year on year improvements. The garage’s great team spirit and “can do” approach ensures that passengers receive a consistent high-quality service. Our colleagues are happy to be working in the garage and this can be seen through all of our engagement and reduction in turnover. We all live and work in the local area, and are proud to provide a safe, accessible, and friendly bus service. Our great team act as the foundations from which we can push innovation and improvement year on year. We embrace pioneering technology, trialling systems for Fatigue awareness and most recently the new Smart Vision mirrorless buses. We believe that all of the Croydon colleagues deserve to be recognised and by being recognised as Garage of the Year 2019.

Over the last year this garage increased its training, reduced its customer complaints and improved its KPIs.

Finalist, Alperton – Metroline

Alperton Garage is a hard working garage with a highly motivated team. Proud of an extensive history within the local area, a dedicated team has been at the heart of Alperton and the driving force behind the effective operation of the service. The entire garage works as a team, from every driver, to every manager. All have come together to maximise the performance of the garage and develop, maintain and improve a system that benefits our staff, company but most importantly our customers. We have a great team spirit, strong internal communications and support and are invested in our community ensuring our services are accessible to all.