Morebus wins most prestigious award at the UK Bus Awards
They've taken home prizes including 'Bus Operator of the Year'
Poole-based bus service, Morebus has been named the UK’s bus operator of the year.
“In footballing terms, we’ve effectively done the double,” Morebus was crowned both ‘Large Bus Operator of the Year’ at the Route One Awards and ‘UK Bus Operator of the Year’ at the UK Bus Awards in 2023.
A ‘delighted’ Andrew Wickham, Managing Director of Morebus, told us: “I think we did get credit for taking over the routes when Yellow Buses ceased operations and we did that at very short notice.
“We also performed well in terms of performance with regards to the number of buses we have leave every morning, the distance we cover, the schedule we have and how we manage to keep 99.5% of our service on time.”
The bus company celebrated its first full year since taking over from Yellow Buses and adding an additional 20 routes to their services.
It has also been a hallmark year for the service with the £2 bus fare going down a “huge hit” with travellers.
Mr Wickham told us Morebus are looking to extend the scheme into next year, but that’s not all: “We got further increases planned for February, we have 28 new buses for the M1, and we will increase the frequency of buses on routes from Poole to Wimborne and Bournemouth to Kinson,” he said.
According to Morebus, the number of people that caught the bus increased on the previous year, but they are still looking for way to make the service more efficient.
Mr Wickham added: “Traffic congestion keeps getting worse and we're really keen to work with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council to get some more bus priority, things like bus lanes or schemes to get buses through traffic lights a bit quicker.
“Those are just some ways we can get more people on buses and therefore fewer people using the car.”