NCT Meet the managers

On Friday 20th of May 2011 Nottingham City Transport held a meet the managers event by the Brian Clough statue in the centre of Nottingham. The BramcoteBusBlog went along to find out more, and to see one of the state of the art Scania OmniDekka buses about to be launched on GO2 route 43 from Bakersfield and Sneinton Dale to the City Centre terminus on Queen Street. I spoke to one of the managers there, who was very enthusiastic about the new vehicles. From tbe outside they all look very good and the inside area looks posh with the leather seating. There is no air conditioning because "it raises fuel bills-and your fares-by 40%" so the decision has been taken not to have it. Had NCT been competing with Trent Barton this would have given Trent Barton a unique selling point, but as yet they are not for the most part and so it is not currently an issue. The managers had a full spinner of NCT timetables and some free pens and pencils to attract people and there was a cluster of other people around the bus, to find out more. After all, it isn't often someone puts a massive bus in the middle of the market square is it? I often think that is one big advantage of bus promotional events. There is always a large crowd drawer-particularly with double deckers. It was quite amusing that the bus was parked at the bottom of the steep hill with the 43's terminus on it, looking like one unlucky bus driver had failed to apply the brakes in time! It also meant that it was not visible from the market square if you were coming from Angel Row or Friar Lane. The event was advertised on NCT's Facebook page which is how we discovered about it. Facebook is an important tool for communicating details of events like this but some leaflets and posters on buses would have been useful for people who don't use the social networking site.

The pen I was given as I left NCT's Scania OmniDekka to catch my bus home.