Nigel will take up the position at the end of August, replacing Martijn Gilbert who has decided to move on after four years at Go-Ahead for an opportunity elsewhere in the transport industry.

Presently head of Go-Ahead’s Manchester bus operation which employs 600 people, Nigel Featham has many years’ experience in the industry across the north of England. Between 2011 and 2019, he was Arriva’s regional managing director for Yorkshire and the north-east.

As part of a restructuring, Go-Ahead is to recruit an Area Director for the north-east, reporting to Nigel.

Additionally, East Yorkshire Buses, which presently reports into Go North East, will become accountable directly to Go-Ahead Group with its present Area Director, Ben Gilligan, promoted to Managing Director.

Look out for further details in the next issue of CBW

Well, unexpected, yet unsurprising

The bus service slasher Mr MG is moving on.

(07 Jun 2022, 2:45 pm)Economic505 wrote The bus service slasher Mr MG is moving on.

It's alright the replacement was part of the fire and rehire in Manchester so all is good.

I wonder if the Area Director position at Go North East is of any greater interest to Andreos than the Commercial Assistant position?

(07 Jun 2022, 2:45 pm)Economic505 wrote The bus service slasher Mr MG is moving on.

Because services have only been slashed under MG and no other MDs.

My worry is that whenever you get a new MD, they always want to make big changes to make their mark. And judging by the lack of positive press for GNW, I'm not holding my breath that the changes will be good

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I mean, it will be sad to see him go. But times change. Also he'll have a big job GNW & GNE

Be interesting to see what this means for GNE going forward in terms of being an autonomous subsidiary. The 'Next Billion Journeys' document mentioned a change to the structure and model of the Go Ahead Group, as well as turning around under performing businesses.

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(07 Jun 2022, 2:50 pm)Storx wrote It's alright the replacement was part of the fire and rehire in Manchester so all is good.

Think he was at the helm when Durham & Darlo Arriva Land were on strike for a while as well.

Will miss Martijn with GNE. He is a nice guy, always liking what us enthusiasts do which is ride the buses he helped to bring. *will not forgive him for eliminating the Whey Aye Five O * .
 Martijn also helped to bring back the Timetable booklets.
Thanks for all you did for us and good luck on the next journey forward!

Curious if he's walking or pushed. With substantial service changes in the offing, you'd think it would make sense for him to be judged on them after they're implemented; or for him to go first and let the new MD have an input into them.

(07 Jun 2022, 3:19 pm)KingSlayerRBLX wrote Will miss Martijn with GNE. He is a nice guy, always liking what us enthusiasts do which is ride the buses he helped to bring. *will not forgive him for eliminating the Whey Aye Five O * .
 Martijn also helped to bring back the Timetable booklets.
Thanks for all you did for us and good luck on the next journey forward!

To be honest I think this is part of the issue with GNE under his stewardship - lots of focus on things that might be liked by enthusiasts but not given a second thought by the bulk of the customers. At this point, to get GNE moving in the right direction, the only thing that matters is increasing revenue and bums on seats - arguably constant repaints don't help with that.

Having seen the internal staff document, there are (likely) bigger changes ahead.
It will be interesting to see Nigels approach to GNE with regards to branding etc. I was a driver at Arriva when he was area manager there and people didn't have alot of praise for him. One thing admired about Martijn was that he was prepared to do driving shifts.

Let's hope that some big rebrand of GNE doesn't happen again..

maybes window branding will make its return

I doubt we'll see radical change - he'll be in to steady the ship, continue making savings and attempt to reduce loss/turn a profit.

Perhaps the new budget for GNE or the Go Ahead mantra/business plan didn't suit MG as a whole (the whole wartime vs peacetime leader debate)

(07 Jun 2022, 3:27 pm)Chris 1 wrote Curious if he's walking or pushed.  With substantial service changes in the offing, you'd think it would make sense for him to be judged on them after they're implemented; or for him to go first and let the new MD have an input into them.

I notice he has got a new job as the Managing Director of Lumo & Hull Trains:

https://www.railstaff.co.uk/2022/06/07/n...ll-trains/

(07 Jun 2022, 3:52 pm)morritt89 wrote Having seen the internal staff document, there are (likely) bigger changes ahead.
It will be interesting to see Nigels approach to GNE with regards to branding etc. I was a driver at Arriva when he was area manager there and people didn't have alot of praise for him. One thing admired about Martijn was that he was prepared to do driving shifts.

I think branding will mostly go. I don't think Nigel will do that. 


I wonder if there would be any purchaes cos Deptford should be inline next for new orders

I doubt there will be any new buses purchased, most will probably be ex london rubbish.

(07 Jun 2022, 4:35 pm)Jack Gill wrote I doubt there will be any new buses purchased, most will probably be ex london rubbish.

Great way to get passengers back, a old bus, awful seats. 


I certainly will be getting the car more.

Im dreading this future for GNE tbh

(07 Jun 2022, 3:52 pm)morritt89 wrote One thing admired about Martijn was that he was prepared to do driving shifts.

By all accounts, he did a total of two driving shifts during his tenure at Go North East.

And one of those driving shifts was a photo opportunity to show off one of GNEs 70-plate ADL E400 (at 0001 on 1st September 2020, IIRC) - just so he could get the Twitter jump on Alex Hornby.

While he may have been prepared to do the odd driving shift, let's not kid ourselves that he was out there doing them all the time.

(07 Jun 2022, 4:36 pm)Unber43 wrote Great way to get passengers back, a old bus, awful seats. 


I certainly will be getting the car more.

Im dreading this future for GNE tbh

They aren’t attracting passengers with new buses so may as well cut losses

Not sure what to make of EYMS being separated and reporting directly to the Group while GNE becomes a defacto bolt on to GNW with no MD of its own.

GNW will most likely stay his priority, shifting GNE to the side.

(07 Jun 2022, 4:49 pm)Ambassador wrote They aren’t attracting passengers with new buses so may as well cut losses

And most of these new buses were already in the pipeline before his arrival.

(07 Jun 2022, 4:49 pm)Ambassador wrote They aren’t attracting passengers with new buses so may as well cut losses

Whos to say they aren't.

Whos to say that there are newer passengers, but not enough to replace the ones which have stopped since COVID

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(07 Jun 2022, 4:52 pm)Jack Gill wrote GNW will most likely stay his priority, shifting GNE to the side.

Isn't GNE bigger than GNW

GNW is tiny, it’s like the size of one GNE depot. It’s probably the size of Deptford

Also now they’ve pretty much finished rebranding from what they inherited from First Manchester, I’m guessing it’ll start practically running itself.

Nigel was responsible for rolling out MAX and Sapphire across Yorks and the NE, much harder than any other part of Arriva, and often did big launches (I remember the launch of the Wrightbus Gemini 2DLs in Yorkshire where all 40ish of them appeared together at a press launch and then entered service the same day) so might keep some of that sort of thing and not go down the road of the likes of Stagecoach who just buy buses and they enter into service practically in secret.

I’m not entirely sure the history of coming in, rebranding everything, scrapping long established brands, seemingly letting Ray Stenning having far too much freedom and then introducing massive service cuts will be much of a legacy.

(07 Jun 2022, 5:27 pm)Wybus wrote Nigel was responsible for rolling out MAX and Sapphire across Yorks and the NE, much harder than any other part of Arriva, and often did big launches (I remember the launch of the Wrightbus Gemini 2DLs in Yorkshire where all 40ish of them appeared together at a press launch and then entered service the same day) so might keep some of that sort of thing and not go down the road of the likes of Stagecoach who just buy buses and they enter into service practically in secret.

To be fair, Arriva NE did have an "up" phase during his tenure. Might be a good opportunity for GAG to eye up further expansion opportunities given Nigel's knowledge of the North East.

(07 Jun 2022, 4:56 pm)Unber43 wrote Whos to say they aren't.

Whos to say that there are newer passengers, but not enough to replace the ones which have stopped since COVID

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Isn't GNE bigger than GNW

Him!?

"Given the huge changes in the way many people are working and living, including things like home working and online shopping, it is only right that services are adapted to efficiently meet new patterns of demand."

(07 Jun 2022, 4:36 pm)Unber43 wrote Great way to get passengers back, a old bus, awful seats. 


I certainly will be getting the car more.

Im dreading this future for GNE tbh

I don't think old buses are necessarily a big turn off for passengers - Stagecoach run many buses in front line service that are pushing 15 years old in most places, most not having wifi, USB or NSAs and as far as Sunderland is concerned at least seem to be doing pretty alright with it. I think it's more important to have a reliable, stable network with routes that actually take people where they want to go.

(07 Jun 2022, 7:10 pm)F114TML wrote I don't think old buses are necessarily a big turn off for passengers - Stagecoach run many buses in front line service that are pushing 15 years old in most places, most not having wifi, USB or NSAs and as far as Sunderland is concerned at least seem to be doing pretty alright with it. I think it's more important to have a reliable, stable network with routes that actually take people where they want to go.

I agree with that, from my observations, when it comes to the actual vehicles, people seem to prefer a clean and comfortable bus and are less concerned about bells and whistles, and the age of the bus unless it is tatty and knackered.