News / First West of England
End of the road for Bristol’s bus boss
He began his life on the buses as a conductor and is now in charge of some 1,800 staff and a fleet of 600 vehicles covering Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, and parts of Somerset and Wiltshire.
After spending his entire career in buses, James Freeman has announced that he will be stepping down as managing director of First West of England next year.
Freeman says that retirement in May 2021 “will be a wrench” but now “is the right time to pass the baton as the business needs constant regeneration, and therefore fresh thinking, particularly in the wake of Covid-19”.
is needed now More than ever
Freeman’s six years at First has coincided with the introduction of one of the largest fleets of biomethane buses across the country and the roll out of the £230m metrobus network in Bristol.
The Bath resident’s first job in 1974 was as a bus conductor and he was just 28 when he was appointed to his first managing director role at Shamrock & Rambler Coaches in Bournemouth.
James Freeman was previously managing director of Badgerline, which was eventually subsumed into First Group – photo: First
Freeman said: “I am a very lucky person in that I have been able to spend my career in a sector about which I am extremely passionate. From an early age I was fascinated by buses and felt then that I could help to make them run.
“My first contact with the company was when I boarded a brand new bus on display outside Marlborough Street Bus Station in Bristol in 1968. The man I talked to on that day helped make up my mind day that I would make my career on the buses.”
Freeman said that among his proudest achievements has been establishing First West of England “at the forefront of sustainable developments in the industry”.
He said that digital innovations are “taking customer service to a completely new level” and relationships forged with local leaders “ensure buses are, and remain, a critical and prominent part of a sustainable mobility strategy for cities, towns and outlying areas across the region”.
Main photo by Martin Booth
Read more: Breakfast With Bristol24/7: James Freeman
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