Experience

Robert Montgomery has been involved in transformation projects in the bus industry since the early 1980's including - 

    1984

      Restructuring, rebranding and relaunching the former operations of the Western National Omnibus Company in North Devon as Red Bus  including the North Devon Expressway series of low cost interurban express services and the Little Red Bus network of high frequency local minibus services

     1987

     The planning, design and  launch from a green field start of The Bee Line Buzz Company in South Manchester to deliver a completely new competing style of bus operation following the deregulation of the UK bus industry.     This involved a completely fresh approach to the design of services and recruitment and training of over 600 staff in a six month period in a project which lead to long term fundamental change to bus services in South Manchester

     1989

     Radical revisions to the operations and services of South Yorkshire Transport in response to the challenges of deregulation including the new Mainline network for the city of Sheffield and high frequency minibus services under The Eager Beaver Bus Company brand

  1991

     The wide ranging transformation of Dublin Bus - Bus Atha Claith between 1991 and 1994 including radical changes to working practices and the development of Cityswift, high frequency direct urban bus services delivered to a high standard including major bus priority measures and enforcement and the City Imp range of high frequency minibus services 

    1996

     Developed a business plan for the then employee owned GM Buses (South ) Limited which was subsequently adopted by Stagecoach  on its acquisition of the business to transform bus services in South Manchester including a radical reduction in fares to drive organic growth

     1997

     Lead a World Bank Team to review urban transport development and investment in the Kyrgyzstan cities of Bishkek, Osh and Jelalabad

     1998

     Worked with a private investor to review opportunities in the Polish market 

    1999

     Designed and launched the Glasgow Overground, a high frequency core urban bus network which saw the first growth in patronage on the Glasgow bus network for over 30 years.

     2002 - 2013

     Played a leading role in the design, development and management of megabus.com, an internet based, low cost interurban coach operation and lead the UK and European operations through a strong period of growth to 2013.

     2002 - 2017

     Began the conversion of Stagecoach operational and commercial back office systems to digital technology which underpinned the subsequent development of online retailing of megarider tickets, the adoption of Smart technology, the development of the ground breaking Oxford SmartZone multi operator ticketing scheme which underpinned  the subsequent roll out of operator lead multi operator smart schemes across the UK and, subsequently, the Major Operator commitment to deliver contactless ticketing to every bus in the UK by 2022

     2016

     Lead work to deliver new interurban operations in the South West of England under the South West Falcon brand. 

2017 to date

Advised cityswift.com in deploying data analytics to optimise bus networks reducing costs whilst generating additional revenue through improved reliability and punctuality

2018 - 2021

Lead the mobilisation of Public Transportation Company in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - the largest greenfield urban bus start up in the World with 2 x 450 vehicle depots, 842 buses and 3,000 + staff