Driven by passion, trentbarton offers public bus services, brimming with comfort, personality, and community spirit
Where passion meets public transport, trentbarton has distinguished itself as a true market leader in the UK’s public transportation industry. As England’s largest independent bus company, trentbarton is a business defined by impact. The company has been locally owned in the East Midlands since its shareholders bought it from the government back in 1986 and has retained its independence ever since. Today, from Derby to Chesterfield, Mansfield, Nottingham, and everywhere in between, trentbarton is well-loved and recognized for three things: constant innovation, relentless attention to detail, and exceptional customer service. Quite uniquely, the company is the only public transport provider in Europe to proudly offer an ‘on the spot no-quibble money back guarantee’, serving as a true testament to its dedication to customer care and operational excellence.
With 2025 steadily drawing to a close, Tom Morgan, trentbarton’s Managing Director, sits down with Transportation & Logistics International to reflect on another highly successful year for the company and to share valuable insight into its latest investments and innovations. He begins our conversation by homing in on one of trentbarton’s most emblematic qualities: the emphasis it places on its local communities.
“As a bus company, we encourage people to travel sustainably wherever possible. One of our biggest strengths is our commitment to the local communities that we serve,” Tom says. “We’re slightly different to a lot of bus companies across the UK in that we have branded routes. Each of our routes has its own brand and own dedicated team of drivers; for example, our ‘swift’ route, which goes out into the rural Derbyshire and Staffordshire countryside, has a bird as its logo. What’s more, everyone in the business lives locally within the East Midlands and so are genuinely engaged with wanting to give back to the communities that they call home. We do a lot to give back, whether that’s sponsoring sports kits for local youth football teams, or partnering with local schools and charities; it’s very rewarding to help the areas that we want to see grow and prosper. It all goes back to that localism; it means that our drivers see the same passengers every day, so they can build up a rapport and familiarity, thereby contributing to the community-feel of our services.”
trentbarton’s commitment to customer care and community spirit is the key driving force behind its success. These attributes permeate every aspect of its corporate culture, from executive decisions right down to day-to-day operations. To help its drivers bring more smiles to daily commutes, the company invests heavily in people development, providing comprehensive training to all new recruits to empower them to be the best they can be and, in turn, offer the best possible service to its customers.
“One of the things that we’re most recognized for is the quality of our driving team. We spend a huge amount of time ensuring that we recruit the right people for the business, as our drivers are the face of the organization. We have our own driving and training schools, whereby we try to make our training processes more akin to a retailer or hospitality venue,” Tom explains. “Often, we deliberately seek people who don’t have a bus license and train them to drive a bus; we place much more focus on finding someone who’s friendly and has a natural customer service skill set. We’ve found that to be very successful.”
Another one of trentbarton’s most fundamental values is its constant reinvestment into the business. Whether profits are reinvested into the workforce, service operations, or local communities, the company’s wider investment program is delivered in adherence with its people-centric ethos and focus on continuous improvement. Earlier this year, for instance, trentbarton invested around £3.1 million in brand-new vehicles for its iconic red arrow route, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2025. Alongside that, the company has been investing heavily in the sustainability and accessibility of its vehicles, which has had a monumental impact across the business.
“Last year, trentbarton’s sister company, Kinchbus in Loughborough, was successful as part of the government’s ZEBRA 2 scheme, which enabled us to implement electrical infrastructure across the entire depot,” Tom reveals. “Incidentally, we’re investing in 22 electric buses for that depot, which will mean that the entire Loughborough town network will be run on zero-emission vehicles. We’ve also spent a lot of time with our partners who are designing those vehicles to elevate the customer environment to the next level, using natural, sustainable materials wherever possible. 
“In addition, we’ve worked with a number of neurodiversity and impairment groups to better understand how we can make the internal customer environment more attractive to people with different needs,” he continues. “We’ve focused heavily on the sensory experience on our vehicles; for instance, while our electric vehicles are a lot quieter, we’ve added acoustic flooring and double glazed windows to eliminate as much of the road noise as possible. We’ve installed air conditioning to keep the temperature at a comfortable, consistent level and have softened our lighting and color palette to be less abrasive on the senses. In addition, these vehicles will be the first in the UK from that manufacturer to have cantilever seats, meaning that guide dogs can fit more easily under the seats when people with them board.
“We want to ensure that the internal customer environment is as closely mirrored to what you’d see in a private car as possible, meaning that our vehicles are clean, comfortable, and attractive environments to be in. We want people to feel happy to make that environmentally sustainable switch to public transport.”
Complementary to this, trentbarton has also been investing in technologies to further improve and simplify its customers’ experiences. Tom elaborates: “We’ve been strengthening our use of technology across the company. For instance, we’ve recently upgraded our ticketing platform, mango. The mango app ensures that you’ll always be charged the best price, whether you travel daily, weekly, or monthly, and it’ll look back at your previous journeys and work out whether you’re entitled to any caps, discounts, or permits, for example.
“It’s a big step forward in the industry in breaking down barriers for why people are nervous about getting on a bus. Often, it comes down to things like they don’t know what ticket to ask for or how much it’s going to cost, but technology can solve a lot of these problems. We consider it to be the world’s most advanced bus ticketing app. What’s more it isn’t just available on trentbarton and Kinchbus services, mango can be used across any operator with the ability to read barcodes and is currently facilitating West Notts College’s student travel scheme which includes Stagecoach, Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham Trent University.”
As 2025 draws to a close, trentbarton is well-positioned to embark on another successful year as it moves into 2026. Keeping its core values close to its heart, the company remains focused on strategic reinvestment and further growth as it continues to improve and extend its services so that more customers can reap the benefits of clean, friendly, reliable transport.
“Going into 2026, we’d like to continue to grow our presence across the East Midlands,” Tom concludes, optimistic for the next chapter to come. “In the last year, we’ve had our first-ever regional mayor elected across the East Midlands Combined Authority. Whilst other regions across the country have been talking about franchising and taking bus services back under authority control, our mayor has taken a much more pragmatic approach; she would rather work in partnership with the local bus companies to deliver benefits to customers quicker and at a fraction of the cost of franchising, which is great. Over the next three-to-five years, we aim to continue that relationship to ensure we remain agile and able to continue to meet the ever evolving needs of our customers.”
Looking to the future, trentbarton is set to remain a shining example of how community commitment, innovation, and customer centricity can redefine the standards of public transport. Building further on its existing legacy, the company will remain passionate about delivering services that are as diverse, friendly, and locally-rooted as the communities that it proudly serves – both now and throughout the decades to come.