A WINCHESTER bus driver is celebrating 50 years in the industry. 

James Freeman started his lifelong career in the bus industry on September 1 1974 at the age of 18 as a conductor with Hants and Dorset in Winchester.

In 1978 he was selected for the National Bus Company’s senior management training scheme and was sent to South Wales Transport in Swansea where he passed his PCV driving test in 1979.

In 1984 at the age of 28 Mr Freeman became the youngest managing director in the National Bus Company, at Shamrock and Rambler Coaches Ltd based in Bournemouth. From 2001 through to 2007 he held a number of senior director positions for Stagecoach, in the Midlands and east of England.

James Freeman in his Hants and Dorset Conductor uniform (Image: Contributed)

Between 2007 and 2014 James was the CEO of municipally owned Reading Buses, transforming the business to a leading employer of choice and one with consistent year-on-year passenger growth. His strong track record in transforming bus businesses then took him to the west of England, where he held the position of managing director with First between 2014 and 2021. 

Following the upheaval of the pandemic, in 2021 James stepped back from his intensive full-time role and returned to his roots in Winchester. He’s now partially retired, driving buses around the city for Stagecoach a couple of days each week. 

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James has witnessed huge changes in the transport industry and to his home city since first starting on the buses, but still absolutely loves his job. 

He said: “I enjoy being part of the team. Winchester drivers are great 'wavers' out on the road and it’s very good to be acknowledged in this way. We work together, which is great.

James Freeman (Image: Contributed)

“Over the years of my career, I have shared with countless hundreds of new starters my advice that the best way to have a good day out on the road is to smile at every boarding passenger and say hello. To my relief, I have found that this simple approach works every time. After all, if somebody smiles at you, it really is hard not to smile back!”

He added: “It’s a privilege to be able to drive around our remarkable city and through the wonderful rolling Hampshire countryside. The city network is similar in scope to the services operating in the 1970s and there are still regular connections to Romsey, Andover, Fareham but the use of buses by people in the surrounding villages, such as Micheldever, Wonston, Crawley, King’s Somborne and Broughton has dwindled to almost nothing. 

“Traffic congestion was bad then and is even worse now – always, then and now, affected by any problems on the bypass (now the M3, which wasn’t built then).

“Then, as now, there is still a tightly knit team of good people delivering services to local people, though they are generally not proud of what they do – and they should be!”

James is chairman of the Friends of King Alfred Buses and a prime mover in the preservation of the vehicles of the Winchester bus company that closed in 1973.