Swansea University is the first university to be recognised in these prestigious annual awards. Last year Heathrow Airport won this award. 

The winning Passenger Transport Best Practice Award, bestowed by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) UK, honours excellence in the transport of passengers by road, rail, water or air. Achievements can include improvements in organisation, technology, equipment and physical assets, human resources, information management or any other aspect of passenger transport; policy development, infrastructure, quality of recommendation, excellence of implementation and environmental sensitivity.

September 2015 saw the opening of the new Bay Campus at Swansea University with almost 6,000 students studying on the campus and around 600 staff. As the Bay Campus has limited parking spaces, with 500 for staff and 100 visitor and blue badge spaces, it was identified that a reliable public transport network that joins the campus with Swansea was essential.

The Swansea University Bay Campus Travel Plan Group met regularly with First Cymru and other key stakeholders and worked together to offer a tailored and reliable service to the students and staff. By collecting comprehensive feedback from students and staff, the Bay Campus bus services introduced:

• The First Student Swansea City ticket, which sees students saving £90 on the previous academic year
• A late night bus service that runs until 2:15am
• A comprehensive and bespoke bus network that was well received by students.
• The new 8 service links, Hendrefoelan Student Village, Singleton Park Campus, St Helens, City Centre at the FTR stands, Oystermouth Road, St Thomas, Fabian Way Park and Ride and Bay Campus
• The new 10 service links Sketty Cross, Uplands, Brynmill, Swansea Railway Station, the Strand, St Thomas, Fabian Way and into the Bay Campus
• First Cymru’s mTickets app that allows students to buy their tickets on their smartphones

Since the new bus services were launched in 2015, usage has grown from 3,900 student passes to in excess of 5,500 for 2015/16. This means that Swansea University has the largest student bus service in Wales. First Cymru’s mTicketing has been extremely popular with students, with thousands purchasing their tickets through the mobile app.

Swansea University’s Registrar and Chief Operating Officer Raymond Ciborowski said:

” Gaining this  Award is a fantastic achievement and recognises the excellent partnership work carried out with First Cymru to deliver a tailored service for all of our students, staff and the local community. We are proud to be the first University in the UK to achieve a Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics UK award in recognition of ours and our partners hard work.”

Justin Davies, managing director of First Cymru said:

“We’re thrilled to be recognised at the annual CILT Awards. By working in partnership with Swansea University on this project, we were able to overcome hurdles together and supply a premium service to the Bay Campus. The project really emphasises sustainable transport and gives more staff and students than ever the opportunity to travel across the city to the campus. Together we launched a new ticket for travellers using this service. This has allowed them to get an academic year bus pass for £90 cheaper than the previous year, which has been gratefully received. The Bay Campus is a fantastic achievement for Swansea University and we’re delighted that they have got a public transport network to match.”

Jayne Cornelius, sustainable travel officer at Swansea University:

“I was so proud to attend the CILT UK Awards ceremony in London on behalf of Swansea University, and receive the Award for Excellence in Passenger Transport 2016 with our partner First Cymru. We will continue to work together to further improve services.”

• CILT’s Annual Awards are designed to recognise outstanding achievement and to encourage the highest standards and a professional approach to the practice of logistics and transport.  For more information and to see the list of 2016 winners go to www.ciltuk.org.uk/News/LatestNews/TabId/235/ArtMID/6887/ArticleID/10522/CILTs-Annual-Awards-for-Excellence-2016-winners-revealed.aspx

For more information about Swansea University’s Sustainability policies go to  http://www.swansea.ac.uk/sustainability/

Picture: (l to r) XPO logistics representative, Wayne O’Gorman First Cymru, Jayne Cornelius Swansea University, Mark Jacobs First Cymru and CILT President Will Whitehorn