MARK LYONS meets Robert Williams, a lifelong enthusiast who returned to his hometown last year as chief executive officer at Reading Buses, and learns that local teams form part of his growth ambitions for one of the UK’s last arms length municipal companies
One hundred years after Reading Corporation started its first motorbus service, its successor Reading Buses — trading name of Reading Transport — is one of only nine arms length municipals left in Britain. More than that, industry awards schemes have judged it to be one of the country’s best operators, one that has outgrown its hometown to provide services throughout the Thames Valley.
It gained a new chief executive officer in October last year when Robert Williams succeeded Martijn Gilbert who had landed the managing director’s post at Go North East. Gilbert had joined from Arriva in 2014 when James Freeman, who had come from an MD’s post with Stagecoach in 2007, rejoined First as West of England MD.
Williams says feedback from the interview panel suggested that he persuaded them that he wanted the role just a little bit more than the other candidates. He too came from Stagecoach but also is a native of Reading who has had an interest in buses s…
