Community Support
We work with local community groups across northern England.
From education and food donations to seasonal festivity and accessibility, Transdev remains at the heart of local communities across northern England.
Education and school passes
In addition to our vast school and college bus network, this past year we organised nine school trips with local primary schools, attended by approximately 200 children.
During these trips, classes go through our double-decker bus wash, tour our engineering workshops (which promote STEM subjects), and engage in educational activities at The Academy – our in-house training centre.
We also support various free school services throughout the year, including:
- Free travel on our main buses to designated local attractions
- Free travel for primary schools attending high school taster days
- Around 30 free group travel passes to specialist SEND schools, allowing them to travel with staff and carers to boost travel confidence
We have also delivered our own outreach, visiting high schools and colleges in collaboration with Ahead Partnership as part of their Work Experience/Careers Weeks.
Here, colleagues give the students a presentation on their roles at Transdev, answer questions about potential career options – including pathways outside the traditional university route – and offer advice on interview preparation.
Food and festivity
Throughout the year, Transdev supports local foodbanks across the North by donating food items, personal hygiene items, and domestic supplies.
The team over in Lancashire are the superstars of this show – during 2025’s Christmas Food Drive, the Blackburn Bus Company donated more than 600 individual items.
Over in North Yorkshire, we also arranged for Santa Claus himself to visit Harrogate’s “The Joyful Brew” foodbank on board a fabulously festively decorated Mercedes-Benz eCitaro to meet almost 100 families from nearby primary schools.
Every child Santa met received a goody bag and a copy of our ‘Bright Sparks’ activity/storybook: many of these bags contained ‘Golden Tickets’, which gave up to five family members the opportunity to enjoy a festive day out on us with free all-day travel.
And finally, we continue to support local charity groups. Every year, we run fundraising events, raising money for charities such as Macmillan, Save The Children, North West Air Ambulance Charity, and Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Accessibility and awareness
For International Wheelchair Day 2025, we teamed up with Henshaws Special Education Needs College in North Yorkshire to highlight the impact of having not one, but two wheelchair spaces on our buses.
Students and support staff were able to practice getting on/off the vehicle in their wheelchairs at their own pace, which they said gave them more confidence to use these transport services day-to-day.
A few weeks later, our senior management at our Head Offices completed a Disability Awareness Training course with Disability Action Yorkshire.
We then hosted our own Wheelchair Awareness Day, during which we discussed the challenges disabled people face with regional action groups and activists, as well as what we can do to improve accessibility on our buses.
Transdev also partners with several regional events’ organisers: For example, we regularly run special travel services between Harrogate bus station and the Great Yorkshire Show and Harrogate Flower Show showgrounds.