Breakfast with Bristol24/7: James Freeman

It feels somehow fitting that the boss of First bus group is apparently late for a breakfast interview. As it turns out however, James Freeman was bang on time this brisk Friday morning, just waiting at the opposite end of the bus station due to a mix up in communication.

“Well there’s 20 minutes we’ll never get back,” he says cheerfully when we finally meet, introducing himself with a firm handshake and warm smile, before leading the way on to Café Refectoire in St James Priory.

There’s a limited selection on the breakfast menu, but this doesn’t bother James, who duly orders a bacon and egg roll and a latte and settles at a table.

“We have two risks now – from egg and red sauce,” he says with a grin when food arrives, adding a liberal spread of ketchup to the roll and tucking in.

Bristol’s transport problems are well documented and frustration at the bus service prompted a public protest last year, with some campaigners calling for the whole system to be franchised.

James is in charge of the region’s bus provider

Being the boss of the city’s bus network comes with its challenges, but James’ enthusiasm for the job – and a passion he has dedicated his life to – is undiminished.

“I’ve been a busman pretty much all my life,” says the 62-year-old. “I’m one of those fortunate people who have been able to turn their interest into a career.”

It’s been a love affair from the beginning for James, who grew up in Bath and remembers getting his friends in the playground to run around with numbers of them.

In 1974, James became a bus conductor, a role he describes as “one of the greatest jobs if you are a people person”.

“I did six months with the Bristol Omnibus Company and that was the first time I went on to the Lawrence Hill depot where I now work,” he recalls.

James Freeman has been a busman his whole life

Straight after university, James joined the senior management training scheme with the National Bus Company, the nationalised company that ran buses in England and Wales until the late 1980s.

He spent four years in Swansea, where he learned to drive a bus. This is a skill that served him well last October when First’s reputation and team morale were at rock bottom.

James spent the day driving a bus and wrote an open letter about what he experienced, which was published in the Bristol Post. “That was seminal, it changed the debate,” says James.

As a “jobbing busman”, he worked all around the country and eventually returned to Bristol to be involved in the proposed development of the tram line – a project that never came to fruition.

“It was a hugely wasted opportunity in my view,” James says, candidly.

“If it was built in the 1990s, we would have had it for the last 20 years. metrobus is a rapid transit system that still needs roads to flow. The problem is that even since they invested in metrobus, the traffic has got worse – it relies on the premise that the M32 and the roads are free flowing. And they’re not.”

When First initially took over the bus service in the region, James was made redundant – returning years later as boss of the company.

“You don’t need me to tell you that buses in Bristol have been awful for some time,” he says. “It was a workplace that was deflated, and no one believed in themselves.

“We are gradually breaking down years of preconceptions, not just from the public, but from our own teams.”

James points out the past was not always so great, referring to the racism leading up to the Bristol Bus Boycott and days when buses would be parked along Anchor Road due to a lack of drivers.

A plaque on the wall in Bristol Bus and Coach station is a permanent reminder of the campaign against racial discrimination in the city

Even in his time off, James takes a voluntary busman’s holiday. “Buses take up most of my time and when I have free time, I run a charity, Friends of King Alfred Buses, based in Winchester,” he admits with a rueful grin.

“I found one of their buses and bought it for £600 and since then, we have collected more. Once a year, they go out and run on their old routes. It’s great fun.”

Finishing his coffee and apologising for rushing off as he gets up to leave, James adds: “I’ve been in this business all my life. I’m 62 now, and I shall go on doing it until someone makes me stop.”

Café Refectoire, St James Priory, Whitson Street, BS1 3NZ
0117 933 8945
www.caferefectoire.co.uk

Bacon and egg roll: £3
Egg roll: £2.50
Two coffees: £6

Total: £11.50

Illustration by Anna Higgie

Read more: ‘The only answer to Bristol’s transport woes is to give public transport proper priority’