Ealing Community Transport

Ealing Community Transport (ECT) is an English social enterprise which provides various services, including recycling and community transport as well as being one of many operators of London Buses. It has also operated in the national rail industry.

Recycling

In early 1995 ECT started its first green box recycling service, using a carton roughly the size of a milk crate, into which paper, glass, cans, foil, textiles, shoes, household batteries and engine oil can be placed, collected once a week by ECT. Materials are sorted into compartments on the recycling vehicle at the kerbside to avoid contamination and mix-up of items. This recycle from home service is now used by 860,000 people in sixteen local authority areas, across parts of London, Avon, Somerset, Warwickshire and the West Midlands.

As well as doorstep green box recycling, ECT also runs flat recycling services, whereby a block of between 25-125 households has several recycling containers between them, and depots. These depots collect all the materials collected by the doorstep recycling service as well as items such as books, electrical items, fluorescent tubes, fridges, furniture, green waste, plastic, scrap metal, tyres, white goods, paint and wood.

ECT has developed into a company with an annual turnover of around £50million pounds, with 600 staff working in its recycling, community transport, engineering and refuse collection.

Bus operations

Ealing Community Transport was established in the 1970s to serve the small towns on the outskirts of Ealing. Due to a lack of revenue the service was shut down in the late 1990s.

In April 2003 ECT was restarted and won the tender to operate Transport for London route 195 (Ealing Hospital - Charville Lane) from First Group, using a fleet of new 10.2m low-floor, dual-door Caetano Nimbus-bodied Dennis Darts, replacing First's short, single-door Marshall-bodied Darts. Not only was the vehicle capacity increased at this time, the frequency was enhanced to provide a 12-minute service throughout the day (20 mins evenings and Sundays). The increased frequency was popular with passengers and loadings increased.Fact|date=February 2007

During the early 2000s it decreased its frequency and is now only every 15 minutes. ECT has experienced problems with vandalism and arson attacks on its buses, and came third last in the best contractor survey. Initial problems with window etching were quickly addressed and ECT Bus has also been involved in Operation Eyesore in west London, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police and TfL, where front-page images on local papers identified local vandals, leading to a number of convictions. Performance of the route has been exemplary in terms of operated mileage (before traffic causes) and, despite operating through Southall, an area renowned for its challenging traffic environment, reliability is extremely good - at April 2006, ECT Bus was in second position in TfL's league table for smaller operators. The current bus fleet for the 195 contract stands at 14 vehicles.

Garage

ECT operate one garage in Greenford, which runs London Buses route 195. The Greenford bus depot is part of a local council depot and was first used in 1993 as a midibus base. The opening of Greenford garage led to the closure of Hanwell, and in 1995 the garage was operating 110 midibuses. The standard vehicles in the late 1990s were midibuses by Renault/Wright and Marshall but unfortunately both types had a bad reputation and did not last long. In recent years the allocation has been much diverse, ranging from Marshall-bodied Darts to Dennis Trident 2/Plaxton vehicles. In late 2003 Ealing Community Transport moved into the depot with their first London route - 195, using garage code EY.

;Bus types in use
* Dennis Dart SLF/Caetano Nimbus

Rail operations

ECT entered the railway rolling stock hire and maintenance market, owning hire companies RT Rail and Mainline Rail and also RMS Locotec of Wakefield. ECT also operated two heritage railways: the Dartmoor Railway at Okehampton in Devon and the Weardale Railway in County Durham.

By 2008, the company was pulling out of this area of activity. Mainline Rail ceased to trade, and the Dartmoor Railway closed on 18th April 2008 [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7350000/newsid_7354800/7354854.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&bbcws=1 BBC News: Railway service is suspended] ] while ECT was seeking a buyer for its stake in the Weardale line. ["Northern Echo", 4 March 2008: [http://archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk/2008/3/4/242135.html New fears over future of railway] ]

External links

* [http://www.ectgroup.co.uk/ Official Website]
* [http://www.ectgroup.co.uk/index.php?bid=1&sa=3&sg=3 Route 195]

References