ALBUM is celebrating after two of its Board Members and Managing Directors have been named in the New Year’s Honours.
ALBUM Chair and Managing Director of Nottingham City Transport, David Astill, and ALBUM Board Member and Managing Director of Blackpool Transport, Jane Cole have both been recognised for their services to public transport.
Jane Cole OBE
Jane Cole joined Blackpool Transport as Managing Director in 2014 and has made a huge contribution to improving bus and tram services for the 300,000 local residents as well as 18 million visitors to the town each year.
Jane has brought her knowledge, experience and energy to the development of commercial, educational, industrial and transport policy at a local, regional and national level. She is unstinting in her commitment to the value of public transport to economic, societal and environment polices.
Blackpool Transport is well regarded locally and across the transport industry, winning many awards, including UK Bus Operator of the Year in 2022 and 2025.
In 2021, Jane was the first female president of the industry trade association The Confederation of Passenger Transport and she is a non-executive Director of the Road Operators Safety Council. Jane works closely with Women in Transport and other groups and has been a strong advocate for increasing the number of women in the bus industry.
Jane is past President of the North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Lancashire Combined County Authority Business Board. Jane is part of the Blackpool Pride of Place Partnership, set up by Business in the Community to help deliver policies and programmes that can tackle the challenges that Blackpool faces in the delivery of social and economic activity and the quality of life. Jane is a Board Member of Blackpool and Fylde College.
David Astill MBE
A career bus-man, David’s interest and passion for buses started at childhood, joining the bus industry immediately after graduating from the University of Westminster in the 1980s.
After holding several senior positions for FirstGroup, David joined Nottingham City Transport as Commercial Manager in 2007. He joined the Board as Commercial and Operations Director in 2018 and took the helm as Managing Director in April 2021.
Since being appointed as NCT’s Managing Director, David has seen NCT through the turbulent times of COVID recovery, whilst contending with the ‘great resignation’ and super-high inflation that followed.
Despite these challenges, NCT and Nottingham’s public transport continues to be recognised nationally as amongst the best in the country, with Nottingham boasting the second highest bus usage outside of London and NCT achieving the highest city bus operator satisfaction score in the country in the most recent independent Transport Focus survey.
NCT were crowned UK Bus Operator of the Year in 2024 for a record breaking sixth time, and were also named Large Operator of the Year in the Routeone Awards 2024, with two of the last four Top National Bus Drivers part of the NCT team.
David’s public transport expertise isn’t confined to NCT or Nottingham. He shares his knowledge and passion across the industry through his active participation within the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), where he recently held the position of Regional Chair, as well as sitting on the Bus Commission.
David has been a long-standing board member at The Association of Local Bus Managers (ALBUM) which represents the vitally important municipally owned and independent SME bus sector in the UK. Appointed as ALBUM Chair at the start of 2025, David has led a board that has worked tirelessly to represent the views of the municipal and SME sector as generational changes to how bus services in the UK are run are introduced by government through the Bus Services Act 2025.
Jane Cole OBE said “I receive this honour with humility. This recognition belongs as much to the people who have inspired and supported me as it does to me. I am so grateful for having the opportunity to make a contribution to public transport and for the privilege of working with so many remarkable people”.
David Astill MBE said, “I am humbled and delighted to receive this honour from the King. I have spent my working career on the buses, first starting at the age of 18, and know only too well that a manager is only as good as the team he leads. I have been blessed with the support, advice and encouragement of some fantastic people over the years, both past and present, and I thank them all. This honour is a reflection on them as much as on me. I’m also very conscious that I would not have achieved my ambitions without the unwavering support of my wonderful family “
Bill Hiron, past Chair, on behalf of the ALBUM Board said, “It’s absolutely great news that two people who have contributed so much both to ALBUM, the wider bus industry, and their local communities, have been recognised in this way. Both Jane and David are hugely deserving of these awards, and I am so proud to count them both not only as colleagues, but friends. They have gone way beyond their ‘day jobs’ of running the local bus company, to represent the industry to government and other stakeholders through both CPT and ALBUM, to being part of the local business community, and in Jane’s case, spearheading the work of attracting more women into our industry. They are both great leaders, and the bus industry and its customers have much to thank them for”.