Metrobus opens the doors at Crawley Depot for family fun day

Metrobus is welcoming the public to its open day at Crawley Depot, Wheatstone Close on Sat 6 Sept for a free and fun family day out. The doors open at 10am, with the Mayor of Crawley cutting ribbons of blue and yellow - colours that have represented the Metrobus brand for many years - to mark the opening of this unique and one-off event.  

The event will raise money for St Catherine’s Hospice and Camps International to support an expedition to Tanzania by local school children. On the day, the company will reveal the newly designed St Catherine’s Hospice bus which aims to raise awareness of the specialist work and care that St Catherine’s provides to people in the local community.  

Nina Gopal, Strategic Partnerships Manager from St Catherine’s Hospice said: “The bus gives us a fantastic opportunity to show the local community the real-life impact of hospice care whilst encouraging support for our services in a unique way. We are so grateful to Metrobus for helping us raise vital awareness of our specialist work.”

The Metrobus open day will provide an opportunity to take a look behind the scenes of how a major, forward-thinking bus operation works. There’ll be tours of the depot and the hydrogen refuelling plant, a ride through the bus wash, trips on vintage buses and a bus display. A children’s entertainer, food, refreshments and stalls selling collectable merchandise. Programmes are available on the day for £5.

These activities will take place throughout the day with vintage bus tours starting at 10.10am from Gatwick Road North where there will be volunteers there to greet you. Depot tours will be led by our team of volunteers starting at 10.15am at the meeting point.

There will be people with collection buckets for donations at the event and a raffle with generous prizes donated by community partners including a donated a flight simulation experience from Acron Aviation.

Nick Hill, Commercial Director for Metrobus said: “I’m really excited about opening the doors of Crawley Depot to local people and the families and friends of our Metrobus team. It will be an absolute pleasure to welcome everyone in, to take a look around and see how their local bus operation works including our hydrogen buses and refuelling station. It’s a one-off event that’s not to be missed and has lots of fantastic family activities taking place – including my favourite the bus wash!”

The event can be accessed via bus with the closest bus stop being just a few minutes’ walk away on Gatwick Road North which is frequently served by Fastway 10 and 20, routes 22, 200, 400 and 420 with easy connections between Gatwick train station and Crawley town centre. Visitors are strongly encouraged to travel by bus as there is no parking available on site and it’s better for the environment too.

www.buses.co.uk

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