It has been a testing few weeks with the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London. Some Group Organisers are nervous about venturing into the cities. We are writing to inform you our team are prepared and vigilant and have been trained in prevention and protection.
In October last year, long before any attacks in Manchester, our team attended the Greater Manchester Police Headquarters for a training session in counter terrorism. In the spring we have rolled our Counter Terrorism training programme out across the team weeks before any events in Manchester had happened.
Our team are trained in how to stop an attack from happening and if that’s not possible then how to mitigate the impact. We are trained to seek out suspicious behaviour and packages. We know how to take actions to strengthen passenger security and keep our passengers safer. Although the UK is on a severe security grading the chances of an incident happening on your trip are extremely low indeed.
Over the last 10 years there’s been 1.4 deaths per year in the UK due to terrorism – which, according to research from BuzzFeed, means you’re more likely to be killed by dogs (18 deaths per year), hot water (100 deaths per year) or using your phone while driving (2,920 deaths per year).
On the night of the Manchester Arena attack we had numerous coaches out on conference work which ended up in the city on lockdown all night. Our team handled the events of that evening superbly. We also provided complimentary transport for the councillors attending the vigil in Manchester and provided transport for the victims families at the One Love Concert.
Manchester is a City United. We don’t live in fear and we go about our daily business as normal. You should too. You can be assured that the safety of our passengers is paramount and we take whatever steps necessary to make our services safer for our passengers.
Thank you for your continued support. Assuring you of our close and personal attention at all times.
Yours sincerely,
Philip Hitchen
Director