BARNES Coaches is ensuring the future of quality coach travel by running the first apprenticeship scheme of its kind in the UK.

The family-run company started in 1920 by Tommy Barnes as a horse-drawn carrier service from Aldbourne to Hungerford.

His great grandsons Luke and Matt Barnes, directors of the now Swindon-based company with dad Lionel, are taking on seven apprentices to ensure coach travel keeps its time-honoured good customer service.

Luke Barnes told the Adver: "We've got seven people on the scheme and over the 13 months we put them through their coach driving test. On their way to getting that they're on the job training going out with other drivers and seeing how the office works.

"They get a really good idea of how the company works before they become a fully-fledged coach drive which hopefully means they'll be better at their job when they do it.

"By doing it over 13 months we're trying to make sure it's more than just being able to drive a coach. It's all the bits that goes with that in terms of customer care, and looking after the vehicle, the environment and other road users."

"We've never had a problem recruiting drivers we just want to make sure the standard of drivers is the best that they can be really.

"If you take people on holiday for a week they expect for you to do a bit more than drive the coach, it's about customer interaction and looking after them as well. That's why we're going it on the job so they can learn from the drivers we've already got."

The company invested it its first motor vehicle in 1924, a 50cwt closed Ford T Van, to deliver coal in the mornings and collect passengers from Hungerford station in the afternoon.

The company now has around 80 employees and operates 39 coaches taking passengers from the Swindon area to events and holiday breaks across the UK.

"In the sixties and seventies over the summer nearly everybody would take coaches to the seaside, whether it was Bournemouth, Weymouth and Weston-Super-Mare," added Luke.

"That's when that side of coach travel was at its biggest."

"We still do that but not quite as much. A lot of our work now is theatres in London and shopping trips."