Win is just the ticket for UK's best bus driver

Michael Leech had entered the bus driving competition multiple times before taking the big win this year

A bus driver crowned the UK's best said "words can't describe" how it felt to lift the trophy.

Michael Leech, from Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire, came top from 100 drivers at the national finals in Blackpool to win the title of UK's Bus Driver of the Year - and £4,000.

Mr Leech, who had twice finished runner-up in the competition, said he was "absolutely stunned" to have finally got his hands on the title.

"It's quite a mixture of emotions really. It took a while to sink in. I didn't get very much sleep the night that I won it. I was like a toddler fuelled on Red Bull, bouncing off the walls," he explained.

Six drivers from Yorkshire reached the 14 September finals, which saw them complete practical manoeuvres along a three-mile course down Blackpool Promenade.

Mr Leech, who has worked for First Bus in Yorkshire for 26 years, was named England's best driver in 2017.

"I've had various degrees of success before, but never quite scooped the big prize, but this was the ultimate prize. Words can't describe how pleased I am with it," he said.

The competition involved a series of exercises along Blackpool Promenade

"A good journey is an uneventful one," said Mr Leech who began driving buses six weeks after his 21st birthday.

"I saw the advert in the paper and thought I'll have a go at that - 26 years later here I am.

"I've always liked a challenge and it doesn't come much more challenging than driving a large vehicle with unrestrained passengers on board through the various environments and towns and cities that we have to drive through."

'Use your own judgement'

To take part in the competition, drivers needed to have had clean sheet for the previous 12 months: no collisions or passenger incidents, no justified customer complaints, and a good telematics score with the bus.

"You need to keep your driving smooth and safe, no extended periods of sickness and then when we get to the competition itself, you're assigned a series of tests," said Mr Leech.

Part of the Blackpool test included an element requiring drivers to stop their back wheel hub exactly level with a pole in the ground, a metre away from the pole.

"You've to stop with your front bumper in a little square box on the floor that disappears from view when you're about 10 feet away from it," said Mr Leech.

"It looks easy to an outside observer, but everything, you know, all the simulated curves, the green marks that you're using, they all disappear as you're approaching them, so you have to use your own judgement as to where they are," he said.

Mr Leech said he still loved the variety of being a bus driver, as "no two days are the same".

"Saves me having to work for a living," he laughed.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.