June 10 2025
Our latest ‘Two Minutes With’ focuses on Sajid Chaudry, the company’s Performance Director. Eugene Clarke, our Head of Stakeholder Engagement, recently met Sajid, known to all as Ziggy, to discuss his experience and the future of bus service control.
Ziggy joined the sector in 1998 as a driver at Uxbridge Garage and quickly set about learning how London’s buses operate. He takes up the story: “Having driven in service for a few months, I realised just how much goes on behind the scenes and I was full of ideas about improving service quality. I asked if it would be possible to spend some of my own time in and around control rooms, which was greeted with enthusiasm. I have never really looked back.”
Promotions to Controller and Performance Manager at First Group followed, before a move to Abellio as Network Area Manager in 2012 and then to Go-Ahead London in 2015 as Area General Manager (Service Performance). During his time with Go-Ahead, Ziggy was additionally seconded to its Singapore operation, guiding controllers with his ‘know how’. He joined Transport UK London Bus in September 2024 as Performance Director and in the intervening eight months, his team have transformed the company’s position in Transport for London’s bus operator league tables.
Over the years, Ziggy has cemented a reputation for exceptional service delivery, despite regulating many of London’s busiest, and most frequently disrupted or diverted, bus routes. He is also renowned for identifying talented people and giving them career opportunities. As a result, a significant number of Ziggy’s 87-strong team of controllers and managers have progressed under his leadership.
When asked about the secret of his success, he said: “It is really important to develop good people, to work harmoniously with transport authorities and to harness technology, in the process making data driven decisions that ultimately serve our passengers. London and Singapore achieve first-class bus services through a partnership and, in my experience, both transport authorities are open to ideas and they encourage dialogue, which makes a massive difference.”
When asked about the role of AI and other technological advances, Ziggy observed: “I am open minded, but, in my opinion, bus control rooms will continue to be populated by people for the foreseeable future.”
A proud father to Anisah and Jamal, Ziggy is married to Clare and enjoys travelling and walking in his spare time.
Look out for another ‘Two Minutes With’ soon.
