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Diamond Bus routes

Started by Nathan4775, April 30, 2012, 05:58:00 PM

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MW

Quote from: Liberator9 on May 26, 2012, 08:23:39 PM
Let me tell you as a frequent user of the S2 and S3. They are late and unreliable and I myself complained to Centro and their contract could be at threat if they had any more buses fail to turn up. I must say the Mercedes and MCV that turn up each day are great but the Solo Srs, well, awful. They rattle, vibrate and some seats at the back have been vandalled on one. One has a engine that keeps cutting out and it hardly fills you with confidence when this happens. The 82 is excellent though and the 30 is alright, just seems to be always empty. The S2 and S3 have lost passengers massively. When it was NXWM (+40A/C) the Liberators were full of a evening and the Crusaders even had to leave people behind. People are fed up of changes and are put off and resort to their cars which are always there.

A lot of the Signature buses leave Solihull with no spare seats actually.

Liberator9

Not the S2 or S3. Anyway they are smaller than Liberators which used to be filled up.

MW

Quote from: Liberator9 on May 26, 2012, 08:33:22 PM
Not the S2 or S3. Anyway they are smaller than Liberators which used to be filled up.

I work in Solihull and have a full view of the Santander stops. They often leave Solihull with no spare seats. End of.

Liberator9

Okay, but are both of the two seats full? And in the peaks it is always much quieter than it was, end of.

MW

Quote from: Liberator9 on May 26, 2012, 09:05:41 PM
Okay, but are both of the two seats full? And in the peaks it is always much quieter than it was, end of.

Yes, both.

I work between the hours of 12pm till 5am on different shifts so I see the route at various times, and it is usually full up in the evenings.

PM

Signature buses are always full other than the 30 and the 82 needs the citaros on the route.....

Ash

I think both blue and black diamond needs investment in larger buses for certain routes as wessex connect (wessex red) seem to have much newer better quality buses as well what they inherited from Preston Bus

Discodave

If they are always late apart from blaiming the company if the route is tendered centro should look at the running times as they have control of setting them according to most traffic manangers as the old 562 had this problem which i mentioned before (wolves bloxwich route) 30 min running time having to serve new cross hospital,coppice farm,lots of traffic calming no catch up at either end just got later until a trip was lost.

Stu

Quote from: Peter123 on May 26, 2012, 09:42:33 PM
Signature buses are always full other than the 30 and the 82 needs the citaros on the route.....

When I first moved to Acocks Green, I started catching the 30 instead of the 37 to get to work, as the 30 (then operated by NXWM) used Metrobuses and I could guarantee myself a seat as I got on at the starting point. It would soon fill up in the mornings with schoolkids on Pierce Avenue, Richmond Rd and Olton station, but it wasn't too bad, as while it operated every 30 minutes, there was an extra bus at peaktimes so the service was every twenty minutes, so there was a decent running time (about 40mins) to keep the service reliable. During the rest of the day, the Metrobuses were near empty though.

It started going downhill when the 30 was withdrawn, and replaced by NXWM's new S3 service at the Solihull review. B10Ls and B6LEs were used instead of Metrobuses, and the frequency was reduced to 30 mins at peaks, but retained an 'S803' school service (sometimes Metrobus operated). The journeys I took would get ridiculously overcrowded, and the new route the S3 took made it run very late, as it still had the old running time. Then when NXWM withdrew the S3 and reinstated the old 30, they kept the 30 min frequency, but with a 26 minute running time, even at peaks! Even Google Maps (when plotting the route in) said the journey would take 24 minutes, without stopping! So once the morning peak journeys got delayed, it was screwed for the rest of the day, as drivers had NO chance of making time up!

When Central Connect (now Blue Diamond Signature) took the 30 over, they kept the same timetable, frequency and running time. It's an impossible route to keep on time.
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PM

Quote from: Stu on July 06, 2012, 08:57:54 PM
Quote from: Peter123 on May 26, 2012, 09:42:33 PM
Signature buses are always full other than the 30 and the 82 needs the citaros on the route.....

When I first moved to Acocks Green, I started catching the 30 instead of the 37 to get to work, as the 30 (then operated by NXWM) used Metrobuses and I could guarantee myself a seat as I got on at the starting point. It would soon fill up in the mornings with schoolkids on Pierce Avenue, Richmond Rd and Olton station, but it wasn't too bad, as while it operated every 30 minutes, there was an extra bus at peaktimes so the service was every twenty minutes, so there was a decent running time (about 40mins) to keep the service reliable. During the rest of the day, the Metrobuses were near empty though.

It started going downhill when the 30 was withdrawn, and replaced by NXWM's new S3 service at the Solihull review. B10Ls and B6LEs were used instead of Metrobuses, and the frequency was reduced to 30 mins at peaks, but retained an 'S803' school service (sometimes Metrobus operated). The journeys I took would get ridiculously overcrowded, and the new route the S3 took made it run very late, as it still had the old running time. Then when NXWM withdrew the S3 and reinstated the old 30, they kept the 30 min frequency, but with a 26 minute running time, even at peaks! Even Google Maps (when plotting the route in) said the journey would take 24 minutes, without stopping! So once the morning peak journeys got delayed, it was screwed for the rest of the day, as drivers had NO chance of making time up!

When Central Connect (now Blue Diamond Signature) took the 30 over, they kept the same timetable, frequency and running time. It's an impossible route to keep on time.


Thats really interesting as I know the 30 is often late-as is the 82 to be honest-maybe they could use a third bus on the route and up the frequency a bit.....

Ash

I think quite a few of diamonds routes are quite tight in terms of the timetable like the 30 is for blue diamond and is often meaning late runnings of services.

Discodave

Quote from: Ash on July 06, 2012, 10:02:30 PM
I think quite a few of diamonds routes are quite tight in terms of the timetable like the 30 is for blue diamond and is often meaning late runnings of services.
A lot of them are to keep infront of NXWM if not its usually tight times being tendered (so smite me again I know from experiance) like explained more clearly in another post companies alter routes and do not take into account traffic conditions and put in extra bits and do not add more time its just bad planning and cost cutting in some cases.  I know companies need to make money but losing milage due to bad timing loses more money and passengers faith in your company/service and eventually fines from the authorities or loss of operating licences if they really want to punish you.

DC3

Quote from: Ash on July 06, 2012, 10:02:30 PM
I think quite a few of diamonds routes are quite tight in terms of the timetable like the 30 is for blue diamond and is often meaning late runnings of services.

The 30 has always been 30mins freq. and only used 2 running board. Even before the S3! Always has been a merry go round!

Ash

One of the services I was suprised diamond ended was the 404H as when i saw this service is seemed to be well used and provided a quicker link to merry hill form West Bromwich, it must have seen some patronage otherwise NXWM wouldnt have picked the service up on saturdays and sundays and operated commerically. I think a better option would be to introduce the service between Walsall and Merryhill like NXWM do and operate it every 30 minutes monday to friday and every 30 minutes on weekends and operate it so it has a combined 15 minute frequency with NXWM 404H service. It seems rare for NXWM to pick up a service created by another company which was withdrawn and to operate it commerically themselves they must have seen the potential only wished it operated weekdays but with the sandwell review this could happen, hopefully :)

PM

Yes, I was also surprised when it was withdrawn-maybe Diamond will reintroduce it in the future-hopefully.

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