Lea Hall Bus Garage

[horsencart]

Has anyone heard any news about Lea Hall Bus Garage ?  as there is a rumour about the place doing the rounds

[winston]

Has anyone heard any news about Lea Hall Bus Garage ?  as there is a rumour about the place doing the rounds

At the last count it was meant to have been sold for manufacturing use and was cleared of reserve fleet vehicles, but that sale appears to since have fallen through as it now houses the higher value buses within the NXWM reserve fleet

What is the rumour that you have heard?

[horsencart]

First and foremost it is only a rumour, but with any rumour there is always an element of truth, so here goes the rumour is that there is a health and safety problem  at certain garages, so to help  to clear this problem Lea Hall is to be re-opened as a  bus garage,


How true the above is I do not know it may of course just  be wishful thinking on someone part, only time will tell I was there at the garage,s 25th birthday and its 50th  birthday  I would hate to see this former B.C.T. garage become a supermarket or a housing estate

[Gareth]

I think the rumours of Lea Hall re opening started a week before it closed! Always a different reason for re opening. Personally I cannot see it happening, but would love it if it were true.

[Westy]

Surely it must come to a point where you cannot shut any more depots without having a replacement location?

You can only put so many vehicles in a space before it gets full.

I have the same problem in the retail sector.

Our main depots are Willenhall & Bentley near Walsall, but we have a backup in Lye & in the past, we've also used Aspray.

Its mainly for storage for very good deals, especially if we have promotional activity in the stores!

[winston]

I think at some point NXWM may need to consider creating additional capacity within the Birmingham area, as many Birmingham garages are at or near full to capacity, if NXWM want to continue to grow patronage/the business as stated they will need to provide additional capacity in the future to further improve routes/frequencies which will also lead to increased Pvr's etc

I expect NXWM would be more likely to source a sub depot similar to what was planned for WB at the Hawthorns or an open plan depot rather the re-open LH as they are cheaper to run

[Kevin]

It always struck me as strange when they closed Lea Hall and Hockley but didn't open any other depots, I mean ok, there is possibly extra space at other garages ie PB or BY but surely there wouldn't be that much extra space

[fleetline6477]

There was a rumour doing the rounds a while back that LH was to reopen and AG to close because Tescos had bought the land AG depot was on some years ago.

[Tony]

There was a rumour doing the rounds a while back that LH was to reopen and AG to close because Tescos had bought the land AG depot was on some years ago.

which was complete rubbish. It stemmed from the planning application for supermarket close by (Aldi?) which was misread as a planning application for supermarket on the site of the garage

[monkeyjoe]

I think at some point NXWM may need to consider creating additional capacity within the Birmingham area, as many Birmingham garages are at or near full to capacity, if NXWM want to continue to grow patronage/the business as stated they will need to provide additional capacity in the future to further improve routes/frequencies which will also lead to increased Pvr's etc

I expect NXWM would be more likely to source a sub depot similar to what was planned for WB at the Hawthorns or an open plan depot rather the re-open LH as they are cheaper to run

Would they be more likely to make Miller Street a sub depot of Perry Barr with the training centre and then make the lower grade driver work there and pay them all less, to save on overheads  ::). I dunno just being random.

[Tony]

I think next month rumours about Lea hall may finally come to an end

[winston]

I think at some point NXWM may need to consider creating additional capacity within the Birmingham area, as many Birmingham garages are at or near full to capacity, if NXWM want to continue to grow patronage/the business as stated they will need to provide additional capacity in the future to further improve routes/frequencies which will also lead to increased Pvr's etc

I expect NXWM would be more likely to source a sub depot similar to what was planned for WB at the Hawthorns or an open plan depot rather the re-open LH as they are cheaper to run

Would they be more likely to make Miller Street a sub depot of Perry Barr with the training centre and then make the lower grade driver work there and pay them all less, to save on overheads  ::). I dunno just being random.

Since NX sold off the former tram shed, Miller Street can't actually hold that many vehicles, it would guess circa 25 in the main depot and circa 15 in the storage yard next door which is currently overgrown. If they were still intending to retain part of the training fleet there plus an allocation of service vehicles it probably couldn't amount to very many. Sub depots/outstations are the most cost effective options, and the easiest to setup. All you need to source is an open yard with a small building to house an office function/undertake light maintenance, all heavy maintenance can be undertaken at the main garage, as what presently happens between PB & BY.

As I understand it, WA may have some spare capacity, WN has had an allocation above 220 buses in the past, so may have approx 10% spare, CV has had allocations of circa 175 buses, but that was pre-bendibuses I think? And capacity at Pensnett could be increased by using half of the land currently used to store withdrawn buses/staff car park, but the office/engineering facilities may not be able to cope as the bus depot was designed for an allocation of 100 in TMH era, and is currently circa 17 buses over that now. Plus some current functions operate out of port-a-cabins dotted around the site

[winston]

I think next month rumours about Lea hall may finally come to an end

Been sold again then, hence the big clearout of reserve vehicles for scrap

[winston]

Has anyone heard anymore about plans for LH garage?

[monkeyjoe]

Is this new business selling the office space already or have i got it wrong when i passed it