Diamond Bus - Discussion

[PM]

The 52 reg dart is not one of the ones from Yourbus is it? Are diamond getting any more second enviro 200's bone shakers. I must admit I was so disappointed with diamond's all blue enviro 200 when I had a ride on it no where near as nice as the NXWM ones. Mind you any bus with urban 90 seats are not designed for comfort.

I must say that those early enviro200darts are awful. A real back step from a dart slf in my opinion-uglier, rattlier-mind u i prefer the pre-2001/2 ish darts which sound different and rattle an awful lot less. I wonder which 52 reg dart has been sold as I can think of the yourbus ones or possibly the blue diamond one.

[Sh4318]

Mind you any bus with urban 90 seats are not designed for comfort.

This is so true  ;D

[jc]

KX08HMY and MX07OYT are at First Redditch depot for Driver Training.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/calumbus/8454371870/ - KX08HMY is now blue, not sure if its been reported!

[Ash]

KX08HMY and MX07OYT are at First Redditch depot for Driver Training.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/calumbus/8454371870/ - KX08HMY is now blue, not sure if its been reported!

Either this means the 50 is moving to red diamond (redditch) or the 50 is losing its centro's and stopping at Long Acre.

[Ash]

I didn't relies until today that the 40 service operates a £2.50 return ticket I have just seen it on their website. Is it me or am I missing the reason why diamond are not advertising these special return fares on the buses getting awareness of the offers surely should be first priority.

[PM]

I didn't relies until today that the 40 service operates a £2.50 return ticket I have just seen it on their website. Is it me or am I missing the reason why diamond are not advertising these special return fares on the buses getting awareness of the offers surely should be first priority.

They absolutely should. They need adverts on buses, branding, leaflets, return information scrolling on displays and stickers on buses.

[sonic84]

According to the Diamond website, the 10 will continue during peaks only with another operator.  Has anyone heard who might be taking it over?  Nothing mention on the NWM site.

[PM]

I went to Redditch today and I must say that rotala seems to be doing well there. Most of the buses were busy as were FMR's so when diamond own the whole thing I think they will do quite well. I just wonder how First managed to make a loss there.??

[Ash]

I went to Redditch today and I must say that rotala seems to be doing well there. Most of the buses were busy as were FMR's so when diamond own the whole thing I think they will do quite well. I just wonder how First managed to make a loss there.??

What services in particular i'm guessing the 57/58 but diamond's fares in the Redditch are so low i'm not surprised there well used. I caught a 301 yesterday (30207) and the amount of people boarding at Walsall with a return ticket amazed me nearly all of the passengers had them with only 6 buses on the service as well must be making a lot of money out of the service. Also was on a 4H yesterday from Oldbury (30516) was the bus and were about 10 passengers on when leaving Oldbury We picked no body up at West Brom as another route 4 diamond bus was on the stand but then on the way to Walsall nearly every seat was taken and we were leaving people at stops as I think we were running late and another red and white dart was right behind just wished there were some investment on both the 4 and 301 especially as service 4/4H/4M covers nearly most of the black country would give a good impression and when the summer comes there will be breakdowns daily as the 4H/4M doesn't seem to be the most generous timetable especially with 15 year old darts and up and down the black country hills.

[PM]

I went to Redditch today and I must say that rotala seems to be doing well there. Most of the buses were busy as were FMR's so when diamond own the whole thing I think they will do quite well. I just wonder how First managed to make a loss there.??

What services in particular i'm guessing the 57/58 but diamond's fares in the Redditch are so low i'm not surprised there well used. I caught a 301 yesterday (30207) and the amount of people boarding at Walsall with a return ticket amazed me nearly all of the passengers had them with only 6 buses on the service as well must be making a lot of money out of the service. Also was on a 4H yesterday from Oldbury (30516) was the bus and were about 10 passengers on when leaving Oldbury We picked no body up at West Brom as another route 4 diamond bus was on the stand but then on the way to Walsall nearly every seat was taken and we were leaving people at stops as I think we were running late and another red and white dart was right behind just wished there were some investment on both the 4 and 301 especially as service 4/4H/4M covers nearly most of the black country would give a good impression and when the summer comes there will be breakdowns daily as the 4H/4M doesn't seem to be the most generous timetable especially with 15 year old darts and up and down the black country hills.

I used the 4 and 301 a few weeks ago and I totally agree with you Ash. They need to buy circa 20 decent new buses for these routes and today I was on the 57/58/51 and 70. All well used with standing loads on board 57 and 58. Saw a lot of diamond passes around. Tho coming back onto the topic of the 301 and 4 it seems surprising that everyone knows about the returns when diamond do little to advertise them.

[PM]

They also need to sell all those buses they wish to sell to ensign as theyre spending money advertising them which seems pointless unless ensign really dont offer them a good deal. Then they could buy some of these http://www.ensignbus.com/#!singlebus8/c1ed0
and possibly order a few new buses as well. They need to ditch the solos completely, shut long acre, and brand up some half decent buses for the 301/56/4/50/16 services. They need to advertise the returns and there needs to be a redditch network review as personally I think that there is a major problem with redditch bus station which is hopelessly inadequate. Information seems out of date and something needs to be done. Id also like to see diamond having printed leaflets on buses telling them useful stuff. On that note I saw the nbb dart in redditch today still with timetable holders with NBB notices on about the 113X which I thought was interesting.

[PM]

The other thing-I was on the 50 corridor today as well and diamond seemed to be doing well. There was a period in september/october when green bus seemed to have tonnes of buses on the route-with both green buses and red darts and tridents. There seem to be less now and diamond seem to be doing better again although I couldnt see 801 anywhere although ovv and hmz were back on, obvioudly returned from yourbus. Wondered if anyone had seen 801 anywhere.

[Tony]

They also need to sell all those buses they wish to sell to ensign as theyre spending money advertising them which seems pointless unless ensign really dont offer them a good deal. Then they could buy some of these http://www.ensignbus.com/#!singlebus8/c1ed0
and possibly order a few new buses as well. They need to ditch the solos completely, shut long acre, and brand up some half decent buses for the 301/56/4/50/16 services. They need to advertise the returns and there needs to be a redditch network review as personally I think that there is a major problem with redditch bus station which is hopelessly inadequate. Information seems out of date and something needs to be done. Id also like to see diamond having printed leaflets on buses telling them useful stuff. On that note I saw the nbb dart in redditch today still with timetable holders with NBB notices on about the 113X which I thought was interesting.

You seem to think Ensign will just buy anything? - The last thing Ensign need at the moment is non-sellable old darts. They have enough of them already with their bulk purchases from the big London ops. If Rotala cannot sell them why should Ensign be able to

[Ash]

One cadet i think it was 30211 still has an information advert about senior citizens using there pass before 9:30am for 50p and this was when Birmingham coach company owned the vehicles it's on the side blind. Surely there must be some second hand centro's for sale somewhere which would be ideal for the black diamond operations it's pointless having just one enviro 200 even though I heard several more may be entering service with diamond I think it was mentioned on here a while ago. The hybrid versa's are being wasted at blue diamond using them on the X30 and the 82 as well as the 16. If the 16 is struggling put some solo's on there a and move the versa's to the 301 using all 8 vehicles at an 8 minute frequency. Return branding could be put on the cadets as there mainly used on the 4/40 and 301 which all offer the £2.50 return ticket. The solo's i would keep but ensure there used on centro funded services and not on the main stream commercial services. I would even think about transferring some of the presidents acquired from the first takeover and use them on the 002 and 301 transferring the enviro 200 and the acquired darts from your bus to Red diamond moving the cadets and centro's from the 002/301 to be used on the 4/4H and 4M.

[PM]

They also need to sell all those buses they wish to sell to ensign as theyre spending money advertising them which seems pointless unless ensign really dont offer them a good deal. Then they could buy some of these http://www.ensignbus.com/#!singlebus8/c1ed0
and possibly order a few new buses as well. They need to ditch the solos completely, shut long acre, and brand up some half decent buses for the 301/56/4/50/16 services. They need to advertise the returns and there needs to be a redditch network review as personally I think that there is a major problem with redditch bus station which is hopelessly inadequate. Information seems out of date and something needs to be done. Id also like to see diamond having printed leaflets on buses telling them useful stuff. On that note I saw the nbb dart in redditch today still with timetable holders with NBB notices on about the 113X which I thought was interesting.

You seem to think Ensign will just buy anything? - The last thing Ensign need at the moment is non-sellable old darts. They have enough of them already with their bulk purchases from the big London ops. If Rotala cannot sell them why should Ensign be able to

Id have thought that the rotala ones would be far more appealing as they havent been thrashed around like the ones in London and operators outside cities dont want to buy dual door darts and as for the caetano compass ones ensign have-who on earth wants them!! Rotalas are single door and in good nick and ensign have a far better chance of selling them as everyones heard of them and they are britains biggest bus seller. Theyve got a far bigger chance of selling them