Diamond Bus - Discussion

[Nathan4775]

I was on about the singature services at thats what people were mentioning on here, i never use blue diamond but do use black diamond regulary.

ohh, i dont use signature buses as they operate in solihull,  were i hardly go

Taxis are allowed in Solihull town centre, otherwise why is there a taxi rank next to the 37 stop?  ::)

Where on Earth have these new members turned up from! There's a few of them now who could do with a brain transplant.

Do you have to pick on every1 who makes a wrong/stupid comment ??

[suavegarv]

Considering Central Connect are now Blue Diamond, I am seeing more white buses with the new logo instead of seeing their vehicles painted blue like Black and Red Diamond.

[Ash]

Blue diamond have had alot of new additions to their fleet, i think trying to decrease the average fleet age and having some buses ready to meet the emission requirements soon to be put in place in Birmingham so i would think it would take some time to get them all in the blue diamond livery, even some of the black diamond buses are in the old go-ahead diamond livery but i doubt these will be repainted, i havent saw any of the white diamond darts around (the ones up for sale) for a few days have they been withdrawn from use completely

[Mike360]

The 142 buses seem to be operating with Optare Solos lately and leave Halesowen full and the 007 is seeing 30488 and not 30214.

[Ash]

Diamond seem to be swapping the buses that are usually on the service the 401E sees alot of solo's again and are very full when leaving Walsall, thankfully the 404E has got the cadets back for now and are often full throughout the day but again a solo sneaked on again today with the versa's seem to be used on the 56 and 301 now. As i have said before they seem to be replacing services that had the mcv's with solo's and smaller darts from Wessex which are not suitable i know the older longer darts are getting on a bit but at least they had higher capacity numbers diamond need a high amount of investment even if the 6/7 year old full length darts from dealers

[PM]

Totally agree and diamond do need bigger buses that are reliable and last well with good interiors. They should be grateful many services get busy and exchange a lot of darts for a smaller number of either newer darts as these seem to work well or even be on the lookout for some wright cadets or plaxton centros on the secondhand market. I think they should buy some vdl sb200s/pulsar 2s as these are good buses and seem to last well or just an example I found on arriva bus and coach.

http://www.arrivabusandcoach.co.uk/details.asp?ProductID=229

or even http://www.arrivabusandcoach.co.uk/details.asp?ProductID=182

44 seats so plenty of capacity and new/quality secondhand stock

[Ash]

The older claribel buses would be ideal for the 16 service and fit in with the emmission requirements as when this occurs it will be  the smaller buses that will be used unless the centros' cadets or versa's get used.

[PM]

Glad you agree and I think these Claribel's Buses would be a good buy tho at the right price....

[Mike360]

I agree these buses would be a good investment for Diamond, they are in need of some bigger buses for certain routes that can get busy. Also I wonder if there ever going to repaint the rest of the red and white diamond livery buses into black diamond.

[Ash]

31419 got repainted from it's red and white livery recently with a refurb including new seat colours and the inside handrails (poles) seem to have been repainted and made the bus look new even though it's close to 15 years old so im unsure what their going to do to with these buses but for me they need replacing quite seen but the older ones sound better than some of the new red and white diamond darts

[Ash]

Are the versa's now only used on the 56 and 301 as the 301 cadets 30201/2/4-7 seem to be used on the 404E and 410 now

[Liberator9]

Saw one of the ex Newport buses yesterday refurbished rather nicely on the 82A. The interior looks very good although this is bound to change very quickly!

[D10]

Saw one of the ex Newport buses yesterday refurbished rather nicely on the 82A. The interior looks very good although this is bound to change very quickly!

I may have missed an earlier post, so sorry if this has already been commentde on, but what vehicles have come from Newport?

[Ash]

Yeah I dont know either as the smaller recent darts have come from wessex and the solos from preston, all recent additions have come from within the group but i could be wrong

[Matt.N0056]

they have brought a few solos, ive also seen one a couple of time. Y2JPT I believe has aslo had the sasme interior