Diamond Bus - Discussion

[Ash]

30205-7/11/18, 30426,30432/30434/30438, 30486, 30834, 30940-3 were the 15 buses on the 4 service today

Was on 30426 this morning on the 4H where it was being absolutely thrashed as always on that route and there was quite a strong smell of diesel fumes or oil or something but fortunately I was on my own on the bus so just opened every window to get rid of the smell-still cant be a good sign

Yeah that's the normal smell for this bus, also on the 4/4H/4M were the 7 b7rle's has to be one of the first times all 7 have worked on the 4 on the same day. 30825 was also on the service for the second day running with only 3 cadets on the 4 these being 30201/5/11.

It should be looked at though as it was vile and must mean something is badly wrong. The suspension and gearbox on this one are knackered as well. And all 7 werent on there today-6 were and 30834 was on the 002 and yeah as you say 30825 was on the 4H mostly. Quite a few darts on there as well-one crusader, V391/377 SVV, S397HVV and one other one Ive missed out...

One day all 7 will finally make it out on the 4 altogether. Yeah S397HVV suspension seems to have totally gone last time I was on it a few weeks back and really struggles to pick up any speed. T447EBD was the crusader. The buses I saw on the 4 today were quite well used I saw 30825 at one point and nearly every seat looked to be taken heading from West Bromwich with a NXWM bus following behind.

[PM]

30205-7/11/18, 30426,30432/30434/30438, 30486, 30834, 30940-3 were the 15 buses on the 4 service today

Was on 30426 this morning on the 4H where it was being absolutely thrashed as always on that route and there was quite a strong smell of diesel fumes or oil or something but fortunately I was on my own on the bus so just opened every window to get rid of the smell-still cant be a good sign

Yeah that's the normal smell for this bus, also on the 4/4H/4M were the 7 b7rle's has to be one of the first times all 7 have worked on the 4 on the same day. 30825 was also on the service for the second day running with only 3 cadets on the 4 these being 30201/5/11.

It should be looked at though as it was vile and must mean something is badly wrong. The suspension and gearbox on this one are knackered as well. And all 7 werent on there today-6 were and 30834 was on the 002 and yeah as you say 30825 was on the 4H mostly. Quite a few darts on there as well-one crusader, V391/377 SVV, S397HVV and one other one Ive missed out...

One day all 7 will finally make it out on the 4 altogether. Yeah S397HVV suspension seems to have totally gone last time I was on it a few weeks back and really struggles to pick up any speed. T447EBD was the crusader. The buses I saw on the 4 today were quite well used I saw 30825 at one point and nearly every seat looked to be taken heading from West Bromwich with a NXWM bus following behind.

Haha yeah they will-though havent seen that since about june!! It does and they were today-buses ahead of NX busy but more tellingly one of the cadets to walsall this morning behind 2 national express buses still had 20 passengers on by the time we got to walsall. So people dont just get the "first bus that comes" as has been suggested before-people are waiting for diamond buses and so timetable leaflets are needed to give these people the confidence of knowing exactly when a diamond will turn up

[Ash]

30205-7/11/18, 30426,30432/30434/30438, 30486, 30834, 30940-3 were the 15 buses on the 4 service today

Was on 30426 this morning on the 4H where it was being absolutely thrashed as always on that route and there was quite a strong smell of diesel fumes or oil or something but fortunately I was on my own on the bus so just opened every window to get rid of the smell-still cant be a good sign

Yeah that's the normal smell for this bus, also on the 4/4H/4M were the 7 b7rle's has to be one of the first times all 7 have worked on the 4 on the same day. 30825 was also on the service for the second day running with only 3 cadets on the 4 these being 30201/5/11.

It should be looked at though as it was vile and must mean something is badly wrong. The suspension and gearbox on this one are knackered as well. And all 7 werent on there today-6 were and 30834 was on the 002 and yeah as you say 30825 was on the 4H mostly. Quite a few darts on there as well-one crusader, V391/377 SVV, S397HVV and one other one Ive missed out...

One day all 7 will finally make it out on the 4 altogether. Yeah S397HVV suspension seems to have totally gone last time I was on it a few weeks back and really struggles to pick up any speed. T447EBD was the crusader. The buses I saw on the 4 today were quite well used I saw 30825 at one point and nearly every seat looked to be taken heading from West Bromwich with a NXWM bus following behind.

Haha yeah they will-though havent seen that since about june!! It does and they were today-buses ahead of NX busy but more tellingly one of the cadets to walsall this morning behind 2 national express buses still had 20 passengers on by the time we got to walsall. So people dont just get the "first bus that comes" as has been suggested before-people are waiting for diamond buses and so timetable leaflets are needed to give these people the confidence of knowing exactly when a diamond will turn up

I catch the diamond 4 quite a lot and people regularly wait for the diamond bus to come along and let the NXWM pass. Although some sort of leaflet for the timetables may be good for promotion if I want to catch a diamond bus I just leave my house and wait for it being every 6 minutes and often if I have missed one another appears a couple of minutes later which is normally a late running 4H or 4M working. Monday I saw a cadet around 5pm pull into West Bromwich on a 4H working and was rammed and when leaving heading for Walsall most of the passengers were still on board with a b7rle on the 4 being half full right behind after picking up the passengers waiting in the bus station. So may be it might be a good idea to extend the 4 workings to Oldbury as the Oldbury to West Bromwich section of the service always seems quite busy especially as it goes via Sandwell and Dudley station and then promotional leaflets may be more useful.   

[PM]

30205-7/11/18, 30426,30432/30434/30438, 30486, 30834, 30940-3 were the 15 buses on the 4 service today

Was on 30426 this morning on the 4H where it was being absolutely thrashed as always on that route and there was quite a strong smell of diesel fumes or oil or something but fortunately I was on my own on the bus so just opened every window to get rid of the smell-still cant be a good sign

Yeah that's the normal smell for this bus, also on the 4/4H/4M were the 7 b7rle's has to be one of the first times all 7 have worked on the 4 on the same day. 30825 was also on the service for the second day running with only 3 cadets on the 4 these being 30201/5/11.

It should be looked at though as it was vile and must mean something is badly wrong. The suspension and gearbox on this one are knackered as well. And all 7 werent on there today-6 were and 30834 was on the 002 and yeah as you say 30825 was on the 4H mostly. Quite a few darts on there as well-one crusader, V391/377 SVV, S397HVV and one other one Ive missed out...

One day all 7 will finally make it out on the 4 altogether. Yeah S397HVV suspension seems to have totally gone last time I was on it a few weeks back and really struggles to pick up any speed. T447EBD was the crusader. The buses I saw on the 4 today were quite well used I saw 30825 at one point and nearly every seat looked to be taken heading from West Bromwich with a NXWM bus following behind.

Haha yeah they will-though havent seen that since about june!! It does and they were today-buses ahead of NX busy but more tellingly one of the cadets to walsall this morning behind 2 national express buses still had 20 passengers on by the time we got to walsall. So people dont just get the "first bus that comes" as has been suggested before-people are waiting for diamond buses and so timetable leaflets are needed to give these people the confidence of knowing exactly when a diamond will turn up

I catch the diamond 4 quite a lot and people regularly wait for the diamond bus to come along and let the NXWM pass. Although some sort of leaflet for the timetables may be good for promotion if I want to catch a diamond bus I just leave my house and wait for it being every 6 minutes and often if I have missed one another appears a couple of minutes later which is normally a late running 4H or 4M working. Monday I saw a cadet around 5pm pull into West Bromwich on a 4H working and was rammed and when leaving heading for Walsall most of the passengers were still on board with a b7rle on the 4 being half full right behind after picking up the passengers waiting in the bus station. So may be it might be a good idea to extend the 4 workings to Oldbury as the Oldbury to West Bromwich section of the service always seems quite busy especially as it goes via Sandwell and Dudley station and then promotional leaflets may be more useful.

Yeah and this kind of goes against what was said about my idea for leaflets for the 301. Yeah people do that who know how frequent diamond buses but with no branding on the buses any more people dont know how often diamond buses are. To be honest, extending to blackheath/oldbury may be a good plan but diamond would probably keep the same number of buses and therefore the frequency overall would drop. If more buses were added to compensate for this then it would be fine. I would personally make the 4M every 20 minutes then you've got a combined frequency of every 10 minutes on the walsall-blackheath corridor overall which is pretty good. To be honest, about the leaflets I was more thinking a west midlands network booklet similar to the arriva sandwell and dudley one I picked up-to show people the NETWORK so they may be more inclined to buy a monthly/weekly ticket if they can see there is a network of connecting routes that fit together that they can use their passes on

[Ash]

Branding would be the best opportunity to advertise the services, promote return tickets and to mention about the links to other diamond services like the black country connection maps used to for the 401E and 410. With the 4/301 having a mixture of buses used daily it would be difficult to keep the same buses on each service daily and then you would have a cadet and a b7rle with the same branding and one in black and one in blue unless there were repainted. The £2.50 day returns could be advertised on the cadets generally for the 4/4H/4M/40/301 services making sure the cadets stayed on these services. A network map would be ideal but guess not many people would pay more attention they would rather ask the driver or ask someone than find a map and look for themselves.

[PM]

Branding would be the best opportunity to advertise the services, promote return tickets and to mention about the links to other diamond services like the black country connection maps used to for the 401E and 410. With the 4/301 having a mixture of buses used daily it would be difficult to keep the same buses on each service daily and then you would have a cadet and a b7rle with the same branding and one in black and one in blue unless there were repainted. The £2.50 day returns could be advertised on the cadets generally for the 4/4H/4M/40/301 services making sure the cadets stayed on these services. A network map would be ideal but guess not many people would pay more attention they would rather ask the driver or ask someone than find a map and look for themselves.

It would to be honest-even if it looks cheap and tacky with stickers saying Only £2.50 day return! And havent seen a black country connection map-is that what it used to show on it? Connections to other routes? It would though to be fair there are a group of about 15 buses that are pretty much always on the 4/301 routes but maybe the 40/42/43 could have day returns though they already seem to compete fairly solidly with nx on these routes. Then you could brand a lot of buses for day returns. It would be ideal and the redditch one for instance offers tips for future journies for instance on the back page it says for sightseeing/exploring etc and it says destinations from redditch include stratford. People will look at that and think I didnt know diamond went to stratford then they will look for the timetable and maybe have a sunday in stratford, perhaps using the diamond ticket they already have. It encourages people on the main routes to consider diamond for other destinations and that I think is a good thing. It also has a more psychological impact people having a printed booklet full of all the services they can use a pass for so they may therefore buy one as they think they could use it to get to other places as well.

[Ash]

The 40 has a £2.50 day return same as the 4 and 301 which I guess hardly anyone knows about with the 42/43 being £3.20. I agree advertising on the back or within leaflets for tourist places might not be a bad idea may be with a discounted entry showing a diamond bus ticket like NXWM do and London Midland.

[PM]

The 40 has a £2.50 day return same as the 4 and 301 which I guess hardly anyone knows about with the 42/43 being £3.20. I agree advertising on the back or within leaflets for tourist places might not be a bad idea may be with a discounted entry showing a diamond bus ticket like NXWM do and London Midland.

Never knew that!! Been using that route a lot lately but never seen it asked for-seen lots of people buying singles and nbus passes but never that. In that case, that sort of proves the point I was making. Exactly particularly as on diamonds website earlier in the summer they were suggesting places you could go on their buses so its clearly a market theyre interested in. Do you know if the 50 or 16 had leaflets when they were rebranded like the 404e?

[Ash]

The 40 has a £2.50 day return same as the 4 and 301 which I guess hardly anyone knows about with the 42/43 being £3.20. I agree advertising on the back or within leaflets for tourist places might not be a bad idea may be with a discounted entry showing a diamond bus ticket like NXWM do and London Midland.

Never knew that!! Been using that route a lot lately but never seen it asked for-seen lots of people buying singles and nbus passes but never that. In that case, that sort of proves the point I was making. Exactly particularly as on diamonds website earlier in the summer they were suggesting places you could go on their buses so its clearly a market theyre interested in. Do you know if the 50 or 16 had leaflets when they were rebranded like the 404e?

I didn't see any on the 16 service when I occasionally used it but when I did and it was normally around 5-5:30pm the mcv's at that time were always nearly full and quite a few people had passes. Never used the diamond nifty fifty service so couldn't tell you. Yeah I was surprised myself about the £2.50 day return on the 40 service only saw it when looking on their website.

[PM]

The 40 has a £2.50 day return same as the 4 and 301 which I guess hardly anyone knows about with the 42/43 being £3.20. I agree advertising on the back or within leaflets for tourist places might not be a bad idea may be with a discounted entry showing a diamond bus ticket like NXWM do and London Midland.

Never knew that!! Been using that route a lot lately but never seen it asked for-seen lots of people buying singles and nbus passes but never that. In that case, that sort of proves the point I was making. Exactly particularly as on diamonds website earlier in the summer they were suggesting places you could go on their buses so its clearly a market theyre interested in. Do you know if the 50 or 16 had leaflets when they were rebranded like the 404e?

I didn't see any on the 16 service when I occasionally used it but when I did and it was normally around 5-5:30pm the mcv's at that time were always nearly full and quite a few people had passes. Never used the diamond nifty fifty service so couldn't tell you. Yeah I was surprised myself about the £2.50 day return on the 40 service only saw it when looking on their website.

Thanks Ash and yeah it did seem very busy then it dropped off when the MCVs left and it was just black diamond versas but it seems to have picked up again recently and GRS seem to be struggling from my observations. I went on one nifty 50 in summer 2011 and never saw a leaflet but I never went on the super 16 so thanks for your info on that. Its a bit bad though when you have to look on a website for something that could really boost their loadings on that route-didnt Simon mention brandings for returns as something diamond are looking into?

[Ash]

No problem, Yeah Simon mentioned about promoting the return branding but I think diamond are going to be reviewing some of their black country services soon along with their vehicles after losing a few tenders so probably until all that is confirmed we won't see any. A small advert on the drivers cab door or in the notification section on the bus would be useful and try to keep those buses on that service. For the 40 service try to allocate the 5 03 reg solo's for the service and advertise the return branding on them.

[PM]

No problem, Yeah Simon mentioned about promoting the return branding but I think diamond are going to be reviewing some of their black country services soon along with their vehicles after losing a few tenders so probably until all that is confirmed we won't see any. A small advert on the drivers cab door or in the notification section on the bus would be useful and try to keep those buses on that service. For the 40 service try to allocate the 5 03 reg solo's for the service and advertise the return branding on them.

Yeah that is true though at least we know now that diamond arent winning tenders at silly prices. A small advert would be good, a vinyl on the front nearside window or on the top bit of the drivers windscreen would be ideal-possibly even a vinyl of £2.50 return on the windows would look fine. Those solos look smart enough-pity they break down!-but they would be okay or possibly some MPDs/proper darts or cadets.

[Lukeee]

30825 Driving past the Sandpitts today very slowly displaying VOR

[PM]

30825 Driving past the Sandpitts today very slowly displaying VOR

Oh dear-to be honest, this one needs a tidy up both inside and out

[PM]

All the new eclipses out on the 4 today and the old ones as well I think but AE57FXW was broken down, 30211 cut out in oldbury this afternoon, KV51KZH was on 40 route showing VOR which I think is diamonds version of sorry not in service as I saw an eclipse with this on later. Also, saw 20608 while near the big island on the 4 line of route-cant remember the name of it-basically this was in blue DIAMOND livery being driven by an engineer-looked very smart and was presumably on test. Also saw 20602 still in wessex livery on the 42/43 I think-one of those services. 30826 was on the 002 but no royales on the 4 today but W337VGX was on there as was S377TMB which hasnt been on there for a while. 30206 was a nice ride on the 4 as well.