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Checking for Coventry today seems to show a perfect world - no disruptions from what I read.
https://disruptions.tfwm.org.uk/?isMapVisible=true

But hang on isn't there a major divert in place for New Union St affecting both SC and NXC?

If TfWM can't manage this detail in Coventry why don't they say Coventry is excluded?

What I find amazing is that TfWM seem to be refusing to upload this data to the UK Govt disruptions data service which would mean that disruptions go out to journey planners such as bustimes.org. Instead TfWM rate themselves so highly that they believe everyone checks the TfWM website before every journey. They are the only PTE in England to note contribute to the data.

There's a couple of new NX services showing on Bustimes:

603:
https://bustimes.org/services/603-thetford-cambridge-trumpington-park-ride

604:
https://bustimes.org/services/604-thetford-cambridge-trumpington-park-ride

605:
https://bustimes.org/services/605-northampton-northampton-queen-eleanor-intercha

The link above for the 605 has Northampton - Northampton Queen Eleanor Interchange, whilst the timetable shows the 605 is Birmingham Digbeth Coach Station to Coventry Pool Meadow

They aren't new services, someone just made a balls up. 

603 is actually the 727, 604 is the 728. I'm guessing it's because these sections of the 727/728 are now registered and so carry local passengers and for some reason, someone chose to make a 603/604 rather than just amend the 727/728 to take local passengers, as happened on other routes.

The glorious TfWM and their Bus Disruptions web page seems not to be aware of major road works near the city centre. A number of buses being diverted for more than one week. I cannot see it mentioned.

NXC have done a good job in reporting this.
Haven't found any mention by SC or other operators.

Can someone give TfWM a nudge to wake up and include Coventry issues please? Happy to show TfWM where Coventry is on a map if they want some help? 

I played hell with TfWM in 2022 when they decided not to post about stop closures during the Commonwealth games. They said that their systems don't allow them to give stop updates and gave a load of corporate waffle. Basically justifying the fact that their systems aren't upto scratch and staff are incompetant. As with all public authorities, no matter how poor the staff are, no one gets sacked or held accountable. Passengers just suffer while PTE staff have their feet up on the desk twiddling their thumbs.

Looking at Companies House, the directors appointment has been terminated on 12th Jan, and a new director appointed on 5th Jan.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04127256/filing-history

The address for the new director though is the same address that is used for BM coaches and Balasubramaniam Balashuresh (the guy who was terminated as a director on 12th Jan)  

Please bare in mind the reasoning behind the decision, while I agree it seems a backwards step the main reason stated by Diamond seems to be the viability of the commercial network. Perhaps the process of claiming money back from the council for acceptance is too slow. Making it a condition of tenders would not make any difference to Diamond's commercial network in my opinion.

Making it a condition of tenders would kind of force Diamond to accept it more because of the contracts that they have. 

For Diamond, of all operators, to claim that a low usage multi operator ticket is going to cripple the commercial network is laughable. Especially when cowboys such as Select accept the ticket, it really can't be that bad.

And possibly put The Knot itself in jepoardy!

What a wonderful thing for Diamond to do. I know Staffordshire aren't the most 'pro bus' authority but surely as it's one of the only good things to happen in the area, they should support it. 

If Staffordshire Council has any sense, they will make it a requirement of tenders. That will soon change things.

[From 19th January 2024]

Just when you think that Diamond can't be any more anti-passenger, they have decided to withdraw themselves from The Knot, multi operator ticket scheme as of the 19th January. What an absolute joke. I am often quite supportive of Diamond where I can be but at a time when the rest of the industry is trying to get more passengers onboard, in swoops Diamond Midlands to give everyone a kick in the teeth.

https://www.diamondbuses.com/service-updates/

From 19th January 2024
From 19^th January 2024, Diamond Bus will no longer accept Staffordshire Knot Multi-Operator tickets on our services.
To continue to accept Knot tickets, would impact on the commercial viability of our services in the Staffordshire area.
Therefore we have taken the decision to leave the Knot scheme.

It does have car parking and public toilets though, two big advantages over a bus stop in the city centre

Will the toilets be open on Christmas Day though?

With no other public transport running, being in the city centre is no advantage.

Faulkland Street is called a coach station and has plenty of room for passengers to be dropped off by car/minicab/taxi.

I can see your point but they have kept city centre stops for other places and so it must still have some value.

Just because Faulkland Street is called a 'coach station', it doesn't mean it is one. It's quite far from it now, it's just a coach park with New Bharat Coaches stopping there twice per day. Hardly constitutes a coach station.

Surely Diamond could have said the journeys had transferred to another operator, or if they didn't know, say to contact Staffordshire County Council.

Because that requires someone to care about passengers and also be competent. Something seriously lacking at Diamond Midlands.

Surely NatEx should do an assessment on whether the Banga stand at the police station can be used by Levantes? After all, that is an official coach stand and much closer to the town than Faulkland Street

Thanks, I wasn't aware that this was up and running yet, I only read earlier this year that the Welsh government had put out contracts to tender.

Other bus operators in Wales, such as Lloyds Coaches, have been providing data into the UK BODS for a while.

Lloyds Coaches were providing data via BODS.
TrawsCymru routes, Cardiff Bus, Newport Bus and Edwards Coaches data was coming from the Passenger API.


The Welsh Bus Data thing has been released pretty quickly and it seems full of bugs. I think it has been rushed as they had the Ticketer data so they have just tried to put it out to show that the Welsh Govt can actually do something for passengers as their track record is shocking.

I presume this is something that Ticketer have done, and makes me question the need for the Welsh Government to spend millions of pounds on developing/creating their own "Welsh Bus Open Data Service", while so many bus operators in Wales are now feeding data into BODS.

All of the Welsh operators who are tracking on bustimes are doing so because Bustimes has gotten the data from the Welsh Bus Data Service, not because operators are feeding into the normal BODS.

I have spoken to the South East Head of Commercial.  We accept this needs some work and we will to look to resolve this quickly.



Simon

Hi Simon, how quickly will the South East Head of Commercial look into this? We are now nearly 3 weeks in and data has not had an update. 

I am really starting to believe that Rotala does not take its legal responsibilities seriously and as such continues to be in contravention of the law regarding BODS in a number of the operations. Despite constant reassurances from yourself that something will be done, the issues are rarely resolved.

The only time on the timetable is from Highfield - all the others are surely an invention of bustimes.org?
;
No normal punter will expect a bus going to Goal Square to wait time at Stafford station

Bustimes only shows all stops because there are less than 15 stops in total. IF there are more stops, the timetable goes to show timing points only (similar to the outbound route).

As for your second point, why not? D&G do it on the Sunday 101. It happens in many areas for a major point such as a railway station to be a timing point, even if that stop is only a few minutes away from the terminus. The best way to avoid buses waiting time there though is to do a proper schedule which takes into account the actual journey times at different times of day.