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Probably more that Stagecoach thought "here's an opportunity to win tenders" after seeing the demise of Claribels and Johnsons Excelbus.  TfWM were probably happy to see Stagecoach throw its hat into the ring, because more operators bidding for contracts ought to mean lower bid prices.
I wonder what will happen next - and how soon?

To add to that, I would imagine the relationship between Stagecoach and TFWM has been strengthened last year due to to working closely together for the Commonwealth Games. Stagecoach will also want to accelerate the business in other areas with the loss of Manchester operations.

Even with Stagecoach bidding for tenders, the number of bidders is still an issue for TFWM. A number of tenders in the last round only had one bidder. 

It takes much longer than 38 minutes to get from Rugby to Solihull,  you struggle to get from Coventry in 38 min!

If you look at bustimes dead running is taking in excess of an hour each direction 

Another stellar start to the day - more unforeseen circumstances for SC and those needing to get to hospital/work/school!

When WILL TfWM step in on this car crash?Screenshot_2023-01-12-06-42-02-82_0b2fce7a16bf2b728d6ffa28c8d60efb.jpg Screenshot_2023-01-12-06-42-02-82_0b2fce7a16bf2b728d6ffa28c8d60efb.jpg

At the TDC meeting on 9th January, TFWM representives said they had been assured there would be a signfiicant improvement in Stagecoach performance from the following day (Tuesday). It appears to have got worse!

If TFWM dont step in soon then future bids from other operators for these contracts will increase substantially as the passenger volumes will be alot less given the damage this will have caused.

I am amazed Stagecoach are as bad as they are. They found hundreds of Drivers willing to drive in Birmingham for the Commonwealth games, I am sure some of them would probably come back if offered the chance, but this looks more like Stockport making a complete mess of bidding on prices that would work with local drivers and thinking there was a plentiful supply of agency drivers to cover in the meantime, and there isn't.

According to the grapevine, a Central Birmingham base is imminent 

Brisk walk past Chaserider this evening - at least 3 Solos with engine flaps up including either 178 or 179 Cannock Chase Radio advert bus. Also shown is decker PJZxxxx as mentioned earlier in thread.

Not to mention an Optare Excel !

What  does package bid mean?

Basically the overall cost is discounted if multiple tenders are awarded

If you look at the A9 tender outcome, you will notice that Stagecoach were awarded it at the price of £14,500, but this wasn't the lowest price. The lowest price appears to be £14,200.

Stagecoach were only awarded the 41/46/169/A9 because they're overall "package" was slightly cheaper than the individual bids.

I wonder who the slightly cheaper £14,200 bid was from

£14,500 is probably their monthly hotel bill for housing the drivers they have drafted in from the across the country to oversee this debacle 

That's a very pretty poor turnaround by TfWM, two months after the changes.... they've had months to get all this place. They only gave operators two weeks notice of Tender awards inc Christmas Break in some instances....

Agreed - they should give responsibility back to the operators seeing as they carry the revenue risk !

If the printed timetable at those stops shows a date before 1st January, then they will be updated in due course.

There are lots of stops that still need flags and printed timetables changing, it won't happen overnight unfortunately.

TFWM have confirmed that all roadside information will be updated and in place by end of February.

Last week this was the case on the A9.

Same today with the A9. Gaps of an hour plus. It's a busy service but won't be for much longer

There was nothing tracking on the 71 yesterday when I checked.

However looking now at the history, it shows 36950 as operating half the journeys, though there is no map data available, so presumably this vehicle is not reporting location data:
https://bustimes.org/vehicles/scnh-36950?date=2023-01-08

I don't live on or use the route, so I don't know if there was actually another vehicle out which wasn't tracking at all.

36950 has operated journeys on the A9 today.


I know it's still early days, and that some of these tenders were awarded at short notice, but surely operators should not be bidding on contracts that they don't have the resources to operate.

It is pretty poor on Stagecoach's part that less than a week into operating these new contracts, they are missing out journeys already due to driver shortages or "circumstances beyond our control". And yes, I know these services require subsidy because they are not commercially viable due to low patronage, but still, its not leaving a good impression on the few people who do indeed rely on these services.

On Saturday afternoon, I was planning on travelling to Solihull, and I thought I'd give the 169 a try, as it is actually the route that stops closest to my home, though when it was the 69 it only ran about four times a day and was finished before 3pm so was little use to me. Before leaving the house, I checked the timetable, and then found out that journey wasn't running. Well, I wasn't going to sit around for another hour to wait for the next one, so I walked down Trittiford Road to get the 76 instead (as I would normally do if going into Shirley or Solihull for anything). So before I even stepped on board this service for the first time, I didn't have a very good first impression.

I hope it is the case that Stagecoach receive a pro-rata deduction from the subsidy paid to them by TfWM for the journeys they fail to operate, because I would be angry if taxpayers money is being given to big private companies like Stagecoach who fail to provide the service they're being funded to operate.

TFWM get automated reporting - so they won't be paid for journeys not operating.

What is more concerning is the long term damage they are doing to the passenger volumes on these services. There will be passengers lost to other modes of transport on a daily basis

Stagecoach have tweeted that there are several journeys on the 41 not running today due to "circumstances beyond their control".  Not the best for an hourly service.

At least the Bus Service 'Improvement' Plan (BSIP) funding should last abit longer...

Just looked at the 30 timetable from West Bromwich to Stone Cross via great bridge and noticed that the timetable is very poor with the last bus from Great Bridge directly to stone cross is at 17:17 to get to stone cross for roughly half past five Monday to Saturday, this means after 17:17 workers have to go via West Bromwich either on 42/43/74. 

When it was the 459 about ten years ago the last bus was about 2pm ! I doubt many workers travel from Great Bridge to Stone Cross?

Timetables now on Stagecoach's website.
They have been route learning the last couple of days, but Twitter suggests still numerous journeys not operating on their current routes...

A bus packed full of drivers learning the routes yesterday aswell from what I can gather - how bizzare !

Driver shortages are industry wide and really a result of bus drivers not being valued as much as they should have in the past (particularly when compared to train drivers). There has always been a high turnover of drivers in the industry because of the anti social nature of the job, it's not an ideal job if you have a young family for example.

The problem the last 2 years has seen all these factors have suddenly multiplied in severity and no company could possibly have planned long term for these sort of issues. Whilst I am sure some passengers will have been out off by the service disruption, many more were lost due to the initial COVID advice from the government not to use public transport. These are the ones that will probably be hardest to get back on the buses.

Looking at the routes given up by NXWM, none of them are exactly trunk routes, probably of minimal profit too, so they have made the right decision in the circumstances to focus resources on the main routes. Ironically, if the NXWM pay increase does go through as rumoured, other local companies taking over these routes may well find themselves short on drivers 'jumping ship to NXWM' if their own companies don't match those pay rises, then the service disruption continues.

I read only this week in a BBC news report that First is withdrawing all services from Southampton due to passenger decreases and driver shortages. Whilst GO Ahead have said they will take over the routes, there will now be no competition in that area (particularly after Yellow Buses also have gone) so the current low fares of that area will no doubt rise due to the new monopoly created.

At least the West Mids is not in such a position but it still shows that government support is required longer term so that the industry can stabilise and have a brighter future based in this new post-COVID reality of reduced passenger numbers.

Have you been riding the Hogwarts Express ?