Rotala Management - Questions & Answers

[Stu]

Hi Simon,

Can you confirm that all your West Midlands vehicles should have had all their Ticketer systems updated to accept direct debit passes issued by NX Bus?

I had a comment left on my website today from someone who has an NX Bus+metro direct debit pass, but it apparently wasn't validated on either your 4 or 16A services they tried to travel on.

https://wmbu.org.uk/2023/07/clarification-on-existing-ticket-pass-validity-from-3rd-july-2023/#comment-633

I personally have an NX Regional Travelcard DD pass on a Swift card, and while I haven't had an opportunity to use it on any Diamond service yet, I did use it on Stagecoach's 169 service on Monday and it was accepted with no issues.

If you need any further details I can try and request them for you.

Thanks in advance!

[Simon Dunn]

Hi Simon,

Can you confirm that all your West Midlands vehicles should have had all their Ticketer systems updated to accept direct debit passes issued by NX Bus?

I had a comment left on my website today from someone who has an NX Bus+metro direct debit pass, but it apparently wasn't validated on either your 4 or 16A services they tried to travel on.

https://wmbu.org.uk/2023/07/clarification-on-existing-ticket-pass-validity-from-3rd-july-2023/#comment-633

I personally have an NX Regional Travelcard DD pass on a Swift card, and while I haven't had an opportunity to use it on any Diamond service yet, I did use it on Stagecoach's 169 service on Monday and it was accepted with no issues.

If you need any further details I can try and request them for you.

Thanks in advance!

To answer your question, John Hurst says that the NBus product is being phased out.   This is incorrect.  The NBus product will be the only day/ week/ month/ annual product - which will be accepted across all operators in the West Midlands.

That being said NX like ourselves have services which operate cross boundary.  I understand that NX will sell a product which is cross boundary/ and potentially this may not be accepted (it will be more money) - there is a lot of confusion about what can/ can't be done.  TfWM have a marketing campaign which is due to start to help educate people accordingly.

So if a passenger has a NX DD TfWM area pass - then our machines have been set up to accept the passes these refer to.  



Simon

[Damo]

Hi Simon,

The Diamond South East upcoming changes page references new Heathrow services H21, N30, 459 and 710 along with the wording "All service information, maps, fares and times can be found in the timetable page here (link to https://www.diamondbuses.com/bus-services/?region=Surrey)", however upon clicking that link it only seems to show the current services. Am I missing something, or has there been a bit of a premature posting/delayed adding on the website?

https://www.diamondbuses.com/news/dbse-network-update/

Thanks in advance,

[Stu]

To answer your question, John Hurst says that the NBus product is being phased out.   This is incorrect.  The NBus product will be the only day/ week/ month/ annual product - which will be accepted across all operators in the West Midlands.


So if a passenger has a NX DD TfWM area pass - then our machines have been set up to accept the passes these refer to.  

Thanks for the clarification, I do think they meant 'NX Bus' rather than 'nBus' in their comment, either that or someone is giving them 'duff information'.

I can confirm that I did travel on your 50 service today from Kings Heath to Maypole, and my NX DD Regional Travelcard was accepted with no issue.

I will take the opportunity to point out that while I did enjoy my journey on your Optare Metrodecker 40845, the upper deck front left seat had its seat base removed and was on the floor. Not sure if that was the reason why this bus was seemingly later taken out of service.

Also, it might be too early to say, but would you say that passenger loadings have increased on the 50 since the ticketing changes at the start of this month?

[Simon Dunn]

Thanks for the clarification, I do think they meant 'NX Bus' rather than 'nBus' in their comment, either that or someone is giving them 'duff information'.

I can confirm that I did travel on your 50 service today from Kings Heath to Maypole, and my NX DD Regional Travelcard was accepted with no issue.

I will take the opportunity to point out that while I did enjoy my journey on your Optare Metrodecker 40845, the upper deck front left seat had its seat base removed and was on the floor. Not sure if that was the reason why this bus was seemingly later taken out of service.

Also, it might be too early to say, but would you say that passenger loadings have increased on the 50 since the ticketing changes at the start of this month?

Thank you for the message.

Since the ticketing changes happened, we have moved into the quieter time of the year, so it isn't easy to see what is happening


Simon

[Hayes]

Hi Simon

I use your 96 service from erdington daily the last few weeks been using the earlier services and just wanted to raise an incident that happened on monday 24th.

I was trying to catch the 4:48 service which i could see parked up well i assumed it was that one after realising it wasnt going to pull round to us i started to walk over to realise the driver was fast asleep in the drivers seat i did manage to get the number 32229
At this the 5:18 bus came round which was on time and driver which i have caught his bus quite alot is fantastic so made up alittle bit for being late.

I dont know if the bus had issues so thats why it didnt run put im guessing the driverbeing asleep isnt good optics. I caught the same service again later int the week with that driver and he looked half asleep so dont know if its a driver issue.

I did try calling customers service and the was going to post on twitter put thought it was more appropriate to post on here for you.

[Simon Dunn]

Hi Simon,

The Diamond South East upcoming changes page references new Heathrow services H21, N30, 459 and 710 along with the wording "All service information, maps, fares and times can be found in the timetable page here (link to https://www.diamondbuses.com/bus-services/?region=Surrey)", however upon clicking that link it only seems to show the current services. Am I missing something, or has there been a bit of a premature posting/delayed adding on the website?

https://www.diamondbuses.com/news/dbse-network-update/

Thanks in advance,

This will be updated tomorrow.

Simon

[Simon Dunn]

Hi Simon

I use your 96 service from erdington daily the last few weeks been using the earlier services and just wanted to raise an incident that happened on monday 24th.

I was trying to catch the 4:48 service which i could see parked up well i assumed it was that one after realising it wasnt going to pull round to us i started to walk over to realise the driver was fast asleep in the drivers seat i did manage to get the number 32229
At this the 5:18 bus came round which was on time and driver which i have caught his bus quite alot is fantastic so made up alittle bit for being late.

I dont know if the bus had issues so thats why it didnt run put im guessing the driverbeing asleep isnt good optics. I caught the same service again later int the week with that driver and he looked half asleep so dont know if its a driver issue.

I did try calling customers service and the was going to post on twitter put thought it was more appropriate to post on here for you.

We are aware of this incident.  The driver involved is the subject of our disciplinary process.


Simon

[Ryan Hack]

When is the works on the Preston Bus depot due to start last I read online they was approved by the council? 

[Simon Dunn]

When is the works on the Preston Bus depot due to start last I read online they was approved by the council?

Ryan

Like with most things in life - nothing is straight forward.  It has taken time to clear up section 106 requirements, there is a parcel of land owned by the City Council - which we have had to come to an agreement on and we have various searches/ land investigations going on to enable the creation of accurate prices and project plan.

We expect base case to start January 2024



Simon

[hlliwmai]

Has Rotala received payment for the vehicles sold to De-Luxe Coaches 

* 30638
* 30929
* 30878
* 30879
* 30970
* 40518

[Tony]

Has Rotala received payment for the vehicles sold to De-Luxe Coaches

* 30638
* 30929
* 30878
* 30879
* 30970
* 40518

I don't think that is the business of anyone on here

[Ryan Hack]

Ryan

Like with most things in life - nothing is straight forward.  It has taken time to clear up section 106 requirements, there is a parcel of land owned by the City Council - which we have had to come to an agreement on and we have various searches/ land investigations going on to enable the creation of accurate prices and project plan.

We expect base case to start January 2024



Simon

Thank You

Would be nice to see some sort of event for once its all done to show it all off to the Public 

[Westy]

21211 seems only able to display the first digit of a service number, eg 3 - Bloxwich via Willenhall,  instead of 326 Bloxwich via Willenhall!

[midlandred2003]

40819 not tracking since it left Manchester in April.