Food for thought, are Diamond really that bad?

[bwsau cymru]

There is always a lot of negative stuff on here about Diamond and also Arriva but I want to focus on Diamond.

I am a massive fan for improving the service and the image the customer receives and I think the biggest step recently is that many operators are choosing leather seats for there fleet.

So here is Diamond (not fully there im sure some of you can add)

Diamond introduced Signature brand, which increased bus ridership (FANTASIC BUT......like with the Premier 997)

Diamond have introduced high spec buses that feature wood effect (only other operator is travel de courcey)

Diamond have also bought BRITISH BUILT Buses for west midlands (excluding 1 MCV 3 ciatro) and to be even more picky there not Scottish or N Irish!

OK optare aren't the best but I love them and really rate them, ive had them since 2007!

MORE>>>>

Diamond operate 26 leather seat buses compared to national express 17 and De courcey with 3.
Compare that on fleet size proportion......
Dimaond operate a few hundred buses to nx over 1000 so have a higher portion of better standard of buses.
Diamond have also introduced 4 citaros to its fleet which is Europes best selling bus and the build quality is outstanding but highly priced
Then on to environment issues take in the whole diamond fleet and they operate more hybrid buses (percentage) compared to national express.

Plus they have already made what I believe major improvements to services in Kidderminster with newish buses and offer great value for money tickets on there Redditch network.

ok Diamond aren't perfect but no company is, I think they do deserve a little bit of credit and lets open our arms to the new delivery of buses and lets use them tooo!! And hope that it will improve bus quality and service for all which is what we all really want!

[Ash]

I thought diamond only had the 3 citaro's stand to be corrected though.

[winston]

I thought diamond only had the 3 citaro's stand to be corrected though.

Ash, they do only have the 3, a lone Citaro went to Preston Bus soon after the takeover by Rotala

I think the size of the fleetnames on 40542 V542ESC are a little OTT

http://wmbusphotos.com/diamondpages/40542.html

[tank90]

I thought diamond only had the 3 citaro's stand to be corrected though.

Ash, they do only have the 3, a lone Citaro went to Preston Bus soon after the takeover by Rotala

I think the size of the fleetnames on 40542 V542ESC are a little OTT

http://wmbusphotos.com/diamondpages/40542.html

Im glad its not just me that thinks the 4 Ex preston DDs look pants with huge fleet marking on them.

[Ash]

They are too large definitely, also where is the rotala logo.

[winston]

I thought diamond only had the 3 citaro's stand to be corrected though.

Ash, they do only have the 3, a lone Citaro went to Preston Bus soon after the takeover by Rotala

I think the size of the fleetnames on 40542 V542ESC are a little OTT

http://wmbusphotos.com/diamondpages/40542.html

Im glad its not just me that thinks the 4 Ex preston DDs look pants with huge fleet marking on them.

I think they need to be a little more subtle.... if you compare 40541 against 40542, 40541 carries slightly smaller fleetnames underneath the lower deck windows, but they are still too big. Or maybe Diamond should drop the one underneath the windows altogether?

http://wmbusphotos.com/diamondpages/40541.html

[Ash]

40541 is much better but agree with your suggestion Winston it's not really needed the one above the drivers window is enough.

[tank90]

I agree its just as bad on some single deckers too.

[Kevin]

I would agree, I don't think Diamond are that bad at all. The only problems are (and what people will pick up more on) that:
- some of the routes they run seem half arsed efforts, yes ok they are doing quite well with routes like the 002 and 16 (which they have run since time immemoriam) but have gven up on the 17, 59 etc. If they developed more routes, routes that would be different to any current routes but seem like there would be a need for, and had the conviction to stick with them (I'm assuming that's how the 002 came about) then people would probably start to see them differently
- a lot of people don't like darts, and they have quite a few of them

[JackC]

Recently it seems Diamond are starting to get back into it. New B7RLEs coming soon, they've started advertising day returns - which needs to happen on every single route they offer them on, especially routes they compete with other operators on. I know they've come off Evenings and Sundays on the 4 which is a fairly chunky blow to them and something that really could have been avoided with some decent timetabling but personally, I see it as just a blip on the road to recovery. Something that's been mentioned a lot though, they need to sort Long Acre out ASAP. Whether they decide to close it and move everything to Tividale or sack the managment and get someone else in, they just need to start doing something to get that place filling buses. Finally, I have to agree on the livery concerns. I think the livery as a whole is pretty horrid. It's far too plain and the logos are far too big and misplaced. The blue needs to be broken up by one or two other colours to add a bit of life to it and they need to fit the fleetnames into the livery properly so it doesn't look like they've been slapped on quickly by someone who has the least bit interest in their job.

[Ash]

I was on the 4H today from Halesowen, the NXWM 4H arrived first 2 minutes before the diamond but stops in a different stand only 4 got on the bus compared to the 15 people on the diamond which departed just 2 minutes later. Also diamond's 4H service seems to be quite busy between Halesowen and Hayley Green both 4H I saw were filled with at least 3/4 loads and were both standard size darts. Not sure if NXWM 4H service will last that long as it never seems that busy and operates every 30 minutes compared to diamond 20 minute frequency.

[winston]

I was on the 4H today from Halesowen, the NXWM 4H arrived first 2 minutes before the diamond but stops in a different stand only 4 got on the bus compared to the 15 people on the diamond which departed just 2 minutes later. Also diamond's 4H service seems to be quite busy between Halesowen and Hayley Green both 4H I saw were filled with at least 3/4 loads and were both standard size darts. Not sure if NXWM 4H service will last that long as it never seems that busy and operates every 30 minutes compared to diamond 20 minute frequency.

I think NXWM's 4H would compete more with Diamond if it was extended to add the Hayley Green loop

[richie]

I was on the 4H today from Halesowen, the NXWM 4H arrived first 2 minutes before the diamond but stops in a different stand only 4 got on the bus compared to the 15 people on the diamond which departed just 2 minutes later. Also diamond's 4H service seems to be quite busy between Halesowen and Hayley Green both 4H I saw were filled with at least 3/4 loads and were both standard size darts. Not sure if NXWM 4H service will last that long as it never seems that busy and operates every 30 minutes compared to diamond 20 minute frequency.

I think NXWM's 4H would compete more with Diamond if it was extended to add the Hayley Green loop

Do you know if the 4H diamond variation is tendered around hasbury?

[Ash]

I don't think it's tendered  it was commercially operated when it was the 417 so guess it will remain the same when it changed to the 4H, also just saw 2 evening 4's around Stone Cross the bus from Walsall was a midi dart and was nearly full while the dart passing towards Walsall had just one person on but there was a NXWM bus about 5 mins in front.

[winston]

Do you know if the 4H diamond variation is tendered around hasbury?
[/quote]

Hi Rich, I would have thought that the Diamond 4H is commercial which begs the question why NXWM didn't launch on the full 4h route so their offering matched Diamond. The fact the NXWM route doesn't serve Hasbury clearly sounds as though it makes a difference on loadings