Rotala Management - Questions & Answers

[Simon Dunn]

Hi Simon, I was wondering if you know what's happened to the 002-branded Centro 30808, which has been missing from the 002 for at least a couple of months now?

The vehicle has had a a series of Engine issues which we have been working through

[Simon Dunn]

Hi Simon,

Speaking of the 002, are there any future plans for tha route?

We are at present reviewing the route

[Simon Dunn]

The Levantes were on an Operating Lease.  A subsidiary of National Express has taken assignment.

On an on going basis, we look at our fares.  What matters to us, is the money we take per trip, not what we charge.  Our whole pricing strategy is something we need to review again.  I agree with your comments that clearly a day ticket with ourselves with not worth the same value as on NX.  On the NBus panel, I tried to encourage the cost of the NBus product to be no more than NX (or less).  However, this is not something that any other operator or Centro would support.

Simon, Thanks for your responses,

A batch of 11 plate Levante that size was crying out to be snapped up by either NX or a major NX subcontractor, NX especially have large numbers of 06/56 plate Scania/Levate that will need removing from the network. I assume Rotala have still had to pay the monthly lease payments despite having no for them work.

I still think passenger numbers on Diamonds WM commercial services began to fall when fares were brought in line with those of NX, and ultimately those services began to be withdrawn. Obviously the economy has had an affect of passenger journeys across the board, the only thing to differentiate between the two competing operators is service & vehicle quality.

Good news of the 12 x Streetlites, will these be larger capacity DF versions? I take it Rotala are growing increasingly in favour of the Wright Streetlite with recent second-hand versions at Preston & Wessex

National Express have taken all 14 Levantes, and we were responsible for the payments until the assignment.

7 are 10.8m DF versions, 5 are 9.5m versions.  We acquired 3 about a year ago for Preston.  Since then we have been evaluating them.  When we acquire any vehicle we have to assess what is best value for money.  We consider the deal we have done with Wrights to be best value for money at this present moment in time.

[Simon Dunn]

Hi Simon, Diamond do seem to behave better now on the 226, although one thing that is annoying is the tendered timetable. It gives 15 minutes to get from Dudley to Wordsley Hospital, which in all the years that I have caught the bus, has never got to Wordsley on time(xx.30).  I understand that Centro have the say in tendered timetables, but If there was a way to show them that they have it wrong, it would be good.

When I set out for my bus, sometimes it will arrive at xx.35, or xx.45, depending on the driving sstyle of driver and type of day.

I will get our Commercial team to look at this.  Thank you for your advice

[Simon Dunn]

Had a nice ride round the diamond network today and caught some of the new enviros which are nice and some of the ex yourbus darts

Couple of points:

Why did diamond initially try to sell all the ex first enviro300s?

One of the ex yourbus darts still has yourbus interior notices-could these be removed? Other than that, great buses and the ones at redditch/kidderminster seem to rattle a lot less than 20849.

Which buses are the priority for repaint at the moment?

Oh and in walsall bus station, I asked about the diamond 301 timetable which didnt seem to be there only to be told diamond didnt run the 301 anymore?? when I could see one outside-maybe this is the problem with bus information points ran by nx officials.

Thanks Simon

Thank you for your comments

In response to your questions

1.  Having acquire the two businesses based at Redditch and Kidderminster, I was approached and made an offer for the E300's.  I was not really interested in selling them, but as this offer was more than I viewed they were worth I decided to put them in the weekly advert we were running.  As if someone was prepared to pay more, maybe it made sense to dispose of them and replace with newer vehicles.
2.  Yes, the YourBus information should not be on.  Ironically I acquired these vehicles from Ensign Bus. 
3.  We must have about 6 vehicles going through paint at the moment.  We have now paid for the 3 x 59 plate Volvo's (they will go into paint soon), we agreed a deal with Wrights on Friday for 12 Streetlites.  We need to get all these vehicles into fleet to create capacity to repaint other vehicles.
4.  This is because we did not sign up to the Network review in this area.

Interesting about the enviro300s and do you still have a weekly advert thing as i havent seen this for a while-was it not worth it-that route one feature on the levantes was good though

Yeah I thought that was weird they were bought from ensignbus and that more weren't purchased as they are brilliant

Interesting about the streetlites-anything wrightbus will undoubtedly be well made and rattle and clatter less than the enviro200 that is at tividale/long acre-dont know at the moment where it is. What livery are the streetlites currently in and are they new/stock built/second hand ones or a mixture?

Understand this but a few timetables on buses would really help loadings I would reckon as people like diamond on the 301 and would wait around if they had a timetable in their pocket they could look at and think theres a diamond due at such and such a time as not everyone has the internet etc

1.  Most of our vehicles are not sold through advertising. 
2.  I understand 8 are stock white, and 4 are in Reading Transport livery
3.  We will get the 301 timetable issue resolved.

[Simon Dunn]

As some of the cadets are not going to be repainted for some time it would be nice to see the diamond fleet names reapplied to some vehicles as some have had panel replacements and either have no fleet names or parts missing on them. Also some of the displays are not working on the cadets one for example is the side destination blind on 30216 which hasn't worked for some time. I was on 30202 last week and when the driver put his foot on the break the interior lights kept going on and off with a loud beeping noise in the cab to warn the driver that there is some kind of issue.

Every driver carries a defect card, and if the destination blind is not working or is the electrics dim these items should be defected immediately.  The 2 vehicles you have mentioned, I will get looked at today

Thank you

[Simon Dunn]

Since Tony received his fleet list.  There has been some fleet changes, and I think some of you expressed a desire to take pictures of the buses before they go.  Since Monday of this week, we have accepted offer on the following

1.  Willenhall Commercials

K123/6URP, plus all 5 darts parked up at Redditch and Kidderminster

2.  Peter Reddish - for Scrap

The last lance at Kidderminster

3.  A Bristol operator with 1 or 2 vehicles.

These are planned to be removed after service on Monday

R220MSA
P401MLA


Does anyone on here know which 5 darts are parked up at redditch/kiddy-cos not interested in the MLA ones really as theyre vile but MSA need to get tomorrow along with YCR and CCV. Are all of these still in service? Just out of interest as i dont live very near worcestershire so dont get out there very often. Hope that someone from redditch or kidderminster or Simon could help here?

I am at work now.  So I can confirm the vehicles sold to Willenhall Commercials are

R475CAH
P402MLA
P405MLA
P406MLA
P404MLA
K123URP
K126URP

[Simon Dunn]

Hello and great to see your here.

I have a couple of questions for you

1. when Veolia transport lost the nx coach work did you put in a bid for the London 410/420 as well

2. will you be looking to purchase any buses with leather seats still?

and finally id just like to thank you for running rotala its good to see competition in the west midlands as it gives customers choice.

1.  Yes
2.  Yes. 
3.  Thank you

[bwsau cymru]

Ash the lights going off with a load bleep is a common problem with cadets have a trip to arriva land im surr you will find a few!

[PM]

The Levantes were on an Operating Lease.  A subsidiary of National Express has taken assignment.

On an on going basis, we look at our fares.  What matters to us, is the money we take per trip, not what we charge.  Our whole pricing strategy is something we need to review again.  I agree with your comments that clearly a day ticket with ourselves with not worth the same value as on NX.  On the NBus panel, I tried to encourage the cost of the NBus product to be no more than NX (or less).  However, this is not something that any other operator or Centro would support.

Simon, Thanks for your responses,

A batch of 11 plate Levante that size was crying out to be snapped up by either NX or a major NX subcontractor, NX especially have large numbers of 06/56 plate Scania/Levate that will need removing from the network. I assume Rotala have still had to pay the monthly lease payments despite having no for them work.

I still think passenger numbers on Diamonds WM commercial services began to fall when fares were brought in line with those of NX, and ultimately those services began to be withdrawn. Obviously the economy has had an affect of passenger journeys across the board, the only thing to differentiate between the two competing operators is service & vehicle quality.

Good news of the 12 x Streetlites, will these be larger capacity DF versions? I take it Rotala are growing increasingly in favour of the Wright Streetlite with recent second-hand versions at Preston & Wessex

National Express have taken all 14 Levantes, and we were responsible for the payments until the assignment.

7 are 10.8m DF versions, 5 are 9.5m versions.  We acquired 3 about a year ago for Preston.  Since then we have been evaluating them.  When we acquire any vehicle we have to assess what is best value for money.  We consider the deal we have done with Wrights to be best value for money at this present moment in time.

Great news about the streetlites being acquired and thanks for your information on the vehicles sold-really helpful as I popped over to kidderminster today to photograph some of the older stuff. Please could you do this in future for other buses sold as it will give those of us who want to photo then a bit of advance warning? Thanks

Are the MAN/centros at redditch having reliability problems at the moment as some of them dont sound very healthy and according to the drivers there they are not very reliable.

On the subject of MAN/centros, 30804 billows black smoke all the time and has done since about last november/december-maybe this one needs a look at?

[PM]

How many MPDs are arriving at kidderminster from wessex out of interest and what fleetnumbers will the new streetlites have?

Thanks

[Cedric]

How many MPDs are arriving at kidderminster from wessex out of interest and what fleetnumbers will the new streetlites have?

Thanks

the 2 mpd I saw  had fleet numbers 20653/20654

[PM]

How many MPDs are arriving at kidderminster from wessex out of interest and what fleetnumbers will the new streetlites have?

Thanks

the 2 mpd I saw  had fleet numbers 20653/20654

Thanks bewminster but i was just interested in asking Simon how many of the batch are going to arrive-as I know two of the batch are on lease with another company

[Solo1]

what services will the streetlite's be uses on

[Ash]

There were some royal bath mpd darts parked up at Tividale about a month back the buses put into service may have come from there.
30940 has a defective side destination display and was blank today when I saw it.