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The driver let someone who wanted to purchase an nbus ticket on for free, so essentially the 19 is a free service atm if you ask for an nbus, I do question how long they've got to get ticket machines before TfWM start questioning it.

Possibly a backlog from Ticketer (if that's their supplier). Having said that, I know Rotala were selling some Used machines a while back. 

Be surprised if Walsall goes electric, as I thought with the hydros for the 51, the rest of the depot routes might go hydro, to be easier?

And with it being acquired by TfWM, maybe any hydrogen facilities will be paid for directly by TfWM and then leased out to the operator as part of the lease for the site.

Whenever I have been at Bradford Place, WA buses run dead via Caldmore Road, Upper Hall Lane and Dudley Street. Also the B7RLEs can't go under the Bridgeman Street bridge either (as they're never on 39) but they're at Bradford Place every day.... are they meant to run dead down Bridgeman Street?

B7RLE & Omnilinks are both the same height. (10ft 6)

Just had a thought while I was in the shower.

We have a few drivers on here, but I suspect their duties don't involve out of county services, else we might have had an answer by now.

(Example being @karl724223, as I don't think Pensnett have any out of WM county duties?)

I think it's rare @Tony drives a bus in service & I don't recall him mentioning doing any driving in service since the fare / pass changes.

There is one other driver, known to some of us, that might have a partial answer, admittedly not a member on here.

He drives a route that operates both in & out of the WM county, that being the X3 to Lichfield(which he has mentioned on his own blog, so I'm not breaking any privacy rules AFAIK!), answer being Mark Fitchew.

Do Nx's INIT machines somehow adjust the ticket availability with GPS, as I've wondered, when you had the old local area tickets, how did the driver issue the correct ticket, especially when you had a few crossover areas, for example both the Walsall & Sandwell tickets were valid between J9 & Wednesbury Bus Station, how did you make sure if you were getting on in that section towards Walsall, you got a Walsall ticket & not a Sandwell ticket?

I was thinking something similar operates on the X3, X51, 8 & 20(both WM & Coventry versions!).

We follow each other on X, so I could ask him, if he knows/what he issues, if that's ok with the mods?

There's a Daysaver menu with all the relevant Day tickets. GPS/Automatic Fare Stage allows for correct tickets to be available for the driver to choose. It's quite simple. 

Ticketer does the same thing.

You can also have "time based" tickets such as the pre-930AM Concs, which cannot be issued after 930.

Don't blame you

It was good for nostalgia purposes though. I rate those who have been working there for years and years, fair play to them.

A colleague was called into the office today after 25 years service and awarded with some sort of fountain pen in a case. I told him, "well that made it worthwhile, didn't it?" Pmsl

Are you back driving for NX these days by any chance MW, or am I well wide of the mark? A few of your posts lately have made me wonder this.

& Bang, after 2 months handed my notice in..!

Are you back driving for NX these days by any chance MW, or am I well wide of the mark? A few of your posts lately have made me wonder this.

I am indeed

Usually the passenger doesn't clearly signal which is why the bus doesn't stop.

I drove past a few bus stops today where people were stood but nobody indicated that they wanted my bus. Of course as soon as it hit them that I wasn't stopping, they begun to wave erratically.

Happens every day.

I found the exact one (YX11 AEO) so it obvious that Carolean must of either purchased or leased it from Chartwell

Euro 6 isn't as hard to get these days. Between 20-30k gets you something that's been converted. Chartwell have also got a Euro 6 converted Optare Versa - it looks like an ex Decourcey one.

Time will tell if these Enviros are reliable. Don't quote me but I believe these YX11 Enviros have NX style interiors. New to Abellio?

Drove past there yard earlier and noted that the Vision Bus Enviro has vanished I would like to assume that maybe they had possibly sent it off for paint during this week sometime and it'll be in plain white ready for Sunday (I mean pigs might fly of course) but stranger things have happened; it would appear that it has had a V5C change (this week) so I can only assume that maybe they have purchased that bus from Vision

Chartwell has/had a few Vision E200s, which are Euro 6 converted. 

Ah I see, is it similar to the attended service I see some petrol stations around Lincoln area have them.

There's one on Billesley Lane, in Moseley. 

Not sure if anybody would be able to answer this, but the likes of Stagecoach for example. Is their paint process more time consuming than NX?

Won't using a wheelchair lift slow things down with loading / unloading?

Not if you don't see the intending passenger

I know someone just said there is an E400 for sale the 19 with NX used mostly E200's, B7's seemed a bit overkill for it when they were used. It does get busy the 19 but the 29 is the main route through there so that is busier.

I hope Carlolean know what they have got themselves in for on the 19 and are prepared to have Veichles of the road with damage. They should have 2 actually Operating plus 2 spare. 

It sounds as if the directors have links with the management of a former Walsall operator, so I'm sure they know what they've got themselves into. In terms of 2 operating and 2 spare, they'd be running at a loss. (I'm not sure what the PVR is but I'm going by what you've said.)

Spare compliant vehicles become viable when your operating PVR is higher than 2, that's for sure. I'm sure they've got plans to become bigger in that region, rather than just stick to the 19.

What'll be interesting to see is the price they've won the tender at.

E400 bit overkill for the 19 the E200 they have listed may be perfect if it is Euro 6. I know Arriva used DAF DB250 on the 19 back when it ran to Wolverhampton

Plenty of used Enviro 200s and Optare Solos on the market. The cost of conversion to Euro 6 is about 12-15k. No reason to buy a Enviro 400 at all.