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[Solihull]

Noticed 6703 on the 5 this evening has new style destination displays.

On the front it shows "Solihull Town Centre", with 'town centre' in a thinner/narrower typeface.

On the rear it has Solihull in large, with Town above Centre on the right.


I also noticed on 6917 that it was only showing 'Yardley Wood' on the rear display while on the 3.

Has the issue with the 'new' NSA displays been resolved now?

Travelled home on 6917 on the 3 just now and the displays were staying on. Announcing and displaying the correct new stop names, so not old programming.

Tonight. Can you explain why 20886 didn't leave Upper Dean St at 2030. I know that the bus arrived at Upper Dean St at about 2037. 

@Jay71 how on earth do you expect a bus to depart on time when it is running late?

https://bustimes.org/vehicles/diam-20886

Wasnt people abusing that fare as well?

I imagine there were a fair few people who did take advantage, and that might be a reason for their withdrawal.

However I find it interesting that the Warwick Uni hop appears to be being retained by NX Coventry, while the Birmingham equivalent is going.

Maybe its down to lack of use as well? I always imagined that uni students without cars would probably have bus passes anyway, if they weren't cycling everywhere.

Perhaps the Warwick Uni hop is better used, and worth keeping, or maybe it is funded by University Of Warwick?

Looks like Leamington are running this, using 5 Unibus branded E400MMCs today.

A bit closer to home, there used to be a route 98 that went from Asda at Hay Mills to Sheldon, Wheatsheaf, via most of East Birmingham. It took at least an hour to do the journey, and you ended up 10 minutes further down the road from where you started (both the terminus were on the Coventry Road).

Reminds me of the old 41 service, from memory it ran from Springfield to Hall Green Church, which were practically ten minutes apart if that, but went via much of east Birmingham and Solihull in a big loop, I believe the route actually crossed itself somewhere near Fox Hollies Road.

Looks like NXWM have been awarded the 71 contract on Sundays

I remember the 'old' 258 route that ran from Wolverhampton to Birmingham (before it was shortened to Merry Hill to Birmingham).

I'm pretty sure that took around two and half hours end to end.

Went via nearly everywhere lol

Rugby, Leamington and Nuneaton to get electrics, may see these Birmingham service get those too

Nope, not for Birmingham routes:
https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/news/article/5090/zero-emission-buses-are-set-for-warwickshire-roads-thanks-to-new-funding

I see E062 has had a nasty shunt, front end badly damaged by the looks, platform appears to be pushed right back and not much left below the windscreen, from what ive seen......

ive seen less damage finish vehicles off, is this likely the end of E062

This has already been discussed in the Coventry garage thread, the bus is not being written-off and will have the front-end of the body rebuilt at Walsall by NX's in-house team.

Please use the forum search function!

Tony,  you've forgotten one thing. Not everybody wants to have electric buses on all routes.

Tell that to TfWM then, they're the ones insisting that all buses in the West Midlands should be zero-emission by 2030.

You're just making some baseless claim about electric buses being "super-slow" when they're not.

We  can now look forward to having super slow buses on the 110. This is great(not)

Have you drove an electric bus?

Or even travelled on one?

They can be quite nippy when they need to be!

Generally drivers are specially trained to drive 'defensively', in order to best maintain battery charge.

So I'm guessing that's a no? I was just wondering from the perspective that it's a bus and not a car therefore you may not be able to make the turn in one go

It's easily done, I've watched them do it.

If you look on Google Maps you can see the marks on the road surface where vehicles are regularly turning round there.

You cannot view this attachment.

As already been pointed out, the 60 has been terminating and turning around there for many years, if there was any issue then the route would have had to have been changed.

Do deckers on the 60 struggle with turning around at the Cranes Park terminus, or is the crossroad wide enough?

Why would deckers struggle?

Everyone seems to forget they are shorter than a full-length single deck, double decks are as manoeuvrable as a midi-bus. 

Arriva's 110 service to receive new electric buses thanks to ZEBRA funding:
https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Newsroom/Articles/2024/03-March/Staffordshire-receives-electric-bus-boost-for-county-towns.aspx