Arriva X31

[Bob]

The X31 was full yesterday going into brum, I asked the driver if it was definately axed, and he didnt know!! It'll be a real shame if it goes, the train is a rip off what they charge before 930am is disgusting & you cant even get a bloody seat!!

[Bob]

Also if arriva re route it, say along the a34 it would fail miserably! maybe as has already been said nxwm should extend more x51s to cannock, in competion with arrivas 1/2 services?

[winston]

We may well see more competition between NX & Arriva, if Arriva's new black country operation expands in to commercial work

[Bob]

Maybe, I doubt it though. Arriva inherited lots of west midlands routes with the chase bus service takeover, all but the 1 & 560 have been axed. I really hope we get some type of replacement service to Cannock from Birmingham if & when the X31 goes :-((( its mad to think there wouldnt be a bus between the two given the proximity of them! We used to have a bus to Dudley till late 80s, 301 i think it was. Anyone got a list of what routes nxwm ( then west midlands PTE) ran in the cannock area in the early to mid 80s ? i know there was 301, hednesford to dudley via walsall, but i remember there being other 3xx routes & 9xx limited stop ones and poss one called 863??

[Bob]

Can anyone confirm whether its definately going in June, being rerouted, or if there is going to be a replacement??

[Stu]

Did you really need to start another topic on this?  :-\

[Bob]

maybe i couldve put it under the other one..

[Bob]

I doubt they would tho, they run 3 cannock services, 810 my local route which is a crap 3x daily mon to fri to wolverhampton that no one uses cos its so irregular, a route to Wimblebury which is really obscure & the 62A to lichfield. All of which use shitty clapped out darts & solos

[Bob]

yea but not many go to cannock on it i dont think

[KayP]

I suppose if the X51 doesn't get permanently extended to Cannock, people who want to go to Birmingham can just change at Walsall, 51 doesn't take that long to get to Birmingham, and it's pretty frequency and the X51's pretty fast to Birmingham, and there's also the Chase Line

[Bob]

youd have to buy two tickets, arriva then nxwm, n bus isnt valid as cannock is just outside the west midlands. Its stupid!

[Stu]

Cannock, Lichfield, Tamworth an NBus is not valid. But I say it should be becuase Tamworth comes under Birmingham Postcodes

If you apply that logic, then Bromsgrove and Redditch should too, as they have Birmingham postcodes. And Kidderminster has Dudley postcodes.

nBus ticket is provided by Network West Midlands. And the clue is in the name, West Midlands. Tamworth is not in the West Midlands.

[Bob]

Caught the x31 today it was half full on the way into bham at 1230, coming back at 430 it was almost full! i asked driver why it was being finished, he said he thinks centro might step in & sponsor it.. within wm anyway

[D10]

It would be good to see Centro subsidize this within the West Midlands Country as it does provide useful work and shopping links into Brum.

The trouble is that Centro normally go on accessibility rules and if the X31 does go, I don't think that anywhere would be more than 400 metres from a bus service, even if they don't go to the same places.

[Bob]

hopefully they will sponsor it, its very well used