Any new investment for Diamond

[Ash]

I just wondered if any knew if Diamond were to recieve any new buses or any plans to pick up any dealer stock buses. I read on another thread about why the centro's were taken off the 404E and the cadets put on but the investment on the 404E and 16 seems to have gone backwards from the 08/58 centros to 60 reg mcv's back to 10/11 year old cadets. Would be good to see an investment on these more popular services

[BU07 LGO]

i dont see why they bought new Versa's for the 56, they could have got some nice cheap second hand Tridents and bought 4x as many!

[winston]

i dont see why they bought new Versa's for the 56, they could have got some nice cheap second hand Tridents and bought 4x as many!

Especially as they don't seem to know where to allocate the Hybrids

[jc]

The Hybrids were part of a government grant, i don't think the government would have been too happy if they purchased some 12 year old tridents instead ...

[Tony]

The Hybrids were part of a government grant, i don't think the government would have been too happy if they purchased some 12 year old tridents instead ...

The government only pays (most of) the additional costs of a Hybrid against a standard vehicles of the same make. Diamond still had to find more money than it would have cost to buy 8 standard Versas

[Ash]

Also 8 vehicles is too many for the 56 so are always going to find their way onto other services they havent been on the 404E for a while but today a centro was on it although from another thread drivers complained about them being used on the service.

[Lukeee]

Would of thought the 404E would have been ideal for the Hybrids and keep the Centros on the 56.

[Ash]

Would of thought the 404E would have been ideal for the Hybrids and keep the Centros on the 56.

Yeah the PVR for the 404E for diamond is 8 aswell i think they would be good to be shared for the 301 and 404E with the wright cadets making up the rest of the PVR on the services with the 02 cadets back on the 417 and the centros on the 56 and 202.

[Mike360]

Would of thought the 404E would have been ideal for the Hybrids and keep the Centros on the 56.

Yeah the PVR for the 404E for diamond is 8 aswell i think they would be good to be shared for the 301 and 404E with the wright cadets making up the rest of the PVR on the services with the 02 cadets back on the 417 and the centros on the 56 and 202.

Yeah that would certainly make more sense as the 56 needs the Centro's, while the 417 certainly doesn't and cadets were fine on that route originally and the branded buses for the 50 and 002 should try and stay on these routes. 

[winston]

Would of thought the 404E would have been ideal for the Hybrids and keep the Centros on the 56.

Yeah the PVR for the 404E for diamond is 8 aswell i think they would be good to be shared for the 301 and 404E with the wright cadets making up the rest of the PVR on the services with the 02 cadets back on the 417 and the centros on the 56 and 202.

I was thinking they could be shared on routes 16 & 301

[Ash]

The 16 would also be a good choice that route seems to see any bus diamond has spare and i dont understand why they put solo's on it, last week i saw a solo on the 56 and suprise to me it wasnt full but i think it was a peak extra.

[Liberator9]

Diamond will eventually get some investment, the money will just be spent on 53 reg darts from elsewhere! Really Diamond need more 2012 design MCV Evolution0, or some Enviro 200s. Despite all this rebranding it isn't working as the buses still look pretty old and don't usually sound too healthy either. Even the 59 reg Citaro is starting to sound abit tired and the SoloSrs, well, the fact that one kept cutting out for 3 weeks frequently on the S3 tells you everything. It was eventually fixed but now has awful vibration at a stand, very much like a Crusader at times. However Diamond could of course buy some Scanias or Temsa Avenues as they need the orders which I wouldn't mind at all as I love them!

[Ash]

I got on a solo today on the 404E the driver gave it a bit of thrash and guess what warning bells and it broke down in Walsall. And it was a 03 solo so no suprise. With only 1 crusader on the 404E today with mainly solos and the shorter darts not good for one of diamonds key services.

[Discodave]

Diamonds fleet except the new buses are dire like someone the centros are ok but I think the dunns have lost interest in the midlands as it all seems to be concentrated on their home town Nottingham with your bus even the management have gone there and some fitters is this a preparation for selling off

[winston]

Diamonds fleet except the new buses are dire like someone the centros are ok but I think the dunns have lost interest in the midlands as it all seems to be concentrated on their home town Nottingham with your bus even the management have gone there and some fitters is this a preparation for selling off

A number of staff members/management have followed Scott Dunn to Yourbus in Nottingham, however this happened a good few months ago.

I'd be surprised if Rotala wanted to sell up just in the West Midlands, however the Diamond op's don't seem to be doing as well as Wessex & Preston Bus. I would have thought a complete takeover of the group would be more likely, if Arriva were the suitor, they may well opt to run Rotala as a separate group business under the Arriva wing as they have done since TGM  was purchased