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Thank you for your recent feedback received on 5 November 2023. I am very sorry for the delay in your response. 

I'm sorry to hear of the problems you've experienced with our 27 service from Yardley Wood Bus Station. I can certainly appreciate your concerns.


I have asked the manager at the operating garage who has confirmed the 27 service is scheduled to leave Yardley Wood at 12:31 and the next bus is out at 13:03. This service is due to terminate at Yardley Wood at 12:09, 12:39 and then 13:09. In terms of updating bus stop information, I will need you to kindly contact Travel for West Midlands (TfWM) as they are in charge of bus shelter and bus timetables. We will however monitor the service over the coming weeks and I can assure you that steps will be taken to improve the service.

What an abysmal response from Customer Relations at National Express West Midlands.

Firstly, it must be me but as yet Yardley Wood does not have a bus station, unless it is one of these imaginary projects Rishi Sunak was coming up with at the Tory conference a couple of months ago.

Secondly there is no such organisation as "Travel for West Midlands".  There is of course Transport for West Midlands, who are in charge in of bus shelters (plural as they own rather more than one).  It is probably news to TfWM they are in charge of timetables, because as we know unless it is a subsidised route or journey, its down to the operator in the current unfranchised set up to create a timetable for a service and the route.

NXWM of course previously traded as Travel West Midlands, so using the phrase "Travel for West Midlands" in a response is only going to lead to confusion.  Surely if a matter in a letter relates to an issue within the purview of TfWM surely it would be easier to refer the matter to them and say you've done so.  Of course TfWM could rename to something completely different to stand out from bus operators of the past.  I hear the name "Centro" is available.

Makes me wonder what training on the West Midlands bus and public transport system is provided to the staff who compose these responses, as it is clearly not up to standard when e-mails come back like this.

If NXWM Customer Relations want some training for staff to improve the quality of their written responses I'm sure for a price it could be arranged.
 

Blame the regulatory body for not pulling them up on this.

And the local transport authority, Staffordshire County Council, for being totally disinterested in public transport, especially local bus services in its patch.

WMT isn't the crown jewel it once was.

Although, I Squared Capital could potentially bid for the entire Mobico Group or even Rotala.

Mobico I think will face a takeover and 1Squared Capital would be suitor.  However it they did they would have to dispose of NX Coaches to satisfy the competition authorities, owing to the Arriva ownership of Cross Country and Chiltern.

What is the event at Aylesbury on Sept 23  that you refer please ?

https://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/transport/arriva-addresses-safety-concerns-about-overcrowded-school-bus-travelling-between-milton-keynes-and-aylesbury-4374546

Not good press for the Arriva operations in that part of the world and it is not an overnight job to rustle up additional drivers and reallocate double deck buses from elsewhere in the Arriva empire.  Aylesbury and Bucks is also I imagine a difficult place to recruit bus drivers.  So the new owners could offload.

I suspect they will be more interested in the city region/urban operations.

hopefully if The Hydrogens are still leased from BCC then likely they will be sold to raise money, in theory a better idea than the Electrics as i think they do more mileage, but lack of availability & restrictions over where they can & cannot operate
The Technology is too advanced too soon, Bio buses seemed a good idea, but also seems to have quietly died a death ??

If Birmingham City Council sold them the only buyers would be the ones with the kit to fuel them.  London is out as they aren't London spec so the only buyer would be NXWM methinks. 

Full high quality video of some moron lighting a fire on the back seat

Hope the next "bus" said moron gets will be one to a prison. Have WMP caught the scrote?

6988 is the one with heavy fire damage.

Which explains the early withdrawal, but if it is down to a manufacturing or engine fault, it is still not good.  This is where forensic work by engineers earns its corn.

There's a video going around of 2 parking wardens getting battered in Sparkbrook today. Perhaps they just stay away from certain areas..?

It wasn't @Trainbasher or whatever his name is these days, was it?

West Midlands Police have arrested three individuals in Halesowen for this incident according the Hall Green Police Inspectors account on Twitter.  Hopefully that will mean some more proactive enforcement of parking of parking and obstruction on Stratford Road and a message that nowhere in the city is a no go area.  Plus should the individuals be charged and convicted, the book is thrown at them, including disqualification from driving which can now be done for non Road Traffic offences.

6988 finally brought in after months outside getting soaked, looks like the drivetrain getting ready to be removed possibly for transplant into another i did read of one with engine issues i forget the fleet number.

4691 not looking good in dead bus row top half of the engine dismantled, turbo removed along with ancillaries been over 5/6 weeks

6988 only in service though just a smidgen over 4 years.  Pretty appalling, given that the service life of a bus is 12 years and the fleets of the likes of Stagecoach and First spend most of their time out of doors. with few of their new depots having undercover storage.

Why isn't the local mp all over this he would have a field day with the press getting his photo in the papers

The local MP for Cannock Chase is Dame Amanda Milling MP.  Given the issues with Chaserider I would be surprised if none of her constituents had kicked off to her office or on her social media about the operators quality and reliability.  If she is interested in standing again next year she might start making a noise.  Most MP's intending to stand again tend to be more active on local issues in the 12 months before a General Election, unless they are in an ultra safe seat.

Cannock is a key target for Labour and the Chase had a Labour MP from 1992 to 2010.

Staffordshire County Council though who are the transport authority for the area don't have their next elections until 2025.  Given how rubbish bus services are in the county, if the next Government decided to reorganise local government in Staffordshire, axe the county council and replace it with unitaries no bus users would miss it.

You'd expect the Traffic Commissioners team at VOSA  to know the regulations.  Might be worth dropping them a line...

[the recording]

Tickets/passes sold?

Nope, bums on seats.  Or in other words the recording of each pass produced, day ticket/travelcard displayed on the ticket machine.  I think with smart cards, contactless and modern ticket machines the data is more robust.

Its also worth remembering the ENCTS pass is not sold, or sent out automatically to an eligible holder when they are identified by social services.  It has to be applied for.  And a lot of the 1945-1970 boomer generation who grew up in the generation of mass car ownership have not applied or used them as much as their parents generation would have at the age the boomers are now.

A number of Stagecoach drivers are saying their management has informed them of 9 new services in the Birmingham area from October...

If so, here's hoping they have a base in the TfWM area sorted by then.

Of note is a number of TfWM tenders are up for renewal then, including the emergency ones on the routes Diamond wanted to withdraw commercially....which Diamond won on tender...

Probably better to ask for a paper ticket when paying contactless for the nbus ticket to avoid paying too much.
Eg catching Diamond from Kings Heath to town, Arriva 110 from town to Sutton,NX from Sutton to West Brom.
How far can you go on the 110?

If the boundary remains the same as the current Nbus it would be Ashfurlong Road in Whitehouse Common, the north eastern tip of the City of Birmingham.  If the same principle is applied as what NX are applying in Coventry, it would be the terminus in Tamworth.  I guess one way to confirm would be someone getting on the 110 in Tamworth on Monday morning, asking for "a day ticket I can use on the buses in Birmingham" and seeing what they get from the driver.... 

I did see a poser on a NX bus earlier. But agree nothing on time day.

As we no, communication with users is not either NXWM's or TfWM's strong points.  After the kerfuffle about the fares revision, they might want to put a press release out, and the merging of the nBus and NXWM Day tickets and passes.  Yes some people will pay more, but others will get more bus for their buck particularly on corridors where there is more than operator, or NX run the weekday daytime service but "A N Other" run the evening or Sunday service.