Messages

4144 - 21

844 (23/23A branded) - 5
4990 (13 branded) - 8/8A

1939 - 87

4405 broke down on Monday with a coolant leak causing the last 18A to be missed out all together!

Interesting - I never knew that - I'll have to keep an eye out for those.

I noticed 6868 also being one of those having gained the additional vents on the far side. Noted on Monday.

2177 - 21

5406 - 126

2165 (20 branded) - 23/23A
4770 (Warwick uni branded) - 7

09/07/2918:
4764 (12X branded) - 18/18A

Yesterday:
4744 (82/87 branded) - 127

Last night:
4834 (21 branded) - 11

6788 lost a mirror by clipping the bus shelter at around 21:00 last night on the Hagley road. Engineer was in attendance looking at the mirror.

4881 was parked up broken down with hazards on, being attended to by an engineer around 18:00 on Allesley old road, presumably having been on the 23/23A.

6717 - 120

[a Stagecoach Manchester Dayrider is 10p cheaper than NXWM]

Well for starters as anyone who had read it properly would realise, my second quoted comment was actually a dig at the Birmingham Mail's anti bus agenda, not National Express, secondly if you think for one minute that because things may or may not be better than before that people should effectively shut up and grateful then you are out of touch... National Express are providing a commercial service, the people who's voices matter the most are the very people who pay their bills,  the customers. You'll also find that many City Centre serving routes have seen cuts in frequency (particularly Off Peak) since the metro changes came in so unless nxwm like turning demand away then yes the metro has had something to do with it... The Bristol Road, Pershore Road, Dudley Road, Stratford Road locals and in some respects the local Walsall road (redeemed somewhat by extra platinums that omit most stops) and Lichfield road corridors appear to have seen cuts to either overall frequency or total bph since then and the Harborne routes appear to be next. Also to say that my points need challenging and then go off on a pro NXWM rant speaks volumes when I haven't actually been very critical of national express at all, my issues lie with tfwm/Centro and a very STUPID decision made several years ago which is still having an effect today as can be seen every day in birmingham city centre, not just with roads that cannot cope but also pavements that are solid with too many passengers squashed in, Carrs Lane being a very good example when before passengers were spread out across several stops... If you had properly read half of what you have quoted me saying then you would have understood who I was criticizing!
I have criticized the handling of the south Birmingham review yes and I stand by those comments because I think it is ridiculous that people are being denied the right to this information when the changes are less than a month away. It is also ridiculous that when false Chinese whispers are circulating on Facebook pages that nobody from NXWM has stepped in to dismiss or confirm the rumours while many people are taking it as gospel. Overall though I have very little issue with NX!
It's also laughable you have tried to dismiss what I said by saying not everybody wants to go to Birmingham, then in the next breath you are praising the platinum buses which are pretty much concentrated on Birmingham serving routes!! So in essence you have inadvertently admitted that a Chunk of the passengers are being left behind there... You've also quoted the X2 as having growing passenger numbers yet not so long ago it saw the off peak frequency cut (the time of day when before most Birmingham shoppers would be travelling), it can't be doing that well compared to other routes... And the 98 is being withdrawn so again.... Not that any of its users know yet though. ::)
Also seeing as you have mentioned it... a Stagecoach Manchester Dayrider is 10p cheaper than NXWM (as is the daily London bus cap) , a Cardiff bus day ticket is £3.80 and a Lothian dayrider is £4 so the fares are pretty average for a large city network and as Straightlines has said the fares would be in the same ballpark whoever had the monopoly here... Although you'll actually find that getting returns to Brum on the train from Most local Birmingham stations usually offers customers better value anyway, in terms of both price and speed, especially after 9:30 and the trains will also take you closer to the shops than the buses do!  ;)
If you really want to "compare here with other parts of the country" then look at how well Manchester, Edinburgh, Nottingham and Sheffield's tram systems work in harmony with the local buses.

A Stagecoach Manchester dayrider is £4.50 all day though whereas an nxwm daysaver is £4 after 9:30. Also the singles in Manchester on Stagecoach are a lot higher for the mileage than nxwm as they use fare stages whereas nxwm don't, which is a lot better.