Topics

http://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/2015/04/02/west-coast-railways-operating-licence-suspended

just a bit of info for all theres a six part programe starting  on Thurs 19 March that should be of interest to many ,its about trainee drivers in london how there trained up, its called Double Decker Driving School

More info:

http://www.itv.com/presscentre/ep1week12/double-decker-driving-school

Seems Arriva wants to end National Railway Ticketing

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=111372

Is this thread becoming pointless?

With the new rules which mean that you can only report the working, but can't discuss it, wouldn't it be easier to put these workings in the garage thread to which they apply and they can be discussed there!

Are NE still looking to start using Euro VI engines on new buses.

Have just seen this from a TFL Press Release which suggests that the perfomance of these engines is far superior that the Euro V engines?

"More than 300 buses with the latest Euro VI engines will be operating on London's roads by the end of this year,
Transport for London has announced. Over two thirds of these (215) will be hybrid diesel-electric double decker
buses. Under the ULEZ proposal, all buses driving in central London from 2020 will need to meet the Euro VI
standard for NOx emissions.
The effectiveness of Euro VI engines in reducing harmful emissions has been substantiated in testing by TfL that
re-creates real world driving conditions in London. During this testing, a bus with a Euro VI Engine was found to
have 95 per cent lower NOx emissions than a bus with a Euro V engine (down from 10 g/km to 0.5 g/km). This
test result correlates with testing conducted by manufacturers. Buses with Euro VI engines first entered service
in the TfL fleet in April 2014 and from January 2015 all new buses entering service in the capital will be Euro VI."

Annual Bus Stats for 2013/4 have been published by the dft!

There seem to be quite a few bus service changes taking place on the 31/08/14, and not just buses returning to normal timetable after the holidays. Nothing has been mentioned on the NWM website.

Details here

https://nxbus.co.uk/west-midlands/information/

Thanks to London Bus News for this:

A 16-year-old schoolboy has broken the record for the fastest journey from Land's End to John O'Groats - by
public bus. The journey lasted four days ten hours & forty-four minutes at a cost of £170, whilst travelling 1,167
miles on 36 different buses to beat the previous record by nearly a day. Months was spent poring over bus
timetables to plan the quickest route on his epic journey. An exhausting but worthwhile trip, with little sleep,
finishing some days after midnight and starting the next day again before 6am.

Day-1 (Monday)
07:21 - Service 1 from Land's End to Penzance, arriving at 08:30
09:33 - Service 18 from Penzance to Truro, arriving at 11:16
11:45 - Service 594 from Truro to Wadebridge, arriving at 12:55
14:00 - Service 510 from Wadebridge to Exeter, arriving at 16:32
17:00 - Service 1B from Exeter to Willand, arriving at 17:58
18:22 - Service 22 from Willand to Taunton, arriving at 19:12
19:55 - Service 21 from Taunton to Bridgwater, arriving at 20:39

Day-2 (Tuesday)
05:48 - Service 21 from Bridgwater to Weston-super-Mare, arriving at 07:10
07:32 - Service X1 from Weston-super-Mare to Bristol, arriving at 08:41
09:02 - Service 47 from Bristol to Yate, arriving at 09:47
10:15 - Service 84 from Yate to Wotton-under-Edge, arriving at 10:53
11:30 - Service 40 from Wotton-under-Edge to Stroud, arriving at 12:10
12:50 - Service 46 from Stroud to Cheltenham, arriving at 13:36
13:45 - Service 801 from Cheltenham to Moreton-in-Marsh, arriving at 14:55 (did not arrive until 15:06)
15:15 - Service 22 from Moreton-in-Marsh to Stratford-upon-Avon, arriving at 16:20
17:05 - Service X20 from Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham, arriving at 18:37
19:15 - Service X51 from Birmingham to Walsall, arriving at 19:47
20:05 - Service 2 from Walsall to Cannock, arriving at 20:40
21:00 - Service 74 from Cannock to Stafford, arriving at 21:30
21:53 - Service 101 from Stafford to Hanley, arriving at 22:47
23:19 - Service 20 from Hanley to Crewe, arriving at 00:10

Day-3 (Wednesday)
06:04 - Service 38 from Crewe to Macclesfield, arriving at 07:00
07:15 - Service 130 from Macclesfield to Manchester, arriving at 09:22
10:28 - Service 184 from Manchester to Huddersfield, arriving at 12:24
12:45 - Service X6 from Huddersfield to Leeds, arriving at 14:07
14:40 - Service 843 from Leeds to Scarborough, arriving at 17:37
18:15 - Service X93 from Scarborough to Middlesbrough, arriving at 20:23
20:15 - Service X10 from Middlesbrough to Newcastle, arriving at 22:23

Day-4 (Thursday)
10:33 - Service X15 from Newcastle to Berwick-upon-Tweed, arriving at 12:58
13:55 - Service 253 from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Edinburgh, arriving 16:08
18:45 - Service X59 from Edinburgh to Guardbridge, arriving at 20:27
21:02 - Service 99A from Guardbridge to Dundee, arriving at 21:02

Day-5 (Friday)
06:30 - Service X7 from Dundee to Aberdeen, arriving at 09:01
09:25 - Service 10 from Aberdeen to Inverness, arriving at 13:14
14:40 - Service X99 from Inverness to Dunbeath, arriving at 16:56
17:01 - Service X97 from Dunbeath to John O'Groats, arriving at 18:02
18:02: Three minute walk to the John O'Groats sign, arriving at 18:05

Don't know whether any West Midlands bus firm would be interested in this:

Ensignbus are advertising Arriva's Wright hybrids HWs for sale in this week's Bus & Coach Buyer magazine.  HW5 (LJ09KRN) is pictured with the following details ...
2009 Wrights hybrid
65 seats dual door can be converted to single door

Latest Wrights hybrid drive ... same as New Routemaster

Brand new battery pack

Brand new cooling pack

Brand new Cummins Euro 5 engine

Body upgraded to Gemini 2

Over £100k just spent on factory upgrade

Very competitively priced.

seems the Enviro 400 has had a revamp

http://www.alexander-dennis.com/news/the-all-new-enviro400-designed-by-the-industry-for-the-industry/

Do we know if National Express are planning to order any vehicles with Euro 6 engines?

Just had the following come through on one of my other groups,

"Wrightbus, ADL and Optare are sharing £70m in orders from First for 425 buses, to be delivered in the 2014/5 financial year.

Significantly, it includes 274 Wrightbus StreetLite Micro Hybrids - a new product which saves around 10% of fuel costs, but at a premium of only £6,000-9,000 per bus, compared with around a typical 40% premium for a 'full' hybrid.

It is the first order that Wrightbus has won for its Micro Hybrid.

"Investment in our bus division continues apace," says Giles Fearnley, Managing Director of First UK Bus. "This order underlines our commitment to growing our business and encouraging more people to use our services, and use them more often."

Wrightbus' order is for 301 StreetLites (including 27 conventional diesel versions); ADL has won an order for 97 vehicles; Optare will deliver 21 and Volvo will supply six Plaxton-bodied coaches.
All buses will be Euro 5 with Wi-Fi and E-Leather seats. The rest of the order comprises: ADL (Enviro200 x 37; Enviro400 x 60) and Optare (Solo x 15; Versa x 6)."

Just a quick question, what was the fleet number of the Fleetline that lost its roof and was made into a single decker. Sure it worked out of Quinton for a while.

VOSA to be axed

A new agency with responsibility for maintaining vehicle standards has been launched today as the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), Transport Minister Robert Goodwill has announced.

From 1 April 2014, the new agency employing 4,600 people throughout the UK, will replace the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) with responsibilities for setting, testing and enforcing driver and vehicle standards in Great Britain.

Robert Goodwill says: "In June the department announced that DSA and VOSA would merge to form a new agency. This decision was made following the motoring services strategy consultation, and is a demonstration of the government's commitment to put customers and businesses at the heart of its services."

The CEO of both agencies is Alastair Peoples, who will become the CEO of the single agency.

Today a bus on route 541 in London was seen displaying its route and destination with a hand written notice displayed in the front window, causing this comment on the London Bus Group,

"it's the trial operation for the new bargain basement, mega low quality but cheap to run bus network for London modelled on those wonderful Birmingham operators who use clapped out Dennis Darts held together with sticky tape and painted with body primer.  Go Ahead have just started with the A4 and biro element of the operating model. :-)"

Saw a notice on the bus today saying that from 01 December 2013, they had completely revised the 276 to aid reliability.

They didn't say that they have cut the Sunday evening service by 50%, the 276 will now only be half hourly between Stourbridge & Wollaston with the Stourbridge to Dudley portion only being hourly.

Also despite it being a week and a half away, the timetables have been changed in some of the shelters. Confusing if you don't notice that it says "from 01 December" on the sheet!

 It seems that Centro are now consulting on services going through Blackheath Town Centre and how they can be adjusted to serve the Town Centre better.

http://www.networkwestmidlands.com/Blackheath/Blackheath.aspx

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/120-london-buses-to-run-on-chip-fat-8926955.html

Was just wondering who own this bus, was seen in Lye today at the coach repairers just by Hayes Lane?

As has been mentioned in another topic, a review of bus services in Dudley/Stourbridge may be possible before long.

So what services would you alter & why?

I have had a go and these are my views:

9 - To stay as it is Monday to Saturday with perhaps an increase in frequency between City & Quinton during shopping hours on Sundays (9E). Possible introduction of a Night service between City & Halesowen on Friday & Saturday nights?

53 - Curtailed to run between West Bromwich & Blackheath only

120 - Converted to Double Decker operation (Tridents?) & amended timetable to run every 15 minutes between Dudley & Birmingham, short journeys to Oldbury withdrawn.

205 - This service does not work in its current form, so i would curtail the 205 to operate between Dudley & Kingswinford.

207 - New service running from Dudley via the old 205 route to Blackheath, then extended via the 53 route to Merry Hill Centre.

226 - Route diverted in Kingswinford to serve Wallheath Church (not Blaze Park) to cover for withdrawl of 205.

240 - Service withdrawn due to poor patronage

241 - New service 241A to run at night & all day Sunday between Dudley & Hayley Green.

244 - Service at night & Sundays to run between Dudley & Halesowen, Halesowen to Hayley Green journeys to be covered the 241A

246 - service to run every 7/8 minutes Mon - Sat daytime, with every other bus (every 15 minutes ) extended to Wollaston Farm to cover withdrawl of X96.

255 - Short journeys to Wallheath Blaze Park withdrawn. Frequency increased to every 20 minutes along whole route.

X55 - New limited stop route, hourly daytimes daily from Wolverhampton to Merry Hill via 255 route to Penn then the main road to Wallheath & then the 255 to Kingswinford, then left at Kingswinford Cross and main road to Pensnett & Russells Hall Hospital, then direct route from Holly Hall to Merry Hill.

276 - Convert to Double Decker Operation. Evening journeys extended to Wollaston Farm as 276A

289 - Route re-extended to Merry Hill Centre via Saltwells (not via Cradley Heath)

296 - New service to operate between Stourbridge & Wrens Nest Estate, via old X96 route

297/A - Route between Gornal Wood & Stickey to be withdrawn to aid reliability

X96 - Service Withdrawn

Any routes not mentioned would be unaffected.