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Well said.
Since I have previous experience in the cannock market I can tell you the vast majority of services are not commercially viable even pre covid. So remember with passenger levels circa 70% & BRG not covering full operating costs & with a fleet that was in dire need of improvements from its previous operator, the challenge of keeping that network intact is immense. Then factor in the national driver shortage & it's a wonder Julian hasnt thrown in the towel.
I dont know many people that would take on that network in this current climate. Ah nx I hear some may say, well they're having their own difficulties at present hence why for the first time in my memory they are cutting complete routes & cutting frequency at a level never before seen.

So give them guys some slack the industry is in turmoil at present.

I'm wondering whether the very short notice tenders referred to further back in this thread actually related to the hurried suspension of the Metro owing to cracks in the trams and introduction of tram replacement bus services, rather than related to the 5/12/21 service changes?

No they don't

Replacing track would surely be used by CAF in their argument regarding it being an infrastructure problem as they will argue there are other systems that do not have an issue (although those trams are newer than all the ones that have failed.
I dont think it's a case of just patching them up anymore as I believe the damage is far more extensive than it was previously & requires the entire bogie boxes replacing which isnt a small job.
As for using balloon trams etc I think there would potentially be gauging issues maybe voltage issues & potentially gradient issues in some sections. Politically how would they pass off one of the flagship projects of the west Midlands now using rented first generation historic rolling stock.

The 331scl as well plus the CAF Oaris EMUs in Norway suffered from chassis cracks. Poor manufacturing. Why dont people just buy Bombardier

The issue first came to light in 2017 so the question is do when did tfwm order more trams & were they aware of the issues

That's a lot of inter working.
They need to be careful as that has been Hulleys of Baslow problems

Sydney Australia have now suspended all there urbos 3 trams due to cracks in the boogie boxes. Suspension is for 18 months

Besançon in france has the same issue with trams required to return to CAF for repairs which the manufacturer says will take 1 month or vehicle.

For their part CAF is claiming poor track maintenance is causing the issues although they have agreed to repair Belgrade trams at no cost

It's a major design flaw that CAF have known about since 2017 so the flaw needs to be rectified fully not just ram.some new trams into service & hope for the best

Yes it is a commander not a pulsar

I believe in the case of PB the drivers have been specifically asked to check the blinds show 95 & not 55

I'm.aware that drivers are supposed to check.the correct destination is programmed into the blind & report it BEFORE leaving depot so it can be re-programmed, so any buses displaying incorrect numbers is now down to the drivers not reporting an issue.

Just new drivers to that rota

Under CBSSG all costs were underwritten by the government.
BRG requires a certain percentage to be made up through commercial revenue.

Ticketer are always in constant dialogue with DFT over all BODS related issues. I dont know about other ETM suppliers.

All ticketer operators are affected