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i think the connected city thing is a bit stupid and passenger facilities at albert st are absolutely dreadful not even a bloody bin!

Albert Street is only temporary, no buses will be loading there once Lower Bull Street is ready

The Volvo Citybus fleet is down to 38000-2/4-6/15, which are open toppers in the West Country, and ENCLOSED 38098, 38121-3/5/6. 

However the UK Buses fleet list has 38098, 38121/2 in reserve, 38123/6 at Northampton and 38125 at Newcastle-under-Lyme.  I dont know why First dont get rid of these horrible three-step buses, they are old and inconvenient for passengers, even though I suspect they only carry schoolchildren now.

Hopefully one could be preserved, for comparison with the BMMO D10, but these screechy beasties should retire.

sconehead85

38121 is not in reserve. Photographed it yesterday in normal service
http://wmbusphotos.com/FirstNorthampton/38121.html
First Northampton's fleet is a disgrace. The newest single deck in normal use is a V-reg Scania 65587
http://wmbusphotos.com/FirstNorthampton/65587.html
These Scanias that have come over from Norwich are in a disgusting state with permanently frosted up windows, bent panels and generally very tatty. The only two decent buses in the fleet are 32629 & 32630, 8 year old Geminis which are due to leave in September!

The MMC is a stupid institution and has acted against the public interest and against the interests of the employees. It is shameful in my view that an institution is allowed to encourage redundancies in these times of high unemployment.

I personally think a reality check is in order on this thread. No-one at the MMC has declared that First should close down & lay off its' staff.

If anyone is to blame, then the guilty party is obviously First themselves. They have the option of continuing their operation & making a profit. If that operation isn't profitable, then why the hell would anyone offer nearly £3m for it?

And although I put MMC in the title, it is actually the D(a)fT who are to blame for the farce, They are the ones who referred the purchase to the MMC causing Stagecoach to pull out. The MMC hadn't actually got to make a decision.

The routes may not be profitable as a seperate entity, but they would be for Stagecoach who would reduce management and garage costs by merging the operations.

Stagecoach have now registered the pick of the routes so all DfT have succeeded in doing is saving Stagecoach £2.8m; robbing First of £2.8m. Stopping the staff transferring under TUPE rules so making life harder for them. And also probably leaving some people without a bus earlier than otherwise. If Stagecoach would have bought the whole operation it wlould have looked bad on them immediately deregistering some routes, now they can avoid that embarasment by only registering the decent routes in the first place.

Perhaps DfT can now tell us who is going to compete with Stagecoach now?

Tony

Once again missing the point. What you are stating is the likely scenario now that First are dumping the operation (their choice). No-one at MMC/DaFT etc have held a gun to Firsts head to make them shut down. Any redundancies / route losses are thus solely Firsts decision.

It is not the likely scenario, Stagecoach have already put out a press release saying they are registering all the good routes from September

No, because First found a way to not make staff redundant, by selling the operation to a willing buyer. DfT basically said you cannot do that without our say so because it means the loss of competition, So where is the competition now?

The only good news out of the DfTs decision I can see is that most of the drivers will probably now pocket redundancy money from first, before being able to walk straight into a job with Stagecoach

The MMC is a stupid institution and has acted against the public interest and against the interests of the employees. It is shameful in my view that an institution is allowed to encourage redundancies in these times of high unemployment.

I personally think a reality check is in order on this thread. No-one at the MMC has declared that First should close down & lay off its' staff.

If anyone is to blame, then the guilty party is obviously First themselves. They have the option of continuing their operation & making a profit. If that operation isn't profitable, then why the hell would anyone offer nearly £3m for it?

And although I put MMC in the title, it is actually the D(a)fT who are to blame for the farce, They are the ones who referred the purchase to the MMC causing Stagecoach to pull out. The MMC hadn't actually got to make a decision.

The routes may not be profitable as a seperate entity, but they would be for Stagecoach who would reduce management and garage costs by merging the operations.

Stagecoach have now registered the pick of the routes so all DfT have succeeded in doing is saving Stagecoach £2.8m; robbing First of £2.8m. Stopping the staff transferring under TUPE rules so making life harder for them. And also probably leaving some people without a bus earlier than otherwise. If Stagecoach would have bought the whole operation it wlould have looked bad on them immediately deregistering some routes, now they can avoid that embarasment by only registering the decent routes in the first place.

Perhaps DfT can now tell us who is going to compete with Stagecoach now?

Tony

Not 'Private Charter' routes i mean routes such as 934/997/1/22/23 Etc

They used to do the 220 between Solihull & Warwick, one has that on the destination, and the 886 school service from Walsall to KEGS, that is why the one is parked in Walsall.

Did TWM ever use these buses or not ?

Err, the photos of them being used by TWM that are referred to are a bit of a clue

Probably not anything to do with any of the changes or traffic Jams, but does anyone know why a 75 and a 16 were on service up Frederick Street and turned right into Warstone Lane in the Jewellery Quarter earlier this afternoon? (maybe 1.30ish)

Because of the big fire on Snow Hill closing Constitution Hill

I think 4633 is now back in service cos I seen a 46*3 Trident in NXWM Livery on the 957 at Yardley Swan heading for Birmingham This Morning :)

4633 was working the 957 all day today, and I think it was on Saturday as well.

Yes, photo now added to main site

A couple of minor hiccoughs occured this morning while I was watching the proceedings. One NXWM Walsall driver missed the turning into Carrs Lane, but at least had the sense to ask for help and took a tour of the markets to get back to Albert Street.

The Diamond driver on the 50 wasn't quite so sensible. After pulling up to unload on the old 50 stop opposite Moor Street station and being told that the new stop was by Selfridges and the via the U-turn, instead of doing the sensible thing of following the old route around Park Street, or even using the Carrs Lane/Albert Street loop to return to Digbeth decided to reverse unsupervised along Moor Street to be able to use the u-turn

I can't believe all mercs withdrawn in west brom :(

What are you on about?
Still plenty of Mercs in Service at WB

Sorry Mr Souter we will not let you buy these routes in case you have to up the fares to make them profitable we prefer the passengers to have no buses at all.

What a wonderful bunch of ***** the civil servants at the MMC who probably don't know what a bus is



North Devon Business Update

Monday 23 July 2012

First Devon and Cornwall today (23 July 2012) announced plans to discontinue its bus services in the North Devon area, including closure of the Barnstaple depot. The company also confirmed that it has started the collective consultation process with trade unions on the possibility of redundancies.

Firsts bus services in North Devon have underperformed for a number of years, despite the introduction of a variety of marketing and promotional initiatives. The company is now faced with extra cost pressures due to the economic climate and cuts in external funding and routes are now being discontinued in order to ensure the long term sustainability of operations elsewhere.

A range of alternative options including the potential sale and transfer of employees and assets to Stagecoach Group plc were fully explored. That option will no longer go ahead following the Office of Fair Trading's announcement on 10 July that it was referring the case to the Competition Commission.

Giles Fearnley, FirstGroup Managing Director, UK Bus, said: "We understand that this news will be distressing for employees affected by the decision and that it will similarly cause our customers in the area some concern. We apologise and will be supporting affected employees over the coming months, as well as working with Devon County Council on the future of bus services in the area. We will give customers ample notice of the date that services will cease to operate in North Devon.

"We will be working hard to minimise the extent of redundancies, trying to redeploy people where possible. We would like to take the opportunity to stress that the decision to close the North Devon operation is a business driven one and does not reflect on the effort or individual performance of the employees in North Devon.

"We are progressing our strategy to reposition and rebalance our UK Bus portfolio to restore operating margins and help facilitate improved growth and returns. The decision by the Office of Fair Trading to refer our proposed sale of our North Devon operations, where we had a uniquely high degree of overlap with Stagecoach, was disappointing. We are confident, however, of future successful transactions in the coming months as a number of potential bidders exist in the markets where we have identified other businesses for disposal.'

First Devon and Cornwall today (July 23) began its official consultation process with affected staff. This will include offering opportunities in other areas. The timescale for closing the business will be confirmed once the consultation with the affected employees has been completed.

Notes to editors

� A timescale will be confirmed in due course.

� The North Devon business comprises of the depot facility in Barnstaple, a fleet of around 30 vehicles and ten routes (Services 1, 2, 3, 5/5C, 8 (operates summer only) 30/30C, 31, 32, X7 and X9). The routes cover Appledore, Barnstaple, Bideford, Braunton, Bude, Coombe Martin, Fremington, Ilfracombe, South Molton, Swimbridge, Westward Ho! and Woolacombe.

� The decision regarding the North Devon business does not affect any other part of the First Devon and Cornwall business.

I have locked this topic to stop it getting too big

This was a hand held shot at about 11:30 last night when 3225 was the first bus to travel 'up' Carrs Lane
http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/3225-3614/3225.html

Tony

Network Rail have now put the full working timetables for all scheduled passenger and freight trains on line. Useful if you want to photograph freight to know the time it is most likely to run.

They have not made it easy to find what you want, it is meant for railway professionals, not mere spotters like me, but here is the link to all freight scheduled through Bescot



The full master page of all working timetables is at http://bit.ly/MU7fzR
but finding the one you want is trial & error

First one I've seen which has its Dundee fleet number still on the front

All of 7028-7033 still have them. Makes them stand out!

same reply, timed at exactly the same second!