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Sorry Matt,
111 must have been the 1354 from Merry Hill. I got into the City Centre in time to call in Ian Allan's and catch the 1538 No 59.

Hi Matt,
Ithink it was 12.54 from Merry Hill, I went through to thr Town Hall on it. The timing seemed very tight.

I was in Walsall at about 11.a.m. this morning and then travelled on 582 to Wolverhampton on the 39. Saw the following.
677 on 335.
669 on 70A.
1862 on X51.[4 branded].
244 on 336.
4857 on 7A.[51 branded].
4136 on 70A.
1892 on 38.
1891 on 34.
673 on39.
Some of these not unusual, but interesting as a collection.

Roy's list includes all the services mentioned in the consultation except the 8A/8C and 58,59,60. they said the 8A/8C may not change at the time and I think the Coventry Road is the difficult one. The services through Small Heath are very busy and should not be reduced, which makes it hard to think of an alternative to the present routes, unless an extra bus is put on to give more layover time.

The timetable in Merry Hill bus station showed hourly between 10 and 2, but the timetables on the bus, 111, showed every 30 mins today.

Saw 1652 on 25A/C today. It looks pretty rough. Tony has it allocated to West Brom and I thought it was too. Chaos on the 529 at lunch time. 4577 failed in Walsall bus station and had to be towed away.

Stu, you say you edited the extract from the VOSA website, was there a date for the implementation of these changes?
If not, does the usual 56 days notice apply?

I travelled on 5409 again today. I think it is my favourite NXWM bus. The engine start up and shut down is smoother than the Volvo hybrids and the engine is quieter. The start with engine not running is sharper than the Volvo's because it is using full power, particularly when starting uphill from Snow Hill. I hope we shall get a few more of them.

5404, 5408, 5506 and 4900 wre on the24 this morning. There were 2 Tridents on the 22/3, including 4168. I couldn't get the number of the other.

Went past Lea Hall garage today. The garage itself is now empty and the new owners have started work on it. There were quite a lot of buses parked round the back.

Trams 1 and 2 have been parked out of service for about a year now. Another one has now joined them. I think, by a process of elimination it is 3, but I haven't been able to check the number.

Some very interesting articles about De Courcey in Bus @ Coach Week this week. They show 2 Metrobuses still in service, which contradicts this topic. They have used Tony's fleet list for their information according to the article.

NXWM news item, dated 14th Jan 2014 about the new buses for the Sutton routes, mentions 300 new buses to come, which we have seen before, but this time says "over the next three years". Is this an error or a change in policy?

Thanks Winston. Could 1674 have been at MS to take back a driver who had brought over on eof the other Merc's?

Thanks Matt, it could have been 1638. 1674 looked as though it had recently arrived at MS. It was parked outside the workshop.
With these recent withdrawals the fleet must be near the minimum required. As Tony has said that there is nothing on order at the moment they may have to put a few back in service, if the present spate of fires and rta's continues.