Messages

Buses aren't often rebodied these days. 1324 (I think it was), 4014 and the 529 branded E400MMC recently. All of which were relatively young buses.

I can't think of any 're-body' of any fire-damaged bus in recent times - they've nearly always gone for scrap. 1321 was a Wolves-based Volvo B10B/Alexander which was lost to fire as far back as 29th April 1997. That & 4014 went for scrap. There was 4312 that suffered a very serious rear-end fire early in its career and was repaired and of-course fire damaged 4218 that was only weeks old, that re-surfaced at YW. The motto is - the younger they are - the greater the chance of repair!

Single deckers seem to fair better (only 2151 and 1791 I can think of that have been lost recently) perhaps due to driver being able to keep an eye on one deck rather than two!  

Do fires like that totally knacker the chassis, because wouldn't they be able to rebody at a later date?

I did wonder that - some 'fires of old' (probably 1970s or earlier!) saw buses being re-bodied after fire damage. I'm probably thinking of Coventry Transport 76, its Park Royal body severely damaged in suspicious circumstances at Allesley Park in 1971, but received a new East Lance body a year or so later. A few other Coventry Transport Fleetlines damaged by fire managed to get repairs too. Presumably buses today are much more complex beasts!

Yeah it was on the 6 last night

Sounds like 4600/4611 and possibly 4612 have all made that same move: BC-YW.

4419 is due to leave from Coventry tomorrow

This one going to scrap from Coventry?

Way back in time Coventry there was a Pool Meadow - Broadgate - Station route. About 1 mile and ran every 10 mins.  Could be done sometimes in 7 mins. PVR of 2.

That was the 25 (which was replaced by the 17/27 in April 1985). But WMPTE did run the 11 City, Pool Meadow - Whoberley (Brookside Ave) which was quite short, but perhaps not as short as the 18E City - Earlsdon (Beechwood Ave) which existed in the mid and late 80s.

That first batch of NX Tridents 4125-4224, despite accidents, survived as a complete batch until late 2016 (4178 seemingly the first scrapped 12/16) so about 15 years before the first sale.

I seem to remember that hardly ever being an issue for long. The fleetnames seemed to be changed very quickly from memory. A few days with the old garage fleetname, then a change to the new one. The same with the old green garage code windscreen stickers and the later 'this bus I operated by xxxxxxx garage' cab door stickers in early TWM days.

Those green circular stickers appeared in the early 70s, with the 'lightning flash' facing forward (and the radio code on the other side) later replaced by the garage code in the mid 80s. But continued to be seen throughout the 1990s and possibly the early 2000s - so proved quite long-lasting. 

  The midlands news on tuesday night announced there were to be
   another 130? New (Electric) buses earmarked for Coventry sometime
   in the next 18 months apparently. (All Deckers)    Does Coventry
    currently OWN 130 Doubles?   ? :-\

Almost [assuming this is correct]

[126 DD/51 SD]
10 E400EV (E020-29)
15 E200 (831-33/38-44/71-75)
36 B7RLE (2141-50/52-77)
18 Trident (4370/4403/6-14; 4450-54/64; 4576)
7 B7/ALX (4415-18/20/23-24)
17 B7/Gemini (4660-75/78)
54 E400 (4763-76; 4830-42/81-94; 4983-95)
20 E400MMC (6951-67; 7539-41)
___
177

I've altered my notes just slightly to match the list above. In fact I've got each garage listed as below - a listing style which Tony himself used a while back:

This is Coventry:
[127 DD/50 SD]
10 E400EV (E020-29)
14 E200 (831-33/38/40-44/71-75)
36 B7RLE (2141-50/52-77)
18 Trident (4370/4403/6-14; 4450-54/64; 4576)
8 B7/ALX (4415-20/23-24)
17 B7/Gemini (4660-75/78)
54 E400 (4763-76; 4830-42/81-94; 4983-95)
20 E400MMC (6951-67; 7539-41)
___
177

I think that's a total of 1533 vehicles at the 9 major depots.

Am I right in saying C081 is coach LK53 KWA, although I'm not sure what the reg of C050 is.

Tony, just checking my own notes (which are based on yours anyway!) with your update.

At AG I've got 4291 (rather than 4292) - is that right?
At PN I think it should read 4748-62. I had 2093 here, but it looks like it has returned to WN
At BC I had 767 still there - but I presume that isn't the case!
At YW I've got 4383/86-87/89 etc
I had 4384 withdrawn, but it looks like it's been sold
I also had BT57 ENJ & KM66 XSX in the training fleet - they now gone

So you know there is need for more than a 20 minute services?
Seems to be a lot of critisicim from you for every single change, do you use any of these routes or are you impacted in anyway at all?
It may well be that with changing travelling patterns over the last 2 years that a 20 minute service is all that is required and passenger numbers may also be down from what they once were. And also NX have driver shortages to I think.

A 20 minute service is better than a hourly one anyway.

20 minutes may well be fine, obviously better than every half-hour or 40 mins or whatever - but if a service is missing (driver unavailability, breakdown, heavy traffic etc) then that's probably a 40 minute wait. It's a that point you might consider getting a taxi.

I'm not impacted by these changes by and large, I'm just playing devils advocate - but there is already negative feedback on the Christmas & New Year level of services on the official NXC Facebook website - they haven't mentioned these 4/1/22 changes yet!

Thanks

A few more surprises to add to what was already expected, all are really cutbacks.
Looks like a confusing 24 minute frequency on each 6/6A spur.
The new 8 and 9 should be more reliable assuming both are a six bus/two hour cycle in the daytime.
I've come to the conclusion the new 31 (UHCW-Wood End) will make use of the half hour or so of slack time service 3 currently has at UHCW so is a short route of about 12 minutes each way running hourly in the daytime, not much of a useful replacement for the 8A.
On a similar note was it not possible to use the slack time of the hourly Arena Park 5 to extend it to Wilsons Lane as it seems that area is being completely abandoned again though appreciate there is the issue of the low bridge. I assume the 20B departures are replaced with the shorter 20E but the website doesn't yet clarify.

I assume this leaves Woodway Lane, Ringwood Highway etc free of a really regular service to the city centre - granted the 20C runs that way. A daytime 20-minute frequency on both the 8 & 9 sounds a bit threadbare to me - a downgrade from every 15 minutes I assume that is. That split 8 (evenings & Sunday) sounds a bit odd. Even more so the new 31, a very curious arrangement.

The revised 9 will cover most of the current 9A in the Stivichall/Finham areas seemingly. But only every 20 mins during the daytime! - I thought this was a flagship Electric bus service.

Every 12 mins combined to Tile Hill/Tanyard Farm sounds reasonable enough, but as you say, an awkward 24 minute on the separate sections.

But as you hint, the loss of the 20B might hit hard - that leaves Oban Rd, Woodshires Rd, Wilson's Lane etc without a service at all [it would appear] and there is no regular NXC service from the Bayton Road area to the city centre now. Perhaps those 20B extensions to Bedworth were a little unnecessary though.

And some other gentle cuts to the 11X, 12 & 13.

In terms of identity, is there going to be a group colour-scheme, name, emblem etc. Or do they select one of the current ones?

Basically the existing 6/6A is being split into two separate routes. The 22 of old (operating until April 1985) covered city - Little Heath which is basically what the eastern end of the 6 is now, with an extension to Victoria Farm via Old Church Rd, Hall Green Rd etc.

So with just 4 days notice we now have service changes on the NXC website (although I have seen some A4 posters with very small text on some buses since last Friday)
https://nxbus.co.uk/coventry/service-updates/timetable-changes-from-monday-22nd-november-2021

The 2 and 19 recently had vehicle seating capacity reduced in half and now virtually half of journeys are deleted, very poor indeed.

I still cannot envisage the 1 beyond Canley Station being used much, Chapelfields and Coundon has a myraid of regular more direct routes to the City Centre, the link to Earlsdon is now it's only purpose, I feel the 1 should of been cut to off-peak hours only in order to retain a half-hourly service on service 2 at peak times.

TfWM have hinted these changes are 'temporary', but then again nothing is permanent nowadays. ;)

Some subtle cuts in the frequency of services 3, 16 and 21 it would appear too. Is that based on demand or a shortfall in the number of drivers.