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Although Diamond has lost a few services (141/145/60/61/356 etc), gaining the Droitwich services means that it's held its own on the subsidised front. The loss of competition to Areley Kings is positive for Diamond. Renumbering the 292 as 2L implies some integration. I'm fascinated by the interaction of subsidised and commercial services. Cutting back the one leads to some reorganisation of the other. At Redditch, the 143 will now be solely Redditch/Bromsgrove, not via Webheath. I wonder if it will get a frequency increase. Anyway, this will improve its timekeeping. The routing of the 55/56, which will probably be half-hourly each way via Webheath is interesting and I note that services going to the Hospital will have the suffix 'H' which implies that not all will go there.

When I saw that Whittles were cancelling the 3, I must admit I thought that they were giving up. In fact Diamond will still have competition to Stourport because the 2A/2C becomes a Kidderminster-Stourport-Bewdley circular.
The timetables make interesting reading. The combined 141/145 (now145), which Diamond lost to WMSNT, becomes mainly hourly, and First's new 363/373 to Tewkesbury is also mainly hourly, though there had been rumours it would go two-hourly. This withdrawal of subsidy has some odd effects! 

I'm guessing I won't be able to buy the Wyvern day ticket on the 147 in Halesowen, as that part of the route is subsidised, isn't it?

This service might be wholly commercial. In June on another forum http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=97560&page=7 it was said that First planned to do this, and when the results of the tenders were published this service wasn't included. Certainly First have made the Malvern/Upton services commercial including the extension to Tewkesbury, so it wouldn't be totally surprising for First to take this approach on the Halesowen link.

TGB coming to Redditch:

PD1050400/87 - THE GREEN TRANSPORT COMPANY LIMITED, 386 PARK ROAD, HOCKLEY, BIRMINGHAM, B18 5ST
    Registration Accepted
    Starting Point: Redditch Bus Station
    Finish Point: Redditch Bus Station
    Via: Matchborough West, Matchborough East, Wibyates Green Circular
    Service Number: 62
    Service Type: Normal Stopping/Hail & Ride
    Effective Date: 01-SEP-2014
    Other Details: Monday to Saturday

I wonder if the 50A wil be coming back to feed this service in redditch & wonder hoqw often  wil be trunning

That's a bit of a surprise. On the Rotala board, Tony posted the results of the tenders and Diamond had won this. I did notice that Simon Dunn was being very cautious in commenting on the results on his management thread. Perhaps there's more to the process than I realise. My guess is that this is hourly, so would require only one bus. Combining the 60 and 61 to one bus an hour would save a journey to the town. Going via Matchborough West, then East to Winyates Green would cut out a large part of Paper Mill Drive. That would be a very roundabout route. Also no mention of Sainsburys, where the 61 goes presently. I wouldn't have thought it was decker territory.

So far it looks as though the Council has carried out a useful value for money exercise. I was disappointed with the quote from one councillor though who said that "Of those routes where we say it will be similar timetables it may go from half-an-hour to an hour, or two-hourly instead of every hour, or it may stay the same." I thought that there speaks a non-bus user. Of course some services can only be two-hourly, but to call it 'similar' is wrong, because it is hugely more inflexible for people than an hourly service. Hopefully there won't be too many such instances.
I don't think that some 'rural' services are quite the dead loss people think. Services between towns are only partly 'rural'. With some investment, some can be made to work. I live on Stagecoach's 28 route from Stratford to Evesham, every half-hour. I can't praise Stagecoach enough for their service.

I emailed the Council about the 192, and they said that in its case 'at least 3 days per week' was a typing error, and that the proposal was to provide a service largely as now.

More detailed proposals, yet to be approved by the Council, for discussion on 9 June, have been posted on the Council's website:

I think that Diamond could buy Whittles at some point. The OFT report on Redditch naturally found that there was a substantial lessening of competition, but at the end said that because the market in Redditch was worth only £2-3m, it was below the £3m point where a reference to the Competition Commission was normally justified. Why they did all the work analysing the different routes in Redditch is a mystery when they must have known that at the start.
As the Kidderminster market is smaller than Redditch, there's a deal to be done. I can't see what's in it at present for EYMS, as Whittle is isolated.

The Appendix attached to the Council Meeting Agenda posted by bewminster on another thread is well worth looking at:


How you decide priorities I don't know. Tenbury Wells would be almost completely cut off if the 291 went. Of the £3m budget, £571689 is being spent on the 362/3/41-43 services and £303859 on 564-6. I can't imagine both would be totally be cut, but they must be prime targets for cutback. The 350, according to the council, does lose money per passenger, yet Dudleys run a commercial journey each day Redditch to Worcester and back. I've always been surprised at the lack of direct transport links between Redditch and Worcester, though obviously you can change at Bromsgrove.

On the 146, I can remember when there were 5 buses an hour between Brum and Redditch: X5, X6, X7 and two 147s, admittedly before the train was improved. I can't see the attraction of the current 146 when it's not consistently every hour. I agree that Linden Road is not well served by buses from the city centre. Also going via Selly Oak is a good idea because it's more of a destination than Selly Park. Also the University would be more on the route. I do think that a bus service and the train can live together: the lack of buses along the corridor across the 'border' is partly an unfair consequence of the NXWM monopoly on one side.
I would also route the 146 via Sainsburys i.e. it should stop right outside the door. I also think that passengers from Redditch have to come mainly from the areas where the train is not convenient, so extending to Studley is a good idea, though the timings are awkward for an hourly service. Whilst a long route may throw up reliability issues, extending the 146 to Evesham, replacing the 247, though going via Greenlands etc is an old route.
On the 70/70A I would have thought that passenger numbers would have been improved by a regular time, particularly up to Crabbs Cross. However this may be difficult to change since the variable times are a Diamond idea. It really needs a half hour service, though I guess Diamond would say numbers don't justify it, but if the 247 was replaced.........
I've never been on them, but do 55/56 really work as circulars?

I feel the 146 has been badly served. I know the trains and concessionary fares have altered things, but trains aren't as convenient for some people as buses- buses stop in more places. The first 146 bus leaves Redditch 0555 hrs and the next one's 0855 hrs. Then the last bus from Redditch is 1540 hrs (having missed out the 1440 hrs and the return from Brum) and the last bus from Brum is 1635 hrs. This isn't a comprehensive service. Compare the 112 Arriva service to Lichfield- basically every hour through the day, though there are 4 trains an hour on the cross city line to Lichfield and for most of the way National Express are running along the route.  I know there's X50/50A but they are a bit indirect and Redditch is much bigger than Lichfield. Redditch is a big town a few miles away from the second biggest city in the country.

I suspect First in Redditch have been completely distracted by the competition from Diamond.

There are a lot of questions as to how Diamond will operate after the takeover now they've secured dominance in Redditch but perhaps that ought to be on a Rotala thread. With regard to First though, I would guess that Diamond and First will operate an unofficial non-aggression pact. First still have some interest in Bromsgrove with the 144, a service that I sentimentally hope continues- this stems from many days out to The Malverns on the top deck in the 1960s. From early 2015 of course there will be 3 trains an hour to Bromsgrove, which though the station's in the wrong place, will have some effect.