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16 and 74 all over the place this morning. 

Same bus this evening, but on the 2 this time.

Displays for 'next stop' flash and go off straight away.

Must be some kind of coding issue, as it works fine when on the 3.

Have the rear destination displays changed for the 2/3?

Currently on 7528 which appears to now have new style NSA for the X21 so maybe the X22 has been sorted too.

Also the rear display has lost the via points same as the X22 (Also saw a 23 in the same fashion but the 16 has stayed the same from what I've seen). Not sure why, but if the display was going to change could've put Selly Oak on the same line as Weoley Castle while they were at it.

Most of the NSA changes to the X21 make more sense than the previous ones so that's a plus.

4513 currently being towed away down Barnes Hill.

Hearing it again I don't think the tone of the voice on the 16 NSA has changed apart from the word 'to' which has been made longer for some reason.

OK, so he wasn't, and I stand corrected!

But the current 'female' voice probably is computer generated, and it probably makes more sense now to use a computer generated voice, with the increased number of Platinum routes, as it solves the problem if the same voice actor is unavailable to provide new announcements as and when needed at a later date.

Maybe they have, I don't know, I haven't had need to travel on the X21 to find out for myself.

Makes no difference if a route is tendered or not, the 5 (AG) is part-subsidised by TfWM and that has next-stop announcements.

By 2026, all buses will be required to have audio/visual next stop announcements anyway.
https://wmbu.org.uk/2023/04/all-buses-required-to-have-next-stop-announcements-from-october-2026/

They definitely don't, as I've travelled on a few of the Merry Hill journeys now (not to Merry Hill I may add), including today on the way home from work. As soon as the display changes to Merry Hill it reverts to the standard 'National Express West Midlands' screen and there's nothing. Probably just as well, X21 to Merry Hill would probably be the weirdest thing I've heard all year.

I wasn't aware of the requirement by 2026 though, that's interesting. What's also interesting in that article, is the 'start of diversions'. I noticed when I was in Edinburgh that their NSAs include things like that, and also shows connections to other buses on the screen. Generally the amount of info shown on the screen was impressive.

Hopefully soon. The X22 announcements need sorting as well (only works from St Peter's Church when heading toward Birmingham, and it doesn't work at all when heading towards Bartley Green).

Well yeah, I mean I don't travel on the X21 as far as Bartley Green but I imagine they mess up around that same part too for the same reason. In addition, there's still the issue of many buses still having the Commonwealth Games diversion NSA on them. I thought to myself when they changed some buses to reflect it at the time that this would probably end up happening. They were a good idea, but in hindsight I think instead of updating random buses with the diversion NSA, which appears to be what happened, they probably should've just done the branded ones only, at least then once the diversion was over you'd know which ones to revert back.

I wonder if NX will bother putting NSA on the Merry Hill X21 trips. Probably not as I don't think any tendered routes tend to have NSA. 

To be fair I'm not sure what benefit is gained by the NSA disappearing from the screen between each stop. Maybe it's an error because it does seem to flicker a little on the next stop before disappearing.

The voice is the same, as far as I can tell, but there is a slightly different 'tone' to it. Only heard it once so far though, on the 3 last week.

They're probably all computer generated, even the previous ones (maybe even Mr Platinum was!)

Yes, that's what i said this morning the tone seems different. I've only heard it on the 16 though, as the X21 is still using outdated NSA.

They will have been updated to reflect changed stop names, as well as new stops where the route has changed, eg the 2 at YW.

I was talking about the change in the voice not specific stops.

Yeah it definitely sounded more robotic. Gotta say I preferred them as they were.

Maybe it's just my bad hearing but sounds like the 16 NSA have been changed slightly as the tone sounds different.

Trying to work out if 6859 is operating or not. Its showing as an X21 to City but no stops recorded until Uni Station.
Something has gone wrong as it has resulted in 6885 in the next journey being too full and missing out many stops with people at them.

https://bustimes.org/vehicles/tnxb-6859#journeys/500702741

It's actually always been like that (at least since NX started to do destinations in house). I have seen it on one or two rare occasions, before the route changes occured. It would definitely be useful to have.

There's also no stop announcements (and the stop announcements towards Birmingham are outdated).

No it was like that previously on short working journeys.

But it would be the same on both sides.

The NSA always disappear when a destination display is changed as I think they are linked to it.

Also to be fair they've had erroneous NSA on a lot of buses for the Commonwealth Games for ages anyway.

I notice the new X22 destination displays for Bartley Green have via points on the front display but only Bartley Green in bigger font on the rear one. Is this a change that's going to happen across the board or an error?