Messages

However, I've enough experience in this industry driving

My little interest in anything you had to say finished, about here.

Massive difference - one of those operators has maintained their older vehicles to very high engineering standards for their 20+ year life, the cow boys on the other hand clearly spend a fortune on maintaining their vehicles - Not!

The only good thing about franchising will be that those crappy little companies that offer nothing to attract new passengers won't be allowed to operate anymore.

Ah of course. Anyone that isn't a PLC must be a "cowboy" with substandard vehicles, got it!

I think the vast majority of operators that ran Centro / TfWM tenders weren't cowboys, often filling gaps where the almighty PLCs had abandoned for more profitable main road corridors.

So your argument is fundamentally flawed. 

And of course the West Midlands has such a great history of attracting high quality, smaller companies into the area ...... NOT!

Cheaper tenders mean reduced quality, likely clapped out Darts or E200s running round putting new passengers off trying the bus.

If Mr Parker really cared about our buses, he'd be constantly on at the Labour government to support operators with new vehicle grants so that all local tenders were operated by new (or at the very least nearly new) vehicles. Stipulating 'Euro 6' does equate to quality either, emissions may be lower yet the bus itself can still look unattractive.

I'm so glad the operators with their "likely clapped out Darts or E200s" have gone, it has left the operators with their clapped out Omnilinks, Geminis and Tridents to use instead!

I very much doubt that's the approach at all.

What would YOU do if it were your business? Debrand as per the strategy, or spend endless hours tarting each bus up to the enth degree just so people on a forum don't get offended? It's easy to criticise when it's not your money or responsibility to maintain services.

The same was said about 4801 when it was vinyl wrapped after being ad wrapped, members bemoaning that it looked awful after forensically analysing photos, when it looked perfectly acceptable and fulfilling its primary function - operating and picking up passengers.

I saw this bus several times and if anyone other than National Express would have put a bus out looking like that, references to Cowboys and The Wild West would have been made by the usual suspects! 

Jan 2023 was a long time ago now, lets just say that things didn't go to plan, and situations and circumstances have caused delays.

You should consider a career as their spokesperson!

Commercial services yes but NX certainly don't run anywhere near that % of fully subsidised routes - look at the routes Diamond run in the West Mids - far more subsidised routes than commercial ones.

This new mayor is a clueless buffoon and is just repeating what that idiot Burnham said about First and Stagecoach in Manchester. It will take a few years until the mess that will be the 'Bee Network' is fully costed and only then will people realise that they have been absolutely shafted.

Always easy for politicians to blame big companies as they are always seen as the 'bad guys' yet any one in this industry with half a brain can see that what this mayor spouts is a load of unrealistic rubbish.

I said market share which anyone with half a brain would understand encompasses the overall market.

NXWM receive a lot more "subsidy" these days than perhaps meets the eye and I understand will require more to maintain the existing network moving forward.

The mayor commented that NX receives £50 million a year in subsidies in his comments about night buses not being "economically viable".
He always seems to criticise NX as if they're the only operator in the West Midlands.
Surely a similar amount or more will need to be paid under franchising? Does he think companies will run services for free?

They have over 95% of market share - who do you want him to criticise, Kev's!?

A lot of fuss about a loan to make service by one of the smallest operators in the West Midlands. Whatever next, there will be a special report in Birmingham Live! 

Not sure why anyone would even think Bus Stations are a good idea given the white elephants that are Wolverhampton Bus Station and Coventry Pool Meadow!

The 8 will be classed as a double deck route 7 days a week, but at the moment with 17 electrics still to arrive at PB it makes sense to carry on using Scanias on there, not anywhere else on a weekday

Not sure they got the memo given the multiple Omnilinks on the 16 and 67 today! 

Yes it may inconvenience a few passengers on certain peak hour trips

Yet the "peak hour trips" passengers usually pay the highest fares and those "few" passengers quickly find alternatives...

But oh I forget - passengers are an inconvenience to you!

I notice various Perry Barr routes are running at lower frequencies since before the Electrics started. So there's a combination of less seats and less frequency! 

Paused at the moment while NX finances are sorted out

Basically the toybox isn't commercially sustainable.

There are around 400 single deckers in the fleet which is far too many, with a lot of services struggling to break even then it's common sense to replace some services with double deckers with a reduced frequency.

Arguably most of them are life expired!

You are not correct. Zenobe don't lease specific vehicles,  they lease a fixed number of vehicles and Zenobe can request a swap at any time, so not giving chance to return the vehicle to stock livery


The rules with Zenobe are they must be just one 'neutral' colour. The other operator using Zenobe is Newport who are all over lime green

There's more to it than that though:

For example, contracts can be negotiated, an alternative supplier could have been procured and ultimately, in any market it's a buyers market!