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Been on the tram today to ride the full journey Edgbaston Village to Wolverhampton Rail Station.

Very few people from Edgbaston and even in the City Centre not many people got on. Probablly most people got on at West Bromwich bus station, but even then there were seats.

At Journeys end a few people got off at the Train station, but have to say that no one was waiting to catch the tram in the Birmingham direction.

Seems strange that they haven't reopened the track to Wolverhampton St Georges, you always got quite a few people waiting for the tram there. Seems to have been forgotten about?

PN 6923 seen on the 9 today but not showing as tracking since 11 March.

EDIT: Seems to have been fixed!

" but the delays mean it will be well into the school summer holidays before the extension may open. "

Which school holidays are they and more importantly which year!!

Spotted 2082 on the PN7 earlier, presume it's just a loan?

Sadly, I feel that there will be no winner in this dispute now.

If NX are forced to increase the pay offer, then fares may be foirced to rise along with the fact that passenger numbers are likely to fall causing fewer buses and drivers to be needed because of the strike action.

If the Union eventually have to give up the strike action without any further pay rise, then you are going to have very unhappy drivers given the fact of the amount of money they have lost already during the strike. Some drivers may wish to leave the company and find alternative employment with another company, perhaps a rival of NX. Drivers remaining will have low moral and also NX may still have to reduce bus and driver numbers.

It's amazing that if buses don't run, people do find alternatives and it may well be that they stick with that alternative when the buses do run.

I feel for everyones sake this strike needs sorting and fast!!

A load of crap you posted about pensnett  I was there that wasn't what was said

To be honest thanks to a slight "cock up" this morning, ended up going past Pensnett Trading Estate and decided to pop down mostly to see what the garage looked like full of buses.

So, I can't talk about any other time but at around 11:30 there didn't seem to be anyone blocking any pavements or restricting any access to anywhere!

As far as I know, for routes operated under contract,  an emergency tender could be issued but I'm not 100% about that. Commercial routes would need to be registered in the normal way.  If the services were franchised, then I believe that it would be the case that yes, no other operators could run those routes as that would be in breach of the terms of the franchise.

The only reason i asled was that I was driving past Stourbridge bus station this morning at 09:45 and a Diamond bus came out with 6 as the number on the rear? Wouldn't have taken much notice but as I followed it round onto Stourbridge Ring Road,an NX employee seemed to be watching it and was either on his phone or taking pictures!

Am I right in thinking that Diamond (or any other operator for that matter) are not allowed to operate on NX routes (except the routes that are shared)

The 25, 142 and 142A service uplifts are being part paid for by BSIP (Bus Service Improvement Plan) money

and to be frank, what an awful waste of money!

I do wonder whether the 1st January changes have actually changed the bus services for the better or not.

Certainly the 142/A seems to run between Halesowen and Stourbridge with very few people on it, the Stourbridge to Merry Hill bit seems to be rather better although still not brilliant loadings. Sundays the 142s I see (runs pasr my flat) are mostly empty, was this a really good idea from TfWM? Surely the best idea, imo, would be to withdraw the 142A, the 7 could cover Springfield Avenue once an hour. Continue the 142 hourly and reduce the Merry Hill section to hourly. Withdraw the Sunday service.

Same as the new 25 service, had some time to kill last week and caught a 25 between Dudley and Stourbridge and across the whole journey there were only 9 passengers including myself. Once again limit the 25 to hourly which should help.

Can't comment on the 45, but have seen both the 002 and 226 carrying more passengers than these services.

And the wait gets longer!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64499443

Hi Simon,

I saw 32316 on the 18 this morning displaying 27 Dudley via Gornal Wood on the front, but the correct number on the rear and correct destination and number on the side, ie: 18 Dudley Bus Station.

Saw 4833 in Stourbridge Interchange earlier. Has a National Express WQest Midlands sticker on the rear saying it is on loan from Coventry ??

4561 in Stourbridge Interchange this morning, having running repairs, coolant hose being replaced by the looks of it.

[Yesterday]

Did anyone predict this for the forum, " Most Online Ever: 413 (Yesterday at 08:44:43 AM) " what happened yesterday morning to warrant this, I mean today 4535 is on loan to BC and at the moment only 57 online,