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Mr Mayor is just waiting for the chance to reveal his bull livery, y'know as the Manchester ones have bees all over them...

Hopefully it will just be the TfWM WMB livery it looks the best in my opinion out of the major cities and will will look more unified as it is the livery on trains and trams in the area

It doesn't, but it does show a lacklustre in effort to make buses visually appealing to people

Buses aren't meant to be "visually appealing" they're meant to take you from Place A to B

What he won't mention is that Manchester still has the same price cap and will do so you aren't controlling the fares Central government is. All it is doing is being exactly the same as Manchester. What the Mayor's should have done is encourage people to Try the bus if it is still not making money and they are having to keep using fares then take it over if NX as he seems to keep attacking them are mismanging money or running Double Deckers carrying 2 passengers, but they aren't doing this no Operator is. What no one has mentioned is before Covid Buses here were getting busier and services had actually been increased on some routes. Then Covid came along a lot of work was done from home, most people drove or caught cabs because they thought buses would be unhygienic. I remember seeing NX Double Deckers on the usually single Decker 34 and 37 because of the Social distancing.
The Last government also seemed to keep opening and then also closing things, when Colleges and Schools returned Buses became rammed and often said Bus Full meaning you would have wait, Driver shortages then came about due to illness, Stress, Better opportunities driving Trucks so NX struggled this combined with Buses being absolutely rammed probably put people off getting the bus as they still saw it as a covid hotspot and then the bus they were waiting for never turned up or was full. Things started to return to normal slowly, but then again what no one mentions is the fact the Trams were broken and on Strike What took the strain the bus, which due to being rammed was again missing stops, more cars on the road more traffic, loads of Roadworks, CityFibre, Metro Works, Cycle Schmes and other stuff also didn't help they seemed to pop up everywhere usually within days of each other especially after Covid this again caused issues.
Some of the reasons Buses are still Struggling is Covid, Potential Passengers finding better ways to get into Work and more people can work from home. If they need to go out they drive, Walk or get a cab. What the government and mayor's need to do is get the buses back to pre Covid levels, more promotion, end these Roadworks and stop meddling with Fares and expecting the companies and operators to want to comply to it or even in Some cases routes and timetables, there is a reason this service is running through here anymore no one used it, suddenly it's gone oh you've all come out now haven't you where were you before.
It almost seems no one trusts the Bus Companies to run the buses and they want to play a part in everything. The people running these companies know how much fuel costs, how much they are making, why this bus that was once every 5 minutes is now every 10 or so on they don't do it for a laugh. It almost seems they listen to frequent moaners of buses and are like right let's get Jane at number 16 a bus that stops outside her house eventhough in the last 2 years she has used the bus once, let's give Doreen that every 10 minute service eventhough she has a 6 minute service 20 meters at the other end of her road and can get another bus if she wanted. I think the thing all mayors and the Government need to do is support the bus companies with adverts and promotions, work with them not against them to try and improve service rather than just suggesting the bus should come down this road as it used to Six years ago. Six years ago there was demand now there isn't if there is offer it to another operator, when NX run said service don't then moan at being unreliable you made it unreliable by suggesting or basically telling them to reroute it.

The mayors response was just sucking up to Andy Burnham and talking about his franchising scheme (which in 3 years).

Since TFWM control most of bus fares now, isn't there a way for them to subside £2 Single for nBus Zone? Will it be worth it/affordable?

A £2.90/£3.00 single is way overpriced for a city region

In what way is it failing?
From my journeys on the 14, 94/95's nearly every day I can't see how it is?

You should try the Stratford Rd 6 on weekdays where there is many missing buses so you have to wait over 20 minutes on a 'high frequency' road for an overcrowded bus. I know there is similar problems like that in Coventry .

Single tickets here are about to go up to £2.90 for Adults if Labour cancel the £2 Cap (which is looking likely) at the start of 2025 and that will be embarrassing as its £1.75 in London and £2.00 in Manchester (correct me if I'm wrong but I think that's the uncapped price in Manchester for Bee Network)


But NX has improved Warwick Rd this year though - they finally put DDs on it which has reduced overcrowding, other issues for that are mostly out of their control like traffic

Areas like Solihull/Coventry have no reason to have a night bus. Birmingham yes, but they need to make sure people know about it and they use it so it doesn't get scrapped

To be honest, the current system is failing so why not give franchising a go, it may bring more competition into the network as now its just NX having a monopoly

The new Mayor Richard seems to be useless atm tho - just copying whatever Andy Burnham says and does. Seen Andy Street being interviewed & talking more about HS2 going to North compared to Richard

Someone in my discord server has sent a video of new bus announcements for the route 997 (Walsall)
(

) It appears the voice has changed to TTS

Can someone let me know if this change is a new thing or just temporarily until the person that normally does it records new ones for Walsall.

Are the 3 digit numbers making a comeback?

I'm guessing its something to do with getting ready for franchising as bus routes aren't meant to be the same or similar, Greater Manchester did the same in Wigan where services like 1 and 2 is now 601/602.

Hello Simon,


Will Diamond West Midlands be receiving next stop announcements soon?
If they are, will they will be using the same voice as NX/Metro, Elinor Hamilton.

The next order, which is likely to start delivery later this year, that I cannot give details of yet, but it will not be BYD

I'm predicting Electroliners for 4/4A. Then remaining single deckers get given to 8A/8C to replace Omnilinks (unless that get DD's) or 72 (if 72 can handle single deckers - to get rid of the B7TLS)

When franchising happens in WM, do u think they will follow London or Manchester's method?

London: Operators have their own depot and bid for routes
Manchester: Council owns the depot and the vehicles and the operator bids for it


^ think thats how they work, correct me if im wrong

Just for a bit of fun, what does your crystal ball see for next year?



I'll start with the following...


NX Bus's plan to have 300 new electric buses in service 'by December 2024' delayed until 2025 due to issues with getting chargers installed at garages.

Stagecoach to actually announce an order of electric buses for its Leamington, Nuneaton and Rugby garages, so that Coventry can become an all-electric bus city in 2025.

NX Coventry to announce and place an order for single-deck EVs.

Richard Parker to become the new Labour mayor of the West Midlands, and plans to franchise buses to be accelerated.

Opening of new rail stations at Moseley, Kings Heath and Pineapple Road delayed until 2025.

NX Bus announce locations of new garages in Longbridge and Kitts Green to replace the Birmingham Central depot.

Stagecoach to announce and open a new depot in Birmingham/Solihull.

The 20 hydrogen buses at Walsall will be used all day every day of the week.

Looks like this was accurate 

Saw this too

just seen an article that Walsall garage has been purchased by WMCA , is this genuine or fake news reason i say that the article i saw was a screen shot could have doctored as they say
just been on WMCA website there is information regarding purchase by  the Investment board  many pdf files etc etc reagarding minutes of meetings etc

72 totally single deck operated so far anyone know why haven't seen that happen in a long while?

Only took over 6 years for NX to switch the allocations for the 4/4A and 72 hopefully it stays forever

My understanding was that only vehicles expected to still be in service for another five years (from 2023) would get the grey repaint.

That takes us up to 2028. NX have set themselves a target of having a 100% zero emission fleet by 2030.

With the Eclipse 2 B7RLEs getting the grey treatment, that tells me the single decks will be the last to be replaced.

The earliest E400s won't last until 2028 I would imagine, though they've still got another few years left in them.

What even happened to TFWM's plan to have all trains, trams and buses into the TFWM livery.
it seemed pretty smart tbf