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Has the depot been fitted out with the necessary charging equipment ?

I've no idea. But as Arriva has won Zebra funding for battery buses for the 110 at Tamworth, in partnership with Staffs CC, one would think that charging equipment will be necessary at Tamworth garage.

When will he battery buses be coming to Tamworth for the 110?

Are the new electric buses air conditioned? The air coming out of the vents of the upper deck of E172 is fairly cool.

The X2 doesn't terminate the other side of the City at all, it's an 8 minute walk along one road. It's not like ones on Moor Street and the other at Colmore Row.

It doesn't take long at all on the bus, the 4 and X2 take similar amount of time. The X2 has loads of bus priority along the route. How are you trying to get an express bus along Stratford and Warwick Road when the current services get stuck in that traffic, and you can't just flyover it.

A lot of passengers in AG if they want to be in town within 15 minutes catch the train which is very popular.

OK, having looked at a map the stops are closer than I implied.  I always alight on Priory and board on Corporation St.

I agree with you that it is not feasible to travel from Solihull & Acocks Green to Birmingham by bus due to the slow journey times, and train is more practical.  However when Solihull and Sutton Coldfield are both almost the same distance from Birmingham, and it is almost half an hour on X3/X4/X5 to travel between Birmingham & Sutton, where as it is almost an hour on the X2/4 to travel between Birmingham & Solihull then if anything can be done to reduce journey times and increase patronage, this can only benefit both the operator and the passenger.

Maybe because the 907 isn't an express service... it's limited stop and the 9** is for limited stop services. The X3's etc have more of an express feel using the Expressway whereas the 907 serves stops inbetween Perry Barr and the City, so has less of an express feel just limited stops, whereas the X51 is non-stop until the City

More pointless renumbering, don't mess with something that already works fine. Having two X2's in the City Centre by the same operator is bound to cause loads of unnecessary confusion.

So the X8, X10, X21, X22 & X64 are "Express" services as opposed to "Limited Stop" services? 

The Solihull X2 departs from the opposite side of the city centre to the Sutton routes, so no reason to cause confusion.  It is more confusing to have short running services not suffixed with an E.

Regarding the Solihull Services, it takes far too long to get from Birmingham to Solihull by bus, the 4 (formerly 37) could do with having some "express" services from Digbeth Coach station to Acocks Green.  Another X4! 

Could renumber the 907 to X7 as well.

Yes, it's bizarre that every NX Sutton to Birmingham route number was changed to X_ except for the 107/907.

Sorry but that just sounds like pointless renumbering to me, and probably would confuse a fair few people!

For consistency with the Sutton Lines services, Arriva's 110 service could be renumbered as X6 though - it's interesting how TfWM have left both X6 and X11 free!

Isn't most renumbering pointless?

To integrate the 110 (potential future X6) into the Sutton Lines timetable to create a regular 5 minute service between Birmingham & Sutton would also help with consistency.

Whitehouse Common, Rectory Road and Good Hope customers already have access to Mere Green through the 78A service vice versa.

Yes, just 4 services a day. Falcon Lodge has the X14, so does that infer that the X4 should be cut back to Sutton.

Many duplicated numbers but none of them go to the same place lol

There used to be a NX 115 Sutton Coldfield to Birmingham and an Arriva 115 Tamworth to Birmingham.  Both terminating on Upper Bull Street.  A picture of both was posted on here some years ago.

And passengers wishing to travel to Lichfield who can't or don't want to use the train are supposed to do what?

Continue to use the X3 or renumbered X2

Renumber X3 to X2 (many duplicated route numbers anyway)
Renumber X5 to X3
Curtail X4 to Sutton Coldfield only
This will match X route numbers with original 102/103/104

Add X5 to Falcon Lodge (existing X4) reduced to 2bph
Add X6 to Mere Green or Hillhook via Good Hope/Whitehouse Common/Roughly terminus to give customers on Rectory Rd/Whitehouse Common access to Mere Green shops and give customers of Hillhook/Mere Green/Roughley access to Good Hope Hospital

You think electric charging points are relatively cheap to install? maybe for 1 car, not for 100 buses where a new substation is normally needed.
There's no reason why Electric buses won't last longer than diesels. Yes they will need new batteries (not NX problem, that is Zenobe's) but diesels generally need new engines & gearboxes which are just as expensive (ask Scania how much they want for a replacement engine). There's a lot less movement and vibration on an electric so the structure of the bus should last a lot longer.

Intending to run electric buses today based on current cost and government subsidy.  It will be interesting to see policy in 7 years or so.

It is positive to hear that electric buses don't cost any more, or significantly more than diesel buses over their lives.

You don't need Hydrogen fuelling to charge electric buses

Clearly, but electric vehicles are currently in high supply because electric charging points are relatively cheap to install. 

An increase in hydrogen fueling stations around the country, can only be a benefit to reaching net zero. And re-feulling the 51s locally is surely a benefit.

Will you get 20+years use out of your electric buses as you did with your diesel buses?

Eventually yes, but need Zenobe to get the chargers installed at depots so more EVs can start to be delivered.

PB is a brand new garage, surely when built at considerable cost it was equipped for Hydrogen fueling! 

Arriva prices are for a reason, they're what's needed to even stand a chance of breaking even

Serious question. Why does Arriva need to charge so much to break even beyond the West Midlands. They have doubled their frequency in recent years to now have 33% of the services between Sutton and Birmingham. Their buses, when running reliably, are relatively busy and much busier than the X3 which charges only £4.50 day ticket to Lichfield.