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Tony has reported tomorrow now

looks like another delay 

But Trains aren't named Jessica Grace there either named after a City so City Of Birmingham which the operator serves, A Railway person who has given service for so long, someone killed in an accident, Charity ie Steven Sutton or something to do with the Railway. Buses should be named after maybe local people or legends for that area. So a West Brom bus should be named after Cyrllie Regis or one of the Three Degrees or Jeff Astle. You could also name after a long serving or former Member of staff or a local charity so for example the Albion Foundation or Good Sheppard in Wolverhampton or maybe Birmingham Children's Hospital. A link to the local area NX Serve. Names like Jessica Grace might be picked by say a driver called Steve who only drives that bus maybe once every few months but most drivers won't care. It works for Trucks as usually the Driver has to drive that same Truck for a few days and if it is named after his family he might be reminded of them. Buses Don't work like that

i dont know if this is true or not but i remember reading somewhere that the buses are named after female relatives of the employees. dont quote me on that though https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1088838771367219243/1239683460537389108/image.png?ex=6643d0b1&is=66427f31&hm=e2fe26444c111d17b5fc932827d076fbebba1bef6344c45b81ce89357ad7cd04&=&format=webp&quality=lossless

Not really a shame names should only be for people who have done over a certain amount of years with the company

pretty pedantic way of thinking when for the most part the names were just for fun

When is the hydrogen coming back soon?

if we had an answer it would already be posted here

You saw 5 buses in shoreditch yesterday? That really is insane!

On a bad day I see 5 in one minute at my regular bus stop.

i said i saw like 5 e400ev's, not 5 buses in total. that number is in the several hundreds.

i mean when i was in shoreditch yesterday it was insane. bus after bus after bus after bus and i saw like 5 ev400evs

Target the cars not the buses, theyre the ones doing the most damage to the environment and releasing the most fumes

have you heard of a particular place called London? there's more buses than cars in that place.

Yes, bit difficult to describe without an image. It's like on the rear displays on the X2 and X12, that show 'Railway Station' stacked up next to Solihull.

Again, this goes back to the 4801 debate and what is/isn't contractually required and having it recognisable as an NX bus.

I don't see the same levels of criticism being levied at the smaller operators that press any old bus into service, regardless of its aesthetic or mechanical state.

because they are smaller operators as you said which likely cannot afford it unlike nxwm which have a huge monopoly over the west midlands area (literally 93% of services) and bring in record profits year over year (197.3 million in 2023)

i don't know but to me it just makes sense to maybe put an ounce of care into how your equipment looks when its being used on 93% of the west midlands's bus services.

diamond or nx?

Totally agree its awful saw it yesterday on Smallbrook Queensway  as bad as the red/white wraps back in day

because nx clearly care about how the bus looks so much to the point they've put it in a temporary wrap, but it doesn't make sense to not go the full 9 yards. and I don't mean do the best wrap you've ever seen but it could at least be better than what they did

It doesn't look great, but as it's been mentioned, I don't think there's particularly because of the vinyl (although you can see some crimson around the license at the front, as it has been pointed out), but the state of the bodywork.

It wouldn't stop me from wanting to board, a bus is a bus at the end of the day. My local routes are ran by buses in two tone grey, platinum, blueson, crimson and NX red and white

The only question I'd ask is, why have the rear windows 4801 been vinyled over?

your locals are also my locals nice

Just some of my observations/opinions:

The bus is wrapped in the corporate identity - granted, there are no fleetnames, but instantly recognisable to a passenger as an NX bus.

The bus will have the odd imperfection where the vinyl has been applied to what I call, road-worn panels i.e. panels on a bus that have taken some degree of abuse, but not accident damage. Perfectly acceptable as a bus for service.

The frontal application does have some areas not completely covered, like headlight and number plate surrounds. Only we, as enthusiasts/forum members, have the opportunity to zoom in and examine this quasi-forensically. Does it look bad? On the photo closely examined yes, but to the average farepaying passenger, I doubt they're loking down, rather up at the destination displays. (I actually quite like the red headlight surrounds in red, it breaks up the grey).

I understand that this is an all over advert bus, so the most cost/time effective way to cover the bus after the previous advert was removed is this.

I would always gauge this against these factors:

Is it roadworthy and safe to drive/transport passengers? Yes

Is it "on brand" and recognisable to passengers? Yes

Will spending anymore money tittivating this bus to the "N"th degree make it any better to satisfy the above? No.

As a former bus manager, I would be more than happy for this to be pressed into service as it is to maintain service. If any of my customers, or enthusiasts, have any concerns, I'd be happy to accept their feedback via the corporate channels.

was it this serious?

I noticed that the NIS blinds (at least the rear blinds on platinum) now show NX's social media links

they have been like that for a long time