Diamond Bus Service Changes 15th April 2023

[winston]

There's another online petition to save the 226 being promoted on the Kingswinford Facebook page, wonder how many of the 451 people signing it use the 226....🤔

SAVE THE 226 BUS SERVICE

https://www.change.org/p/save-the-226-bus-service?source_location=search

[Straightlines]

There's another online petition to save the 226 being promoted on the Kingswinford Facebook page, wonder how many of the 451 people signing it use the 226....🤔

SAVE THE 226 BUS SERVICE

https://www.change.org/p/save-the-226-bus-service?source_location=search

It's like you are in denial that people actually use these services!

[winston]

It's like you are in denial that people actually use these services!

Of course people use the service, but I see the loadings on the 226, do you?

[Straightlines]

Of course people use the service, but I see the loadings on the 226, do you?

Indeed I do!  Given the Evening and Sundays already meet the criteria for subsidy, it will be interesting to see TfWMs response!

[winston]

Indeed I do!  Given the Evening and Sundays already meet the criteria for subsidy, it will be interesting to see TfWMs response!

It's a political statement by Diamond to force TfWM's hand to finally implement the 'Bonfire of Tickets' and remove the Low Fare Zones, originally it was meant to happen in January, but it just keeps geting putting back & back...

There's also still the question mark over the Covid BRG which is currently due to cease end of March, the Welsh Goverment have announceed they're extending their Covid BES by an initial further 3 months from March, hopefully, the UK Government will follow suit !

[Wumpty]

It's like you are in denial that people actually use these services!

Well 483 certainly do, according to the petition (says he with tongue wedged firmly in cheek!).

EDIT: 501 now as at 12.59hrs ;D

[Westy]

Winston's got a 'fan', I notice!

[Stu]

There's another online petition to save the 226 being promoted on the Kingswinford Facebook page, wonder how many of the 451 people signing it use the 226....🤔

SAVE THE 226 BUS SERVICE

https://www.change.org/p/save-the-226-bus-service?source_location=search

The problem with these petitions is that they can easily be shared, and people will often just sign them, because someone has asked them to.

Reading through some of the comments there, anyone would think there are no other bus services in Dudley!

[D10]

The problem with these petitions is that they can easily be shared, and people will often just sign them, because someone has asked them to.

Reading through some of the comments there, anyone would think there are no other bus services in Dudley!

Exactly.

One wonders if the petition asked if people would be happier to pay on their Council Tax to help pay for TfWM to subsidise more services if they would then be so quick to sign! 

[winston]

The UK Government have today announced that the Bus Recovery Grant has been extended for a further 3 months until 30th June, whether that has any bearing on Diamond's decision to fully withdraw the 002, 45 & 226 from 15th April remains to be seen. It's the £3 Dudley & Sandwell local daysaver ticket that is the bigger issue:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/2-bus-fare-cap-to-be-extended-and-bus-services-protected-with-new-funding

[ellspurs]

It has its own TfWM information page now and the lovely Brum Mail are having a field day with articles:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/bus-passengers-hit-three-main-26227772
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/sadness-popular-city-bus-route-26227476
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/diamond-bus-route-45-axe-26283264

Diamond can't have taken the decision lightly. Have these routes always underperformed (NX pulled off the 45 at the end of last year, right?) and were propped up by other services, or has passenger numbers dramatically declined?

[Stu]

Diamond can't have taken the decision lightly. Have these routes always underperformed (NX pulled off the 45 at the end of last year, right?) and were propped up by other services, or has passenger numbers dramatically declined?

It is my opinion that it is a combination of several factors:
1) passenger numbers not fully recovering following the pandemic lockdowns
2) increased operating costs - staff pay increases, fuel and energy price rises, plus other cost increases
3) fare/ticket price freezes being imposed by TfWM

Three years ago, a bus service regularly carrying a certain number of passengers might have been reasonably profitable, however in the current climate, if that service is still carrying the same amount of passengers, who are still paying the same fares as three years ago, BUT the cost of operating that service has increased, then the service can easily become loss-making.

[ellspurs]

I didn't think of it that way. Even if the passenger numbers were sustained, because the costs have increased, the passenger numbers would either have needed to increase or they paid more.

[Mike K]

It's a far cry from the days that the (then) Birmingham Coach Company was running buses a few minutes in front of the incumbent operator Ludlows on the 002, in the battle for customers on the route.

This happened on other routes too, including the 004 Harborne to Merry Hill.

How times change. 

[Stu]

I didn't think of it that way. Even if the passenger numbers were sustained, because the costs have increased, the passenger numbers would either have needed to increase or they paid more.

To me, it's simple business economics. I never went to university so I don't have any degree in 'business management' or anything like that, but I've worked for enough businesses - both successful and failed - to have an understanding of how this all works.

I remember being exasperated reading news stories last year from small business owners struggling with energy price increases. There was one lady, a hairdresser, complaining to the local media about how she was struggling to pay her electricity bills at her salon, but she didn't want to increase the prices she charged her clients.

Now while that is a pretty noble gesture, unfortunately it doesn't make for a successful business model, if you fail to increase the price of your services offered, as your own costs of providing that service increase as well.

Sometimes you have to 'let the market decide' - perhaps most of your clientele are happy to pay the increased price, but you'll lose some customers in the process - but ultimately you have to do what you need to do in order to keep your business viable.

Same principle applies to bus services, perhaps there are other options that Diamond could have taken, such as reducing service frequencies to match passenger demand, which would have reduced operating costs and perhaps kept these services operationally 'viable'.

It concerns me though the 'level of expectation' that the Government should step in and provide funding, because then that becomes the first step towards 'bus franchising' via the back-door.