West midlands bus franchising

[wembley86]

Also the 40

40 was better when diamond and nx had their own 12 minute timetable meaning buses where every 6 minutes.   

[wembley86]

And the cars that take them to Work and the respective other staff who work at the Garages, Hospitals and so on

According to government stats for 2022 79% of population drives. In the 1990s it was roughly 65%.

We don't know what it will be like in 2030 but it could be 83%.

[Stu]

Just been reading through some of the responses to the consultation here:
https://busreform.commonplace.is/en-GB/contributions/proposal/short-questionnaire

Seems to be a lot of contributions "Pending Moderation", including my own!

You cannot view this attachment.

[Gareth]

Reading people's replies there's a lot of recurring themes. Mainly profit and monopoly.
Without profit there will be zero investment.
Franchising won't give you a choice either, you'll have one company and one company only running your route.

Mentions of the outer circle returning to a circle. That'll probably be one of the first routes to be broken up even further. Bringing back the midland red name was another response.

Franchising will almost certainly happen because so many people are giving positive thoughts about it without fully understanding it. Even I have difficulty understanding a lot of the proposal document and I have a greater understanding of local public transport than many.

[BlackCountryBusSpotter]

Reading people's replies there's a lot of recurring themes. Mainly profit and monopoly.
Without profit there will be zero investment.
Franchising won't give you a choice either, you'll have one company and one company only running your route.

Mentions of the outer circle returning to a circle. That'll probably be one of the first routes to be broken up even further. Bringing back the midland red name was another response.

Franchising will almost certainly happen because so many people are giving positive thoughts about it without fully understanding it. Even I have difficulty understanding a lot of the proposal document and I have a greater understanding of local public transport than many.

My Dad once said you could get a monkey to run for labour and people would still vote for it, I would how many of these people actually use Buses regularly or are young or smart enough to know how it works, so Young, involved in someway in Government or Transport Industry, Financial or been involved in Buses somehow, I bet it wouldn't be a high percentage

[Gareth]

My Dad once said you could get a monkey to run for labour and people would still vote for it, I would how many of these people actually use Buses regularly or are young or smart enough to know how it works, so Young, involved in someway in Government or Transport Industry, Financial or been involved in Buses somehow, I bet it wouldn't be a high percentage

I've got nothing against labour and normally I've got nothing against their policies. But I don't agree from what I know so far about West Midlands franchising.
The same on the other side of the argument, I despise what we put up with for the last 14 years, but I didn't mind Andy Street as mayor.

[BlackCountryBusSpotter]

I've got nothing against labour and normally I've got nothing against their policies. But I don't agree from what I know so far about West Midlands franchising.
The same on the other side of the argument, I despise what we put up with for the last 14 years, but I didn't mind Andy Street as mayor.

I agree there, I only hated his Tram policy

[don]

Reading the article in the February 2025 issue of Buses Magazine, something that jumped out at me was YMCA is stating 2039 for full zero emission operation - am I missing something here - I thought NXWM had given an undertaking to be 100% zero emission by 2030 - so why the extra 9 years?

Also, the article mentions the routes operated in the Coventry scheme, by Stagecoach, are exempt from franchising till 2035 - however the NXWM operation In Coventry appears not to be. This seems strange??!! 

[Coventrybususer95]

Reading the article in the February 2025 issue of Buses Magazine, something that jumped out at me was YMCA is stating 2039 for full zero emission operation - am I missing something here - I thought NXWM had given an undertaking to be 100% zero emission by 2030 - so why the extra 9 years?

Also, the article mentions the routes operated in the Coventry scheme, by Stagecoach, are exempt from franchising till 2035 - however the NXWM operation In Coventry appears not to be. This seems strange??!!

Wonder if some backhanders have been past about regarding the stagecoach routes 😒 as it seems a bit unfair that one company can keep routes yet another is at Risk of losing all there's 

[the trainbasher]

Wonder if some backhanders have been past about regarding the stagecoach routes 😒 as it seems a bit unfair that one company can keep routes yet another is at Risk of losing all there's

Unless they're waiting to see if Warks takes advantage of the forthcoming powers

[Stu]

Reading the article in the February 2025 issue of Buses Magazine, something that jumped out at me was YMCA is stating 2039 for full zero emission operation - am I missing something here - I thought NXWM had given an undertaking to be 100% zero emission by 2030 - so why the extra 9 years?

NX Bus' aim was to have a zero-emission fleet by 2030, that is correct. I do recall reading in the Enhanced Partnership document that TfWM was targetting all operators that all new buses introduced from 2030 should be zero-emission.

Also, the article mentions the routes operated in the Coventry scheme, by Stagecoach, are exempt from franchising till 2035 - however the NXWM operation In Coventry appears not to be. This seems strange??!! 

Having read through the consultation documents, my understanding is that 'cross-border' services may not be included in the franchise programme, however they would be subject to a 'permit' to operate within the franchised area, rather than being exempted.

[cardew]

Reading the article in the February 2025 issue of Buses Magazine, something that jumped out at me was YMCA is stating 2039 for full zero emission operation - am I missing something here - I thought NXWM had given an undertaking to be 100% zero emission by 2030 - so why the extra 9 years?

As per my post #134 in this thread, see section 3.5.1 on page 227 of the franchising report. I an wary of posting the text on here because there could be two sides to the story.

[Coventrybususer95]

It seems TFWM plan to spend £6.5 million pound on building a new Coventry bus depot 

Site will be brought in 2025/26 to be open in 2027/28 with a PVR of 40 


Going to be interesting to see where it will be 

[ellspurs]

Probably on one of the industrial estates by Coventry airport. Once they take over NXC's site they'll sell it for ££££££ to developers and cream off the top.

[Sandy Lane]

It seems TFWM plan to spend £6.5 million pound on building a new Coventry bus depot

Site will be brought in 2025/26 to be open in 2027/28 with a PVR of 40


Going to be interesting to see where it will be

40 seems a small number for Coventry to me? Doesn't NXC have a few more than that?
If it is just 40 then just maybe they are looking at what was the new depot built by TDC (now a truck base) just before they stopped running?