AV82 - Aston Villa Shuttle Service

[Michael Bevan]

Just seen that Stagecoach are going to be running an AV82 service from Birmingham to Villa Park on match days. Service will be starting from Dudley Street to Villa Park three hours before kick-off, then from Grosvenor Road to New Street after the match...

https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2024/march/28/New-express-city-centre-shuttle-buses-set-to-launch-on-matchdays/

[Stu]

Looks like Leamington are running this, using 5 Unibus branded E400MMCs today.

[Jay71]

I wonder why Stagecoach got this contract.  Was it down to them being cheaper than rival operators

[EK40]

Looks like Leamington are running this, using 5 Unibus branded E400MMCs today.

looks like its mixed depot for european nights like today, nuneaton and leamington are running a couple and even a X4 branded gold mmc has come from as far as kettering.

[ellspurs]

From the press release at the top:

'Ian Campbell, Operations Manager at Stagecoach, added: "We are delighted to be helping fans with a quick, comfortable, and cost-effective shuttle service to get to and from Villa Park. We are pleased to be working with Aston Villa to help make supporter travel safer and more sustainable."'

Ah, yes, sustainable travel, with vehicles travelling 55 miles from the bus company's depot to carry out the "sustainable travel". (note: if they're still not allowed to use the motorways when travelling to/from depot then it'll be a bit further than that.)

[Michael Bevan]

15447 & 15668 are among the vehicles on the AV82 today.

[Mayfield]

Do they come from Northampton just to do this

[2206]

Do they come from Northampton just to do this

I think they do yes.
As I've seen then going back to Northampton on the M6 in the past.
And the 46/41/A9/169 come from Rugby via the A45 as well of course.

[ellspurs]

I guess Stagecoach may not want to commit themselves to a garage in the West Midlands area when Mr Mayor will award them one of NXs at franchising.

[Mayfield]

That's probably the case but it seems bonkers to move buses that far just for a football special unless there trying to get some kudos points before franchises happen

[Tony]

A similar expensive waste is TfL Superloop SL6. This has just received brand new E400 EVs at half a million each for a route that just runs one way in the peak Monday to Friday 

[Ian Hardy]

A similar expensive waste is TfL Superloop SL6. This has just received brand new E400 EVs at half a million each for a route that just runs one way in the peak Monday to Friday

12 buses delivered for a PVR of 10 for a service that runs every 15 minutes from West Croydon to Russell Square in the am peak - 12 journeys so the first 2 buses manage to do two trips, but the other 8 buses only manage 1 trip:
http://www.londonbusroutes.net/times/SL06.htm

The route was originally the X68 being introduced on 27/10/1986 when the 68 lost it's RMs and conductors.
Initially it had a PVR of 6 and Norwood got a batch of 6 coach seated Leyland Olympians (L166 - L171) delivered specially for the service, however they didn't have a special livery so could be used for other things. 

Then in April 2011 Go Ahead won the X68 contract, with standard WVL (Volvo B7TL / Wright) being used. In March 2018 they were replaced by E400 Hybrids which interworked with other routes. The EHs were tarted up for the SL6 in July 2023 so became route bound. However Go Ahead had a depot at Waterloo (the erstwhile Red Arrow Cornwall Road base) so the buses only had to run out of service from Russell Square to Waterloo after the am peak, and then the other way to go back into the service in the afternoon. Now Arriva have won the contract, the buses go all the way back to Norwood empty.   

[Sandy Lane]

I think they do yes.
As I've seen then going back to Northampton on the M6 in the past.
And the 46/41/A9/169 come from Rugby via the A45 as well of course.

I doubt that SC will be running all that dead mileage for the fun of it and the cost will be built into AV's hire charges.
You would think a more local Birmingham based bus operator could have offered a cheaper deal?