Partnership Plus agreement between Centro and Arriva

[Roy]

Centro and Arriva Midlands signed a partnership plus agreement on Thursday. 

http://www.centro.org.uk/about-us/news/2014/partnership-plus-deal-between-centro-and-arriva-buses-just-the-ticket/

There are 22 points in the agreement which covers the period up to the end of 2016.  Of interest in the Black Country, Dudley Bus Station will be refurbished by the end of 2016 which they claim will include significant improvements to the customer environment.

New infrastructure, shelters and information systems will be provided in Wolverhampton City Centre similar to those in Birmingham.

Arriva Midlands will deliver a minimum of 20 new buses into their fleet.

[winston]

I think that poo, poo's other suggestions of Centro only looking after NX and not encouraging other operators in the West Midlands.

Hopefully we might see Rotala/Diamond do something similar in Sandwell where they have a sizeable network of routes / to coincide with the the 4's becoming a 'Gold Corridor' ?

[andy]

So in other words then, they are 'announcing' new vehicles that entered service nearly a month ago? Same old Centro and politicians recycling positive PR I'm afraid.

As I've said before in previous posts, bus operators used to replace their rolling stock long before there was professional PR on this scale. It was just done. Now we are supposed to grovel and bow with appreciation whenever they buy one new bus and send a few older ones to keep the wheels turning somewhere else.

The 'agreement' this article mentions is a perfect example of what Diamond Dart was talking about in his excellent post on the Gold Corridors thread.