Are Arriva going to fail in the west midlands

[winston]

Perhaps Arriva could go the way of Go-Ahead (in the West Midlands area) but who would take over?NXWM would be barred, and whoever took over would be in the same situation with the same vehicles.  Mercifully NXWM was not split up the way GM Buses was, but their hold means other operators cannot get much of a look in.  But competition doesnt work in the bus industry.

sconehead85

It's a pity Go-Ahead gave up so easily & quickly in the West Midlands, they could always make a return under their new Chief Exec I guess? Dependant on Arriva's plans for the West Midlands, if they intend to get bigger still and develop a larger network, I can see them making a takeover approach for the entire Rotala Group to gain the Diamond business, I couldn't see Rotala being prepared to sell just that unit or alternatively there's always Stagecoach, Brian Souter has always had his heart set on adding WMT/NXWM to the Stagecoach's portfolio, but after two failed attempts to get his hands on it, a third attempt seems highly unlikely for the foreseeable

[richie]

Itll be closed before any bloody 'profit rolls in', with the crap 99% f
midibus fleet they run if I was nxwm I wouldnt be worried at all theyll be laughed out the house. If youre basing it on the theory of only paying routes would justify better buses, then the entire network of ex Midland routes must be loss making basket cases, looking at the fleet

If they are that bad why had they made such a "good impression" on centro, and that has been told to me by centro?
There is very very very little chance that they will move out of Cannock and as I have said before I am a massive fan and supporter of Rotala and it is hard for me to say arriva are doing a much better job on the 335 than they did. Plus Cannock fleet isn't that bad, it isn't great but its far from bad, look at the fleet at Kidderminster when first was running it!

What ever mate! I live in cannock and see on a daily basis the horrendous state of the fleet amount of breakdowns etc.Arriva are excellent in some depots but utterly crap at Cannock. PERIOD

It doesn't even matter what centro think without NX there is no point of centro look at their swift ticket, waste of time without NX on board.

[bwsau cymru]

Itll be closed before any bloody 'profit rolls in', with the crap 99% f
midibus fleet they run if I was nxwm I wouldnt be worried at all theyll be laughed out the house. If youre basing it on the theory of only paying routes would justify better buses, then the entire network of ex Midland routes must be loss making basket cases, looking at the fleet

If they are that bad why had they made such a "good impression" on centro, and that has been told to me by centro?
There is very very very little chance that they will move out of Cannock and as I have said before I am a massive fan and supporter of Rotala and it is hard for me to say arriva are doing a much better job on the 335 than they did. Plus Cannock fleet isn't that bad, it isn't great but its far from bad, look at the fleet at Kidderminster when first was running it!

What ever mate! I live in cannock and see on a daily basis the horrendous state of the fleet amount of breakdowns etc.Arriva are excellent in some depots but utterly crap at Cannock. PERIOD

It doesn't even matter what centro think without NX there is no point of centro look at their swift ticket, waste of time without NX on board.

Yes completely agree about the swift card, and nx do need to keep good relations with centro for obvious reasons. And NX are onboard with Swift card and you will be able to upload nx travel card products onto your swift card very shortly. NX have delayed joining swift as they wanted to introduce there own smart card product but after talks with centro agreed to be part of it. Centro is essential for passengers as without them imagine how many smart cards we would have.

Arriva building a good relationship with centro means centro are going to see them in a good light and this clearly has to be good for investment (such as gaining funding for hybrids) to contract wins!!

[bwsau cymru]

ok rather than moaning about arriva and more so not mentioning Cannock please could people list the reasons why they think arriva would fail or would work, and with the roumour that arriva are interested in buying travel de courcey does any who think arriva will buy another west midlands based company and who and why them

[richie]

I just think they wouldn't invest in the levels they need to effectively compete with NX however they have expanded their operation in the area within a short time. I can't see decourcey selling up and I can't see Arriva competing with NX and stagecoach or running NX contracts if they are competing with the bus division. Time will tell I don't think they will fail as such but I can't see them even giving NX a run for their money they will probably absorb diamond west mids so in the end one company running 2 or 3 former companies.