New Contracts

[TinnedPeaches]

It looks like Arriva is making preparations to take on their new contracts around the Black Country. Plain white Enviro 200 (with Arriva fleetnames) seen on Himley Road loaded with drivers yesterday and today a fully liveried Enviro 200 seen in a lay-by at the Merry Hill Centre. I wonder what influence the company's presence in the area will have..?

[richie]

interesting times ahead? or not!

[D10]

Made me wonder if Arriva are going to compete more with NXWM, although seeing as their last attempt to that after they took over Chase didn't really work out, that does seem unlikely.

[winston]

Arriva must have something in mind......., they are certainly not going to make much money from Centro contracted services and have also gone to a lot of trouble setting up a new depot for only 14 vehicles work of work. It wouldn't surprise me if Arriva started a handful of commercial services to test the market & possibly NX's reaction; however, that said Arriva aren't normally renowned for being that aggressive when it comes to competing with other major bus groups.

Another option for Arriva to gain scale quickly in the West Midlands, might be to acquire Rotala Group as a whole or just its West Midlands based business

[Ash]

Rotala hasnt increased its commerical operation much recently with no new routes being tried out and with the loss of all these centro subsidised services and the decrease in the network they have in redditch, it would be good to see what Arriva would do with the company

[winston]

Rotala's Diamond Bus business has been shrinking over the last few years...... a number of Black Diamond commercial services have been withdrawn of late since NXWM started fighting back with frequency increases, special return tickets etc, Red Diamond didn't do any good against First in Worcester and now they have lost further work allowing a new entrant in the West Midlands. I'm assuming more of Diamond's centro tendered routes will be of interest to the new Arriva operation

[Ash]

NXWM do offer special return tickets but diamonds are cheaper there just not advertised well, Diamond £2.50 on quite a few routes compared to NXWM £2.70 but also i liked some of diamonds branding ideas like the super 16 and black country connection i know the buses have left the fleet with the branding but now theres no consistency some vehicles all over white, some red and white, some red diamond with the rest being black diamond which if i was new to the area would find very confusing and doesnt give a good impression

[winston]

A few of the various management at Black Diamond have gone with Scott Dunn to work for Dunn Motor Traction ta Yourbus. I believe the individual also responsible for marketing & branding has also left the company, which is why no new branding / marketing campaigns have been introduced for a while.

[Ash]

Yeah i think the company needs a bit of investment in replacing some of the older vehicles especially after the 23 mcv's leaving or at least refurbing and repainting the older fleet into the correct livery's.

[BN]

Yes Jonny 5 has left to join Scott in Nottingham.

[winston]

As has Stephen Byrce to run Yourbus's National Express contracts

Yes Jonny 5 has left to join Scott in Nottingham.

[TinnedPeaches]

It's a shame if Diamond shrinks to the point of closure as their image is quite inviting (even if I know parts of the business aren't quite as reliable as they could be). NXWM need someone to give them a run for their money because, speaking personally, as they pretty much have the monopoly on routes around the region I feel, over time, they've become a little complacent about the company's image...not suggesting that Arriva will be the ones to do this, but you never know...

[Ash]

I think black diamond do well on the commercial services they run as i see alot of their buses quite full especially in the black country whereas blue diamond seems to struggle against the competition i dont know if this is because of the older fleet they have.

[Badger]

The 63/64 are currently still Midland, despite Arriva's contract supposedly starting 22nd May April. The NWM website makes no mention of a change in their service changes lineup. The online timetable says it is valid up to 06/06/2012 (but again, no mention of a timetable change on 06/06 on the website).

[4504]

I agree with you about the livery. But NXWM buses are the same, there's about 3 different liveries

NXWM do offer special return tickets but diamonds are cheaper there just not advertised well, Diamond £2.50 on quite a few routes compared to NXWM £2.70 but also i liked some of diamonds branding ideas like the super 16 and black country connection i know the buses have left the fleet with the branding but now theres no consistency some vehicles all over white, some red and white, some red diamond with the rest being black diamond which if i was new to the area would find very confusing and doesnt give a good impression