Diamond Bus - Discussion

[Ash]

Petes travel might have been profitable but it wasnt petes travel that sold it to the go ahead group as it was called peoples express when it got sold to the go-ahead group.

[Discodave]

I agree they tried a sunday service on the 301 and 404E and both services remain along with the evening services they should try something similar on the 002 and i was really suprised to see how early the 002 finishes late afternoon

301 diamond on sunday does not run in evening finishes just after shop closing around 1730-1800 live in route and use a lot

[fleetline6477]

Caught the 002 today where I got on 30136 Hybrid Bus which is a change from the usual 002 buses and a great bus to travel on. Also on the 002 today I saw 31479 which I didn't see in the morning but saw in the afternoon so it must have replaced a bus.

When catching a 002 back from Halesowen, the driver didn't have a clue where he was going and nearly ended up going the wrong way a couple of times but managed to go around an island to go the correct way after missing the turning. Luckily we all helped him by giving directions get back to Weoley Castle terminus even though it took a while. But a month or so back I was on the 002 and the driver took the wrong turning going towards Weoley Castle. It used to be regular drivers who drove the route all the time but now I see so many drivers that I've never seen before.

In recent weeks there has been a big overhaul of drivers allocated to routes. Most drivers used to operate 1 or 2 main routes. For example, in West Bromwich each of the following routes had their own group of drivers - 401/2/419, 404E, 410/313E, 417, 430/1/640 then vehicles off different routes went onto the late night routes 478, 644 but now all the West Bromwich routes are covered by the same group of drivers. Routes covered are 401E, 401/2, 404E, 410, 417, 430/1, plus late night / Sundays on 205, 313E,419, 478, 644 plus possibly one or two others.

[Ash]

I noticed on Tonys photo uploads for tonight there is a blue diamond livery centro and wondered what people thought as i think the black diamond livery suits them better in my opinion, also yeah i noticed the driver changes on the the diamond services around West Brom as before the same drivers drove the same services and most recently there always seems to be a driver i have never saw before on the 404E i wonder though if this is a service most diamond drivers know due to the amount of drivers needed for the service and thats its one of a very few commercial services that is operated 7 days a week including evenings by diamond and also its straight forward route.

[Discodave]

Petes travel might have been profitable but it wasnt petes travel that sold it to the go ahead group as it was called peoples express when it got sold to the go-ahead group.

Became peoples express when pete and son had a bust up and pete took his share and the business had little money left so had no option to sell plus big debts same as bcc so go ahead at the time had a good deal

[Mike360]

I saw a couple of wright cadets on the 417. Yesterday were 3 and today I saw at least 2 so lets hope they will stay now as these should stay on this route as even  a wright cadet I got on today from Oldbury to Halesowen had about 5-6 people on board.
Also yesterday 15th June, I only saw one branded 50 bus 30804 so I wondered where the others were (except 30801) and there was also a Hybrid 30134 yesterday which is the first I've seen on that route.

[Ash]

30201 and a royale centro was on the 002 today and a solo on the 404E

[Mike360]

As part of the Brierley Hill better bus fund, the 002 is going to have an on vehicle display, talking bus and on other routes in Merry Hill to. I wonder if the route will get new buses as part of the upgrade.

[Ash]

I would doubt diamond will replace the centro's on the 002 as there only 3 to 4 years old and are great buses with very eye catching branding and route name

[Mike360]

30216 had broken down today in Halesowen and was on the 007.

[Ash]

w567jvv (30439) has been repainted and refurbished into the black diamond livery from the red and white livery it used to carry and seen on the 404E. I wonder how many more of the older darts will get this treatment as 31419 was done recently and refurbished and is an R reg dart

[Discodave]

a lot of diamonds older buses (darts and mpds) need blowing up it needs a complete overhall more buses like versas (diesel version) and maybe some volvos like NXWM would be better or just shut redditch as they do have some nice buses as there crap is at tividale

[Ash]

23 mcv buses 10 and 60 reg buses and have not been replaced by anything at least equivalent to them. Wessex red part of wessex connect get new scania omnilinks and gemini's for the uni work. Would be good to see some investment like that back here with diamond. The red diamond eclipses worked for black diamond for a while but soon returned when there evolutions left, yeah i agree red diamond have a smaller fleet but seems of a better quality.

[matt904102]

Diamonds ability to keep correctly fleet named vehicles in their correct areas is terrible. You would think they would bring it all into one company so they could use any bus anywhere. Red Diamond vehicles are regularly used in the black country area.

[Discodave]

Diamonds ability to keep correctly fleet named vehicles in their correct areas is terrible. You would think they would bring it all into one company so they could use any bus anywhere. Red Diamond vehicles are regularly used in the black country area.

True being that black run the 007 and 202/204 into the red diamond area redditch is not that far from the West Mids operations