Diamond Bus - Discussion

[Discodave]

As new buses seem to be going to wessex connect and preston bus recently is there any investment in the pipeline for rotala's diamond bus operations. Could it mean any decent buses transferring from Preston bus or Wessex red to improve what diamond currently has.
Are the 16/17/50 very busy these days dont use the services much myself but wouldnt know but at the moment the 16 and 50 uses some of the newest and arguably best buses diamond has in its fleet which would be welcomed elsewhere to replace some of the red and white darts still in service.

It just seems Diamond have lost their spark and Rotala do not give 2 hoots about it whatever colour.  Some of the 09 plate centro bodied buses are on the wessex fleet seen them in Bristol on a night service on Sat am full as well.  The routes they do in Bath are doing ok too but it looks as most people seem hacked off with First in many areas
I go on the 50 quite a lot and yes the buses do seem to be fairly busy, especially the yellow nifty centros. There are noticable dips when its a blue diamond solo or something like that. But less busy now that green bus are on the route. Also, on the 16, the buses are new-and awful-and they are nowhere near as busy as they used to be. Most times just 1/2 people on it and I saw a GRS dart rammed yesterday. The 17 has always been a bit of a dead duck anyway so no different to how it always used to be. The 56 does well but theres really no point in them running the 10H route-not at all well used. The 50 and 16 would be busier if the 16 had branding like it used to, if they competed more aggressively and advertised day returns. Same on the 50 really-ensure 801 is repaired and put into the nifty livery and advertise the day returns on the displays on the front and with a strip at the top of the windscreen, possibly on the bus both inside and out to really raise awareness.

An alternative could be take the hybrids off the 16 and the darts/solo's off the 17 and put all these buses along with the centros on the 50 and offer 5/6 minute frequency. Similar to what black diamond does on the 4 offering a 6 minute frequency even though NXWM operates every 6 minutes its likely every other bus on the 4 is a black diamond are sometimes 2:1 to a NXWM bus depending on the times of the 4H and 4M.

I think they need to fight back on the 50 definitely though not with solos-possibly with more MAN centros and hybrids. Slash the fares, advertise returns, weeklies etc and theyd do far better. Plus train the drivers not to just sit behind NXWM buses.

[Sh4318]

It has to be said, NXWM and Green bus are doing a great job vs Diamond on the 50, I think more frequent buses and a plaxton centro only allocation to deal with high passenger demand could help them out

[winston]

Blue Diamond are now withdrawing from the 10/10H from 4th March,

[PM]

Blue Diamond are now withdrawing from the 10/10H from 4th March,

Not surprised. So underused and no doubt loss-making

[winston]

Blue Diamond are now withdrawing from the 10/10H from 4th March,

Not surprised. So underused and no doubt loss-making

They may as well close Long Acre at this rate and transfer the remaining services in to Tividale to cut costs

[PM]

Blue Diamond are now withdrawing from the 10/10H from 4th March,

Not surprised. So underused and no doubt loss-making

They may as well close Long Acre at this rate and transfer the remaining services in to Tividale to cut costs

I agree Winston. The thing is NXWM axed the 10/10H FOR A REASON-THEY CLEARLY DONT MAKR SUFFICIENT MONEY! And that would be when they had people with wm travelcards using the route.

[winston]

Blue Diamond are now withdrawing from the 10/10H from 4th March,

Not surprised. So underused and no doubt loss-making

They may as well close Long Acre at this rate and transfer the remaining services in to Tividale to cut costs

I agree Winston. The thing is NXWM axed the 10/10H FOR A REASON-THEY CLEARLY DONT MAKR SUFFICIENT MONEY! And that would be when they had people with wm travelcards using the route.

I agree with that, however you would think that Diamond's overheads would be much smaller than NXWM's, therefore Diamond should not need to carry as many passengers to make a profit on the route

[Kevin]

Ever since the 10h was routed through harborne I've been surprised it still ran at all, seems a bit pointless to have a route near enough the same as the 24.

[Ash]

With the losses of the national express contracts and service 10H to be withdrawn what will happen to all the drivers at Blue diamond surely theres going to be a lack of work, I wonder what services will be sent to Long Acre from Tividale to replace the withdrawn 10H similar to when the 16 and 50 were sent.

[winston]

With the losses of the national express contracts and service 10H to be withdrawn what will happen to all the drivers at Blue diamond surely theres going to be a lack of work, I wonder what services will be sent to Long Acre from Tividale to replace the withdrawn 10H similar to when the 16 and 50 were sent.

No doubt most if not all the NX drivers will simply transfer from Rotala to De Courcey with the contract

[Stu]

With the imminent North Birmingham Bus Review, Blue Diamond could end up with a new network of subsidised routes that NXWM simply aren't interested in.  ::)

[Ash]

Unusual to see 2 royale black diamond centro's on the 4/4H/4M today on a weekday service. With 3 cadets making appearances on the 40 service.

[Discodave]

and crap on the 301 shitty solos

[Ash]

and crap on the 301 shitty solos

Yeah I got on 20538 on the 301 yesterday,  the 4 hardly gets to see cadets now just the old red and white darts so to get the 2 spare royale centro's were rare.

[Mike K]

Blue Diamond are now withdrawing from the 10/10H from 4th March,

It's a shame that the 10 route is to finally disappear. In the mid to late 80's it was every 15 mins in the day, and half hourly at night and on Sundays. But it was hit harder than most routes as bus use in general declined (it serves some very wealthy areas) and the diversion of the then 103 (now 24) route along Simmons Drive and Quinton Road West largely replaced the busiest part of the 10 route. Then frequent tinkering to try to make it work, like extending it to Blackheath as the 110, and the incredibly short lived 102 variant was the final nail in the coffin for NXWM operation.