Diamond Bus - Discussion

[Ash]

Quickly to add diamond are doing kids for a quid with OAP passes and have a £5 family daysaver on offer for the west midlands operations. The swop would mean standardising the fleet thats all I would settle for centro's there good buses.

[winston]

Quickly to add diamond are doing kids for a quid with OAP passes and have a £5 family daysaver on offer for the west midlands operations. The swop would mean standardising the fleet thats all I would settle for centro's there good buses.

I agree with standarising the fleet but they are 07 plate, not so bad if only the ex Midland Classic B7RLE go

[the trainbasher]

20542 appeared in Merry Hill on the 002 today - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomsbusphotos/9422369971/

[Ash]

At least the college is on a break so the capacity should be reduced on the 002 surely there must be a couple of royale centro's spare as 6 are needed daily so normally 2 are free. At minimum a cadet should be used or take one of the b7rle's from the 4 or one from Long Acre as a temporary replacement. The midland classic ones are not the most reliable buses in the fleet but the 13 reg ones are superb but just think standardising is better also the 4 is still a mixture of buses even with 7 b7rle's or at the moment 6.

[winston]

Got to compliment Diamond, the 9pm 205 was bang on time with Royale B7RLE (30827) & a nice friendly driver, prevented me from getting completely drenched!  The things you do for a beer.....

[PM]

At least the college is on a break so the capacity should be reduced on the 002 surely there must be a couple of royale centro's spare as 6 are needed daily so normally 2 are free. At minimum a cadet should be used or take one of the b7rle's from the 4 or one from Long Acre as a temporary replacement. The midland classic ones are not the most reliable buses in the fleet but the 13 reg ones are superb but just think standardising is better also the 4 is still a mixture of buses even with 7 b7rle's or at the moment 6.

I wonder where all these royales end up must be on the 301 or something-the KS03 solos are awful anywhere especially on the 002 and the diamond tividale fleet needs some new buses such as 52 reg darts to upgrade the fleet. Any sign of the 08 eclipse?

[Trident 4609]

At least the college is on a break so the capacity should be reduced on the 002 surely there must be a couple of royale centro's spare as 6 are needed daily so normally 2 are free. At minimum a cadet should be used or take one of the b7rle's from the 4 or one from Long Acre as a temporary replacement. The midland classic ones are not the most reliable buses in the fleet but the 13 reg ones are superb but just think standardising is better also the 4 is still a mixture of buses even with 7 b7rle's or at the moment 6.

No the 002 still gets packed even in th School holidays even with Centros

[richie]

This operator is not going to succeed against diamond on the 57 I guess alot of people will buy diamond passes due to the network they have and to be fair diamond seem to offer cheap ticket prices which is fare to the people using the buses.

I agree a lot have diamond passes and now the fares are so ridiculously cheap that diamond/first were making no money there so the newstart will have to match them and so need very deep pockets to survive. 20 new eclipses and free buses for a few months by diamond will sort them out well and truly

But Peter how realistic is this with Rotala's track record of new buses for Diamond  :P

20 new eclipses? And free buses for a few months? That's more than their profit

[richie]

And judging by the photo further up the thread diamond want to turn the 002 into a mini bus route

[Solo1]

wonder ids suny travel is closing & come back as this operator as it ther enough space at the op centre below for 2 op's

A little birdie tells me Diamond are about to get some competition.
Watch the registrations.

Your little birdie would be spot on then

PD1107088/1 - HARDEEP KHAKH T/A CITY LINE TRAVEL, BRITANNIA WORKS, UNIT 2-3, 2-4 BRIDGE STREET SOUTH, SMETHWICK, B66 3DR

    Registration Accepted
    Starting Point: Redditch Bus Station
    Finish Point: Redditch Bus Station
    Via:
    Service Number: 57
    Service Type: Normal Stopping
    Effective Date: 26-SEP-2013
    Other Details: Mondays to Saturdays.

Wouldn't it have been more cost effective to locate the business closer to Redditch if that was the intended operating area, there's going to be quite a bit of dead mileage

No doubt Diamond will now use this as an argument to the Oft to allow them to keep the former First Redditch operation

Wonders what buses they will use :)
Operating Centre: 82 ROLFE STREET SMETHWICK B66 2AX
Authorisation:8 Vehicle(s).
Transport Manager(s): GOHEL SUBHASH

[Dylan4579]

wonder ids suny travel is closing & come back as this operator as it ther enough space at the op centre below for 2 op's

A little birdie tells me Diamond are about to get some competition.
Watch the registrations.

Your little birdie would be spot on then

PD1107088/1 - HARDEEP KHAKH T/A CITY LINE TRAVEL, BRITANNIA WORKS, UNIT 2-3, 2-4 BRIDGE STREET SOUTH, SMETHWICK, B66 3DR

    Registration Accepted
    Starting Point: Redditch Bus Station
    Finish Point: Redditch Bus Station
    Via:
    Service Number: 57
    Service Type: Normal Stopping
    Effective Date: 26-SEP-2013
    Other Details: Mondays to Saturdays.

Wouldn't it have been more cost effective to locate the business closer to Redditch if that was the intended operating area, there's going to be quite a bit of dead mileage

No doubt Diamond will now use this as an argument to the Oft to allow them to keep the former First Redditch operation

Wonders what buses they will use :)
Operating Centre: 82 ROLFE STREET SMETHWICK B66 2AX
Authorisation:8 Vehicle(s).
Transport Manager(s): GOHEL SUBHASH

That is Right by my house and Redditch is a longish drive from my house

[Steveminor]

What you have to remember guys is that this is just what rotala need to keep the OFT off their back I'm sure the oft wouldn't look too favourable if they tried to push out any competition. Besides you have no idea how much money these guys have in their bank account.
Remember again everyone thought Petes travel would never succeed against First & look at Diamond now.
Regarding distance well it doesn't matter how far you travel as long as you get the revenue remember Petes operating in Telford or Bharat who used to run a few school runs in Worcester.

[PM]

This operator is not going to succeed against diamond on the 57 I guess alot of people will buy diamond passes due to the network they have and to be fair diamond seem to offer cheap ticket prices which is fare to the people using the buses.

I agree a lot have diamond passes and now the fares are so ridiculously cheap that diamond/first were making no money there so the newstart will have to match them and so need very deep pockets to survive. 20 new eclipses and free buses for a few months by diamond will sort them out well and truly

But Peter how realistic is this with Rotala's track record of new buses for Diamond  :P

20 new eclipses? And free buses for a few months? That's more than their profit

As has been said, out of the sale of the levantes many b7rles could be bought from volvo uk bus stock-probably up to 20

[Nathan4775]

20542 appeared in Merry Hill on the 002 today - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomsbusphotos/9422369971/

I wonder how that got on around lunch time (: when going from Merry Hill - Halesowen

[winston]

No, they'd shouldn't be far off, they may have to top it up with some cash?

20 x B7RLE @ £150k = £3 Million

I'm guessing the Levante are around £280-£300k brand new. 2 year old coaches may go for £225k ish with above average mileage due to NX work = £2.95Million

Diamondart,

It seems my valuation was a bit out, see Rotala Levante feature in latest Routeone,

They are being advertised for sale for £180k/each, this still equates to £2.520 Million, but it seems to imply that there is very little interest even at that price. I'm surprised another NX contractor hasn't snapped them up for fleet replacement