Diamond Bus - Discussion

[Tony]

All Diamonds MCVs have been sold to New Zealand, just not all have left yet

As Tony said these supposed to have all gone where did this one come from.

No, not all gone, still 11 on dart chassis in the Rotala group

[Lukeee]

I think elsewhere in the group, im sure they still have 2 for the Signiture services also. They may not have sold these anyways as these are on Dart chasis instead on the MAN chasis.

[Discodave]

Thankyou.

[Ash]

Blue diamond's b7rle on rail replacement today
I saw 2 midi darts both 05 reg parked up in the overflow car park at Tividale today looks like there from Wessex but just parked up alongside the other withdrawn touchwood connection darts. Not sure if these are for sale or going to be reinstated.

[Ash]

Bring back Pete's Travel. They were far superior to Diamond in their current state. They had a bit of fight in them and an identity.

I remember the Pete's Travel days on the 404E the competition was fierce with then Travel West Midlands  blocking each other in at Stone Cross drivers of both companies arguing with each other. Travel west midlands even ran 2 extra 404E services between Walsall and West Bromwich to try and take custom off Pete's Travel. Although Pete's travel had quite a newish fleet back then the buses were usually dirty, drivers wore what they wanted but did seem to be more fierce in terms of competition with travel west midlands. To be fair the 404E used to get the newest buses that Pete's Travel has back in 1999 8 X reg darts were introduced and now it's 2013 and what does the 4/4H/4M typically get S/T/W reg darts so older buses than those 14 years ago.

[Cedric]

Bring back Pete's Travel. They were far superior to Diamond in their current state. They had a bit of fight in them and an identity.

I remember the Pete's Travel days on the 404E the competition was fierce with then Travel West Midlands  blocking each other in at Stone Cross drivers of both companies arguing with each other. Travel west midlands even ran 2 extra 404E services between Walsall and West Bromwich to try and take custom off Pete's Travel. Although Pete's travel had quite a newish fleet back then the buses were usually dirty, drivers wore what they wanted but did seem to be more fierce in terms of competition with travel west midlands. To be fair the 404E used to get the newest buses that Pete's Travel has back in 1999 8 X reg darts were introduced and now it's 2013 and what does the 4/4H/4M typically get S/T/W reg darts so older buses than those 14 years ago.

I remember more than once when pete's travel ran the sunday 192/292 Birmingham to Ludlow , and the 300 Kidderminster  to worcetershire royal hospital I show them the way to bewdley 

[Lukeee]

I miss Petes Travel, at least the fleet had new buses and was kept in one livery (and a simple livery at that). Slightly off topic but wish Rotala would bring back the Diamond livery that Go-Ahead intoruced, always prefered it to all the Blue, Black and Red liveries and would make it easier for buses to swap garages (which does seem to happen quite a bit).

[Steveminor]

I just wonder how long it will be before we see a Preston Bus on the streets of the West Midlands

[Discodave]

I just wonder how long it will be before we see a Preston Bus on the streets of the West Midlands

We had a blue and white Wessex Connect MPD on the 326 Yesterday.

[Tony]

Simon Dunn has sent me an email with answers to some of the comments posted on here recently. I hope they answer some of the queries


1.  We are moving the whole business West Midlands business over time to one single identity.  Although we like the different colour variations, you always end up with a mismatch and confuse customers with the different colours, especially if they end up on the wrong route or depot.
2.  We are looking to replace all the First deckers in Redditch.  We are not 100% sure how many the business actually needs, this is under review.  The buses seen from Preston have gone for repaint for Redditch, a 4th will follow this week
3.  Rotala does not have a problem getting the right deal on new buses.  At present we are looking at options, for both Worcestershire and the West Midlands.  Our preference is to repaint only the 6, 54 plate First vehicles we acquired.  In reality the business cannot support all new so some will be newer, but still old darts replacing P, R reg darts.
4.  Over the last year, we have been focused on the quality of what we deliver.  We have worked hard at Driver and vehicle presentation.  We have wanted to get right what we do.
5.  We sold the MCV's because of the quality of the product.
6.  The Solos put into Kidderminster are to replace Lances.  They should be primarily to operate WCC contracts
7.  Rotala has facilities for both New buses and acquisitions
8.  We did not acquire all the E300's, as we did not believe they were worth what First did.  From our actions so far we have modernised the whole fleet.
9.  The Church Road depot is one of the few properties we do not own.  The lease has 2 or 3 years to run.
10.  I run the whole Rotala business, that has not changed since 2005/6. So there is a Dunn in charge.  Like most businesses in most sectors there has been considerable funding changes, which has meant the operating dynamics of our business has changed.  We have had to take a step back to move forward.  Through out that time, I believe the quality of our service delivery has improved and the business has continued to move forward.  Yes, the business has shrunk but in the West Midlands most of that has come around as the result of other people being prepared to work far too cheap.  There are comments on your forum about our margin, what does that say when operators in some circumstances were 25% cheaper than a Rotala subsidiary!  I clearly have a view on what this will mean for them.

[Stu]

Well said!  ;)

[PM]

Great news about the preston tridents being repainted for redditch and glad to see that they are reviewing options for new buses. This seems good news. It would be good however for these new buses to arrive fairly soon

[Ash]

So Rotala do actually keep note of what is mentioned in this forum then which is pleasing as I think it's a great tool for bus companies to actually get an insight to what bus enthusiasts and passengers actually think of local bus services. As at the end of the day all our suggestions are positive as we all want a better bus service. So according to Mr Dunn diamond are looking into getting the right deal on new buses which is excellent news.

[winston]

Great news about the preston tridents being repainted for redditch and glad to see that they are reviewing options for new buses. This seems good news. It would be good however for these new buses to arrive fairly soon

As regards the ex Preston Tridents they are virtually the same age as the ex First Tridents they may/may not be replacing unless they initially will allow for the withdrawal of the one remaining N-reg Olympian & two K-reg Citybuses? 'Riewing options for new buses' doesn't necessarily equate to signing on the dotted line & committing to placing new vehicle orders, no one can dispute the investment levels put in to the Preston & Wessex fleets when required, but at present the West Midlands appears to be the poor relation, let's hope this changes. No one expects Rotala to bring a brand new fleet from day one, but they do need to start buying batches of new buses to upgrade certain corridors / routes on a continual basis annually. Although the MCV's were said to be poor quality product, the proceeds of the disposals could have been re-injected back in to the business to buy something more superior in essence we had 23 x MCV out from Black/Red Diamond whilst only 8 x Hybrid Versa in (those have always seemed to struggle to find permanent home), if I remember right wasn't this also around the time that Arriva appeared on the WM scene & Diamonds pvr was reduced due Centro tender losses & the closure of the Worcester operation. If the 25% cheaper refers to the Arriva win of Centro Tenders, that's just business, Arriva wanted to establish a presence in the WM tendering system & needed a sizeable win to justify the cost of setting up a new outstation, they achieved that & will no doubt make a loss on that operation, but due to the size of Arriva & its parent company backing they can easily afford to swallow this loss & obviously must have higher aspirations for the future......

Diamond are still taking a slating on their FB page in relation in the Redditch services, the Kidderminster ones seem to have bedded in much better with only ticketing issuing problems been reported. Most of the complaints seem to refer to 20 min gaps in services, late/none running, buses when they do turn up arriving packed. Judging by the recent advert for drivers in Redditch I suspect they are short which is now adding to the change of ownership problems 

[richie]

Great news about the preston tridents being repainted for redditch and glad to see that they are reviewing options for new buses. This seems good news. It would be good however for these new buses to arrive fairly soon

As regards the ex Preston Tridents they are virtually the same age as the ex First Tridents they may/may not be replacing unless they initially will allow for the withdrawal of the one remaining N-reg Olympian & two K-reg Citybuses? 'Riewing options for new buses' doesn't necessarily equate to signing on the dotted line & committing to placing new vehicle orders, no one can dispute the investment levels put in to the Preston & Wessex fleets when required, but at present the West Midlands appears to be the poor relation, let's hope this changes. No one expects Rotala to bring a brand new fleet from day one, but they do need to start buying batches of new buses to upgrade certain corridors / routes on a continual basis annually. Although the MCV's were said to be poor quality product, the proceeds of the disposals could have been re-injected back in to the business to buy something more superior in essence we had 23 x MCV out from Black/Red Diamond whilst only 8 x Hybrid Versa in (those have always seemed to struggle to find permanent home), if I remember right wasn't this also around the time that Arriva appeared on the WM scene & Diamonds pvr was reduced due Centro tender losses & the closure of the Worcester operation. If the 25% cheaper refers to the Arriva win of Centro Tenders, that's just business, Arriva wanted to establish a presence in the WM tendering system & needed a sizeable win to justify the cost of setting up a new outstation, they achieved that & will no doubt make a loss on that operation, but due to the size of Arriva & its parent company backing they can easily afford to swallow this loss & obviously must have higher aspirations for the future......

Diamond are still taking a slated on their FB page in relation in the Redditch services, the Kidderminster seem to have bedded in much better with only ticketing issuing problems been reported. Most of the complaints seem to refer to 20 min gaps in services, late/none running, buses when they do turn up arriving packed. Judging by the recent advert for drivers in Redditch I suspect they are short which is now adding to the change of ownership problems

Well said maybe rotala need a Winston in charge?