Diamond Bus - Discussion

[PM]

Oooop, missed one of the initial list, 31309, on long term hire to Select

No worries-rotala seem to quite like hiring out buses-arent some of the plaxton primos hired to WMSNT. Though on the subject of the primos, these should be put on the for sale list as rotala clearly dont want them so maybe they should try to get shot of them as well

[winston]

Latest Rotala changes are now on the main front page

Thanks Tony!

I see Wessex gets 8 x 2 year old Wright Streetlites whilst Diamond gets a motley alsortment of 4 x 5-8 year old E300's & a re-instated 13 year old ALX200

I personally think Rotala should try & part exchange the rest of the 13 x Volvo/Caetano Levante for further new B7RLE from dealer stock

To be fair the WM division has done quite well-potentially there may be more eclipses from wessex plus the centro withdrawn there as well may be moving up here as well. Yes, I think that rotala should try and get shot of some of these for sale buses as they are assets just sat there depreciating hardly working hard and adding value for the company. I dont necessarily think that lots of b7rles are a great idea for tividale/long acre. redditch should have them as the services there really need them and will make them pay whereas on routes like the 4 etc b7rles could just increase costs for no actual increase in earnings and thus damage what are profitable routes

Me personally, If the Oft decision goes in Rotala's favour I'd attempt to part exchange the 13 x NX spec Levantes for say a batch of 20 new B7RLE from Volvo Bus & Coach (take whatever dealer stock Volvo have, rest new build). Allocate 12 new B7RLE to Redditch (Brand some for the 57/58), put 3 new B7RLE in to KR for the X3, ex First 54 plate Darts to remain at KR. Remaining 5 new B7RLE go to Tividale along with 4 ex Red Diamond 08 plate B7RLE to complete the conversion of the 4, 4H & 4M

[PM]

Latest Rotala changes are now on the main front page

Thanks Tony!

I see Wessex gets 8 x 2 year old Wright Streetlites whilst Diamond gets a motley alsortment of 4 x 5-8 year old E300's & a re-instated 13 year old ALX200

I personally think Rotala should try & part exchange the rest of the 13 x Volvo/Caetano Levante for further new B7RLE from dealer stock

To be fair the WM division has done quite well-potentially there may be more eclipses from wessex plus the centro withdrawn there as well may be moving up here as well. Yes, I think that rotala should try and get shot of some of these for sale buses as they are assets just sat there depreciating hardly working hard and adding value for the company. I dont necessarily think that lots of b7rles are a great idea for tividale/long acre. redditch should have them as the services there really need them and will make them pay whereas on routes like the 4 etc b7rles could just increase costs for no actual increase in earnings and thus damage what are profitable routes

Me personally, If the Oft decision goes in Rotala's favour I'd attempt to part exchange the 13 x NX spec Levantes for say a batch of 20 new B7RLE from Volvo Bus & Coach (take whatever dealer stock Volvo have, rest new build). Allocate 12 new B7RLE to Redditch (Brand some for the 57/58), put 3 new B7RLE in to KR for the X3, ex First 54 plate Darts to remain at KR. Remaining 5 new B7RLE go to Tividale along with 4 ex Red Diamond 08 plate B7RLE to complete the conversion of the 4, 4H & 4M

They wouldnt get 20 b7rles for 13 levantes would they? Dont know how the prices compare.

[Tony]

Oooop, missed one of the initial list, 31309, on long term hire to Select

No worries-rotala seem to quite like hiring out buses-arent some of the plaxton primos hired to WMSNT. Though on the subject of the primos, these should be put on the for sale list as rotala clearly dont want them so maybe they should try to get shot of them as well

They are done on a 'Rent to buy' basis. You pay so much a month for them, once you have paid  the asking price in rent you get to keep it. If you never clear the wanted price it returns to Rotala, hence some long time hire vehicles suddenly reappearing in the fleet

[winston]

Latest Rotala changes are now on the main front page

Thanks Tony!

I see Wessex gets 8 x 2 year old Wright Streetlites whilst Diamond gets a motley alsortment of 4 x 5-8 year old E300's & a re-instated 13 year old ALX200

I personally think Rotala should try & part exchange the rest of the 13 x Volvo/Caetano Levante for further new B7RLE from dealer stock

To be fair the WM division has done quite well-potentially there may be more eclipses from wessex plus the centro withdrawn there as well may be moving up here as well. Yes, I think that rotala should try and get shot of some of these for sale buses as they are assets just sat there depreciating hardly working hard and adding value for the company. I dont necessarily think that lots of b7rles are a great idea for tividale/long acre. redditch should have them as the services there really need them and will make them pay whereas on routes like the 4 etc b7rles could just increase costs for no actual increase in earnings and thus damage what are profitable routes

Me personally, If the Oft decision goes in Rotala's favour I'd attempt to part exchange the 13 x NX spec Levantes for say a batch of 20 new B7RLE from Volvo Bus & Coach (take whatever dealer stock Volvo have, rest new build). Allocate 12 new B7RLE to Redditch (Brand some for the 57/58), put 3 new B7RLE in to KR for the X3, ex First 54 plate Darts to remain at KR. Remaining 5 new B7RLE go to Tividale along with 4 ex Red Diamond 08 plate B7RLE to complete the conversion of the 4, 4H & 4M

They wouldnt get 20 b7rles for 13 levantes would they? Dont know how the prices compare.

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

[PM]

Oooop, missed one of the initial list, 31309, on long term hire to Select

No worries-rotala seem to quite like hiring out buses-arent some of the plaxton primos hired to WMSNT. Though on the subject of the primos, these should be put on the for sale list as rotala clearly dont want them so maybe they should try to get shot of them as well

They are done on a 'Rent to buy' basis. You pay so much a month for them, once you have paid  the asking price in rent you get to keep it. If you never clear the wanted price it returns to Rotala, hence some long time hire vehicles suddenly reappearing in the fleet

Thats quite a clever idea to be honest-must be why one of the V...JWK darts returned from tees valley. Do we know if the primos are on this arrangement with WMSNT and if the primos are to be sold

[PM]

So, to buy the 20 b7rles to upgrade the WM operation they could sell the 13 levantes and one plaxton coach that is unsold on their buses for sale list.
Then, 20182, 20232, 20490, 20523, 20807, 20808, 20812, 20846, 30436, 30520, 30929 needs to go as well...., 30111 as they clearly dont like these, 31134, 31181, 31401, 31410, 31490, 31495, 31502-6, 31508, 31516, then 40610-8, 40623, 42564/5

From the rotala fleet more generally, more sprinters and old darts plus the remaining ex yourbus presidents and other deckers that have been withdrawn. Theres about 50 buses here that could do with going and the money from them could buy 20 b7rles plus other assorted second hand stuff such as centros, newer darts, streetlites, enviro300s, more ex lothian deckers. I really think they should try and shift some of the for sale/withdrawn stuff as it is depreciating and perhaps it is better to get rid of these assets so as the fleet can be updated and some of the older/tatty/odd one out stuff can be removed and sold, updating the fleet and standardising it as well. Because currently their fleet list is a bit messy with all sorts of stuff everywhere with odd numbers-types not numbered similarly.

[PM]

It does make you think though rotala have a lot of vehicles sat about not really doing much-i feel winston's idea of the 20 b7rles just for the WM region makes complete sense to be honest. New buses for the 57 and 58 possibly even a couple of new enviros for stuff like the 51?? out of sale of older buses. Upgrade the X3 and brand it possibly even the 142/143 and the 247. Then, rotala should do something with the 146 alter the timetabling of it and give it darts or something like that. Then, moving buses around to standardise and update the fleet

[bwsau cymru]

Its just good to see more new buses coming in at last, and something which Im personally disappointed with is that they now seem to be favouring Wright built bodies!

Are these BK13NZM buses on loan or are they staying and if they are why on earth are the at lon achere?

[PM]

Its just good to see more new buses coming in at last, and something which Im personally disappointed with is that they now seem to be favouring Wright built bodies!

Are these BK13NZM buses on loan or are they staying and if they are why on earth are the at lon achere?

I agree even though the new buses are a bit boring if I'm being honest-the earlier centros were more interesting and even the wright bodied ones looked and sounded better. However, any new vehicles are good and I understand that rotala are making a good investment in new modern buses. They must be on loan from wessex or heathrow in the case of the centro but what I find weird is that they have just been left plain white. Yes, the centro should be white as the buses there have no livery just white +vinyls but wessex has a good livery..... Maybe they are moving up to diamond-it is possible though unlikely. They would be put to better use at tividale as would the two b7rles/centros that long acre have plus the MAN centros and the evolution, not to mention the eclipse 2 on that contract when it could be put to good use on the 4/H/M

[PM]

Its just good to see more new buses coming in at last, and something which Im personally disappointed with is that they now seem to be favouring Wright built bodies!

Are these BK13NZM buses on loan or are they staying and if they are why on earth are the at lon achere?

I agree even though the new buses are a bit boring if I'm being honest-the earlier centros were more interesting and even the wright bodied ones looked and sounded better. However, any new vehicles are good and I understand that rotala are making a good investment in new modern buses. They must be on loan from wessex or heathrow in the case of the centro but what I find weird is that they have just been left plain white. Yes, the centro should be white as the buses there have no livery just white +vinyls but wessex has a good livery..... Maybe they are moving up to diamond-it is possible though unlikely. They would be put to better use at tividale as would the two b7rles/centros that long acre have plus the MAN centros and the evolution, not to mention the eclipse 2 on that contract when it could be put to good use on the 4/H/M

Having said that, their 16 was busier today, far more than GRS which seemed to be running round empty behind diamond but the ex petes akw dart at long acre was pretty packed this afternoon after quite big gaps had opened up in the 16 service for some reason-showing that these commercial routes can do well but just need improving a bit with advertising for returns etc

[Ash]

Just saw a NXWM service 4 departure at 20:30 from West Brom the bus was 1765 and was absolutely rammed people were standing to the door, do all these passengers have NXWM passes if not shows that there is potential custom for diamond on the service.

[winston]

A post on another forum, suggests that the Oft decision on the Rotala acquisition of First Groups Redditch & Kidderminster operation has now been put back until 9th August

[Dylan4579]

A post on another forum, suggests that the Oft decision on the Rotala acquisition of First Groups Redditch & Kidderminster operation has now been put back until 9th August

Typical

[PM]

A post on another forum, suggests that the Oft decision on the Rotala acquisition of First Groups Redditch & Kidderminster operation has now been put back until 9th August

How stupid is that-tho I think rotala do seem incredibly confident/hopeful-new timetable guides for redditch and kidderminster and more enviros plus some ex first buses repainted.