Diamond Bus - Discussion

[Liverpool Street]

The only way VIPake money as they're paid to do it. VIP make their money through the private work. Of which is of a high volume.

I can't see NX doing more on the 99 then it does now. Even with a Centro payout I don't think it'll be financially viable. VIP rarely get a decent passengers load for early / late runnings. Just from personal checks and its not gospel.

[Trident 4609]

Tbh although i like the buses here in Wolverhampton i love going to Halesowen (Regually go there to matts house ;)) and the BX09 Enviro400 Trident are some of my favourite buses

[nitromatt1]

Tbh although i like the buses here in Wolverhampton i love going to Halesowen (Regually go there to matts house ;)) and the BX09 Enviro400 Trident are some of my favourite buses

Wolverhampton is the next best place to go, with Voith and ZF Tridents, Spectras, Mercs, now B6s and until recently old Solos and Excels. B10Ls from Walsall also regularly make appearances on the 39 and 69, sometimes 89 and occasionally 40

[Trident 4609]

Tbh although i like the buses here in Wolverhampton i love going to Halesowen (Regually go there to matts house ;)) and the BX09 Enviro400 Trident are some of my favourite buses

Wolverhampton is the next best place to go, with Voith and ZF Tridents, Spectras, Mercs, now B6s and until recently old Solos and Excels. B10Ls from Walsall also regularly make appearances on the 39 and 69, sometimes 89 and occasionally 40

And go back up to 2009 WN was Metrobus land

[PM]

Did you get a diamond network ticket so that you could ride the different diamond services in the different areas. Also what was your journey I'm guessing the 4H to Halesowen then the 202?.

Yeah £6 ticket-brilliant day out. Set out and got the first 002 to halesowen and then the 202 to bromsgrove. Then the X3 to kidderminster-was planning to photo some stuff but couldnt because of the horrid rain all morning. So did some kidderminster locals, worcester and back then from kidderminster to stourport and then stourport over to redditch on the X3. Then did the 57/58/51/55-incidentally diamond had a revenue inspector on the redditch routes today-bit awkward as I saw him 3 times on totally different routes  :P-then I got the 143 to bromsgrove and then the 202 back to halesowen, where a 4H to walsall just happened to be calling in and it was a cadet I hadnt been on so got that to blackheath then got off there where I got V377SVV back to halesowen and then the 002. To be honest, I would recommend a day out with the diamond network ticket as for all these journies its a complete bargain-was planning to go to evesham but didnt have time for that unfortunately. Still a good day out

I live on the 002 route as well! Are you my neighbour? ;D

Nope lol used to live in halesowen off manor lane-county park avenue? If you know where that is but now I dont live in weoley castle lol but its my fastest route across to the black country-plus its diamond :) Tbh living in halesowen was great-used to like standing by the green metal fence on the sharp turn in manor lane by county park avenue and watching bcc 9s and ludlows buses. South birmingham and bournville is pretty boring bus wise

Country Park Avenue is on my estate, Abbeyfields :) your bus stop would've been the one after mine!

Yeah thats what its called couldnt think of the word so thanks for reminding me and yeah it would've been the next stop. Tbh halesowen is one of the best places to live if you like buses as youve got so much variety-theres central, diamond, nice natex buses on the 9 and until recently b6s and for the near future mercs as well plus whittles and hansons as well so lots of choice whereas all I get is an endless sea of natex's cast offs.

Plus Arriva on the 217 and 142 evenings/Sundays, and WMSNT on the 297 evenings. Got VIP on the 99 as well, not that we want them ;) you're right, Halesowen has such a huge variety and tbh I wouldn't want to live anywhere else

Was just about to say I forgot about VIP. How could we lol everyone loves vip and I dont think we'll have to put up with them for long to be honest. I say that hopefully. The 99 cant be making much money for natex let alone vip. Yeah variety and some good buses round there as well-thats why I always pop over to black country/worcestershire as I miss not being able to catch the 64/144 by diamond home every day. Tbh I even enjoy catching the natex buses over there as they just seem nicer than in birmingham-09 enviros are great on a 9 thats running a bit late and must admit I quite like the mercs which are a bit different too-tho they are starting to look a bit old and they lean a lot

Yes for me nothing beats a thrashing 09-plate Enviro, which I get almost daily! Lots of fast drivers at Pensnett. Like you said, the vehicles around here are generally better from an enthusiast's point of view, really miss the B6s on the 244 though, but Mercs are the next best thing. The one good thing Birmingham (in particular YW) does have over us is the B10L, want these back. Also up in Wolves you have the Spectras which is a contender for my favourite bus of all time (alongside Metrobuses, Citybuses and Tridents)

Ha yeah love doing the full 9 sat at the front of these and yeah there are-maybe the running times for the birmingham routes are more generous as often drivers sit around waiting which is annoying. The thing with the b6s is they were so loud and slow with way too much buggy room and tiny wheels-they were sort of so bad they were kind of nice plus they are the first buggy buses and I remember them from years back. Yeah love the b10s-full 27 on one of these used to be great though prefer the zf ones to voith ones-just sound nicer and the b10bs were better in my view. Not so keen on the spectras-we had these on the bristol road a while back-at one time we had voith tridents, zf tridents, voith b7tls, zf b7tls along with spectras plus all the thandi "stuff" and travel express plus diamond and first so had a great choice-zf lances of diamond were always my pick to be honest closely followed by travel express's carlyle darts whereas now there no variety at all!!

[PM]

The only way VIPake money as they're paid to do it. VIP make their money through the private work. Of which is of a high volume.

I can't see NX doing more on the 99 then it does now. Even with a Centro payout I don't think it'll be financially viable. VIP rarely get a decent passengers load for early / late runnings. Just from personal checks and its not gospel.

Yeah and the fact that they are not that legit so they cut corners and keep costs low. They dont seem to be winning any more routes which is nice but why pick the 99 to compete on? Not that busy, long route-surely a quick turnround on a route in a poorer area would make them more money? No I cant see NX doing much more-surprised to see it even upgraded with new e200 darts.

[PM]

Tbh although i like the buses here in Wolverhampton i love going to Halesowen (Regually go there to matts house ;)) and the BX09 Enviro400 Trident are some of my favourite buses

Wolverhampton is the next best place to go, with Voith and ZF Tridents, Spectras, Mercs, now B6s and until recently old Solos and Excels. B10Ls from Walsall also regularly make appearances on the 39 and 69, sometimes 89 and occasionally 40

Dont know wolverhampton at all well to be honest should make the effort to go there and I guess routes like the 59/529/1 I should try as they seem quite varied and the 1 has nice hybrids on it as well. Always just kind of never went there as diamond dont run that much over there and I know they did the 59 but theyve never done masses over there

[Trident 4609]

I live on the 59 (In Wednesfield) so could show you WN buses LOL ;) Only joking

Most people chose to catch the NX 59 so not many passengers used it.

Remember when the Royale Centros were on it:( Wish Diamond Operated it still. You only really have the 22 in the day then Sundays and Evenings you have the 26A and 81

[nitromatt1]

The only way VIPake money as they're paid to do it. VIP make their money through the private work. Of which is of a high volume.

I can't see NX doing more on the 99 then it does now. Even with a Centro payout I don't think it'll be financially viable. VIP rarely get a decent passengers load for early / late runnings. Just from personal checks and its not gospel.

Yeah and the fact that they are not that legit so they cut corners and keep costs low. They dont seem to be winning any more routes which is nice but why pick the 99 to compete on? Not that busy, long route-surely a quick turnround on a route in a poorer area would make them more money? No I cant see NX doing much more-surprised to see it even upgraded with new e200 darts.

VIP almost never check my ticket/pass, the last driver I had just beckoned me on with a smile, very friendly (almost too friendly as one blew me a kiss once!) but I imagine a lot of people are let on for free

[PM]

The only way VIPake money as they're paid to do it. VIP make their money through the private work. Of which is of a high volume.

I can't see NX doing more on the 99 then it does now. Even with a Centro payout I don't think it'll be financially viable. VIP rarely get a decent passengers load for early / late runnings. Just from personal checks and its not gospel.

Yeah and the fact that they are not that legit so they cut corners and keep costs low. They dont seem to be winning any more routes which is nice but why pick the 99 to compete on? Not that busy, long route-surely a quick turnround on a route in a poorer area would make them more money? No I cant see NX doing much more-surprised to see it even upgraded with new e200 darts.

VIP almost never check my ticket/pass, the last driver I had just beckoned me on with a smile, very friendly (almost too friendly as one blew me a kiss once!) but I imagine a lot of people are let on for free

Ha which given what one of their drivers got up to is a bit dodgy!!!! Oh yeah bet they are but heard some nx drivers who drive the 99 saying they dont bother to check passes either so it does happen

[PM]

I live on the 59 (In Wednesfield) so could show you WN buses LOL ;) Only joking

Most people chose to catch the NX 59 so not many passengers used it.

Remember when the Royale Centros were on it:( Wish Diamond Operated it still. You only really have the 22 in the day then Sundays and Evenings you have the 26A and 81

Wonder how diamond would do on the 1 or do most people over there have travelcards?

[Liverpool Street]

The only way VIPake money as they're paid to do it. VIP make their money through the private work. Of which is of a high volume.

I can't see NX doing more on the 99 then it does now. Even with a Centro payout I don't think it'll be financially viable. VIP rarely get a decent passengers load for early / late runnings. Just from personal checks and its not gospel.

Yeah and the fact that they are not that legit so they cut corners and keep costs low. They dont seem to be winning any more routes which is nice but why pick the 99 to compete on? Not that busy, long route-surely a quick turnround on a route in a poorer area would make them more money? No I cant see NX doing much more-surprised to see it even upgraded with new e200 darts.

Well that was more to do with the emissions rulings really.

[PM]

The only way VIPake money as they're paid to do it. VIP make their money through the private work. Of which is of a high volume.

I can't see NX doing more on the 99 then it does now. Even with a Centro payout I don't think it'll be financially viable. VIP rarely get a decent passengers load for early / late runnings. Just from personal checks and its not gospel.

Yeah and the fact that they are not that legit so they cut corners and keep costs low. They dont seem to be winning any more routes which is nice but why pick the 99 to compete on? Not that busy, long route-surely a quick turnround on a route in a poorer area would make them more money? No I cant see NX doing much more-surprised to see it even upgraded with new e200 darts.

Well that was more to do with the emissions rulings really.

I guess and national express didnt have any older euro3 buses they could transfer across to the route so I think the people that catch the 99 were lucky to get new buses as i doubt it would have had them otherwise

[Liverpool Street]

The only way VIPake money as they're paid to do it. VIP make their money through the private work. Of which is of a high volume.

I can't see NX doing more on the 99 then it does now. Even with a Centro payout I don't think it'll be financially viable. VIP rarely get a decent passengers load for early / late runnings. Just from personal checks and its not gospel.

Yeah and the fact that they are not that legit so they cut corners and keep costs low. They dont seem to be winning any more routes which is nice but why pick the 99 to compete on? Not that busy, long route-surely a quick turnround on a route in a poorer area would make them more money? No I cant see NX doing much more-surprised to see it even upgraded with new e200 darts.

Well that was more to do with the emissions rulings really.

I guess and national express didnt have any older euro3 buses they could transfer across to the route so I think the people that catch the 99 were lucky to get new buses as i doubt it would have had them otherwise

Exactly. It came as a shock to us as the 99/636 has always been the banger buses really. I highly doubt these E200's will be replaced in the 20 years. The company needs to get their monies worth on that investment.

[Trident 4609]

Well Travel Express already operate on the service between Wolverhampton and Tettenhall and do quite well especially at Peak time. It probably wouldn't work as even the NX 1 is quiet in the daytime. Tbh there was complaints that the 59H was withdrawn and was handy for Hospital workees