Diamond Bus - Discussion

[Liverpool Street]

I don't know how you keep on top of fleet movements for Rotala, its all just Darts and Solos.

Any easy way of knowing fleet location or is it just general knowledge?

As someone mostly interested in rotala theres no real way of knowing. In the same week you can have buses on loan to tividale and then solos over at long acre. Also, 30929 is meant to be at tividale but is at long acre. Its just general knowledge and guesswork really-tracking their fleet is definitely a lot lot more interesting than NXWM's

Gah, I was dreading you'd say that.

Another thing I'm lost with is the fleet numbers. What's the idea of 1000's number gap, is it transfers from other areas of the country; or fleet management incompetence?

Haha sorry  ;)

Fleetnumbers are a complete and utter mess it must be said. MPDs/primos/solos/e200s are all completely muddled up, there are dart slfs in the 20 series and solos in the 30 series which is illogical. There are massive gaps for no apparent reason and types have different fleetnumbers. Similarly, there are DDA compliant buses with a 21- series which doesn't make sense. I do hope rotala try to sort out some of the fleetnumbering problems as it must make it so hard to actually know what a type is simply by looking at the number.

But it has to be said I'm totally against 5 digit fleet numbers. In Diamonds fleet there be no reason for XXXXX numbers. Stagecoach, I understand.

Or actually, was it the rupturing of Blue/Red/Black/Signature/CentralConnect etc into one company makings of this, the issue?

[PM]

I don't know how you keep on top of fleet movements for Rotala, its all just Darts and Solos.

Any easy way of knowing fleet location or is it just general knowledge?

As someone mostly interested in rotala theres no real way of knowing. In the same week you can have buses on loan to tividale and then solos over at long acre. Also, 30929 is meant to be at tividale but is at long acre. Its just general knowledge and guesswork really-tracking their fleet is definitely a lot lot more interesting than NXWM's

Gah, I was dreading you'd say that.

Another thing I'm lost with is the fleet numbers. What's the idea of 1000's number gap, is it transfers from other areas of the country; or fleet management incompetence?

Haha sorry  ;)

Fleetnumbers are a complete and utter mess it must be said. MPDs/primos/solos/e200s are all completely muddled up, there are dart slfs in the 20 series and solos in the 30 series which is illogical. There are massive gaps for no apparent reason and types have different fleetnumbers. Similarly, there are DDA compliant buses with a 21- series which doesn't make sense. I do hope rotala try to sort out some of the fleetnumbering problems as it must make it so hard to actually know what a type is simply by looking at the number.

But it has to be said I'm totally against 5 digit fleet numbers. In Diamonds fleet there be no reason for XXXXX numbers. Stagecoach, I understand.

Or actually, was it the rupturing of Blue/Red/Black/Signature/CentralConnect etc into one company makings of this, the issue?

They are a good idea as they can show more things eg if single/double deck, dda or not, vehicle condition. It does make sense to have one rotala system used by all the fleets. And no, I don't know when 5 digit numbers were first used-may have been when preston bus was acquired in which case before connect became diamond

[vinh1000]

Was told today by a driver on 53

They got VIP emergency contracts to Feb but they are looking for additional work and thinking of taking over 66A permanently from Jan

[PM]

Was told today by a driver on 53

They got VIP emergency contracts to Feb but they are looking for additional work and thinking of taking over 66A permanently from Jan

Thats a fair while they've got those contracts. I think they intend on winning them full time as they have gone to the effort of putting them all onto their latest network map. And whats the 66A? A tendered route or commercial operation?

[vinh1000]

Was told today by a driver on 53

They got VIP emergency contracts to Feb but they are looking for additional work and thinking of taking over 66A permanently from Jan

Thats a fair while they've got those contracts. I think they intend on winning them full time as they have gone to the effort of putting them all onto their latest network map. And whats the 66A? A tendered route or commercial operation?

Currently NXWM does 66A Erdington - Sutton Coldfield whilst Diamond does the Evenings and Sundays
What they want to do is win full 66A control so NXWM will only do 66

[PM]

Was told today by a driver on 53

They got VIP emergency contracts to Feb but they are looking for additional work and thinking of taking over 66A permanently from Jan

Thats a fair while they've got those contracts. I think they intend on winning them full time as they have gone to the effort of putting them all onto their latest network map. And whats the 66A? A tendered route or commercial operation?

Currently NXWM does 66A Erdington - Sutton Coldfield whilst Diamond does the Evenings and Sundays
What they want to do is win full 66A control so NXWM will only do 66

So its a NX daytime tendered service. Why are they so keen on that? I would have thought a few more buses on the 4M would bring in more money

[Tony]

Was told today by a driver on 53

They got VIP emergency contracts to Feb but they are looking for additional work and thinking of taking over 66A permanently from Jan

Thats a fair while they've got those contracts. I think they intend on winning them full time as they have gone to the effort of putting them all onto their latest network map. And whats the 66A? A tendered route or commercial operation?

Currently NXWM does 66A Erdington - Sutton Coldfield whilst Diamond does the Evenings and Sundays
What they want to do is win full 66A control so NXWM will only do 66

So its a NX daytime tendered service. Why are they so keen on that? I would have thought a few more buses on the 4M would bring in more money

All emergency tenders are normally 3 months, so no surprise that these run to February. NXWM 66A is commercial and a different route to the Diamond tendered 66A

[nitromatt1]

Wonder where the 99 is going tonight, as the Hagley Road West at Quinton Church is closed?

[Trident 4609]

Wonder where the 99 is going tonight, as the Hagley Road West at Quinton Church is closed?

Same as the 141?

[the trainbasher]

Wonder where the 99 is going tonight, as the Hagley Road West at Quinton Church is closed?

Same as the 141?

I would hazard a guess of:
a) Ridgacre Lane - Hagley Road West - Quinton Expressway then as 141? or
b) Ridgacre Lane - Ridgacre Road - Edenhall Road - Hagley Road West - Quinton Expressway then as 141?

[nitromatt1]

The 99 isn't using the Expressway tonight

[nitromatt1]

I must've missed it last night, but saw an MPD on the 99 come down Manor Lane and turn left onto Manor Way heading for the Expressway. Presumably it's following the same or a similar route to the 141.

[PM]

Are MPDs the main allocation on the 99 or are buses that come off the 4 and 301 and 002 like cadets/darts/centros going on there as well?

[nitromatt1]

Are MPDs the main allocation on the 99 or are buses that come off the 4 and 301 and 002 like cadets/darts/centros going on there as well?

Seems so, I've only seen MPDs so far, don't see why a Solo wouldn't turn up though

[PM]

Are MPDs the main allocation on the 99 or are buses that come off the 4 and 301 and 002 like cadets/darts/centros going on there as well?

Seems so, I've only seen MPDs so far, don't see why a Solo wouldn't turn up though

Thanks for the info-I can't see that the 99 on an evening would require anything bigger, particularly as the daytime buses are smaller than centros etc but was just thinking if some of the 99's came off say a 002 duty then clearly a 002 centro would be what was allocated.