New Buses

[Ash]

I do agree with double deckers blue diamond use them on the 37/97 although there not low floor which all black diamond is but im sure they could loan some from Wessex connect or i think theres some ex park and ride ones at long acre, trial them out on certain routes and see how they fair, diamond buses dont seem to have the anti-social behaviour problems as i have never saw etching or badly damaged seats even at the rear of the bus.

[4504]

I think if diamond get doubles they should be used on the 16 and 50, it's a bumped up frequency do they could really compete with NXWM. I think an evening and Sunday service for the 002 would be a great success, as it is the quickest way from Halesowen and Merry Hill and links the South of Birmingham with Halesowen. Do you think an hourly 417 evenings and Sunday frequency would be successful?

[Ash]

I dont think it would be a sucess on the 417, when i have seen the 16 it never seems really full and single deckers cope if they were to have double deckers then the 301 may be a good route to try them on as it seems very popular but as proved before do double deckers get fully utilised as older people will tend to sit downstairs and these services when used in the mid morning/afternoon are mostly OAP's. The best answer would be to increase the frequency on the 16, i am not a frequent user of the 16 does GRS Travel compete well are they more sucessful than diamond?. Some of the busiest routes from diamond not mentioned are the 401/2 and 410 these services get well used and again evening and sunday services may be a sucessl. The route which i was most gutted that got withdrawn was the 404H from West Bromwich to Merry Hill it used to use the brand new centro's and i thought got well used but i must have been mistaken but NXWM picked up the route for the weekends so at times must be viable.

[4504]

I just thought the 16 would be able to pose a heavier competition with NXWM if they included doubles, but who knows. I've never got a Diamond 16, but I know the timetable's every 12 minutes, everyday. I believe a sunday and evening service would be successful on both 401/2 and 410, maybe then diamond could create a co-ordinated frequency with the NXWM versions of these routes. Wasn't that the 404B, why did they withdrawn service on it?

I dont think it would be a sucess on the 417, when i have seen the 16 it never seems really full and single deckers cope if they were to have double deckers then the 301 may be a good route to try them on as it seems very popular but as proved before do double deckers get fully utilised as older people will tend to sit downstairs and these services when used in the mid morning/afternoon are mostly OAP's. The best answer would be to increase the frequency on the 16, i am not a frequent user of the 16 does GRS Travel compete well are they more sucessful than diamond?. Some of the busiest routes from diamond not mentioned are the 401/2 and 410 these services get well used and again evening and sunday services may be a sucessl. The route which i was most gutted that got withdrawn was the 404H from West Bromwich to Merry Hill it used to use the brand new centro's and i thought got well used but i must have been mistaken but NXWM picked up the route for the weekends so at times must be viable.

[Ash]

The 404B ran from West Brom to blackheath and was a seperate service to the 404H i think they got rid of the 404B becuase basically the 417 ran the same route so there wasnt a need for it.

[PM]

I was thinking use the ex-Bristol park and Ride ones maybe two or three-paint them into Black diamond livery, fit coach seats-use on the 56, 301, 404, 410 etc in the peaks and then use them for private hire in the day or put them onto these services in the day time too. I do think however, that Red/Black/Blue diamond do need some new buses of some description and I think double deckers would be a real success. Out of interest, anyone know which route is diamond's most profitable?

[Ash]

I think it's the 404E as this service has i a PVR of 8 and operates every 6 minutes also seems to have the 'newer' buses in the fleet used on it. When petes travel used to have brand new X reg darts (eg x631akw) with the system that used to call out every stop, then when rotala took over had the black diamond centro usually (801-811) then these got replaced by brand new MCV evolutions (610-619) and the PVR was increased to 10 but then later reduced to 8 i think thats why 610/611 got debranded. Then since the MCV have left it see's centro's on sundays and monday to saturday versa's, centro's or mostly the '02' reg wright cadets or ex ludlow cadets. Wheres services like the 16 seem to get any darts used on them whereas the 404E they try to use the better buses they have.

[PM]

Does the 404E compete directly with NXWM? I think this and the 301 seem busy but lets not forget the 56 as this is always packed.

[Ash]

Diamond 404E competes directly with NXWM 404 between Walsall and West Brom same line of route, the 56 is only every 30 minutes so 5x404E buses at every 6 minutes compared to 1 56 bus over the 30 minute period i would think the 5x404E buses would carry more passengers than the one 56 bus. 301 is always busy which is suprising as the competiton on the route from NXWM and arriva is high so they must be doing something right may be the cheaper return tickets.

[4504]

What's the 301 Diamond frequency?

Diamond 404E competes directly with NXWM 404 between Walsall and West Brom same line of route, the 56 is only every 30 minutes so 5x404E buses at every 6 minutes compared to 1 56 bus over the 30 minute period i would think the 5x404E buses would carry more passengers than the one 56 bus. 301 is always busy which is suprising as the competiton on the route from NXWM and arriva is high so they must be doing something right may be the cheaper return tickets.

[Ash]

Every 10 minutes in the daytime

[Discodave]

never mind new buses saw one of ther darts on fire on the M5 just before j2 one of the W...VGX buses well thats one way of getting rid of a dart nasty crap things

[Ash]

This shows that diamond need new investment this was one of the newer darts and it likely to be scrapped now i would imagine.

[Tony]

'I still have not found the place called sorry not in service'

It's twinned with a place in London just called 'Not in Service' Londoners aren't so apologetic in their town names

[windy miller]

I heard there were loads of jobs in Jeopardy with diamond buses but I never did find it on the map...... :o