How many companies are registered to do tendered work in West Mids ?

[Westy]

I would imagine there's more companies able to do the daytime tenders, but it seems, for evening & Sundays, where I am in Walsall, it seems to be split between Diamond & Arriva, with National Express getting hardly a look in, except on the commercial services.

Obviously us public aren't allowed to know what figures are put in for tenders, but what criteria is used when deciding to bid for a route?

Does National Express put in a tender for every route on offer, or do they pick & choose what to go for?

Do they still put in a tender, for example, for what used to be the evening & Sunday service on Service 351, now Service 2, even though they don't operate full time to Cannock now?

[winston]

I would imagine there's more companies able to do the daytime tenders, but it seems, for evening & Sundays, where I am in Walsall, it seems to be split between Diamond & Arriva, with National Express getting hardly a look in, except on the commercial services.

Obviously us public aren't allowed to know what figures are put in for tenders, but what criteria is used when deciding to bid for a route?

Does National Express put in a tender for every route on offer, or do they pick & choose what to go for?

Do they still put in a tender, for example, for what used to be the evening & Sunday service on Service 351, now Service 2, even though they don't operate full time to Cannock now?

I think its more of a case that NX aren't really interested in tendered work as there isn't much money in it,

You can see what figures are for winning bids plus highest & lowest bids, just not everyone who has bid & what they bid

http://www.centro.org.uk/bus/services.aspx

Click on the weblink above and scroll down to the bottom of the page & you will see the tender prices for the winning bidders

[Justin Tyme]

The public have the right,as a minimum, to find out who won each tender, and how much the winning price, the highest price and (if not the winner) the lowest price was.  Tendering authorities sometimes have this information on their websites.  If not, it is available on request

The criteria for an operator to decide whether to tender for a contract will depend on many factors.  Two of the most important are whether the operator has a bus and driver available at the right time, and whether they feel they are in with a chance of winning the contract!  Evening and Sunday tenders are often easiest because buses are usually available, whereas a school service could well mean having to buy another vehicle and recruit a driver - unless it can be worked in with another service.

NX West Midlands are geared up for high-frequency, heavily-used services on a big scale, and they purchase many new buses and refurbish many more.  They also invest alot in driver training.  Their costs will therefore reflect all that.

[JoNi]

Centro ought to up their standards and only allow operators that can provide real time information. NXWM may be geared up for high frequency routes but tendered operations allow another party to monitor their performance. I've twice been left stranded by hourly tendered NXWM journeys that have failed to operate.