Wednesfield Garage

[NXWM Spectra]

19   Arriva Midlands   Wolverhampton - Walsall via Bloxwich   Amended to operate between Walsall and Bloxwich only.   Timetable amended, but half hourly frequency is maintained.

It's a shame but we knew it was coming.

[Bob]

Wonder what the future holds for the wednesfield operation?  Cant see much in the way of expansion can anybody else? ? Everything they try to do fails miserably. ...yes they got the lichfield to walsall market sewn up but theyre just services nobody else wants to run..I dont think the 310 has been much of a success and the 9 & 334 arent really particularly well used services.  Prob only the 10 in wolves and that could easily be run from elsewhere...

[Bob]

That leaves just tendered work...if they were to lose those theyd probably not last long. ..

[PM]

Presumably lots of redundant knackered DAF deckers then??

It looks like nobody wants them any more, Arriva London have started sending large numbers off for scrap now instead of cascades. and some of the batch sent to Arriva North West have now gone for scrap as well

They are literally some of the most useless buses I have ever been on... The arriva north east ones definitely need the scrapper sooner or later... I can understand possibly cascading tridents/b7tls like geminis but S reg DAF's are almost near the end of their life anyway and they seem a pretty poor bus so I can understand regional fleets putting forward a better case for newer more reliable and less thirsty buses and improving their image in the process...

[Bob]

Yea. Arriva must have thought. ..well we want to make a good impact in the west midlands so we'll respray some of midlands absolute shed darts we'll then transfer some clapped out london ones re trim em and call it investment and we'll cascade in some of the worst deckers weve got anywhere and we'll have a recipe for success. .lol. its worked great..

[PM]

Yea. Arriva must have thought. ..well we want to make a good impact in the west midlands so we'll respray some of midlands absolute shed darts we'll then transfer some clapped out london ones re trim em and call it investment and we'll cascade in some of the worst deckers weve got anywhere and we'll have a recipe for success. .lol. its worked great..

In fairness, some of the innovations have been fairly good ie area guides and branding for the 310. However, choosing different service numbers, odd corridors and failing to provide any real competition with as you say knackered buses hasn't been great.

[Trident 4609]

Tbh i would love it if Wednesfield Garage started expanding and competing on some routes having new investment. They do well on the 10 and i would probably give the route new or near new buses whether its double deckers or full size single deckers.

It still seems that Wednesfield is a bit separated from the other Arriva Midlands Operations would you agree?

[the trainbasher]

Odds on the DAFs appearing on the 310 now??

[Bob]

Lol the 310? To give the illusion its a busy route :-0

[Westy]

If Arriva pull out of Wednesfield & lose Centro contracts because of it, there's plenty of companies willing to have a crack at the daytime journeys,  but the evening journeys I suspect will be a straight fight between NX and Diamond,  as no one else seems to interested in those.

(Unless someone else begs to differ)

[Bob]

Lol it seems like everything they touch turns bad...I wonder how long the 9 will last..Apparently not a busy service. ..if you remember it was a chase route they swiftly got rid of previously. ..the 310 hasnt really took off. And lets face it its not like they took over a successful firm..it was Midland lol. Id have said Chase despote theyre elderly vehicles ( which never kept breaking down repeatedly like Midlands fleet) were probably the more successful operator of the two and look what happened when arriva took over them...

[stuartn]

Presumably lots of redundant knackered DAF deckers then??

It looks like nobody wants them any more, Arriva London have started sending large numbers off for scrap now instead of cascades. and some of the batch sent to Arriva North West have now gone for scrap as well

They are literally some of the most useless buses I have ever been on... The arriva north east ones definitely need the scrapper sooner or later... I can understand possibly cascading tridents/b7tls like geminis but S reg DAF's are almost near the end of their life anyway and they seem a pretty poor bus so I can understand regional fleets putting forward a better case for newer more reliable and less thirsty buses and improving their image in the process...

The ones in Leicester are equally as bad and are forever having problems, our worst ones are 4779 and 4785 but they should be replaced by some of South Wigston depots DAF lowlanders which are being replaced with some new/newish buses later this year.

[arrivaaston]

The deckers are going to be replaced I've heard

[Bob]

Leicester or Wednesfield u on about Aston?

[Trident 4609]

Leicester or Wednesfield u on about Aston?

Wednesfield would need to keep some for the 10 although if i would give it some new/newish heavy duty (So no clapped out darts) single deckers.