New Buses

[Tony]

Eleven Volvo B7RLEs are due to arrive in the next couple of weeks. 3 will be 5 years old (57/08 plates) but Eight will be brand new

[Cedric]

Eleven Volvo B7RLEs are due to arrive in the next couple of weeks. 3 will be 5 years old (57/08 plates) but Eight will be brand new

any idea where they are for

[Tony]

Eleven Volvo B7RLEs are due to arrive in the next couple of weeks. 3 will be 5 years old (57/08 plates) but Eight will be brand new

any idea where they are for

Four of the new ones, and the three second hand ones, along with three currently at Wessex Connect (10 altogether) are for the West Midlands.
The other four new ones are for Wessex

[NXWM Spectra]

Is it Wright bodywork that they have?

[Tony]

Is it Wright bodywork that they have?

Yes, new ones are Eclipse 2, 5 year old ones will be Eclipse

[midlandred2003]

On Uk bus fleet news just found a picture of 5413 at Leyland this morning.

[PM]

Does anyone know where the second hand non-wessex ones are coming from? Personally I think this is great news. Hopefully they will give a much needed boost to the rotala wm business and may help to get rid of some of the complaints in places like redditch. Also, with volvo you know what you are getting-maybe rotala have learnt the lesson of buying optare buses

[winston]

Does anyone know where the second hand non-wessex ones are coming from? Personally I think this is great news. Hopefully they will give a much needed boost to the rotala wm business and may help to get rid of some of the complaints in places like redditch. Also, with volvo you know what you are getting-maybe rotala have learnt the lesson of buying optare buses

It could be Midland Classic? They're are apparently in the process of replacing their Volvo B7RLE/Wright for Scania/Wright ex SLT. They have 3 and are 2 x 57/ 1 x 08 plate.

It's good to see Diamond are finally getting further new/second-hand full size single deckers, however, Peter123 I don't think 10 will make a much difference as you suggest. The majority of the 10 would be used just to convert the 4/4H/4M if that was where they were intended for. If those were used to cascade full size single deckers from Tividale to RH or KR then Tividale would be no better off..... 

[bwsau cymru]

Have to agree with you Winston!! but here hopes it a start to improvements. The other option to putting them on the 4 could be spilt them between 002 and 301, but the 002 must keep its brand I think and really the buses on the 4 rebranded as black country connection and them hopefully branding to enhance 301!

[PM]

I would be positive they will pretty much all be for Redditch as the Tividale fleet is nowhere near as bad as people think.

[winston]

I would be positive they will pretty much all be for Redditch as the Tividale fleet is nowhere near as bad as people think.

The main problem with the Tividale fleet is that it now comprises of too many MPD & Solo's & too few full size single deckers, to the point that core/high frequency services such as the 4/4H & 4M are served by unsuitable midibuses

[PM]

Certainly I think the b7rles would improve quality in redditch and get rid of some of the overcrowding issues as darts on the 57/58 was always going to be a recipe for disaster.

[winston]

Certainly I think the b7rles would improve quality in redditch and get rid of some of the overcrowding issues as darts on the 57/58 was always going to be a recipe for disaster.

What about Tividale though? Tony did actually say they were destined for the West Midlands so may not be heading to Redditch

[busfan2847]

Certainly I think the b7rles would improve quality in redditch and get rid of some of the overcrowding issues as darts on the 57/58 was always going to be a recipe for disaster.

What about Tividale though? Tony did actually say they were destined for the West Midlands so may not be heading to Redditch

West Midlands in Rotala bus speak means not Preston or Wessex.

[winston]

Just had a quick tot up from Tony's updated Diamond fleetlist, the combined Diamond businesses (KR/LA/RH & TE) now operate some 220 buses, the 10 new/used B7RLE will only replace approx 4.5% of the fleet