Birmingham Central Garage

[nitromatt1]

The new branding looks half decent IMO , does any one know the reasoning why the Volvo b5h have all come central and the enviro went to wolvo . As far as I know there are  no enviro 400 at wolves where as Central has them .

The reason Tony gave against the swap going in the opposite direction was that the numbers didn't match, however I don't see why they couldn't have sent the 9 B5s along with 3 Tridents (e.g. 4610-12) up Wolves in exchange for their 12 Enviro hybrids.

Why on earth would you want to do that and cause an imbalance in the number of vehicles which remember are partly paid for from the Green Bus fund for particular services.

If the "Green Bus Fund" really is that restrictive, that is ridiculous. Normally I'd say it's too much like common sense for NX, but I suppose in this case it isn't entirely their fault

Why would you want to do the swop the other way anyway when the numbers match doing it this way. It will also mean Wolverhampton has no Volvo products by the end of the year which also makes a lot of sense as Alexander Dennis have a base at park Lane

For the standardisation of Enviro products at Central, something which I don't agree with but NX seem to be obsessed with.

And Wolves' shedload of Volvo B7s? ???

So what are you going to replace the B7RLEs with st BC if you are going to standardise BC on AD products?

I'd order Enviro300s and less 200s, give them to Central allowing their B7s to be sent elsewhere. Simple.

[Tony]

The new branding looks half decent IMO , does any one know the reasoning why the Volvo b5h have all come central and the enviro went to wolvo . As far as I know there are  no enviro 400 at wolves where as Central has them .

The reason Tony gave against the swap going in the opposite direction was that the numbers didn't match, however I don't see why they couldn't have sent the 9 B5s along with 3 Tridents (e.g. 4610-12) up Wolves in exchange for their 12 Enviro hybrids.

Why on earth would you want to do that and cause an imbalance in the number of vehicles which remember are partly paid for from the Green Bus fund for particular services.

If the "Green Bus Fund" really is that restrictive, that is ridiculous. Normally I'd say it's too much like common sense for NX, but I suppose in this case it isn't entirely their fault

Why would you want to do the swop the other way anyway when the numbers match doing it this way. It will also mean Wolverhampton has no Volvo products by the end of the year which also makes a lot of sense as Alexander Dennis have a base at park Lane

For the standardisation of Enviro products at Central, something which I don't agree with but NX seem to be obsessed with.

And Wolves' shedload of Volvo B7s? ???

So what are you going to replace the B7RLEs with st BC if you are going to standardise BC on AD products?

I'd order Enviro300s and less 200s, give them to Central allowing their B7s to be sent elsewhere. Simple.

But you haven't answered
a) Why standardise BC on AD and not WN when Wolverhampton has an Alexander Dennis base on site!
b) Why transfer the uneven number of buses making it more likely that a route supported by the green bus fund would have non-hybrid buses allocated to it

Also why is Standardisation a bad thing (you have said you don't agree with it further up)

[nitromatt1]

The new branding looks half decent IMO , does any one know the reasoning why the Volvo b5h have all come central and the enviro went to wolvo . As far as I know there are  no enviro 400 at wolves where as Central has them .

The reason Tony gave against the swap going in the opposite direction was that the numbers didn't match, however I don't see why they couldn't have sent the 9 B5s along with 3 Tridents (e.g. 4610-12) up Wolves in exchange for their 12 Enviro hybrids.

Why on earth would you want to do that and cause an imbalance in the number of vehicles which remember are partly paid for from the Green Bus fund for particular services.

If the "Green Bus Fund" really is that restrictive, that is ridiculous. Normally I'd say it's too much like common sense for NX, but I suppose in this case it isn't entirely their fault

Why would you want to do the swop the other way anyway when the numbers match doing it this way. It will also mean Wolverhampton has no Volvo products by the end of the year which also makes a lot of sense as Alexander Dennis have a base at park Lane

For the standardisation of Enviro products at Central, something which I don't agree with but NX seem to be obsessed with.

And Wolves' shedload of Volvo B7s? ???

So what are you going to replace the B7RLEs with st BC if you are going to standardise BC on AD products?

I'd order Enviro300s and less 200s, give them to Central allowing their B7s to be sent elsewhere. Simple.

But you haven't answered
a) Why standardise BC on AD and not WN when Wolverhampton has an Alexander Dennis base on site!
b) Why transfer the uneven number of buses making it more likely that a route supported by the green bus fund would have non-hybrid buses allocated to it

Also why is Standardisation a bad thing (you have said you don't agree with it further up)

I was not aware of the ADL base on site - that is a good counter-argument.

However, both the 22/23 and 1 have non-hybrid vehicles allocated to them on a regular basis. Unless you know something I don't, there has not been any issue with that. NX have more pressing issues to  address than trying to ensure 100% hybrids on these routes.

Standardisation alone isn't a bad thing, however it should be a side benefit and not a priority. Engineers should be competant enough to understand and work with a variety of vehicles - Green Bus have a huge range of vehicles yet this never presents a problem to the engineers.

[Tony]

The new branding looks half decent IMO , does any one know the reasoning why the Volvo b5h have all come central and the enviro went to wolvo . As far as I know there are  no enviro 400 at wolves where as Central has them .

The reason Tony gave against the swap going in the opposite direction was that the numbers didn't match, however I don't see why they couldn't have sent the 9 B5s along with 3 Tridents (e.g. 4610-12) up Wolves in exchange for their 12 Enviro hybrids.

Why on earth would you want to do that and cause an imbalance in the number of vehicles which remember are partly paid for from the Green Bus fund for particular services.

If the "Green Bus Fund" really is that restrictive, that is ridiculous. Normally I'd say it's too much like common sense for NX, but I suppose in this case it isn't entirely their fault

Why would you want to do the swop the other way anyway when the numbers match doing it this way. It will also mean Wolverhampton has no Volvo products by the end of the year which also makes a lot of sense as Alexander Dennis have a base at park Lane

For the standardisation of Enviro products at Central, something which I don't agree with but NX seem to be obsessed with.

And Wolves' shedload of Volvo B7s? ???

So what are you going to replace the B7RLEs with st BC if you are going to standardise BC on AD products?

I'd order Enviro300s and less 200s, give them to Central allowing their B7s to be sent elsewhere. Simple.

But you haven't answered
a) Why standardise BC on AD and not WN when Wolverhampton has an Alexander Dennis base on site!
b) Why transfer the uneven number of buses making it more likely that a route supported by the green bus fund would have non-hybrid buses allocated to it

Also why is Standardisation a bad thing (you have said you don't agree with it further up)

I was not aware of the ADL base on site - that is a good counter-argument.

However, both the 22/23 and 1 have non-hybrid vehicles allocated to them on a regular basis. Unless you know something I don't, there has not been any issue with that. NX have more pressing issues to  address than trying to ensure 100% hybrids on these routes.

Standardisation alone isn't a bad thing, however it should be a side benefit and not a priority. Engineers should be competant enough to understand and work with a variety of vehicles - Green Bus have a huge range of vehicles yet this never presents a problem to the engineers.

It has nothing to do with the competance of the engineering staff which makes standardisation a good thing!
Give you a clue.
A part breaks in one of the vehicles in a varied fleet, have they got that part in the stores for everyone of their vehicle types? Or do they order the part in from a supplier meaning vehicle is off the road until it is delivered. If they stock that part for every vehicle in case it breaks that is a lot of dead money sitting in the stores!

If you only have 2 or three vehicle types in a garage you only have to stock two versions of that part.

[nitromatt1]

The new branding looks half decent IMO , does any one know the reasoning why the Volvo b5h have all come central and the enviro went to wolvo . As far as I know there are  no enviro 400 at wolves where as Central has them .

The reason Tony gave against the swap going in the opposite direction was that the numbers didn't match, however I don't see why they couldn't have sent the 9 B5s along with 3 Tridents (e.g. 4610-12) up Wolves in exchange for their 12 Enviro hybrids.

Why on earth would you want to do that and cause an imbalance in the number of vehicles which remember are partly paid for from the Green Bus fund for particular services.

If the "Green Bus Fund" really is that restrictive, that is ridiculous. Normally I'd say it's too much like common sense for NX, but I suppose in this case it isn't entirely their fault

Why would you want to do the swop the other way anyway when the numbers match doing it this way. It will also mean Wolverhampton has no Volvo products by the end of the year which also makes a lot of sense as Alexander Dennis have a base at park Lane

For the standardisation of Enviro products at Central, something which I don't agree with but NX seem to be obsessed with.

And Wolves' shedload of Volvo B7s? ???

So what are you going to replace the B7RLEs with st BC if you are going to standardise BC on AD products?

I'd order Enviro300s and less 200s, give them to Central allowing their B7s to be sent elsewhere. Simple.

But you haven't answered
a) Why standardise BC on AD and not WN when Wolverhampton has an Alexander Dennis base on site!
b) Why transfer the uneven number of buses making it more likely that a route supported by the green bus fund would have non-hybrid buses allocated to it

Also why is Standardisation a bad thing (you have said you don't agree with it further up)

I was not aware of the ADL base on site - that is a good counter-argument.

However, both the 22/23 and 1 have non-hybrid vehicles allocated to them on a regular basis. Unless you know something I don't, there has not been any issue with that. NX have more pressing issues to  address than trying to ensure 100% hybrids on these routes.

Standardisation alone isn't a bad thing, however it should be a side benefit and not a priority. Engineers should be competant enough to understand and work with a variety of vehicles - Green Bus have a huge range of vehicles yet this never presents a problem to the engineers.

It has nothing to do with the competance of the engineering staff which makes standardisation a good thing!
Give you a clue.
A part breaks in one of the vehicles in a varied fleet, have they got that part in the stores for everyone of their vehicle types? Or do they order the part in from a supplier meaning vehicle is off the road until it is delivered. If they stock that part for every vehicle in case it breaks that is a lot of dead money sitting in the stores!

If you only have 2 or three vehicle types in a garage you only have to stock two versions of that part.

That's a very good point which I had not considered. You're too intelligent!

It depends on whether the savings made in the ways you've described outweigh the costs and hassle of shuffling buses between garages, I cannot make that judgment as I am not in possession of the figures but clearly NX believe they do. However the suitability of the vehicles at each garage for the routes they operate should be prioritised over cost-cutting measures, to ensure an acceptable quality of service is provided.

[the trainbasher]

@Tony and if those 2 vehicle types share common parts  that's even better isn't it?

[nitromatt1]

@Tony and if those 2 vehicle types share common parts  that's even better isn't it?

Obviously it would, however I highly doubt two vehicles from different manufacturers would share many parts, if any

[the trainbasher]

@Tony and if those 2 vehicle types share common parts  that's even better isn't it?

Obviously it would, however I highly doubt two vehicles from different manufacturers would share many parts, if any

I should have been more specific as is two vehicles from the same manufacturer...

[nitromatt1]

@Tony and if those 2 vehicle types share common parts  that's even better isn't it?

Obviously it would, however I highly doubt two vehicles from different manufacturers would share many parts, if any

I should have been more specific as is two vehicles from the same manufacturer...

That is more likely

[Stu]

@Tony and if those 2 vehicle types share common parts  that's even better isn't it?

Obviously it would, however I highly doubt two vehicles from different manufacturers would share many parts, if any

I should have been more specific as is two vehicles from the same manufacturer...

That is more likely

According to my heavy commercial vehicle parts catalogue, both the ADL Enviro400 and the Scania Omnilink/Omnicity use the same brake pads.  ;)

[karl724223]

They have the same ticket machine equipment as well

[2900]

Most bus manufacturers now a days source gearboxes, axles, steering suspension components from zf lemforder these days . Makes sense to get key components from one source helps to keep costs down ,makes for a better vehicle with parts designed engineered by one company rather than vehicle built using a whole  myriad  of parts  from all over. Just take a look at zf,s website.

[2900]

This thread moving at pace had to go back quite a bit to make sense of it , I too didn't know Wolverhampton garage has become an adl base, when did this come about , knowing this now it now makes for sending the enviro 400 hybrids there. No volvo b7rle either by before the year is out ,wander where they,ll end up.

[Tony]

This thread moving at pace had to go back quite a bit to make sense of it , I too didn't know Wolverhampton garage has become an adl base, when did this come about , knowing this now it now makes for sending the enviro 400 hybrids there. No volvo b7rle either by before the year is out ,wander where they,ll end up.

The ADL base has been there since the 45xx Tridents were delivered

[BN]

This thread moving at pace had to go back quite a bit to make sense of it , I too didn't know Wolverhampton garage has become an adl base, when did this come about , knowing this now it now makes for sending the enviro 400 hybrids there. No volvo b7rle either by before the year is out ,wander where they,ll end up.

The ADL base has been there since the 45xx Tridents were delivered

They take stock deliveries from Skelmersdale every morning then supply all the TWM garages throughout the day.