£81 Million Investment in West Midlands Bus Network

[winston]

Announced this morning NXWM & Centro have extending their quality partnership agreement for another 2 years and committed to the following:

- Merry Hill bus station
- Revamp of Dudley Bus Station
- Introducing smart cards
- 300 new buses including 15 x Hybrids (NXC were bidding for Hybrid funding) - 25 of new bus order will be delivered by the end of this year (May be part of orders that we are already aware of)
- 10 new routes

More info at:
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2013/07/03/bus-services-to-get-80m-boost-with-new-vehicles-and-merry-hill-station/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23159053

[Steve3229vp]

10 new routes - how many old routes will they replace ?, come on pull the other one !!!

[The Real 4778]

Do we think the next number sequence for the deckers after 4999 will re-set at 3000?

Bonzai Darts 3601 et al are not long for this world, and it will take a while to reach 3600 anyway, assuming we ever would.

[winston]

10 new routes - how many old routes will they replace ?, come on pull the other one !!!

It depends?

Dean Finch intends to grow all NX Group businesses organically to improve profits for group instead of making acquisitions, so increasing the number of routes / buses on the road at anyone time is the best way to achieve this.....

[Kevin]

10 new routes - how many old routes will they replace ?, come on pull the other one !!!

Could be things like expanding out into Cannock etc....
...or finishing the half arsed job of the north birmingham review

[winston]

10 new routes - how many old routes will they replace ?, come on pull the other one !!!

Could be things like expanding out into Cannock etc....
...or finishing the half arsed job of the north birmingham review

They will always put a bit of spin of any press releases highlight all the positives, even if some of the investment has already been announced in parts, they all do it.....

The 10 new routes are in fact new 'Gold' bus corridors which will be effectively upgraded to showcase standard i.e. new buses, new shelters, more bus priorities, real time etc

The BBC article quoted 10 new routes only, which doesn't sound strictly true.....

The Centro press release gives more detail:

http://www.centro.org.uk/newsroom/PressReleases/PressRelease63866.aspx

[Roy]

There are 83 "improvements" listed in the document - the "highlights" are as follows :-

Introduction of SPRINT bus rapid transit

10 new "Gold" corridors with significantly improved vehicles, information and bus priority

300 new buses between June 2013 and June 2015, of which at least 15 will be hybrid (subject to additional green bus rounds).

350 new bus shelters

A new bus station at Merry Hill plus refurbishment of Dudley Bus Station

150 new RTI displays, and improved timetable formats such as wallet-sized and online pdf's

A South Birmingham Bus Review to take place in October 2013 and refreshed VMA's (Voluntary Multilateral Agreements) for North Walsall, East Birmingham and Solihull, Wolverhampton and Coventry.

Swift smartcard for all modes of travel, with full range of ticket types

Increase CCTV on buses to 100% of the fleet, with increase in real time monitoring from police command centre

Enhanced bus priority measures, and the on-bus cleaning programme expanded to three new locations.

Coventry and Wolverhampton City Centre infrastructure, shelter and information provision based on the systems recently rolled out in Birmingham City Centre.

Better information at railway stations about onward journeys by bus.

More colour-code route branding

A further 50 buses to have on-bus audio visual displays

Extend the naming of buses on key strategic corridors following the successful process undertaken in Wolverhampton.

[danny]

So it looks like the Sprint network will be going ahead, looking forward to seeing what these 10 routes will be and indeed what buses are used on them ect.

[winston]

So it looks like the Sprint network will be going ahead, looking forward to seeing what these 10 routes will be and indeed what buses are used on them ect.

Logic would suggest that the majority of the 10 'Gold Routes' will more than likely centre on the major corridors in to/out of Birmingham

[dayvid]

10 gold bus corridors not "routes".

[winston]

10 gold bus corridors not "routes".

Yes, sorry still got routes in my head after the initial BBC article.

I guess some/all of the Bristol Rd, Pershore Rd, Warwick Rd, Dudley Rd, Soho Road, Coventry Rd, Hagley Rd, Walsall Rd, Aston Expressway corridors could be beneficiaries?

Was the South Birmingham review the very first one undertaken by Centro? I wonder if all areas will eventually be re-reviewed?

[the trainbasher]

Wrong - Dudley was!

And I don't think we would like these new fangled 2 digit numbers thanks

[winston]

Wrong - Dudley was!

And I don't think we would like these new fangled 2 digit numbers thanks

Ta, couldn't remember the order.

You may find Dudley may get a re-review to coincide with refurbishment of Dudley Bus station?

[monkeyjoe]

I saw it on the BBC Midlands today yesterday. The agreement is for two years, however I got the impression in the small print somewhere that the 300 buses is over a period of 5 years, however they did say that 25 more will be coming before the end of the year.

My complaining about my local route I was told the 94 is being upgraded in the next 6 months, weather that means new buses or buses handed over when the Sutton routes get more new ones I do not know.  Maybe it pays to share your obeservations to try and get better services.

[Roy]

No, Dudley was the first.  The South Birmingham review was implemented in October 2009.  The TBT document is a bit ambiguous as it describes it as the "South Birmingham network review" in the summary but as the "South West Birmingham network review" in the detail, with the following description :- "Review to take place in October 2013.  This will aim to increase patronage as well as deliver quality improvements through a VMA". 

Possibly a Bristol Road gold corridor ?