Coventry Garage

[Beano2211]

The 11 will go via Clemens St, Brunswick St, St Helen's Rd then back down Tachbrook Rd when the roadworks on the High St have finished.

[JPC]

VOSA is suggesting a route change on NXC services 5 and 6/6A from 27 October... Let me guess....

Only affecting westbound journeys in the Tile Hill direction.
Service 5 adjusted to take the current 6/6A route between Dolomite Avenue/Tile Hill Lane roundabout and Herald Avenue (Sainsbury's).
Service 6/6A therefore short cuts through Herald Avenue.
A [confusing but logical?] tweak creating relevant provision of service and a significant mileage saving and timekeeping help for service 6/6A.
In fact extending the evening and Sunday service 5 journeys from Canley Road to Sainsbury's [plenty of spare time to do so] might be a beneficial link.

[Sivan]

VOSA is suggesting a route change on NXC services 5 and 6/6A from 27 October... Let me guess....

Only affecting westbound journeys in the Tile Hill direction.
Service 5 adjusted to take the current 6/6A route between Dolomite Avenue/Tile Hill Lane roundabout and Herald Avenue (Sainsbury's).
Service 6/6A therefore short cuts through Herald Avenue.
A [confusing but logical?] tweak creating relevant provision of service and a significant mileage saving and timekeeping help for service 6/6A.
In fact extending the evening and Sunday service 5 journeys from Canley Road to Sainsbury's [plenty of spare time to do so] might be a beneficial link.

PD0001111/145 - WEST MIDLANDS TRAVEL LTD T/A TRAVEL WEST MIDLANDS, 51 BORDESLEY GREEN, BIRMINGHAM, B9 4BZ

    Variation Accepted: Operating between Keresley Village and Little Heath given service number 6/6A/6S effective from 27-Oct-2013. To amend Route.


PD0001111/400 - WEST MIDLANDS TRAVEL LTD T/A TRAVEL WEST MIDLANDS, 51 BORDESLEY GREEN, BIRMINGHAM, B9 4BZ

    Variation Accepted: Operating between Coventry, Pool Meadow, Overslade Crescent and Coventry, Canley, Cannon Park Shopping Centre given service number 5 effective from 27-Oct-2013. To amend Route.

[D10]

VOSA is suggesting a route change on NXC services 5 and 6/6A from 27 October... Let me guess....

Only affecting westbound journeys in the Tile Hill direction.
Service 5 adjusted to take the current 6/6A route between Dolomite Avenue/Tile Hill Lane roundabout and Herald Avenue (Sainsbury's).
Service 6/6A therefore short cuts through Herald Avenue.
A [confusing but logical?] tweak creating relevant provision of service and a significant mileage saving and timekeeping help for service 6/6A.
In fact extending the evening and Sunday service 5 journeys from Canley Road to Sainsbury's [plenty of spare time to do so] might be a beneficial link.

PD0001111/145 - WEST MIDLANDS TRAVEL LTD T/A TRAVEL WEST MIDLANDS, 51 BORDESLEY GREEN, BIRMINGHAM, B9 4BZ

    Variation Accepted: Operating between Keresley Village and Little Heath given service number 6/6A/6S effective from 27-Oct-2013. To amend Route.


PD0001111/400 - WEST MIDLANDS TRAVEL LTD T/A TRAVEL WEST MIDLANDS, 51 BORDESLEY GREEN, BIRMINGHAM, B9 4BZ

    Variation Accepted: Operating between Coventry, Pool Meadow, Overslade Crescent and Coventry, Canley, Cannon Park Shopping Centre given service number 5 effective from 27-Oct-2013. To amend Route.

The Keresley reference is probably a red herring. Registration number PD0001111/145 is a longstanding reg number. It seems as though the Little Heath route has run under this reg since it was the old 36 route which did serve Keresley. It was amended to Route number 6 in the 2012 Network Review and started running to Tile Hill. Anyone able to confirm this?

[JPC]

PD0001111/145 - WEST MIDLANDS TRAVEL LTD T/A TRAVEL WEST MIDLANDS, 51 BORDESLEY GREEN, BIRMINGHAM, B9 4BZ

    Variation Accepted: Operating between Keresley Village and Little Heath given service number 6/6A/6S effective from 27-Oct-2013. To amend Route.


PD0001111/400 - WEST MIDLANDS TRAVEL LTD T/A TRAVEL WEST MIDLANDS, 51 BORDESLEY GREEN, BIRMINGHAM, B9 4BZ

    Variation Accepted: Operating between Coventry, Pool Meadow, Overslade Crescent and Coventry, Canley, Cannon Park Shopping Centre given service number 5 effective from 27-Oct-2013. To amend Route.

The Keresley reference is probably a red herring. Registration number PD0001111/145 is a longstanding reg number. It seems as though the Little Heath route has run under this reg since it was the old 36 route which did serve Keresley. It was amended to Route number 6 in the 2012 Network Review and started running to Tile Hill. Anyone able to confirm this?

Yeah, the destinations points within VOSA registrations often don't get updated so we have to ignore them sometimes,
these were obviously registrations for old services 36 and 42 and have been recycled into current services 6/6A and 5.
The route changes must be minor as it doesn't say any change to timetable.

[Valandil]

The 11 will go via Clemens St, Brunswick St, St Helen's Rd then back down Tachbrook Rd when the roadworks on the High St have finished.

Thanks for this.
It's a shame that NXC hasn't made a formal announcement about this as Warwick students who live in Leamington will be choosing which company's pass to buy around now, and won't know about this change which could potentially bring more customers to NXC.

[JPC]

They have mentioned the route extension on their Facebook page but yes totally agree about the lack of publicity.
So is there a reason behind the route change?  Is the extension possibly only happening because of complaints about service 11 buses being parked up in the Town Centre for significant periods of time?  The new timetable generally has the same timings which means buses are having to do the extension in place of slack time at Leamington which will likely result in a less reliable service and instances of late running buses terminating short/turning around as per old route.

[Valandil]

My take on it is that NXC thought the 11 was getting far too reliable, so had a think how they could make it more unreliable again :D
Only joking.

But it does seem like a heck of an extension, and I'm sure there are places closer to the centre of the town to park up if that's the aim.
So I'm guessing they're doing it with the intention of picking up more custom.

[Ben]

My take on it is that NXC thought the 11 was getting far too reliable, so had a think how they could make it more unreliable again :D
Only joking.

But it does seem like a heck of an extension, and I'm sure there are places closer to the centre of the town to park up if that's the aim.
So I'm guessing they're doing it with the intention of picking up more custom.

Well now it's got roadworks on Herald Ave (not sure how long these will last) and a diversion in Leamington Spa (about 8 weeks) itself to deal with too.

[Valandil]

So yes, this is now pretty much guaranteed unreliability!
The slightest thing can knock NXC's timetables because, compared with other companies, they just don't provide the same flexibility in their schedules.

[JPC]

Roadworks are also planned at Coventry ring road Junction 6 (Friargate project) starting in January for at least 18 months,  ;D unsure if this will involve any diversions.

[Valandil]

There seem to be a few minor inconsistencies in the new 11 timetable:
http://nxbus.co.uk/files/NXCoventry/current_timetables/C011_30Sep13.pdf
http://nxbus.co.uk/files/NXCoventry/current_timetables/TT_C11_12_30092013_Email.pdf

The MF 0916 from Leamington Tachbrook Road is shown as omitting the second timing point on one of the above, but not the other.
And on both of these the Saturday times towards Coventry are a bit weird!
(E.g. buses arrive at Hearsall Common at 35, 48, 05 and 20 minutes past the hour.)

[Tony]

So yes, this is now pretty much guaranteed unreliability!
The slightest thing can knock NXC's timetables because, compared with other companies, they just don't provide the same flexibility in their schedules.

Which other companies are you referring to that provide 'flexibility'?
The small competitors in the West Midlands run to tighter timetables than NX. Arriva/First certainly don't give there timetables any slack

[JPC]

There seem to be a few minor inconsistencies in the new 11 timetable:
http://nxbus.co.uk/files/NXCoventry/current_timetables/C011_30Sep13.pdf
http://nxbus.co.uk/files/NXCoventry/current_timetables/TT_C11_12_30092013_Email.pdf

The MF 0916 from Leamington Tachbrook Road is shown as omitting the second timing point on one of the above, but not the other.
And on both of these the Saturday times towards Coventry are a bit weird!
(E.g. buses arrive at Hearsall Common at 35, 48, 05 and 20 minutes past the hour.)

Yes, I had notified NXC about some of these errors hence their website now linking to the hardly any better Centro version of the timetable, which also includes the likely expired University Holiday version of the timetable under the old route.
On the very same MF 0916 journey the timings for Hearsall Common and onwards are meant to be 10 minute earlier than shown.   ::)
That University Security office timing point for some service 12 journeys is also a bit strange, Outbound timings rarely seem to match up with Inbound, Sunday daytimes being a good example, unless the buses are going around the loop twice?

[Valandil]

So yes, this is now pretty much guaranteed unreliability!
The slightest thing can knock NXC's timetables because, compared with other companies, they just don't provide the same flexibility in their schedules.

Which other companies are you referring to that provide 'flexibility'?
The small competitors in the West Midlands run to tighter timetables than NX. Arriva/First certainly don't give there timetables any slack

Not being overly familiar with the West Midlands, I am not too sure about this area.
(Though WMSNT's service 1 was very good and had loads of stand time, until NX took it over when (coincidentally I'm sure) Centro modified the route and reduced this time heavily.)
However, up North, it just seems to be standard practice for there to be appropriate recovery time built into the timetable.
For example, Wigan Road in Warrington sometimes becomes gridlocked if there is an accident on one of the nearby motorways.
Arriva's 329 is allocated 12 minutes' recovery time in Warrington to account for this, and their 360 gets 10 minutes.
This is generally enough to cope with such times, and of course provides excellent reliability and punctuality on almost every journey -- something which, surprisingly enough, passengers really value.

If what you say is true and all of Arriva's services have 0 minutes' time between each run, then it sounds like Arriva is much less realistic down here, and they are even worse than National Express for providing a service which can actually function in accordance with the schedule on every journey of every day.

Funnily enough, I once did a 110 from Tamworth to Birmingham, and not only did it depart Tamworth a few minutes late, but it also became further and further behind over the journey, arriving in Birmingham something like 20 minutes late.
And this was on a Sunday with there being no major incidents or the like en route.
This is of course a one-journey experience, but put it this way, I have never tried to make that journey by bus again.

I suppose that, whatever the case though, surely no company can beat Megabus's insanely tight timetables which require flat-out running and pretty much no opportunity to recover lost time whatsoever.
It's just foolish, and has cost them a bob or two in compensatory tickets to me for journeys running unacceptably late and getting further and further behind as time went on.

Put it this way, many international students at Warwick University are very unimpressed with public transport in England, based on what they have seen around here.
Some have said to me that transport companies in their home countries face huge fines (and public criticism) if there is late running, even by just a couple of minutes: it is almost an unspeakable event.
Whereas around here, you get to the bus stop knowing that anything could happen.

Anyway, I shall be watching the changes to the 11 closely, and we shall see what happens.