Questions for the NXWM Operations Director

[Trident 4609]

A few questions for you Simon if you could possibly help me that would be great:

Firstly is there any plans to introduce new route branding for the 126? (I've noticed that the current branded tridents are starting to be repainted with 4576 just coming back from repaint)

Could you possibly moniter my local route WN59 as it has a 5-6 minute frequency but recently there has been some late running meaning massive queues waiting.(My mom waited 28 minutes in Wolverhampton for the 59 and only two turned up)
If you could possibly look at the reliability of the route that would be great :)

Apart from the 9 and 934/5/6 which you mentioned are there plans for any other high profile routes to be route branded?

Also another route that could possibly be monitered is WA89. It runs at a 30 minute frequency but regually turns up 10- even sometimes 20 minutes late. Personally i think its due to the 89 not being given enough time to get from Walsall-Wolverhampton

And finally could you possibly tell me why all the E400H Hybrids at WN (5410-21) are route branded for the 1 because they regually appear off route especially evenings and Sundays. Maybe some could be debranded so not all are branded like Volvo B5LH 5510-14

[:D]

1) Any plans for completely new route? It seems that every time network review is implemented, completely new routes are rarely introduced, it's almost always modification of current route.

2) What happened to route 958, that went from Birmingham to Airport partially using A45 bypass? Some said it was because of low amount of passengers, others said it was because of unreliability.

[6013]

Hi, Simon


1) Any plan for order a more new bendy buses in nearly the future?
2) I would like to see in next October, when the 11/12 need changes frequency from Every 15min to Every 10min from Coventry to University and Every 20min from Coventry to Leamington Spa. And need extra peak times in morning and evening on the 11/12 make turn on the time.
3) I would like Bendibuses can board on peak time on the 11/12 in morning and evening with University term timetable? I am sure there are no problem with tight on the road for bendy buses running on the 11/12.
4) I would like take two board can use the bendy buses running on 20's in Every Saturday only?? and I do know bendy buses can two board mon-friday on the 21.

Thanks many 6013 ;)

[B.C Driver]

Hi Simon,

I know you are getting swamped with questions here, and rather you than me having to answer them all.

My question is, after 10pm it is impossible to issue child tickets.
This has led to arguements as parents pay for their children and they expect a ticket, I have to try and explain that I cant issue a ticket and they ask why. Its an awkward situation.

Many thanks

[Gareth]

Another quickie from me.

What was the overall customer feed back like for the experimental livery on 4177? Was it not rolled out as standard because of feedback or were there other factors involved?

Personally I liked it. It would need a few tweaks, such as replacing the orange detail with a different colour, but otherwise, it was very good! A vast improvement on the current livery!

[PM]

Hi Simon really glad you are on the forum to answer our questions-it is really appreciated
Just a few quick questions:

1) Why did NX start buying omnilinks and then stop fairly shortly afterwards? Were they cheap initially and then the quality issues esposed?

2) Who came up with the current livery design-i imagine it was in house and certainly not best impressions or if so it is one of the ones they keep more quiet about lol

3) Why was the toothpaste livery never standardised on-brilliant smart livery.... shame it is not the current design

4) Why were vehicles like B10Bs repainted only to be withdrawn shortly when there were b7tl/alx400s which look a mess internally and externally still unrepainted

5) When will the presidents/spectras/tridents be withdrawn?

6) Why were NX in such a rush to refurb the presidents when left pretty much alone vehicles of a similar age until very recently until the good programme of refurbs began?

7) What was the point of the green branding? Did it increase ridership at all or just look cheap and tacky?

8) Why did it take so long to settle on a corporate style?

9) Isn't the current interior a bit sterile and bland-compared to that on the toothpaste buses-the interiors a bit like 50 shades of grey??

10) Why did WMT/TWM avoid buying darts for years?

11) Are routes on which competition has started on recently suffering in terms of patronage-im thinking the 50 here as NX seem to have resorted to desperation tactics-sudden branding, NX officials at the stop in town and buses suddenly short turning at the maypole which they didnt do before tgb upped the frequency?

12) Out of interest, what are relations like between rotala and NX-in the past, weren't relations between competing operators a bit frosty but what about now

Thanks again and look forward to your reply

[OH25]

Another quickie from me.

What was the overall customer feed back like for the experimental livery on 4177? Was it not rolled out as standard because of feedback or were there other factors involved?

Personally I liked it. It would need a few tweaks, such as replacing the orange detail with a different colour, but otherwise, it was very good! A vast improvement on the current livery!

I agree I believe 4177's livery looked really good and the orange dettail should be changed to white .. It would look very professional and nice!

[monkeyjoe]

Is this going to work if people start writing essay's on their pages to answer, just a thought?? :-\

[pb2012]

Hi Simon:

1.why pink branding on red fronted vehicle, if your supporting breast cancer great idea but there's no ribbon, don't thinks it's that eye catching for the general public to really notice it.

2.As for these gold corridors I've heard about i'm assuming the buses wont be painted gold/white but branding similar to WN 1 service would catch the eye of most people it certainly did for Wolverhampton looks great.

3.I also think it would be great if another of your colleagues would be kind enough to answer questions we may have regarding vehicle movements and new buses coming to the region, I know info regarding new buses is vague, but would be nice to know what type of buses you have ordered when this batch of 300 start arriving.

Many thanks pb2012.

[Stuharris 6360]

Is this going to work if people start writing essay's on their pages to answer, just a thought?? :-\

Here Here!

Simon has very kindly agreed to answer our question, but we can't expect him to get in from work and find pages & pages of questions off everyone, short, sweet & to the point i think is what is needed.

[Trident 4609]

Just a quick question from me

Could you tell me why certain busy routes (59 and 529 mainly) start late on a sunday as they always seem to be busy on the first journey).First 59 journey on a sunday is 08:50 from Ashmore Park and 09:20 from Wolverhamton

Could you possibly look into possibly starting say an hour earlier (7:50 from Ashmore Park and 08:20 from Wolverhampton) as it can get very busy on the first journey and the amount of times i've heard other passengers moan about how late it starts on a sunday.

Very sorry for the 1001 questions i am asking its just there are many questions i would like to ask

[NX OD]

Hi again

Any chance on the restrictions on posting on the Facebook site being relaxed, so you can actually start your own thread instead of tagging onto to others, which may get missed.

Perhaps a polite word to Reiss & co, along the lines of 'Behave else we'll block you' as they were spoiling it for everyone else.

Coventry Facebook seem to be able to keep control of theirs.

Why cant the NX one do the same?

Hi again,

The facility to post on the West Midlands Facebook page was removed because we seemed to be attracting endless numbers of comments from transport enthusiasts suggesting how we should modify our services.

The volume of these transport enthusiast comments was far outweighing genera passenger comments and as we don't really have the resource within the department to monitor and moderate these comments it was felt it would be better to disable them.

Depending on the way things progress we may consider re-instating comments for a trial period in the future.

[NX OD]

Hi Simon

I was just wondering when will Walsall Tridents be Refurbised/Repainted some buses have not been repainted since new

4307/4308/4309/4329/4331/4332

Being 12 Years Old

Thanks

Hi lynx1103,

I am not sure to be honest.  I will try and find out.

[NX OD]

A few questions for you Simon if you could possibly help me that would be great:

Firstly is there any plans to introduce new route branding for the 126? (I've noticed that the current branded tridents are starting to be repainted with 4576 just coming back from repaint)

Could you possibly moniter my local route WN59 as it has a 5-6 minute frequency but recently there has been some late running meaning massive queues waiting.(My mom waited 28 minutes in Wolverhampton for the 59 and only two turned up)
If you could possibly look at the reliability of the route that would be great :)

Apart from the 9 and 934/5/6 which you mentioned are there plans for any other high profile routes to be route branded?

Also another route that could possibly be monitered is WA89. It runs at a 30 minute frequency but regually turns up 10- even sometimes 20 minutes late. Personally i think its due to the 89 not being given enough time to get from Walsall-Wolverhampton

And finally could you possibly tell me why all the E400H Hybrids at WN (5410-21) are route branded for the 1 because they regually appear off route especially evenings and Sundays. Maybe some could be debranded so not all are branded like Volvo B5LH 5510-14

Hi Trident4609,

No plans for the 126 at the moment to receive new branding.

I will ask for the 59 to be monitored.  My apologies for the long waits.

There will be other routes branded but the ones I mentioned are the ones we are working on at the moment.

I will have the 89 reviewed but the last time we looked at it seemed OK.  It achieved a higher than the company average on time performance last week.

There should be no wrongly branded buses on routes unless there are no other buses available.  I will ask my manager at WN for a report.

[NX OD]

1) Any plans for completely new route? It seems that every time network review is implemented, completely new routes are rarely introduced, it's almost always modification of current route.

2) What happened to route 958, that went from Birmingham to Airport partially using A45 bypass? Some said it was because of low amount of passengers, others said it was because of unreliability.

Hi,

1. If there was something that made sense then we would do it but as most of the area is already covered completely new routes are hard to find.

2. I only remember a 58 that went to the Airport or Arden Oak.  It was taken off when we introduced the revised 957/900/58/59/60.  I don't recall a 958.