Questions for the NXWM Operations Director

[Trident 4609]

Dom, Arriva Wednesfield still have some vehicles in Midland Livery and very few are repainted ex Midland Buses. Most were already arriva buses transfered from London and other garages across England.

It would be nice to have new vehicles at WN but we already have had 49 B7RLE's and 21 hybrids.

I say just give the 126 some brand new branding.

One question NXOD, You probably may not know but do you have a clue if the Spectras will be withdrawn soon?

[monkeyjoe]

Just curious seems to be a lot of compliants about the 66 in the evening mail recently and what i've read on here, i.e loss of passengers because of frequency reductions and reliability issues.

Seems you must be losing a lot of passengers over recent years on this route. Got any plans to revive the fortunes of this route?

[notepanel]

Hi Simon, thanks for your previous response, and thanks for passing it on for consideration!

Something else which frequently crops up on my West Midlands Bus Users Facebook page, is the subject of route renumberings, especially after previous network reviews.

How much of this is actually down to NXWM, or is it more of a decision that Centro have made, based on passenger feedback, that NXWM have had to simply just comply with?

Personally, I agree with the route renumberings, and rather than confusing passengers (who soon get over the initial 'shock' and accept the changes), it mainly seems to bother the enthusiasts, when they don't know exactly which '5' service people are referring to! Is this also a problem for the Customer Service team when responding to customer feedback and complaints? (eg, "waited 20 minutes for a 5 which never turned up")

Hi,

The route renumbering probably has more to do with NXWM than Centro but they are willing particpants to the principle.

Many of the routes that have been renumbered have seen passenger growth higher than those that have not been renumbered so it seems to work. 

I am a big believer in buses being a local product relevant to local people and so Wolverhampton should have its own local numbers as should Coventry or other places.

Simon, I appreciate you know more than the rest of us, but surely the fact that several 'renumbered' services will also have seen route changes will have more of a bearing on passenger growth or the fact other service changes during the review will have forced people on to that route?

For instance, whilst the WA6 may show higher passenger numbers than prior to the review, would this not be more likely due to the fact the timetables were co-ordinated with the 7 between Walsall & Aldridge (a bigger gap potentially between the service in front) and the reduction in journeys from Walsall to Sutton (from 7 to 4) to what was offered pre-review?

Or perhaps the WA41, might have passenger growth, but this would most likely be as a result of all passengers along Lucknow Road etc. no longer having the quicker 340 available to them?

Both routes operate virtually identical timetables pre & post review and have been in operation for several years, so surely the other factors would have a bigger impact on growth rather than the fact the route number has lost a digit or two?

[Westy]

Why didnt the 301 & 302 get renumbered?

Was it because Arriva already had 1 & 2, & you didnt want 3 & 4?

(5 was the old Midland route to & from Turnberry Estate!)

[Trident 4609]

Why didnt the 301 & 302 get renumbered?

Was it because Arriva already had 1 & 2, & you didnt want 3 & 4?

(5 was the old Midland route to & from Turnberry Estate!)

They weren't renumbered as Arriva already had the 1 and 2 so they couldn't have been renumbered

[Stuharris 6360]

Hi Simon, thanks for your previous response, and thanks for passing it on for consideration!

Something else which frequently crops up on my West Midlands Bus Users Facebook page, is the subject of route renumberings, especially after previous network reviews.

How much of this is actually down to NXWM, or is it more of a decision that Centro have made, based on passenger feedback, that NXWM have had to simply just comply with?

Personally, I agree with the route renumberings, and rather than confusing passengers (who soon get over the initial 'shock' and accept the changes), it mainly seems to bother the enthusiasts, when they don't know exactly which '5' service people are referring to! Is this also a problem for the Customer Service team when responding to customer feedback and complaints? (eg, "waited 20 minutes for a 5 which never turned up")

Hi,

The route renumbering probably has more to do with NXWM than Centro but they are willing particpants to the principle.

Many of the routes that have been renumbered have seen passenger growth higher than those that have not been renumbered so it seems to work. 

I am a big believer in buses being a local product relevant to local people and so Wolverhampton should have its own local numbers as should Coventry or other places.

Simon,

are there any plans to renumber services in Dudley/Stourbridge

Stuart

[winston]

They have less buses than us to paint or replace.

To paint all our buses in to the same livery will take on average 5 years assuming no delays in the paint shop (which happen often because some buses need more preparation than others).

Arriva/Midland haven't painted all their fleet, there are still several red ones. Also they have done it by replacing old buses with similarly aged old buses already in livery from elsewhere.

Have a look at how many Arriva Midland buses are in the old Arriva Livery, including a few at Wednesfield, and how many in the current livery and you will see NX are well ahead of Arriva in getting all their fleet in one livery, same with First Group

But the same argument applies in relation to the size of NX's UK bus fleet; it is approx a quarter of the size of both Arriva's & First Groups total UK fleet strength.......

NX's repaint programme has already been on-going for some six years and there are approx 280 buses (Pete can confirm exact numbers) still in TWM low floor / toothpaste livery, additionally the majority of these buses will be remaining in the fleet even after the 300 new buses have all been delivered, as the bulk of them are B7TL & Trident / ALX400's. Other than some TC / TWM liveried Mercs, the majority of all withdrawals between now & June 2015 will more than likely be in NX livery.

Another issue is that the early NX repaints & 57 reg buses (particularly the E400's) delivered new in NX livery are also now look scruffier than some of the TWM liveried buses still awaiting their turn in the paintshop

[Kevin]

Was going to ask about two bus routes in particular.

Firstly, to echo comments above about the 66, no word of a lie it has been ruined travelling through nechells and star city, and I know of a number of people who have given up on it completely and now use the 65/67 to work in nechells and walk from the Lichfield Road.

Secondly the 28. I've always wondered why the evening and sundays service (and indeed half the daytime services) don't go all the way to Scott Arms? It's a very useful link for a lot of people and at the moment it either requires a walk from Perry Beeches to Dyas Road or going most of the way into the city centre to come back out again.

[Westy]

Why didnt the 301 & 302 get renumbered?

Was it because Arriva already had 1 & 2, & you didnt want 3 & 4?

(5 was the old Midland route to & from Turnberry Estate!)

They weren't renumbered as Arriva already had the 1 and 2 so they couldn't have been renumbered

Yes, but why didnt they renumber them 3 & 4?

(& I know 4 cant be used now!)

The numbering system is all over the place now.

[winston]

Why didnt the 301 & 302 get renumbered?

Was it because Arriva already had 1 & 2, & you didnt want 3 & 4?

(5 was the old Midland route to & from Turnberry Estate!)

They weren't renumbered as Arriva already had the 1 and 2 so they couldn't have been renumbered

Yes, but why didnt they renumber them 3 & 4?

(& I know 4 cant be used now!)

The numbering system is all over the place now.

A number of WA services were left out of the re-numbering scheme i.e. 301, 302, 311, 313, 335, 336 etc

The 529 has been left out of the WN re-numbering scheme

Ultimately each area had it's own local numbering series.....

[nitromatt1]

Why didnt the 301 & 302 get renumbered?

Was it because Arriva already had 1 & 2, & you didnt want 3 & 4?

(5 was the old Midland route to & from Turnberry Estate!)

They weren't renumbered as Arriva already had the 1 and 2 so they couldn't have been renumbered

Yes, but why didnt they renumber them 3 & 4?

(& I know 4 cant be used now!)

The numbering system is all over the place now.

A number of WA services were left out of the re-numbering scheme i.e. 301, 302, 311, 313, 335, 336 etc

The 529 has been left out of the WN re-numbering scheme

Ultimately each area had it's own local numbering series.....

Thankfully it hasn't really happened to the Pensnett services (yet!)

[Trident 4609]

Winston, 529 couldn't have been renumbered to 29 because of WA's 29 is already there but there was plans to renumber it the 52 but they just kept it the same

[winston]

Winston, 529 couldn't have been renumbered to 29 because of WA's 29 is already there but there was plans to renumber it the 52 but they just kept it the same

I didn't necessarily have to be re-numbered as the 29; there are/were plenty of other options, re-numbering it as the 52 which doesn't clash with either the WN or WA route numbers would have been equally acceptable. Some of WB's routes have been re-numbered by dropping a digit but not necessarily the 4-- (WB) series

In my opinion, if they route numbers were all going to be altered, it need to be all or nothing, rather than than having remnants of the old numbering systems still in place in both WA & WN and Dudley still has its tradional 2-- series numbers 

[Trident 4609]

The 126,255/6 were also left out of the the new renumbering system aswell. The 255/6 could've become the 55/6 :)

[winston]

The 126,255/6 were also left out of the the new renumbering system aswell. The 255/6 could've become the 55/6 :)

Yes, forgot about those. But the you'd have had the 55, 56 & 257 (which falls under Dudley) but is operated by WN garage and interworked

Maybe a simpler solution would have been to have the core routes at WA in the 30 series, WB 40 series (of which many are) & WN 50-60 series, Dudley 20 series if ever re-numbered. These would then tied in with the former area numbering series