Questions for the NXWM Operations Director

[NX OD]

Hi Simon,

Just the one question from me ( at the moment ;) )

Can we have a bus named after Tony, for his incredible dedication to the job and for his work out side of the company (aka this website) ?

Many thanks!

Well he is now a TV star as well......

[NX OD]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the opportunity for us enthusiasts to put comments / questions to Senior Management in NXWM.

Firstly, a personal opinion that the new brighter red being used for repaints is excellent and looks very clean and smart. I can appreciate why the livery is simple as it makes repairs much easier, but I echo the call from a previous posting to ensure garages affecting repairs to match the paint and not to have a 'patchwork quilt' effect.

Just two questions as I take the point of not wishing to bombard you.

1.Has the font and positioning of fleet numbering finally been settled now? All new deliveries it has been noted have a different font and are positioned differently to existing vehicles. Will all repaints be adopting the new font / positioning of numbers?

2.The 16 had route branded buses new in February 2002; these followed the route when Hockley closed in 2005 to WB and to PB when it moved again in May 2006. Time moved on and an abortive attempt to convert to Single Decker Omnilink resulted in 2 buses being briefly branded. Now there is just a mis-mash (it would appear) of anything that is going, but usually 12 year old B7 ALX400's or 10 year old Gemini's, although the latter following repaint are now a lot smarter. Are there any plans to upgrade the route to compete with the Diamond offering of Hybrid buses? Just new branded buses would give the route a boost.

Alan

Hi Alan,

1. I am not sure to be honest.  I will see if I can find out.

2. Nothing planned for the 16 at present - it's running pretty well at the moment.

[NX OD]

Hey Simon!

I know you'll be busy replying to all the questions before this, but I just thought I'd ask if there are any plans to improve or upgrade East Birmingham's services in the near future? i.e. new buses, improved frequencies, new routes etc.? I only ask because it seems a lot of the focus lately has been on North Birmingham, Walsall and Wolverhampton and it seems they've had their fill of brand new buses if I'm honest. You can't go up the Birchfield Road without 90% of buses being an Enviro400, and if you go into East Birmingham it just seems to be decade-old Tridents, similarly aged ALX400s on the 94, and the odd unrefurbished Omnilink dotted about. I know the Coventry Road has just received new Enviros for 2 of it's routes but the point remains, you go anywhere in East Birmingham and the only routes you'll see with brand spanking new buses are the 71/72, and maybe the 94 if an Enviro creeps out of North Birmingham. Even the 97, which I thought would become a high profile route now being the only one to run 24 hours and connecting many areas to the airport, is using, albeit branded, old Tridents. It seems that since Lea Hall closed down, the standards and upkeep of East Birmingham's routes have been neglected.
I just thought maybe some investment in the future is needed to bring East Birmingham up to the standards that Walsall, Wolverhampton and North Birmingham (especially Pheasey) are now enjoying.

Kind Regards :)

Hi JB,

I will use this reply to answer all the posts about East Birmingham.

I don't think that we view East Birmingham as being neglected.  The 71/72 have had new buses and the Coventry Road Enviro's are in place now as well.  The buses on the 97 have all been refurbished as well.  The 17 and 55 have also benefited recently from having been converted to all Scania recently, some of which are being repainted at the moment.

We are planning on upgrading the 94 for early 2014 but this will be through cascades of newer buses from other routes rather than brand new.

New to this interesting reading.

It is good something is being done with the 94 at last. I am just curious. "Why is th 94 not entitled to new buses?", especially when it sounds like they will be getting the scraps from the Sutton routes which were upgraded about 5 years ago.

Doesn't exactly sound fair.  94 has not had new branded buses since about 2002.

This is just a view but seems to be a correlation between lack of interest in this corridor and the increasing numbers using the Claribels service.

Would be interested in your views, many thanks. As you can tell I feel strongly about this.  I also know a few people that agree with me.  :)

Hi Greg,

I think that many other routes could also claim it to be unfair not to have new buses such as the Soho Road, Dudley Road, Bristol Road, 65, 14, 126 and so on.  We have a limited number of new buses each year (although more than in some years) and we need to do what we think is best with them.  Usually we will look at growth opportunites, outside influences like the SQPS, bus priority on a route and the resultant cascades from putting new buses in to a garage.

There is certainly no lack of interest in the 94 - the PB General Manager was very passionate about it in a meeting today!

[Trident 4609]

NX OD, Just to add to my comment about the 59 in Wolverhampton. It was running unreliably again today with alot of buses bunching and at one point 4012 overheated 3 times on the 59 today then finally went back to garage plus another 3 buses running together so when i got to Wolverhampton there were mass amounts of people waiting. Can i ask you to monitor the route over the next few weeks.

Too many spectras are put on there and are overworked on there. More Tridents need to be allocated to the route?

[NX OD]

Hello again Simon, many thanks for answering my previous question!

I have just one more question to ask, with regards to the Outer Circle 11A/C service, how important is this service to National Express?

As well as being a very popular local bus service, it has become a very famous route, not just in Birmingham, or England/Britain as a whole, but is known throughout Europe. As a flagship service, are there any plans in the pipeline to upgrade the service with new buses in the near future, as well as to promote and/or market the route as a local tourist attraction?

In 2016, the service will have been operated for 90 years, along pretty much the same route, having survived numerous network reviews. By this time it would be great for the service to be using state-of-the-art buses, equipped with information screens providing information about the numerous places the service visits, not just for the benefit of the regular passengers, but for those trying the service from a tourist perspective.

As much as I enjoy travelling on the refurbished Plaxton Presidents which are currently being mostly used on the service, mainly due to them not being permitted on more frequent routes into the City Centre due to emission rulings, they are actually older than the vehicles that originally upgraded the service back in 2004 to a Showcase route.

It is very important to us and we are all aware of its significance.  I am very proud to be involved with it and was at AG today for some meetings, one of which we looked at the Outer Circle in some detail.

We have some ambitions for it and some thoughts but that is all for 2014 really.  This autumn there will be some timing changes and timing point changes but nothing more.

[NX OD]

NX OD, Just to add to my comment about the 59 in Wolverhampton. It was running unreliably again today with alot of buses bunching and at one point 4012 overheated 3 times on the 59 today then finally went back to garage plus another 3 buses running together so when i got to Wolverhampton there were mass amounts of people waiting. Can i ask you to monitor the route over the next few weeks.

Too many spectras are put on there and are overworked on there. More Tridents need to be allocated to the route?

Sorry about today.  I will get the WN (or PL!) team on to it.

[Trident 4609]

That would be great if you could :) I have found that more Tridents are put on routes like the 11/32/33 plus the 25/7/8 which can do with spectras and single deckers. Could you possibly ask them about what they allocate to the 59.

Also they do use Single Deckers on the 59 quite a bit which is a bad idea as the 59 can be a very busy route (I live and travel on the route and know). Could you possibly ask them maybe to stop putting single deckers on the 59 regually. Only the peak board really should be a single decker

[NX OD]

That would be great if you could :) I have found that more Tridents are put on routes like the 11/32/33 plus the 25/7/8 which can do with spectras and single deckers. Could you possibly ask them about what they allocate to the 59.

Also they do use Single Deckers on the 59 quite a bit which is a bad idea as the 59 can be a very busy route (I live and travel on the route and know). Could you possibly ask them maybe to stop putting single deckers on the 59 regually. Only the peak board really should be a single decker

There are all kinds of reasons why the 59 gets the allocation that it does but I will ask them to have another look.

[Trident 4609]

Thanks Simon :) I know there are various reasons why the 59 sometimes is allocated a single decker which sometimes can't be helped but there has been occasions when single deck routes have had a trident allocated and then a B7RLE on the 59.

[Trident 4609]

Just one question that just popped into my head

Have NXWM ever considered operating the 900 24 hr?

[NX OD]

Just one question that just popped into my head

Have NXWM ever considered operating the 900 24 hr?

Yes we have.

[Trident 4609]

Just one question that just popped into my head

Have NXWM ever considered operating the 900 24 hr?

Yes we have.

But what made you think it wouldn't work?

[Stuharris 6360]

Simon,

would like to ask about Night Buses in general.

Now London have such a good night bus service, as Birmingham is regarded as the 2nd city, has it never been thought of to bring back Night buses to a number of routes.

i kn ow you have made the 97 a 24hr service, but when the bus gets into city, it links with nothing.

Thanks

Stu

[Trident 4609]

I would think the 9 could benefit from A 24/7 service possibly linking with the 97 at night.

[monkeyjoe]

Just one question that just popped into my head

Have NXWM ever considered operating the 900 24 hr?

Yes we have.

But what made you think it wouldn't work?

The 97 was funded by the Airport/NEC , the idea to increase employment oppurtunities for people a long the route. It's not really a case that NXWM didn't think the 900 wouldn't work.