Questions for the NXWM Operations Director

[Trident 4609]

I will like to congratulate you Simon on your new Post. And i will like to Thank You SO much for taking the time to answer our questions.

And Thank You for Making the 59 earlier on a Sunday ;D ;) Only joking

[andy]

Congratulations Simon.

Interesting dynamic that exists now with the management teams at Arriva and NX in many cases having completely swapped over.

The Derbyshire and Leicestershire operating territory is extremely interesting and challenging in a good way, I miss it.  So much of it is still very functional and stuck in the days of Derby City Transport and Midland Fox and bits of Leicester Corporation, and could certainly do with the sort of fresh approach that I know you will take with you.

Thurmaston is a nice place to work with the odd exception, although be warned the traffic in the morning getting in from this side is evil!

Best of luck to you and I hope Arriva will permit you to post on here as you will be missed if not.

[jack corbett]

will there ever  ;Dnew buses for 74/5 because old ones are no good

[trident4370]

Sad to see you go Simon, wishing you good luck at Arriva.

[makkacdt]

Hi simon, this also goes to tony if he reads this as im aware he is inspector if im right?
Is there anyway you can speak to you drivers on the coventry road to speed up driver changes, im currently sat on the 900 which arrived at the change over point at 1358 and left just after 1405, i and the other passengers all have somewhere to go and waiting here for 10 minutes while the new driver speaks to other drivers sat in the bus stop.
Sorry but has happened on many occasions and is starting to the biscuit a bit

[makkacdt]

And for refrance sake the bus im on is 4902

[winston]

Congratulations Simon.

Interesting dynamic that exists now with the management teams at Arriva and NX in many cases having completely swapped over.

The Derbyshire and Leicestershire operating territory is extremely interesting and challenging in a good way, I miss it.  So much of it is still very functional and stuck in the days of Derby City Transport and Midland Fox and bits of Leicester Corporation, and could certainly do with the sort of fresh approach that I know you will take with you.

Thurmaston is a nice place to work with the odd exception, although be warned the traffic in the morning getting in from this side is evil!

Best of luck to you and I hope Arriva will permit you to post on here as you will be missed if not.

Andy,

I understand that Arriva's Derbyshire and Leicestershire operations are quite a lot smaller than the size of NXWM, any idea how many vehicles Arriva operate in those areas?

[Liverpool Street]

Can you ask YW engineering to have a look at 4094. It's deafeningly loud. And that's without the fan spinning. Cheers

[trident4370]

4092 is another one that sounds beyond hope, can understand why it was stuck at WB for so long before transfer!

[Busmapper]

Better get my question in while I can then (great thread btw).

My query is about the co-ordination of services 27 & 76 between Kings Heath and Hollybank Rd/Chinn Brook Rd.
Both services have a 20 min daytime frequency, however I appreciate that without altering turn-around times it is not possible to achieve a 10 min headway in both directions based on current timetables.
Non-the-less I think the current 1'/19' interval to KH (ie the services run on top of each other) and 13'/'7 from KH could be improved upon.
If the whole (daytime) 27 timetable was brought forward 6 minutes, the 7'/13' interval from KH would be maintained (but now with the DD [76] service leading after the 13'), whilst a slightly better 15'/5' interval to KH would be achieved.

Thanks in advance.

[Westy]

Dunno if this happens regularly now, but it did when I caught it regularly & it happened again the other week when I had to catch it, but can you please get your Walsall drivers, especially the 529 (I know it's Wolverhampton before you say! ) to pull in at the first available stand to unload instead of waiting for the previous bus to clear the proper stand, as we had to wait 5 minutes on an incoming 529 & some people do need to make urgent connections?

[Ben]

RE: Service 900

This is largely observation and recommendation, I would firstly like to take the time to note that the service has improved compared to the dark days of the Metrobus (the smell haunts me) and I favor using it over Coventry service 7. Please note I am only a customer/passenger/slightly over interested person.

One thing I've noticed is the dead mileage on service 900 when vehicles are taken out of service after terminating in Coventry (Evenings when the timetable goes from every 30 mins to hourly). Surely it'd be more useful to run these buses as a short working Coventry-Airport/NEC at least? Instead of trundling all the way back to the garage empty. Would decrease wasted emissions.
I understand driver working hours and even profitability may be a factor, but there always seem to be people waiting for a 900 in Pool Meadow.

I would like to see better cooperation between Central garage and Coventry garage on service 900.
Before the urrent timetables were put up on the website, I rang Coventry garage ([no way I'd phone that Traveline] and my journey was soley within Coventry) for bus times and they apparently had no access to service 900 information (possibly not even the previous timetable). 
Surely it would make sense to give all garages access to all service information?

Not too long ago there was a large incident which blocked the A45 for some time. To deal with the delays and growing number of passengers waiting, empty buses were sent empty to Coventry, before staring the service . It would have saved delays if temporary vehicles had of been sourced from the Coventry garage instead, and again avoiding dead mileage if the temporary vehicles then worked a round service Coventry-Birmingham-Coventry.
The factors I can see for this not being the case would be: Vehicle availability, Driver route knowledge, correct ticketing/charges and bus signage although these could be easily resolved with perhaps exception with route availability.

I hope this has been constructive, and I wish to say thanks for the opportunity to share this.
I was tempted previously to contact customer service, but this information would be better utilized by operations management. The old adage "I could do a better job" comes to mind, but then again it is probably more complicated than I'd expect.

[Stuharris 6360]

Hi Simon,

Sorry to hear that you are leaving National Express. I hope that your successor will carry on the good work that you have started and wish you all the very best in your new job.

Stuart

[andy]

Congratulations Simon.

Interesting dynamic that exists now with the management teams at Arriva and NX in many cases having completely swapped over.

The Derbyshire and Leicestershire operating territory is extremely interesting and challenging in a good way, I miss it.  So much of it is still very functional and stuck in the days of Derby City Transport and Midland Fox and bits of Leicester Corporation, and could certainly do with the sort of fresh approach that I know you will take with you.

Thurmaston is a nice place to work with the odd exception, although be warned the traffic in the morning getting in from this side is evil!

Best of luck to you and I hope Arriva will permit you to post on here as you will be missed if not.

Andy,

I understand that Arriva's Derbyshire and Leicestershire operations are quite a lot smaller than the size of NXWM, any idea how many vehicles Arriva operate in those areas?

Hi Winston,

Well I'm risking another 'off topic' rebuke but I'm going to chance it since you ask!

I think at the moment the two Leicester depots (including the Coalville outstation) total about 180 vehicles with Derby coming in at about 80.

It doesn't seem a lot for such a large area but these vehicles are all concentrated in high density operations. When Arriva first got Fox they carried out a fair bit of retrenchment, abandoning many corridors and reducing PVR's and closing depots and outstations in favour of super depots like Thurmaston. This is all very well but has left gaps in services in many areas that were previously better served, letting other operators in. The Centrebus deal is interesting as it suggests they may be looking to get back into some of these gaps.

The operation has always been very focussed on key corridors in both areas, and in my opinion has not been thought of as an operating territory or network.

The management structure at Arriva has been very eratic over the years with several area changes resulting in at times Derby, Leicester and Burton / Swadlincote / Uttoxeter all being in different operational areas, resulting in them all being run very seperately. I have no idea if they are now going to include Burton in this new area, but I hope so. There is no more consolidation that can be done really, enough depots have closed and I think they need to step back a bit if anything.

The other challenge is the balance of power that exists in Derby with Trent Barton, in Leicester with First and Centrebus and some other more established independents. It's whether or not they are willing to rip the status quo up and invigorate the network or just carry on with the same old and stick with the no risk. I suspect there may be some activity.

Although the area is not as lucrative as the West Midlands in general, there is much more scope for expansion and both local authorities are extremely proactive when it comes to buses. They also pay well on tenders and concessionary travel, particularly Derbyshire.

A little remodelling of the network and incursion into some new areas could produce some interesting results, and Nottingham isn't too far away. Now that would be interesting!

[mistertee]

Thanks for sharing with us the proposals for the 71 and associated routes.

As far as the 71 itself is concerned, this takes us back to the service that existed before the Bus Reviews and all the subsequent messing about. The East Birmingham Bus Review must have concluded that 4 buses an hour was insufficient at the Sutton Coldfield end of the route, but amounted to over-provision beyond Castle Vale, so I'm wondering what has happened since to cause the reverse?

I'm also interested to see what will be done to improve the reliability. I wouldn't even bother trying to catch a full-route 71 towards Sutton outside of very quiet periods, such is the compounded effect of traffic on the way, and the buses coming back out are often impacted as well.

Whatever happens, I do hope a real effort is made to inform people of the changes, and get timetables printed and issued in plenty of time; on previous occasions, this part of the task has been carried out really badly.

While I'm here, I was on a 20:40 route 914 from Birmingham one recent Saturday, and noticed there seemed a reasonable number of passengers on there for an evening service, with several picked up along the way. It made me wonder how far from viability is extending the 30-minute service on there – perhaps an extra journey from Birmingham around 20:10?

Thanks again for all the interest and information, best of luck for the future!