Rotala Management - Questions & Answers

[Simon Dunn]

Why don't you make a timetable leaflet available for the Walsall 301, as the Network WM one only features the NX one? (And put them in Walsall Bus Station travel office. If Arriva can manage it, surely you can too?)

Ever thought about going onto the Walsall 302 as a 'compliment' to the 301?

I used to be able to use my NX pass & pay 50p to use your buses, which came in useful on several occasions.

How come you stopped it?

Surely it would put more bums on seats?

There should be timetable leaflets for the 301, I will correct this

No we haven't.  Why do you believe the 301 will compliment the 301?

The NX travel card is one of the barrier to entry in the West Midlands.   By allowing people to pay 50 pence, we are were re-enforcing its value.  Ultimately there is a multi-operator travel card and we would prefer for people to acquire this.

In addition, accepting travel at 50 pence per passenger this would have a negative impact on concessionary fares reimbursement for all passengers.

[Simon Dunn]

1.  I believe some were built in 2009. 
2.  The Scania's are too big for the Contracts or not new enough for replacing the 57 plates.
3.  In the Interim Announcement which is available on our Plc Web site, it gives a list of areas were the revenue has dropped.  The West Midlands features on that list, but the poor weather has contributed also.
4.  Yes
5.  We have recieved feed back today from the manufacturer.  Of the batch some are New, 1 year old and 3 years old.  We are not interested in the price on the 3 year old kit.  We believe there is better value in the New and 1 year old, we are at present still negotiating the final price.
6.  At the present moment in time to service the fleet, Church Road is required.  We have 3 options, 1 maintain the current position, 2.  Invest in the current depot, extend the workshop and facilities.  3.  Move somewhere different altogether.  Now we have the OFT result, we need to review and consider our options.
7.  We are not part of any BBA bid.

Thanks for all your replies,

3. I've seen the Interim report, the turnover is broken down in to Contracted / Commercial & Charter Services, it isn't broken down to show the performance of each subsiduary company - on a side note the Rotala Plc website will also need to be updated to remove the Blue / Black & Red Diamond logo's off the home page & combine the three businesses under the 'Our Companies' section to combine the three buses under just Diamond.
5. Sounds promising with further new/nearly new buses if it comes off
6. Would I be correct in saying that Plymouth Road depot has very little spare land surrounding it that can be be used to increase the depot capacity & engineering facilities? Could the Kidderminster depot facilities not be utilized more to reduced costs of Church Road? As it seems that KR depot is only at a third to half capacity maximum. Does the lease on Church Road have much longer to run? Another potential issue on vacating Church Road is that you could leave Diamond vunerable to a new entrant in to the Redditch market with a purpose built bus depot available for use/lease......
7. Weblink for Brierley Hill Better Bus Network Transformation BBA Bid Submission Bus http://www.centro.org.uk/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.aspx?lID=7711&sID...%E2%80%8E

On page 6 it states the following:

A4. Total package cost (£m):
£10.0m (£1 local contribution for every £1 from DfT)

A5. Total DfT funding contribution sought (£m):
£5.0m (£3m capital and £2m revenue)

A5. Source of local contribution:

£1.5m from Westfield Shoppingtowns Limited as a contribution towards the
state of the art Merry Hill Bus Station
£1.3m from Centro (Transforming Bus Travel Partnership fund) as a
contribution towards upgrading the strategic bus routes and highway network
detailed in A4
£2.2m from National Express and Rotala for new buses on strategic corridors

NX have delivered new E200's for the 222 which was believed to be their share of the above commitment, are Rotala Plc no longer involved?

3.  Financial accounting standards unable me to be more specific due to rules around segmental reporting.  Sorry.  I agree the website needs to be changed
6.  The depot is large enough to develop.  Although you could undertake additional work at Kidderminster.  Our present view is that Plymouth Road is too small without some form of development to even undertake running repairs.  Church Road (from memory) has 18 months to run.
7.  There was some discussion around this, but there is no commitment on our behalf.

[winston]

3.  Financial accounting standards unable me to be more specific due to rules around segmental reporting.  Sorry.  I agree the website needs to be changed
6.  The depot is large enough to develop.  Although you could undertake additional work at Kidderminster.  Our present view is that Plymouth Road is too small without some form of development to even undertake running repairs.  Church Road (from memory) has 18 months to run.
7.  There was some discussion around this, but there is no commitment on our behalf.

Simon, thanks for all your responses  ;)

[Simon Dunn]

I think we may see rotala taking more tentative steps with competing with NX for the same reason.
It wouldn't take much for NX to cruise down the road to redditch or Kidderminster.
In fact let's ask Simon.
What is your position now towards defending your new territories, would you now look at less competition with the big groups to try & prevent them attacking you or is it still fair game to attack NX & the like?

The threat of Competition does not affect in anyway, our thoughts or actions on what we will do.


Simon

[PM]

MPD on the 4H this morning-is there a vehicle shortage at tividale at the moment as really MPDs are way too small for this route

Is MX08NNU VOR at the moment as I havent seen it for ages-my last photo is sometime in june!

Are the primos going to re-enter service

Where is W335VGX as again havent seen that for a long while

Thanks

[PM]

Just noticed the fleet changes on the main site. Are there solos to come and any news about the 15 buses rotala put in a bid for. Why has an esteem been sold out of interest?

[winston]

Hi Simon,

Are you able to confirm who the Levantes have been sold too?

Interesting that the 3 x 59 plate Centros are the ex Go Whippet that operate on the guided busway, are these available immediately or are you having to wait for Go Whippet to receive new busway vehicles first?

[Ash]

Hi Simon, Have you ever considered introducing a sunday service on the 002 with it being a popular service mon-sat and Merry Hill being as busy if not busier on a Sunday. Also may be extending the finishing time of the service monday-saturday.

The 4M mon-sat is every hour and when I have caught the service seems quite well used are there any plans to increasing the frequency may be to every 30 minutes.

Thank You.

[Westy]

Why don't you make a timetable leaflet available for the Walsall 301, as the Network WM one only features the NX one? (And put them in Walsall Bus Station travel office. If Arriva can manage it, surely you can too?)

Ever thought about going onto the Walsall 302 as a 'compliment' to the 301?

I used to be able to use my NX pass & pay 50p to use your buses, which came in useful on several occasions.

How come you stopped it?

Surely it would put more bums on seats?

There should be timetable leaflets for the 301, I will correct this

No we haven't.  Why do you believe the 301 will compliment the 301?

The NX travel card is one of the barrier to entry in the West Midlands.   By allowing people to pay 50 pence, we are were re-enforcing its value.  Ultimately there is a multi-operator travel card and we would prefer for people to acquire this.

In addition, accepting travel at 50 pence per passenger this would have a negative impact on concessionary fares reimbursement for all passengers.

How come you never appeared on the Network WM version of the 301 leaflet?

The reason I ask about the 302 is a friend of mine has issues with the reliability of the NX journeys on that service.

( The local perception is that the 301 tends to be looked after better compared with the 302. 302 buses tend to go 'missing' more than 301's)

[Dylan4579]

Where would you find lost property?

[winston]

Where would you find lost property?

The depot which operates the route

[Isle of Stroma]

Where would you find lost property?

Wherever you left it. Ber-boom!

Seriously, give (0121) 322 2222 a ring.

[PM]

Or tividale is 01215577337

[Simon Dunn]

MPD on the 4H this morning-is there a vehicle shortage at tividale at the moment as really MPDs are way too small for this route

Is MX08NNU VOR at the moment as I havent seen it for ages-my last photo is sometime in june!

Are the primos going to re-enter service

Where is W335VGX as again havent seen that for a long while

Thanks

We have a large number of Long Single decks off the road including MX08NNU.  It is our intention to put the Primo's back into service.  W335VGX has been withdrawn.

[Simon Dunn]

Just noticed the fleet changes on the main site. Are there solos to come and any news about the 15 buses rotala put in a bid for. Why has an esteem been sold out of interest?

We have not committed to buy any new or additional Solo's.  We are still negotiating on the 15 buses, although I now believe it will be less than 15.  We are not a fan of the Esteem product, and we had the opportunity to dispose of one, so we did.