Arriva Tamworth

[derningtona]

After nearly 2 weeks with Citaro demonstrator 9903 on it, the 6 was operated today by ordinary Citaro 3005.
4200 is still regularly on the 110 - I was on it from Sutton to Tamworth today.

[2200 Bus]

After nearly 2 weeks with Citaro demonstrator 9903 on it, the 6 was operated today by ordinary Citaro 3005.
4200 is still regularly on the 110 - I was on it from Sutton to Tamworth today.

The Enviros are having well..shall we say a couple of teething problems.

[Ossie]

The Enviros are having well..shall we say a couple of teething problems.

Might one of those be anything to do with the onboard "next stop" announcements?  :) :) :)

[derningtona]

Yes - different on each bus I go on. Sometimes off, sometimes on , sometimes stuck at "Ventura Park". "Bedford RoadRoad" amuses quite a few people and "Coleshill Road" comes up even though the buses no longer go that way.
On another note, demonstrator 9903 is still around - it was on the 3 today. 3806 was on the 6!

[Dutsey]

In Sutton today and noticed the 110 were coming in doubles, can anybody advise what was happening?

[derningtona]

There are road works with 3 way lights between Ventura Park and Fazeley and the buses have been chaotic all week as I have been travelling from Tamworth to Good Hope Hospital daily.

[Bob]

X65 axed, looks like Central have won then..

[Bob]

I didnt see an x60 listed on fridays n & p andy? Unless I missed it?

[Bob]

Just out of interest,  I wonder if tamworth are going to operate any x60 trips or whether itll be purely cannock,  and are stafford getting the 825 back...

[Bob]

Are X60s going to directly replace some 60 trips then? Presumably the X part of the route wont be between cannock and lichfield,  as the previous X60 was an abject failure

[Bob]

Why would that happen?  The 765 is a seperate route. Hopefully Tamworth will do the X60, citaros beat pulsars hands down.  60/825 situation would depend if theres a reduction in 60 frequency wouldn't it? As at present theyre both half hourly routes although youd never guess it given the horrific timekeeping caused by the stafford end of the route. A problem the X25 is going to struggle with on the lichfield road

[Bob]

Staffords had bad traffic for the 7 years ive worked there.  Absolutely crap road system. Bad enough normally but hell on earth if anything happens on the motorway.  Knowing this, Arriva decide to downgrade the garage and stupidly interwork two important interurban services ( 60/825), & an important interurban (70) & a largely pretty quiet route (76). Its caused major issues at the wolves end before now too.Crazy.

[Bob]

I can believe it. Now I know you think I slag cannock off but I remember midland red days ( in fact my best mates dad drove for cannock depot in the 90s),& I hust dont remember the tigers/nationals/olympians having many breakdown issues.  Certainly not like arrivas buses the last few years.  Although things have slightly improved lately. What do you think of the 1/2/2a streetlites?  Id give them 5 out of ten. Nice interior nice seats but shocking and I mean shocking jetky gearboxes which are jerky during changes but downright violent in kickdown. They actually do throw passengerz forward violently!  Pensioners dont like it.  Imagine a metro bus when they used to approach top gear with quite a hard kick ( usually when not accelerating like going down a hill eg) & times it by 10 thats what a kickdown is like

[Cheese]

I didnt see an x60 listed on fridays n & p andy? Unless I missed it?

It went largely un noticed by many but somebody with an eagle eye over on the Central thread has apparently spotted it. I haven't seen it myself.

I would strongly suspect that Tamworth and Cannock will share the X60 although there is still to be a 60 I believe, so it may be that Tamworth do the whole of the X60 and Cannock retain the 60 and 825 as they are. Personally I would want the 825 back at Stafford for reliability reasons, but it may be that with the new X25 aswell they can't take such an increase.

If this X60 is correct, it may be a clever move. When I was driving for Tamworth, many of the Lichfield to Tamworth passengers used to travel from the Burntwood to Lichfield corridor and connect onto the 765. This may be a good way to get some passengers back from Central.

My only hope is that this situation doesn't end up screwing up the long standing facilities that the villagers of Whittington have enjoyed.

I think journeys terminating at Lichfield are still 60 and those that carry on to Tamworth will show X60. As said in the Central thread the X60 I believe will be half hourly so a slight increase in the X65 frequency. I'm with Andy here, Whittington could well lose out, can see Arriva cutting 765/785 back at Tamworth, why would anyone catch that between Lichfield and Tamworth when there are 3-4 fast buses per hour. Any replacement service (emergent tender I would suspect) would offer nowhere near a 30 minute frequency

[Bob]

Is the X65 currently performing well then? Oh yes andy definitely have a few rides on streetlites if you can. Awful awful gearbox. The worst was 3306 I think. Evrry time a bit of power was needed ( like pulling from the stop at the 40mph bit of the A34, screaming kickdown ( that sounds a bit naff due to small engine etc), & thrown forward. The gears change far to quickly when ppulling off too. I cant believe Wright would make such a piece of crap. Dare I say it even Pulsars may have been a better choice for the routes.