Over a year at wednesfield

[Bob]

After 12 months of arriva wednesfield or so, I wondered what people's views were? Has it been a success?  Improvement in quality? Have they made much of an impact? What do people think of the new routes like the 19? Will they compete against NX?


My personal opinion is quality has improved especially externally bus wise, and theyve tried to be innovative ( sadly it gasnt worked with the 19) . However I don't think theyve made much impact,  to me they still look like a niche midibus operator unfortunately. ..

[Stu]

It's still early days yet; however there are more Arriva buses in the West Midlands area than there were 12 months ago, so it has to be said some progress has been made. I've never travelled on any of Arriva's services in this area, so cannot comment on the image or presentation or otherwise quality of buses used, but certainly it's fair to say that Arriva have gained something of a foothold, and while the 19 has not been an impressive success yet, at least they are trying, and it will be interesting to see how the new 310 service fares.

At this point, they are no threat yet to NXWM's dominance, but by picking up some more tendered work from Centro, as well as trying out new routes, they could certainly cause trouble for some of the other smaller operators in the area.

[Westy]

What's left of the Midland fleet to repaint?

I know to a Solo & maybe a Dart, but is there anything else?

[nx4737]

It's still early days yet; however there are more Arriva buses in the West Midlands area than there were 12 months ago, so it has to be said some progress has been made. I've never travelled on any of Arriva's services in this area, so cannot comment on the image or presentation or otherwise quality of buses used, but certainly it's fair to say that Arriva have gained something of a foothold, and while the 19 has not been an impressive success yet, at least they are trying, and it will be interesting to see how the new 310 service fares.

At this point, they are no threat yet to NXWM's dominance, but by picking up some more tendered work from Centro, as well as trying out new routes, they could certainly cause trouble for some of the other smaller operators in the area.

Hopefully they wipe the floor with some of the smaller op's we have here, once and for all... Maybe they can do what the TC clearly can't.

[the trainbasher]

Like Heartlands, VIP, Joes, Thandi Executive and Sandwell Mr NX4737?

[Bob]

Wouldnt that completely just kill of competition? 

[nx4737]

Yes, but when the competition comes from the likes of Joes and VIP, I don't see any reason not to kill them off...

[PM]

Yes, but when the competition comes from the likes of Joes and VIP, I don't see any reason not to kill them off...

Well at least people actually use Joe's buses unlike arriva's ones which are just quiet all day

[Bob]

Plus in reality the majority of the arriva fleet is just old knackered buses with re trimmed seats...

[the trainbasher]

People use Joes...when they turn up

[winston]

Arriva have improved the quality/image of the inherited ex Midland fleet, the age profile has probably benefited a little from the influx of ex London MPD's & DAF DB250's. But then on the other hand the majority of the original WB allocation of E200's were shipped off to Leicester & replaced with much older Darts. Arriva have done little to expand the business to date, in fact from the end of Oct the number of Centro tenders operated will be reduced.

Given the number of ex NX senior staff/management that have been recruited over the past 12 months, I'm surprised Arriva haven't shown their hand more, they certainly took fright at NXWM winning the Staffordshire CC Cannock tenders. If Arriva intend to compete with NX, they need to put some serious investment in to the business, which at present doesn't seem to be forthcoming. That might change if NX continue to expand in Germany & win further rail contracts at the expense of Arriva's parent company Deutsche Bahn though....
   

[trident4370]

Plus in reality the majority of the arriva fleet is just old knackered buses with re trimmed seats...

I can only assume you've never used Joe's Travel...

[andyr]

The last thing Arriva will do is do away with smaller operators, to do so will create unfair trading conditions. NXWM could exterminate all competition if it so wished but it tollerates the smaler operators because its in its best interests to do so..

[winston]

The only way I see Arriva having a bigger impact in the West Midlands is by getting their hands on the Diamond business which would give them scale / bigger network coverage and more established commercial routes. The only way I can see that ever happening would be for to Arriva to mount a takeover bid for Rotala Plc

But even then, we all know NX's dominance in the West Midlands is not an easy one to crack, even Stagecoach have never bothered trying, they either want NXWM or nothing

[Bob]

Yep wednesfields a tin pot operation lol