late running diamonds

[StourportSam]

002's in meltdown this afternoon-1608 from just before Halesowen bus station arrived at more like past 20 past, followed by DCX on the 1624...

No doubt Merry Hill traffic-217 also late.

Bizarrely though Hanson's were running around early?! :P ::)

So that's a delay of 12 minutes on the 002? That's classed as on time in the Wyre Forest. Services on the 3 are sometimes 30 mins plus late or just don't turn up at varying times of the day.

[Simon Dunn]

Dear Sir

I sit down with the management team of all the West Midlands depots and review performance.

One of the items we cover is lost mileage and service monitorings.  Kidderminster depot reports lost mileage to be consistently less than 0.3%

The 3 does feature as having odd journeys with no explainable pattern operate excessively late.

I would be interested to know about any problems you have to both bench mark reported performance and at the same time any thoughts you may have as why we seem to have problems with odd journeys, which we may be missing


Simon

[StourportSam]

Dear Sir

I sit down with the management team of all the West Midlands depots and review performance.

One of the items we cover is lost mileage and service monitorings.  Kidderminster depot reports lost mileage to be consistently less than 0.3%

The 3 does feature as having odd journeys with no explainable pattern operate excessively late.

I would be interested to know about any problems you have to both bench mark reported performance and at the same time any thoughts you may have as why we seem to have problems with odd journeys, which we may be missing


Simon

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your interest in this, a few suggestions I would put forward are:

1) Heavy traffic on the Stourport Road in Foley Park and through Stourport itself, especially on weekday mornings, seriously affects reliability on the 3 service. I know this is beyond your control but it is a serious factor.

2) The 20 minute gap built into the daytime timetable does not help matters. When the 52 past X3 and 02 past 3 services (the previous one having been 32 mins past the hour) ex Areley Kings run to Kidderminster (often together) they have to stop at pretty much every stop to pick up the passengers who have been waiting for 20-30 mins.

3) I have heard many people mention the fact the buses are 'every 10 mins' as this was promoted by Diamond when the timetable changed but this is not the case apart from small chunk of the morning peak, meaning people wait for a bus at the wrong times. This is exacerbated by there being no timetables displayed (a WCC issue I think?) at many stops on the route. Therefore when a bus does come after a gap of 20 mins or so there are delays in the extra time for more people to get on and off.

4) Use of small buses at peak times especially in the morning causes delays when standing passengers have to shuffle and move every time someone gets on or off, meaning buses are waiting at stops for longer than they need to.

5) Quite often buses just plain don't turn up. As for why? I really wouldn't know. One example which caused me problems getting to work on time in the past are the 0819 and 0833 ex Areley Kings which seem to decide which days they run. A week or two back the 0833 turned up at 0855, for example. Occasionally the missing service is explained when we go past an MPD with hazards on and the Diamond van in attendance! More worrying I have, more than once now, seen a Diamond bus on the 3 route parked up shutdown with no staff in attendance whatsoever, looking abandoned. I am trying to think when and what bus but can't remember unfortunately.

6) Some of your drivers, not many but some, seem to drive excessively slow, even when they are running considerably late. Whilst many of your drivers are great and good at recovering delays a small minority just don't seem bothered about recovering time and are more interested in when their next break is. This of course leads to further delays. Once I was on a 3 service going through the Birchen Coppice estate towards Kidderminster and we went past a bus parked up with the driver reading the paper. I remember this was a day with delays but it was some time ago.

7) I have noticed quite often the same bus/driver will be running late for most of the day at the same times each hour. For example it is usually the buses around half past the hour from Areley Kings that seem late or missing. Those services timetabled to depart closer to on the hour for example from 00 to 15 mins past seem to be very punctual. The X3 seems to be a lot more reliable since the timetable change in June.

If you like I can keep you updated via private message when I experience buses turning up considerably late or not at all. Then you can compare these reports with the monitorings Rotala have to hand.

This is not meant as criticism of Diamond, which gets me to and from work successfully more than most of the time and I like the company, rather just a few thoughts on what contributes to late running, etc.

Sam

[Trident 4194]

30862 was 30'down this morning exiting halesowen
30861 was 15 down leaving halesowen
Surprising the 142 was on time

[the trainbasher]

1620 226 off Dudley running 15 down. Its only just left Dudley. 20535 is the dart.

Its amazing what you see when visiting Dudley!

[bususer12]

1750 226 From Dudley either FTO or was 15+ late.
1805 Hansons was on time.

[Cedric]

Dear Sir

I sit down with the management team of all the West Midlands depots and review performance.

One of the items we cover is lost mileage and service monitorings.  Kidderminster depot reports lost mileage to be consistently less than 0.3%

The 3 does feature as having odd journeys with no explainable pattern operate excessively late.

I would be interested to know about any problems you have to both bench mark reported performance and at the same time any thoughts you may have as why we seem to have problems with odd journeys, which we may be missing


Simon

Simon
I  went to catch a 10 today and it did not arrive nor did  the next  and the one after was 10 minutes   late,   I  have reported it . today again  .  to Stephen whos email address you gave me .  how unreliable the is 10  it gives diamond a bad name.

[Solo1]

WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT 2 DIAMOND 56 AT APROX 17.15  AT PRIMO IN DIAMOND LIVERY FOLLOWED BY A RED DIAMOND

[Trident 4194]

The 202 from Halesowen departed at 15:51 towards Bromsgrove. It had yellow digital displays, and was a longer version of 20263. Also the women who usually drives the 202 was on the 142!

[the trainbasher]

That's the diamond standard...2 54s in a minute! Half hourly frequency on the route and both of them heading to four dwellings!

[Trident 4194]

That's the diamond standard...2 54s in a minute! Half hourly frequency on the route and both of them heading to four dwellings!

Everyone has vendettas against diamond, an I the only one who thinks there quite good?

[Tara4352]

That's the diamond standard...2 54s in a minute! Half hourly frequency on the route and both of them heading to four dwellings!

Everyone has vendettas against diamond, an I the only one who thinks there quite good?

Nope

[the trainbasher]

That's the diamond standard...2 54s in a minute! Half hourly frequency on the route and both of them heading to four dwellings!

Everyone has vendettas against diamond, an I the only one who thinks there quite good?

When one has to use their not so swift service every day one grows annoyed especially when one is on ones way to work and gets delayed due to reliability even the West Coast Main Line hasn't stooped to It's not surprising that one has reservations regarding the standard of service that the operator one is discussing.

Oh, I forgot, according to some people Diamond are the second coming :)

[Trident 4194]

That's the diamond standard...2 54s in a minute! Half hourly frequency on the route and both of them heading to four dwellings!

Everyone has vendettas against diamond, an I the only one who thinks there quite good?

When one has to use their not so swift service every day one grows annoyed especially when one is on ones way to work and gets delayed due to reliability even the West Coast Main Line hasn't stooped to It's not surprising that one has reservations regarding the standard of service that the operator one is discussing.

Oh, I forgot, according to some people Diamond are the second coming :)

Why don't  you use hansons then ? I use the 4H regularly and is usually pretty reliable

[the trainbasher]

That's the diamond standard...2 54s in a minute! Half hourly frequency on the route and both of them heading to four dwellings!

Everyone has vendettas against diamond, an I the only one who thinks there quite good?

When one has to use their not so swift service every day one grows annoyed especially when one is on ones way to work and gets delayed due to reliability even the West Coast Main Line hasn't stooped to It's not surprising that one has reservations regarding the standard of service that the operator one is discussing.

Oh, I forgot, according to some people Diamond are the second coming :)

Why don't  you use hansons then ? I use the 4H regularly and is usually pretty reliable

4H Reliable? Don't make me laugh!

And I do use Hansons most of the time, except when I miss them because of their on time running (99% of the time you'll see a Hansons 226 on time, especially when a certain forum members driving)