The Green Bus

[PM]

Obviously it will be a shame to see green bus pull off these services but let's not forget theyre expanding in other areas through franchising-maybe this is the future for the business?? They still do routes to many other schools and the 50 seems to do fairly well but the thing is, GreenBus is prospering out of the fact that people outside the WM area who pay less council tax can benefit from our schools and subsidised bus routes which is totally and utterly wrong. Centro money should be spent on socially necessary routes in the WMids, not routes outside the boundary or kids who live over the boundary who for some reason want a birmingham school. Yes, it may be hard for those kids to get to a school but thats a decision for the parents who choose to live there-they cannot expect to have a place at a birmingham school, a subsidised yet still expensive bus to get them there and to pay less council tax!!

[bususer12]

Obviously it will be a shame to see green bus pull off these services but let's not forget theyre expanding in other areas through franchising-maybe this is the future for the business?? They still do routes to many other schools and the 50 seems to do fairly well but the thing is, GreenBus is prospering out of the fact that people outside the WM area who pay less council tax can benefit from our schools and subsidised bus routes which is totally and utterly wrong. Centro money should be spent on socially necessary routes in the WMids, not routes outside the boundary or kids who live over the boundary who for some reason want a birmingham school. Yes, it may be hard for those kids to get to a school but thats a decision for the parents who choose to live there-they cannot expect to have a place at a birmingham school, a subsidised yet still expensive bus to get them there and to pay less council tax!!

Totally agree, also centro need to stop wasting money on tendered services that are not required by the masses, and that a ford transit could handle.

[PM]

Obviously it will be a shame to see green bus pull off these services but let's not forget theyre expanding in other areas through franchising-maybe this is the future for the business?? They still do routes to many other schools and the 50 seems to do fairly well but the thing is, GreenBus is prospering out of the fact that people outside the WM area who pay less council tax can benefit from our schools and subsidised bus routes which is totally and utterly wrong. Centro money should be spent on socially necessary routes in the WMids, not routes outside the boundary or kids who live over the boundary who for some reason want a birmingham school. Yes, it may be hard for those kids to get to a school but thats a decision for the parents who choose to live there-they cannot expect to have a place at a birmingham school, a subsidised yet still expensive bus to get them there and to pay less council tax!!

Totally agree, also centro need to stop wasting money on tendered services that are not required by the masses, and that a ford transit could handle.

Yep-they need to genuinely get some good transport planners in and work with operators to look at new links which they agree to subsidise for a bit with a view to the route becoming commercial. Then we would have new bits on the network.

[Stuharris 6360]

Obviously it will be a shame to see green bus pull off these services but let's not forget theyre expanding in other areas through franchising-maybe this is the future for the business?? They still do routes to many other schools and the 50 seems to do fairly well but the thing is, GreenBus is prospering out of the fact that people outside the WM area who pay less council tax can benefit from our schools and subsidised bus routes which is totally and utterly wrong. Centro money should be spent on socially necessary routes in the WMids, not routes outside the boundary or kids who live over the boundary who for some reason want a birmingham school. Yes, it may be hard for those kids to get to a school but thats a decision for the parents who choose to live there-they cannot expect to have a place at a birmingham school, a subsidised yet still expensive bus to get them there and to pay less council tax!!

Totally agree, also centro need to stop wasting money on tendered services that are not required by the masses, and that a ford transit could handle.

I do wonder sometimes how Centro work out where needs a tendered service and how often it should be.

As an example, the 240 was let on a one year tender last year to Diamond, and now in the new tenders it has been given a two year tender with WMSNT although a couple of journeys have been withdrawn. Why run the service, i see it very regularly at different times of the day, and there is no one on it. A Ford Transit would be to big for the 240.

Surely school buses should take a priority in funding to running a service where every passenger being carried is being heavily subsidised.

[Steveminor]

It is built into the West Midlands statute that every person that inside the West Midlands boundary should have a bus service within a set distance from their home & at a minimum frequency
These figures change dependant on the time & day & are deemed as socially necessary.
Now school services would take a back seat to these services as children are able to get to their schools if they live within the West Midlands, all be it by changing bus & walking a small distance.
IMHO greenbus sealed their own fate when the opted out of the Nbus scheme for their school services on the legal basis that excepting them would leave them worse off financially. That's just basically admitting your services aren't financially viable without getting the child fare top up from centro. This left centro technically subsidising a school network without entering into a tender to get the best value for money, now that's just wrong.

On the point that some routes have much bigger buses than is needed, we'll centro sets out a minimum vehicle standard that is required for a route if the winning company wishes to exceed these requirements then it's upto them. If memory serves the 240 spec was for a minimum seating capacity of 16 originally, so yes a low floor bread van could have been used if there was one to hand.

[nitromatt1]

Was surprised to hear today that the school has met with NXWM to discuss a takeover of the Hagley services. The services must be operated by double deckers, not coaches, hence Thandi's fleet is unsuitable

[wilmotm (Matt Wilmot)]

Was surprised to hear today that the school has met with NXWM to discuss a takeover of the Hagley services. The services must be operated by double deckers, not coaches, hence Thandi's fleet is unsuitable

Well has any NXWM garage got any spare capacity as far as Deckers go? Not at peak times I highly doubt it

[gac_uk]

Was surprised to hear today that the school has met with NXWM to discuss a takeover of the Hagley services. The services must be operated by double deckers, not coaches, hence Thandi's fleet is unsuitable

What is stopping Thandi going to Ensignbus and buying some deckers?

[nitromatt1]

Was surprised to hear today that the school has met with NXWM to discuss a takeover of the Hagley services. The services must be operated by double deckers, not coaches, hence Thandi's fleet is unsuitable

What is stopping Thandi going to Ensignbus and buying some deckers?

They'd have 2 weeks to do so. The school don't really want Thandi back after the school swapped them for TGB a couple of years ago due to lack of safety, poor buses, unreliability, just a terrible service really

[winston]

Was surprised to hear today that the school has met with NXWM to discuss a takeover of the Hagley services. The services must be operated by double deckers, not coaches, hence Thandi's fleet is unsuitable

What is stopping Thandi going to Ensignbus and buying some deckers?

They'd have 2 weeks to do so. The school don't really want Thandi back after the school swapped them for TGB a couple of years ago due to lack of safety, poor buses, unreliability, just a terrible really

I can't really see NXWM wanting to get involved with school services unless it was worth their while, I assume the services would also have to be operated out of BC to keep any dead mileage to a minimum. Is there one double decker required for each route i.e. HC1-4?

[nitromatt1]

In reply to Winston (can't quote on phone),

Yes, all 4 services get jam-packed, the school have already confirmed that double deckers are required, coaches are too small and there would not be room to park them in the car park anyway

[PM]

Diamond could always do the contracts-they seemed more than able to do school contracts back in 2006 at a fraction of the cost of greenbus

[Nathan4775]

I came across a few days ago Spectra 202 parked under the Tunnel by the Markets, any reason why it was there ? no driver present

[Trident 4609]

I came across a few days ago Spectra 202 parked under the Tunnel by the Markets, any reason why it was there ? no driver present

If it was on Sunday then it was probably on Rail Replacement Nathan

[nitromatt1]

Diamond could always do the contracts-they seemed more than able to do school contracts back in 2006 at a fraction of the cost of greenbus

Diamond don't have any double deckers available.