Arriva Burton

[Bob]

I just looked at that and the last arriva update on there I could see was  29th January?

[Ashley 60171]

Is 4798 a transfer to Burton or a loan?

[646]

Is 4798 a transfer to Burton or a loan?

Transfer along with 4780.

[Ashley 60171]

Transfer along with 4780.

<inserts happy face>

Cheers @646.

[BN]

2739 now on fleet here.

[SG]

2711 has joined the fleet here.

[tphi12000]

Recent transfer from Wigston 4780 noted on the 7 in Lichfield this evening.

[Bob]

Looks like Burtons being offloaded. ...Wonder which will be next, Cannock & Stafford surely can't be making much money  😂😂😂

[busfan2847]

Looks like Burtons being offloaded. ...Wonder which will be next, Cannock & Stafford surely can't be making much money  😂😂😂

See article in Burton Mail. In talks to sell town services to Midland Classic.

http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/Arriva-talks-sell-Burton-bus-services-Midland/story-29178652-detail/story.html

[Bob]

Yea which is pretty much all of the network excluding the Derby route which is already jointly worked and the long Leicester service

[Westy]

Looks like Burtons being offloaded. ...Wonder which will be next, Cannock & Stafford surely can't be making much money  😂😂😂

What about Wednesfield?

[PM]

Very interesting news and I certainly didn't see that coming, I always had Burton down as one of the stronger garages. Midland Classic certainly are a quality company and it's amazing how far they've come in the space of 10 years. Hopefully the sale will go ahead and they'll be able to make a good go of it.

The investment comment came from within Arriva North East that they were not getting any new buses in 2016 as DB had cut fleet investment budget and is expecting operating companies to make use of cascades, presumably from Yorkshire/Merseyside/London. It certainly seems a strange approach, especially based on their own positive patronage growth figures from Sapphire, principally with new buses.

My money is on at least another Arriva Midlands garage going this year, the apparent reduction in new vehicle orders will start to bite fleets, as it did within First Group.

Wednesfield in particular has a high concentration of buses approaching 15 years old, saying that, unlike in Burton where the routes are being bought, at Wednesfield much of the work operators can just wait and undercut Arriva on the tenders. I wouldn't think the likes of the 10/19 (must be borderline viable at best)/35 and 76 (now vs NX) would be worth paying a great deal for.

Cannock/Stafford could be a more tempting option should it be up for sale, saying that, NX pulled out for a reason and there's little reason to believe there's been a resurgence in bus use there.

All in all, very interesting times!

[Bob]

Introduction of Sapphire in Cannock certainly didn't increase usage. Probably decreased as the 1 had been every 20 mins for years including the Chase period. Arriva convert it to Sapphire, then completely trashed the route by changing it and making it ridiculously convoluted, annoying loyal passengers then reverted back but kept the lower frequency.  What a way to mess up a once successful route

[PM]

It'll be interesting to see what fleet is included in the sale, Burton has a fair few Commanders which are up to 14 years old but across the Midlands there are older buses it could be a chance to get shot of!

[winston]

It'll be interesting to see what fleet is included in the sale, Burton has a fair few Commanders which are up to 14 years old but across the Midlands there are older buses it could be a chance to get shot of!

It may well be that no buses will be included in the sale & Midland Classic will source their own & Arriva will cascade the better of Burton's allocation within the remainder of Midlands & The Shires