Travel Express / Lets Go

[Ashley 60171]

Does anyone know what has happened to all of the Travel Express fleet. Have they been sold to bus dealers and other bus opetators or are they still owned by Travel Express.

I said this previously but some TE vehicles could have been decent but at the same time they were ruined and couldn't even be sold in Poundland to another operator.

[Tony]

Thanks. Yes travel express did have a modern fleet of low floor wheelchair accessible dennis darts. I know that some people say they could have have done a better job if they had there own livery and repainted there vehicles and kept there vehicles in better condition. But it is tough for small independent operators nowadays. I have certainly seen far worst bus operators.

It is a shame that they got there license revoked as from my experience i did not think that they were that bad. They had nice freindly drivers and as i said earlier they had low floor modern vehicles. Whenever i was in the area i always chose to go on travel express rather than national express.

Now the reality, they had badly maintained vehicles that were regularly given PG9s with drivers who just used to race other buses

[mranon]

travel express in my opinion had a few good drivers, but the rest messed around racing about cutting up other bus drivers EVEN THEIR OWN!! image is important, so is maintainance. i think the point made earlier about wheelchair accessible blah blah blah doesn't count out the fact that travel express upgrades were for the most part non dda compliant. i think they rushed to go low floor buying vehicles which had basically worked their lives. when travel express ran their step entrance buses, i hardly ever saw one break down, let alone be towed. these low floor ones have tested them for sure.

[Steveminor]

Most people that have operated both low floor and step entrance darts will agree I'm sure that the step entry darts were far far more reliable than their low floor counterparts. Sunny travel kept them going & going the low floors, well we've scrapped 2 already & more getting ready for withdrawal & scrapping.
look at joes their step entry darts were fine but as soon as they started going low floor mechanical problems set in.
In my opinion the step entry darts were made strong to compete against several other manufacturers but when the low floors came in & with less competition dennis paid slightly less attention to detail.

[Tony]

Yes i have heard about that. It is certainly not good. But at least they tried and used low floor wheelchair accesible vehicles and from my experience they had freindly drivers. I think it is very hard for small independents to make money nowadays which is why they would race other buses. They were certainly not the best operator and they did not have best top quality service and vehicles but they certainly were not the worst either.

Their vehicles were the worst! They had PG9s for defective brakes and other serious defects, so what if the were only about 15 years old, several small operators are still running buses much older than that, but they are maintained to a good standard, look at Select's Olympian for an example

[P419 EJW]

Wolverhampton-based Travel Express has had its licence revoked after failing to employ a new qualified Transport Manager (TM) within the period of grace.

More info on:
http://www.route-one.net/legal/licence-lost-after-grace-period-expires/

[Ashley 60171]

Does anyone think that there is any chance that Travel Express will start to run bus services again. I am just wondering because as far as i am aware Travel Express still have their entire fleet of low floor buses at their depot. Has anyone been to the Travel Express depot recently to see if they are still there.

You can see through the windows of the building from the roadside they are still there. But I doubt/hope they don't come back.

[Tony]

@Ashley 60171 - Thanks for the info. Is it possible to take photos of their buses at their depot or are all of the buses kept inside. Personally i would quite like to see Travel Express come back and operate bus services again. I know that they were not popular with some people (although they were very interesting for bus enthusiasts) but i think that they could do well. When Travel Express used to operate i believe that they charged much cheaper fares than NXWM which i am sure would have made them popular with the passengers. And i dont think that they were as bad as many people thought - they had some nice drivers and a fleet of low floor buses.

How is a fleet of nothing but darts that interesting, as for being popular with passengers, buses the don't run to any timetables generally tend to not be that popular. And I am sure DVSA lied in their report on to how bad they were

[P419 EJW]

So i dont actually think that they were that bad.

You don't live in Wolverhampton, I do. I have seen numerous things Travel Express have done and they were not good things. NX drivers complained about them on the route 11. So no, Travel Express was not a good operator.

[Ashley 60171]

@Ashley 60171 - Thanks for the info. Is it possible to take photos of their buses at their depot or are all of the buses kept inside. Personally i would quite like to see Travel Express come back and operate bus services again. I know that they were not popular with some people (although they were very interesting for bus enthusiasts) but i think that they could do well. When Travel Express used to operate i believe that they charged much cheaper fares than NXWM which i am sure would have made them popular with the passengers. And i dont think that they were as bad as many people thought - they had some nice drivers and a fleet of low floor buses.

They charged cheaper fares compared to NXWM but that didn't make them any good. Because they weren't any good really. Driving standards and vehicle maintenance would sum it up. Some of the Darts could have been pretty decent if they'd been properly looked after. I also said this previously, fair play to Mr Chumba for being pretty self sufficient but the flaws outweighed any positives.

@countryliner if you do want to photograph the fleet then car parking is available in the depot which was the companies secondary but now only source of income and they should be pretty easy to see.

How is a fleet of nothing but darts that interesting, as for being popular with passengers, buses the don't run to any timetables generally tend to not be that popular. And I am sure DVSA lied in their report on to how bad they were

Darts are there to just make the haulage look good on a rainy day lol.

[NXWM Spectra]

@countryliner, Travel Express weren't a good operator. They didn't give change. ;)

[domino.99]

@countryliner, Travel Express weren't a good operator. They didn't give change. ;)

And there onboard timetables were in 12hr format.

[Tony]

@Tony - Well i do quite like darts so i found the fleet interesting - and not all of the darts were the same - they had different types with different bodies and different lengths. I did use Travel Express quite a few times when i was in the West Midlands area and i always found them to be quite a good bus operator. As i mentioned before they had nice drivers / low floor buses / cheap bus fares / etc. So i dont actually think that they were that bad.

I thought you avoided operators using exact fare policy

[Trident 4609]

And there onboard timetables were in 12hr format.

What timetables? :P Than ran on their own times!

[Steveminor]

There's poor maintenance and then there's dangerously poor maintenance where you start putting people's lives at risk. If you don't have the money to maintain vehicles then you shouldn't be running them, that's why the tc has such strict rules on financial standing.