Crikey, what happened to the bus fleet (Brum 9 and 12x routes?)

[Typhoon2000]

I used to enjoy travelling in the bus on the 9, 120, 127, 128, 129 because of the space and the relative comfort of those vehicles, and because there was always a level of consistency. You knew what you were going to flag down most of the time.

Recently though, things have gone really bad. On the 127/128/129 they replaced the comfy Wrightbus Eclipse with bloody awful Scania Ominlinks with their cramped seating (no joke I have to sit sideways taking up two seats as I'm 6'2" tall!) and occasionally some age old ADL envro 200's have been doing the route - almost as uncomfortable. Sometimes you get lucky and an Enviro400 or a B10 appears but those Ominlinks are terrible.

On the 9 something weird was going on. Initially we were settled with Enviro400 for a while. It was comfortable, pretty smooth, with plenty of space, and it made my bus journey's enjoyable - and made me an advocate for the buses in Brum.

Then no sooner had they introduced that fleet, new Enviro400 mk2(?) models appeared. Great, they update the fleet - I thought.

Then as soon as they switched to Platinum services, the 9 got these bloody awful Volvo Wrightbus(? - double deckers.) These are so shockingly bad for a high density showcase route. Worse than the OminLinks, they are cramped, always dangerously packed if put on in the morning and to top it off it seems to be powered by a engine out of a turbocharged cement mixer. Absolutely shocking. Vibration is terrible, and the chap(ess) I feel sorry for the most is the driver! It looks like they've got less space in there than a London taxi!

It's so shockingly bad that I've had to return to using my car for some journeys because of the level of discomfort. But I only have to endure it for 20 minutes twice a day... I feel sorry for the driver who has 8-9 hours of it at least 5 days a week!

Comment?

[2206]

I used to enjoy travelling in the bus on the 9, 120, 127, 128, 129 because of the space and the relative comfort of those vehicles, and because there was always a level of consistency. You knew what you were going to flag down most of the time.

Recently though, things have gone really bad. On the 127/128/129 they replaced the comfy Wrightbus Eclipse with bloody awful Scania Ominlinks with their cramped seating (no joke I have to sit sideways taking up two seats as I'm 6'2" tall!) and occasionally some age old ADL envro 200's have been doing the route - almost as uncomfortable. Sometimes you get lucky and an Enviro400 or a B10 appears but those Ominlinks are terrible.

On the 9 something weird was going on. Initially we were settled with Enviro400 for a while. It was comfortable, pretty smooth, with plenty of space, and it made my bus journey's enjoyable - and made me an advocate for the buses in Brum.

Then no sooner had they introduced that fleet, new Enviro400 mk2(?) models appeared. Great, they update the fleet - I thought.

Then as soon as they switched to Platinum services, the 9 got these bloody awful Volvo Wrightbus(? - double deckers.) These are so shockingly bad for a high density showcase route. Worse than the OminLinks, they are cramped, always dangerously packed if put on in the morning and to top it off it seems to be powered by a engine out of a turbocharged cement mixer. Absolutely shocking. Vibration is terrible, and the chap(ess) I feel sorry for the most is the driver! It looks like they've got less space in there than a London taxi!

It's so shockingly bad that I've had to return to using my car for some journeys because of the level of discomfort. But I only have to endure it for 20 minutes twice a day... I feel sorry for the driver who has 8-9 hours of it at least 5 days a week!

Comment?

What a load of nonsense. What are you complaining about, there are new buses on the 9, 126 and X10 (the Hagley Roads express service).
For a start the 127/128/129 are not majority Omnilinks operated, main allocation from what I've seen its B7TL ALX400 on the 127/8 (as they have been for years) and Tridents on the 129 as PN have it.
The E200 are not old and must have at least another good 10 years with NX. If you want to see an old tatty bus go and have a look at 4226 and 4304.
The 127/8/9 don't use B10Ls the last of them went in 2015.
The 9 got new E400 in 2009, the MMC didn't come till 2015, hardly straight after.
The MMC are still on the 9 alongside the Streetdexks.
The 120A uses Omnilinks though.

If you want to check vehicle type names that can be found on the vehicle types section of the usual allocations spreadsheet or on the main site.

[Typhoon2000]

Hang on, why am I always sat on a cramped B7, certainly of evening/night time? And why even use these god awful buses on such a high density route in any case? Are the on evaluation? I'm sure the drivers must also hate being cooped up in them.

And why use a mix.of buses? Sure it makes economic sense to reduce bus types in order to keep parts costs low (economies of scale) and maintenance training simple?

[Tony]

Hang on, why am I always sat on a cramped B7, certainly of evening/night time? And why even use these god awful buses on such a high density route in any case? Are the on evaluation? I'm sure the drivers must also hate being cooped up in them.

And why use a mix.of buses? Sure it makes economic sense to reduce bus types in order to keep parts costs low (economies of scale) and maintenance training simple?

When are you ever sat on a cramped B7?

[Trident 4194]

Hang on, why am I always sat on a cramped B7, certainly of evening/night time? And why even use these god awful buses on such a high density route in any case? Are the on evaluation? I'm sure the drivers must also hate being cooped up in them.

And why use a mix.of buses? Sure it makes economic sense to reduce bus types in order to keep parts costs low (economies of scale) and maintenance training simple?

Unfortunately there are emmisions for buses entering bham on a high frequency route, and a 7 year old omnilink meets those criterias

[Typhoon2000]

When are you ever sat on a cramped B7?

I might have to take a photo to prove that lol

[Tony]

I might have to take a photo to prove that lol

You were praising the B7/Eclipse in your first post today, critising their replace by Scanias on the 127/128 (and the 129 but that never has Scanias on it). Now all of a sudden they become the worst buses ever

[Trident 4194]

You were praising the B7/Eclipse in your first post today, critising their replace by Scanias on the 127/128 (and the 129 but that never has Scanias on it). Now all of a sudden they become the worst buses ever

I'm sure a large majority of people on the forum will agree Volvo b7rles are the best single deckers that are out there

[Jack]

I used to enjoy travelling in the bus on the 9, 120, 127, 128, 129 because of the space and the relative comfort of those vehicles, and because there was always a level of consistency. You knew what you were going to flag down most of the time.

Recently though, things have gone really bad. On the 127/128/129 they replaced the comfy Wrightbus Eclipse with bloody awful Scania Ominlinks with their cramped seating (no joke I have to sit sideways taking up two seats as I'm 6'2" tall!) and occasionally some age old ADL envro 200's have been doing the route - almost as uncomfortable. Sometimes you get lucky and an Enviro400 or a B10 appears but those Ominlinks are terrible.

On the 9 something weird was going on. Initially we were settled with Enviro400 for a while. It was comfortable, pretty smooth, with plenty of space, and it made my bus journey's enjoyable - and made me an advocate for the buses in Brum.

Then no sooner had they introduced that fleet, new Enviro400 mk2(?) models appeared. Great, they update the fleet - I thought.

Then as soon as they switched to Platinum services, the 9 got these bloody awful Volvo Wrightbus(? - double deckers.) These are so shockingly bad for a high density showcase route. Worse than the OminLinks, they are cramped, always dangerously packed if put on in the morning and to top it off it seems to be powered by a engine out of a turbocharged cement mixer. Absolutely shocking. Vibration is terrible, and the chap(ess) I feel sorry for the most is the driver! It looks like they've got less space in there than a London taxi!

It's so shockingly bad that I've had to return to using my car for some journeys because of the level of discomfort. But I only have to endure it for 20 minutes twice a day... I feel sorry for the driver who has 8-9 hours of it at least 5 days a week!

Comment?

Stop moaning. First off, Omnilinks, you don't get them on the 129, just the 120A and the few on the 127/8 (Blame WB for not having enough compliant Deckers for that). The Streetdecks are the best new Deckers NX have, not sure how you can hate them.
So what if your 6 foot? NX aren't specially going to order buses that meet your needs. Don't post crap.

[2206]

You were praising the B7/Eclipse in your first post today, critising their replace by Scanias on the 127/128 (and the 129 but that never has Scanias on it). Now all of a sudden they become the worst buses ever

It appears he was praising the Gemini that used to be on the 127/8/9 and is now criticing the B7TL ALX400 that are still used on there today, though it's hard to tell without the actual names of the vehicle types?

[Jack]

It appears he was praising the Gemini that used to be on the 127/8/9 and is now criticing the B7TL ALX400 that are still used on there today, though it's hard to tell without the actual names of the vehicle types?

They are mostly the exact same, just some bad things about the ALX400 which lets them down, but other than that he's confusing me with B7RLEs and B7TLs as he just posts B7's.

[Typhoon2000]

Hang on, I might be getting the names and numbers confused here.

Gemini 3? - looks like. (Double deck on the 9 route) bad
OmniLink bad.
Eclipse (single deck?) Good
Enviro 400 and the lastest one Good.

[2206]

Hang on, I might be getting the names and numbers confused here.

Gemini 3? - looks like. (Double deck on the 9 route) bad
OmniLink bad.
Eclipse (single deck?) Good
Enviro 400 and the lastest one Good.

Yes, the type names are:
E200 - http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/0501-0830/805.html
E400 - http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/4700-4879/4809.html
Omnilink - http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/1750-1953/1940.html
E400 MMC - http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/5001-9959/6115.html - Found on the 9, 140, X10 and 126.
Streetdeck - used on the 9 - http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/4001-4224/3302.html
B7TL Gemini - http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/4475-4699/4663.html
Wright eclipse 2 B7RLE - http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/2001-2129/2142.html - Found on the 120.
B7TL ALX400 - http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/4225-4474/4295.html - Found on the 127/8.
Trident - http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/4001-4224/4195.html - Found on the 129 and 140.

[Jack]

Hang on, I might be getting the names and numbers confused here.

Gemini 3? - looks like. (Double deck on the 9 route) bad
OmniLink bad.
Eclipse (single deck?) Good
Enviro 400 and the lastest one Good.

Gemini 3 a.k.a Streetdecks are loved by a lot tbh (their sound and comfort is what is loved by most on here). They are better then the sheds on the 9, sorry E400 MMCs. (Apart from 6103)  :P
Omnilinks are good buses, just the legroom and doors put people off. WB have done something to their Omnilinks though, horrible horns and they sound dull.
Eclipse 2's are good, but by most they're quite boring, dull and slow, although it makes me think have people actually rode one to see how fast they go.
E400's are good buses, ZF E400 MMC's are sheds but the Voiths are beasts.

[Sh4318]

What a load of nonsense. What are you complaining about, there are new buses on the 9, 126 and X10 (the Hagley Roads express service).
For a start the 127/128/129 are not majority Omnilinks operated, main allocation from what I've seen its B7TL ALX400 on the 127/8 (as they have been for years) and Tridents on the 129 as PN have it.
The E200 are not old and must have at least another good 10 years with NX. If you want to see an old tatty bus go and have a look at 4226 and 4304.
The 127/8/9 don't use B10Ls the last of them went in 2015.
The 9 got new E400 in 2009, the MMC didn't come till 2015, hardly straight after.
The MMC are still on the 9 alongside the Streetdexks.
The 120A uses Omnilinks though. There are two platinum routes into the City Centre. 0-2 year old buses on the most frequent routes (9, 126). Why's @Typhoon2000 complaining again?

If you want to check vehicle type names that can be found on the vehicle types section of the usual allocations spreadsheet or on the main site.

You're right. 127/128 are solid B7TL, with the odd Enviro