West Bromwich Garage

[winston]

Aren't most NXWM already running at full capacity because if that out station closes it's like a small garage closing as it holds quite a lot of buses.

I think most if not all of the Birmingham garages are at or near capacity, PE could take on extra work as it has the additional plot of land which is now used as a staff car park / to store the Excels from the car park, but the garage infrastructure isn't really set up to handle such a large fleet, a number of functions have to operate out of portacabins dotted around the garage yard as it is. No doubt both WA & WN could accommodate additional vehicles should the need arise

[Ash]

As well as the fleet movement, wouldn't it mean drivers moving to other garages depending on where the services transfer to  as their wouldn't be enough work to cover all the drivers currently at WB. Hopefully another outer station will be found close by.

[wbdriver]

changes soon to WB routes. 289 to PE permantly in March, not sure about 53 yet as they interwork, and strong rumours the 45 is going back to WA.

you may also remember me posting about a new outstation on Kenrick Way - deal broken down and the council want Oak Lane Outstation land back ASAP so more routes possibly out of WB soon.

How come Sandwell Council are after Oak Lane anyway?

It's to do with this regeneration of West Bromwich maybe something to do with the Police Station over the road or just turn it into another car park as so many people visit West Bromwich for the pound shops :P. Aren't most NXWM already running at full capacity because if that out station closes it's like a small garage closing as it holds quite a lot of buses.

if my memorys correct there will be a multi story car park there to allow more parking at the bus station end of the town. at the moment all the car parks are to the north of the town due to some parking being lost for the police station, college and tesco development.

if anything else comes up i'll let you all know. :-X

[andyr]

What would wa use on the 45? Few b6s left and b7s are commited..cant see mercs being introduced to wa.. new buses perhapes ?

[Ash]

What would wa use on the 45? Few b6s left and b7s are commited..cant see mercs being introduced to wa.. new buses perhapes ?

I would almost guarantee b6le's would transfer back to Walsall with the 45 probably the same ones that were sent not so long back 534/564/566/568/569/584 those 6 will be my guess. Also this could mean the b6le's and the dart crusaders not being operated by West Bromwich anymore as most single decker services would just use either the enviro 200's or the mercs. Other service that could move might be the 42 not sure if it's interworked with the 43 anymore if not could transfer to Pensnett along may be with the 121.

[andyr]

The 45 is operated by more merc than b6s these day so if b6s are returned to wa the route will see a big drop in capacity. Are there any surples b10s that could be transfered ?

[JB93]

I'm biased because I used to live down the road from it but RE-OPEN LEA HALL! :D more capacity, bigger garage etc. If its a money issue, they could get rid of Bordesley because 1) it only operates 3 services (4 if you count 55A) and 2) its less than 5 minutes away from Central garage!! If the original Lea Hall routes moved back to Lea Hall then it would free up space at Central, and maybe West Bromwich's routes into Birmingham (at least some of them) could move there?

[NXWM Spectra]

I'm biased because I used to live down the road from it but RE-OPEN LEA HALL! :D more capacity, bigger garage etc. If its a money issue, they could get rid of Bordesley because 1) it only operates 3 services (4 if you count 55A) and 2) its less than 5 minutes away from Central garage!! If the original Lea Hall routes moved back to Lea Hall then it would free up space at Central, and maybe West Bromwich's routes into Birmingham (at least some of them) could move there?

Great thought, where would the reserve fleet go? Most could be scrapped to be honest.
LH garageis still for sale though. Why was LH closed anyway?

The 45 is operated by more merc than b6s these day so if b6s are returned to wa the route will see a big drop in crapacity. Are there any surples b10s that could be transfered ?

There are quite a lot of reinstatable B10L, even counting only those in NXWM livery.
A couple of months ago, I worked out that there was enough B10L in reserve in NXWM livery to replace all of WA's B6LE.

[winston]

What would wa use on the 45? Few b6s left and b7s are commited..cant see mercs being introduced to wa.. new buses perhapes ?

I would almost guarantee b6le's would transfer back to Walsall with the 45 probably the same ones that were sent not so long back 534/564/566/568/569/584 those 6 will be my guess. Also this could mean the b6le's and the dart crusaders not being operated by West Bromwich anymore as most single decker services would just use either the enviro 200's or the mercs. Other service that could move might be the 42 not sure if it's interworked with the 43 anymore if not could transfer to Pensnett along may be with the 121.

Or the 74 or 87 could be operated from Pensnett, if a number of WB routes were to move in to Pensnett, the stored Excels would need to move on

[winston]

The 45 is operated by more merc than b6s these day so if b6s are returned to wa the route will see a big drop in capacity. Are there any surples b10s that could be transfered ?

There are 37 B10L's in reserve, some of which already have NX livery & the darker blue moquette.

[winston]

I'm biased because I used to live down the road from it but RE-OPEN LEA HALL! :D more capacity, bigger garage etc. If its a money issue, they could get rid of Bordesley because 1) it only operates 3 services (4 if you count 55A) and 2) its less than 5 minutes away from Central garage!! If the original Lea Hall routes moved back to Lea Hall then it would free up space at Central, and maybe West Bromwich's routes into Birmingham (at least some of them) could move there?

Bordesley wouldn't be got rid of as it is still NXWM HQ despite reports that was moving in to B'ham Coach Station with the rest of the NX Group functions. Bordesley is also home to a £1 million central control room which has recently been installed, the garage could be used to store withdrawn vehicles which is what it was originally thought to have been used for.

I can't see NX re-opening LH, however I think it should be retained rather than sold incase increased capacity is required if & when the economy picks up. Beside LH is once again being filled up with part of the reserve fleet which was stored at the car park.

[Ash]

Surely NXWM will find another out station for WB buses theres units just outside of great bridge and im sure some of them are empty.

[JB93]

I'm biased because I used to live down the road from it but RE-OPEN LEA HALL! :D more capacity, bigger garage etc. If its a money issue, they could get rid of Bordesley because 1) it only operates 3 services (4 if you count 55A) and 2) its less than 5 minutes away from Central garage!! If the original Lea Hall routes moved back to Lea Hall then it would free up space at Central, and maybe West Bromwich's routes into Birmingham (at least some of them) could move there?

Great thought, where would the reserve fleet go? Most could be scrapped to be honest.
LH garageis still for sale though. Why was LH closed anyway?


I heard rumours when it shut that it was closed because they couldn't afford to keep it running any more but whether that's true I don't know. I agree with Winston it shouldn't be sold, but I still think that if they modified things a bit it would make more sense to have a bigger garage open. Maybe move the reserve fleet to Bordesley and the rest to Miller Street, and then send Bordesley's routes and Central's ex LH routes back to LH too. It doesn't seem fair there aren't any garages in East Birmingham :P

[Ash]

Other solutions could be bring the 79 back Wolverhampton to Birmingham and withdraw the 75 and operate it from Wolverhampton using the alx400. I know Wolverhampton aren't type trained on this vehicle but i'm sure the controls can't be too different from the tridents. Also gets rid of the alx400 from WB well some of them anyway.

Other transfers could be the:
45 to Walsall
42 to Pensnett
5 to Perry Barr with the presidents. (as PB have operated presidents and the 451 in the past), for an exchange move the 654 or any other solo routes to WB and use the alx200 on there.

[Martin]

Wolverhampton are type trained on the alx400's as the Tridents are alx400. If i'm not mistaken alx400 is the body. So that would mean wolverhampton have got y, 51, 02, 52, 53, 04 & 54 reg alx 400's.