Blackheath Bus Services

[Tony]

its an utter disgrace the monoploisic bus company uses bueses over 10 years old on a main trunk route

You quote above

So why is it OK for monoplosic TfL to use buses over 10 years old on a main trunk route?
Even the NBfL are planned for a 14 year life and some are now 8 years old and just starting their second 7 year spells

[Tony]

And of course TfL were quite happy with these shockingly bad second hand 16 year old buses being used!
http://wmbusphotos.com/NONWM/LonGen/DMN12.html

[richardjones210368]

And of course TfL were quite happy with these shockingly bad second hand 16 year old buses being used!
http://wmbusphotos.com/NONWM/LonGen/DMN12.html

It is of course TfL's responsibility as the procurment authority to judge what is fit and proper for the contracts its awards sadly NXWM can do what it wants on its commercial services its only accountable to TfWM for its contract service I am sure you like me are looking forward to the 11th March announcrment when TfWM hopefully will be able to set the same standards to operators as TfWM hopefully this may bring an end to Tridents on the 13A a bus of this age and poor quality is not really fit for purpose in 2020 in a major European City ; well till 31st; is it @Tony ?

[Busboy105]

Perhaps you ought to go down to London then. I was photographing 14 year old E400s on New Bus For London Routes last week.

Arriva London were using 15 year old ALX400s exactly the same bus you moan about on the 2 route past Buckingham palace up until 18 months ago.(as per TfL spec)

Stagecoach London have only just taken 18 year old second hand darts off the road.

The 2 is operated by Arriva London South not Arriva London North Tony.

[Tony]

It is of course TfL's responsibility as the procurment authority to judge what is fit and proper for the contracts its awards sadly NXWM can do what it wants on its commercial services its only accountable to TfWM for its contract service I am sure you like me are looking forward to the 11th March announcrment when TfWM hopefully will be able to set the same standards to operators as TfWM hopefully this may bring an end to Tridents on the 13A a bus of this age and poor quality is not really fit for purpose in 2020 in a major European City ; well till 31st; is it @Tony ?

Sorry! They are quite happy with these refurbished tridents. In fact 2 BC tridents are currently at Grayson's being made up to Euro6 with the help of money from TfWM !

[Trident 4194]

Regarding the platinums as I saw it posted somewhere:

Pros:
Fast, good heating, USB ports, fairly professional looking with clear displays, good for environment

Cons:
The dull interior, worsened by some platinums having blacked out rear windows not allowing any light into the vehicle. Common occurrence is for lights to flicker on and off. They are fairly lifeless from a enthusiast perspective. Seat cushions on the rear are extremely hard, give me a tridents rear cushions to these.


The Voith ones are far superior to ZF in my opinion

[richardjones210368]

Sorry! They are quite happy with these refurbished tridents. In fact 2 BC tridents are currently at Grayson's being made up to Euro6 with the help of money from TfWM !

Well thank goodness you finally agree with me TfWM are happy like TfL to procure buses that meet the highest quality standards rather than those of  a commercial operator such as NXWM and so should be applauded for upgrading buses to fit and proper modern standards that are acceptable to the transport authority rather than operator cheers @Tony will have a large red in Spoons tonight in your honour.

[Tony]

Well thank goodness you finally agree with me TfWM are happy like TfL to procure buses that meet the highest quality standards rather than those of  a commercial operator such as NXWM and so should be applauded for upgrading buses to fit and proper modern standards that are acceptable to the transport authority rather than operator cheers @Tony will have a large red in Spoons tonight in your honour.

Percentage of fleet NXWM is actually ahead of London for Euro 6!

[Jack]

I have to say etching on NX buses has definitely improved, there's hardly any buses now that have serious etching than say there was back in 2008/2009 time. There's a photo of a DD on the 63 on the main site from about ten years ago and the upper deck etching was atrocious, however you don't see anything like that now!

[winston]

I have to say etching on NX buses has definitely improved, there's hardly any buses now that have serious etching than say there was back in 2008/2009 time. There's a photo of a DD on the 63 on the main site from about ten years ago and the upper deck etching was atrocious, however you don't see anything like that now!

NXWM have come on leaps & bounds since 2005-7 when TWM/NWXM's fleet was very neglected / starved of new fleet investment due to priority being on expanding Travel London. Nothing was refurbished back then, and new vehicle investment levels since 2011 & emphasis on quality has been impressive.

[richardjones210368]

Percentage of fleet NXWM is actually ahead of London for Euro 6!

Excellent news and partly I gather with TfWM support you say well thats the way forward I fully agree much more Quality Partnerships with TfWM even I cant argue with that Cheers @Tony

[Jack]

NXWM have come on leaps & bounds since 2006-8 when TWM/NWXM's fleet was very neglected / starved of new fleet investment due to priority being on expensing Travel London. Nothing was refurbished back then, and new vehicle investment levels since 2011 & emphasis on quality has been impressive.

The first proper start was the mass investment in the Presidents in 2007 and then all the E400's...
Billy X8 is seriously on another planet...

[Tony]

Excellent news and partly I gather with TfWM support you say well thats the way forward I fully agree much more Quality Partnerships with TfWM even I cant argue with that Cheers @Tony

Mainly because of the 342 Platinums (about 22% of the fleet) 96 other Euro 6 bought new and Graysons are now past the 400 mark with conversions giving a total of over 50% of the entire fleet.

Every Enviro 400 is now Euro 6
Only a few E200s to do
only a few B7RLEs to do
only 2 of the BC Hybrids left to do

Graysons are now starting on Tridents, Gemini & Scanias along with the Wolverhampton Hybrids

[Stu]

Regarding the platinums as I saw it posted somewhere:

Pros:
Fast, good heating, USB ports, fairly professional looking with clear displays, good for environment

Cons:
The dull interior, worsened by some platinums having blacked out rear windows not allowing any light into the vehicle. Common occurrence is for lights to flicker on and off. They are fairly lifeless from a enthusiast perspective. Seat cushions on the rear are extremely hard, give me a tridents rear cushions to these.


The Voith ones are far superior to ZF in my opinion

I will agree with your points, but please remember that the vast majority of bus passengers are not 'enthusiasts'.

Non-enthusiast passengers like myself just want a clean, comfortable bus that will take them where they need to go.

On the services I regularly use, the 2 and 3 (YW), the buses are mostly battered old Tridents with grubby interiors and worn seats. I don't really care myself about this, as long as I can get a seat and get to and from work, I don't mind really. But when a Platinum does turn up on these routes, I consider it a 'rare treat'. From a non-enthusiast passenger perspective, they are perceived as 'nice buses'.

Of course when I lived in South Yardley, I regularly travelled on the Platinum X1 and X2 services, so I was spoilt for a couple of years...

But please lets not start the whole "which gearbox is better" debate again...

[Tony]

NXWM have come on leaps & bounds since 2006-8 when TWM/NWXM's fleet was very neglected / starved of new fleet investment due to priority being on expensing Travel London. Nothing was refurbished back then, and new vehicle investment levels since 2011 & emphasis on quality has been impressive.

Now the fleet is starting to look good, the aim is now to have the presentation perfect. That will be impossible to achieve with the current passenger base, but each engineering manager will get a list of buses noticed by staff, passengers who complain, or enthusiasts posting on the oddities page, which is why that thread needs to be just genuine oddities once a month and expected to get them sorted.
This includes

Fleetnames etc on the outside
Seat backs, etched windows, wrong or damaged seatbacks or poles. Incorrect seat covers on the inside.

Things like missing route branding will also be fixed now, but replacements have to be ordered and fitted by a contractor, so will take a little longer to fix