West Midlands Bus Partnership to End

[Michael Bevan]

Just read on the Diamond website that the West Midlands Bus Partnership will be ending on the 29th of August...

Also worth noting Diamond will be pulling off the 32 from this date and will no longer be operating the 42 between Tipton and Dudley...

https://www.diamondbuses.com/news/wmb_service_changes/

[Westy]

Back to a free for all on the 31 then!

[2206]

Back to a free for all on the 31 then!

Will the NX buses be repainted back into Crimson? Would make sense I guess.

Very strange would have thought ticket agreements like this would be good for passengers on routes, so seems an odd change rather than introducing it on more routes such as 94, 16, 50, etc.
Then again claribels on 94 don't even match the ticket prices with NX, they don't do the £1 ticket for concessionary passes in the mornings like the other operators and charge full fares, so anyone with one lets them go past.

[Steveminor]

Very strange would have thought ticket agreements like this would be good for passengers on routes

It has to make business sense for the operators as well.

[Westy]

It'll be interesting to see if some passengers will still try to use one operator's ticket on the other!

Surely, when the timetable posters are reprinted (yet!) again for that corridor, TfWm could put a note on the poster about the change in arrangements (or is that too simple?)

Also, I guess the 'joint' leaflets will not be printed again, so I hope when leaflets are able to be produced,  Diamond do actually send paper copies to the Travelshops, assuming the 'official ' version will be Nx only.

[Stu]

Just read on the Diamond website that the West Midlands Bus Partnership will be ending on the 29th of August...

Also worth noting Diamond will be pulling off the 32 from this date and will no longer be operating the 42 between Tipton and Dudley...

https://www.diamondbuses.com/news/wmb_service_changes/

I was surprised it lasted this long to be honest, I suspected at the time this was some kind of 'trial', hence why there was no widespread rollout of this concept.

It has to make business sense for the operators as well.

That is true, and clearly this arrangement is not benefitting Diamond in the way they would have liked I guess.

So is it safe to assume that this 'West Midlands Bus' partnership concept is now dead in the water?

[fleetline6477]

I suspect that because of the livery colour, I assume chosen by TfWM, it looked to many that NXWM ran the entire 31,32,40,42,43. The livery, in my opinion, should always have been a neutral colour. The partnership scheme was just an attempt to benefit NXWM, their favoured operator, in my opinion.

[Tony]

I suspect that because of the livery colour, I assume chosen by TfWM, it looked to many that NXWM ran the entire 31,32,40,42,43. The livery, in my opinion, should always have been a neutral colour. The partnership scheme was just an attempt to benefit NXWM, their favoured operator, in my opinion.

It saved both operators a lot of operating costs without reducing the total number of passenger carried on the service by keeping a good frequency

[Simon Dunn]

It has to make business sense for the operators as well.

Steve is right.  Steve is very aware as a member of the Bus Alliance the steps we took to create reform.  TfWM approach on Bus Service Improvement plans will interesting. 

[D10]

I thought that Partnership was meant to be the way of the future under the Governments bus proposals recently announced. Far better for operators to do it on a voluntary basis rather than be forced into joint timetabling or similar?

[Simon Dunn]

I thought that Partnership was meant to be the way of the future under the Governments bus proposals recently announced. Far better for operators to do it on a voluntary basis rather than be forced into joint timetabling or similar?

This is not the exact words, but the principle is the same.  The National Bus Strategy sets out that a Local Transport Authority or similar organisation to decide whether or not it is going to look to create an Enhanced Partnership scheme or a Franchising arrangement.  This can change at a later stage, but they have to decide this by the end of June.

After deciding they have to create a Bus Service Improvement Plan and they expect parts of it to be in place by the end of March 2022.  The BSIP is supposed to identify areas of failure/ need correction in the market and a strategy to deal with that.

Clearly TfWM have time to set out both these points.   

From a Diamond perspective, there is no commercial sense in operating in partnership and losing money, against operating outside a partnership and making money.    Clearly as we return to commercial realities we need to either see changes to arrangements which have been identified as an issue for nearly 2 years or those arrangements need to terminate.




Simon 

[Westy]

@SimonDunn - Is Diamond keeping those early Sunday morning journeys on the 31, when this change kicks in?

[Steveminor]

It is maybe worth pointing out that as we are both bus alliance members myself and Simon have spoken on this subject at great length. I am aware of the reasons for his decision to withdraw from the partnership routes and fully agree with those reasons. In fact it's hard to see how any other operator would join a partnership route with the current arrangements.
The National bus strategy calls for LTAs & operators to work together on BSIP proposals however they must be reasonable proposals for both the LTA & operators.
Simon has set out his position I do not see anything in his proposals to reform current QA arrangements which are unreasonable.

[Simon Dunn]

@SimonDunn - Is Diamond keeping those early Sunday morning journeys on the 31, when this change kicks in?

Our 31 service on a Sunday starts at 0840 hrs


Simon

[Westy]

It saved both operators a lot of operating costs without reducing the total number of passenger carried on the service by keeping a good frequency

I suppose it will put them back up now?

It will be interesting to see which operator gets the benefit, now things will be back to square one.

Logic suggests NX with the more options onwards will be the winner.

Hope both operators will be prepared for all the passengers moans, when they try to use one operator's ticket on the other!