Sprint

[WM_58]

Apologies to all if it's been covered already, I have tried to find it but can't see what I'm looking for. I know the hydrogen buses will initially work the new sprint route but have the 'tram like' buses been ordered yet? I'm curious to know who's in the running to build them!

[Steve3229vp]

Apologies to all if it's been covered already, I have tried to find it but can't see what I'm looking for. I know the hydrogen buses will initially work the new sprint route but have the 'tram like' buses been ordered yet? I'm curious to know who's in the running to build them!

I hope not, I'm hoping if the new hydrogen buses are successful that they will be for all sprint routes. My big problem with the 'tram like' buses is that if they have the same interior layout as the trams then some people will be standing when before the sprint route they were sitting down. Trying to get people onto public transport to stand instead of sitting in a car isn't a good incentive is it.

[BK63 YWP]

I hope not, I'm hoping if the new hydrogen buses are successful that they will be for all sprint routes. My big problem with the 'tram like' buses is that if they have the same interior layout as the trams then some people will be standing when before the sprint route they were sitting down. Trying to get people onto public transport to stand instead of sitting in a car isn't a good incentive is it.

Hasn't tram style buses been tried before and ultimately been replaced by standard buses? Firsts Streetcars in York then Leeds got replaced by double deckers. If I was TfWM I'll just use high specification buses (like Harrogate riding redefined 36s or Witchway interiors? Make sprint stand out more than a standard platinum bus spec

[WM_58]

It's been said by TfWM themselves that the hydrogen buses are just temporary. Although I can see with how the cuts to transport are going they'll stay.

[Stu]

As I see this, having followed this subject over the last few years, what I think is happening is a 'wind-back', or gradual 'playing down' of the original proposals.

Initially when this scheme was announced, the grand ambition was to have a 'bus rapid transit' (BRT) network, using modern 'tram-style' articulated buses, kind of like what somewhere like Bogota in Columbia has had for several years now, using 'next-level' bendy-buses, like they have on the continent. So not quite the same as the 'bendy-buses' we used to have here.

The original plan was for Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) to buy and own the vehicles, and then some other bus operator would run the services under tendered contract, a la Midland Metro.

Prior to the 'awarding' of this contract to National Express West Midlands, I seem to remember TfWM 'moving the goalposts' somewhat, in that the winning operator would be expected to provide their own vehicles, which would of course have to be 'zero-emission'.

NXWM then announced that they intended to use their new hydrogen buses on the first Sprint route (Walsall to Birmingham Airport & Solihull), the ones of course being purchased by Birmingham City Council.

It was claimed that these would of course eventually be replaced by the originally dreamed of high-spec articulated tram-style vehicles on this route.

But as we stand now, with NXWM having proposed the mergers of several other routes to create a 'cross-city' network, some of which seem to mirror original proposals for Sprint BRT routes, it does make me wonder how far the original Sprint proposals will ultimately progress.

Clearly NXWM are keen to invest in the purchase of more hydrogen and electric vehicles over the next few years, and rather than invest in fancy tram-style artics, would prefer to buy more double-deck vehicles, which can then also be utilised on other routes they operate.

It is my considered opinion that the Sprint network will just become the 'cross-city' network proposed by NXWM, albeit with the road infrastructure changes to improve bus priority measures.

And ultimately, I think this approach would actually benefit passengers more, when it comes to ticketing at least, if they don't have to buy seperate tickets to travel on the 'Sprint' buses, if they are just operated like 'regular' service buses. 

[Stevo]

I hope you're right. Although the artics would have been more like the VanHools in Belfast the Sprint spec was for 'at least three doors' which means seating of not much over 40, so a very expensive way of providing not much more than half the seats of a Platinum double decker.

[MW]

So is the new Sprint route actually replacing the 51/X51 & X2 or is it being run in addition to these services?

If it's replacing, there's about to be a number of spare Platinum vehicles from the X2, and possibly X51. I wonder what services are getting upgraded to Platinum next...

[2206]

So is the new Sprint route actually replacing the 51/X51 & X2 or is it being run in addition to these services?

If it's replacing, there's about to be a number of spare Platinum vehicles from the X2, and possibly X51. I wonder what services are getting upgraded to Platinum next...

I can't see it running alongside the X2, i'm not sure there'd be enough passengers. It might swap routes with the 72 and 72 might serve Old Lode Lane maybe. But I don't think the sprint routes starting till next year anyway.

Main routes that could be converted to Platinum could be Ward End 94/95, Bristol Road 61/63, Pershore Road 45/47, 97,  possibly something like the PB 101 or BC 14. Or even Soho Rd 74 maybe.

[Steve3229vp]

I can't see it running alongside the X2, i'm not sure there'd be enough passengers. It might swap routes with the 72 and 72 might serve Old Lode Lane maybe.

Main routes that could be converted to Platinum would be Ward End 94/95, Bristol Road 61/63, Pershore Road 45/47, 97, Soho Road 74. Or possibly something like the PB 101 or BC 14.

I'm lead to believe it's replacing the 51 and X2. So the only Platinums displaced are from the X2 which is around 7 buses so the only routes they could be displaced to is a route with a low PVR

[2206]

I'm lead to believe it's replacing the 51 and X2. So the only Platinums displaced are from the X2 which is around 7 buses so the only routes they could be displaced to is a route with a low PVR

101 perhaps? PVR might be lower on that.

[ellspurs]

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/bus-stop-fears-passengers-can-21629430

Some people on Lode Lane in Solihull don't want a Sprint shelter installed by their homes.

[BK63 YWP]

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/bus-stop-fears-passengers-can-21629430

Some people on Lode Lane in Solihull don't want a Sprint shelter installed by their homes.

What's any difference to a standard shelter and the double deckers stopping there, not like the bus will sit there for hours...

[the trainbasher]

Bloody NIMBYs

[monkeyjoe]

What's any difference to a standard shelter and the double deckers stopping there, not like the bus will sit there for hours...

After reading the article can kinda get where the residents are coming from, particularly with chav youths gathering and littering etc. less likely to happen if just a pole, I'd see that as a compromise.

[2206]

What's any difference to a standard shelter and the double deckers stopping there, not like the bus will sit there for hours...

"The grandmother-of-four said that the compromise agreed around a decade ago had made things better, but residents still feel the best solution would be to remove the stop altogether."

This stop is in a major location outside the JLR, the nearest alternative stops are some distance away. So it is unlikely that this stop will be "removed altogether" I would think.