Stafford depot

[PM]

Ive just wondered-you mention Tamworth is profitable-is arriva midlands as a whole-including everything-cannock, hill top, midland red north, stevensons,etcc-is the company as a whole?? Anyone got the figures

[Bob]

Cannock while having modern buses for the Stafford & Lichfield services, generally has a lot of shit buses like awful knackered MPD Darts, SB120's & SB200's ( the 1 Walsall branded ones)with seats threadbare and the B10BLE's look pretty knackered now too, also whatever P and R reg SPD Darts are left look tired. So maybe it doesnt make much money

[andy]

Ive just wondered-you mention Tamworth is profitable-is arriva midlands as a whole-including everything-cannock, hill top, midland red north, stevensons,etcc-is the company as a whole?? Anyone got the figures

I haven't worked there for some time, but the information I have (and I certainly haven't seen any figures), and based on while I did, is that as a whole Shropshire is very profitable, Tamworth is, Stafford was, Cannock wasn't (although that was before the Chase acquisition), Stevensons wasn't, until they amalgamated Swad and Burton and rationalised a lot of the network, now it is. Derby was a bit hit and miss to begin with but that was mainly due to the aged fleet and poor collection of cocessionary revenue, and Leicester used to break even but is now profitable following Wigston and Coalville's closures.  The only mystery to me now is Stafford. I can only assume they have done what they have to try and get rid of some cost overall and if you're going to have one depot where there were two, Cannock is more flexibly located.

You mentioned C-Line in another post Peter, I don't know where to start on that!

[Bob]

Cannock probably gets a bit of trade from the Walsall services now as it never used to run there before. The Wolves service has changed over the years, the 70 ( previously 870) has stayed pretty much consistent, apart from minor changes such as running through Rumer Hill etc, but im sure there used to be an 872, that said 'wolverhampton via wedges mills', which was much quicker than the 870. Any idea when it finished?

[PM]

Ive just wondered-you mention Tamworth is profitable-is arriva midlands as a whole-including everything-cannock, hill top, midland red north, stevensons,etcc-is the company as a whole?? Anyone got the figures

I haven't worked there for some time, but the information I have (and I certainly haven't seen any figures), and based on while I did, is that as a whole Shropshire is very profitable, Tamworth is, Stafford was, Cannock wasn't (although that was before the Chase acquisition), Stevensons wasn't, until they amalgamated Swad and Burton and rationalised a lot of the network, now it is. Derby was a bit hit and miss to begin with but that was mainly due to the aged fleet and poor collection of cocessionary revenue, and Leicester used to break even but is now profitable following Wigston and Coalville's closures.  The only mystery to me now is Stafford. I can only assume they have done what they have to try and get rid of some cost overall and if you're going to have one depot where there were two, Cannock is more flexibly located.

You mentioned C-Line in another post Peter, I don't know where to start on that!

Thankyou very much for the info and C-Line!! Haha ;D ;D

[Discodave]

I must admit that the one garage that poses a real problem is Tamworth.I also wonder why it is that Tamworth is to receive (I think)the entire allocation of a batch of Mercedes Citaros.There is obviously an engineering advantage in standardisation,but Tamworth seems to be very out of step even with the current fleet there........no Darts,for example,and no DAF either.
Is there a reason for the seeming out on a limb feel to the place.
Mind you,the present operation ,from Tamworth, of Hill Top lends support to the theory that an outstation of at least 11 buses is very possible.......tamworth to Dudley is a long way especially in Black Country traffic conditions.
The secret is possibly using new buses which SHOULD (in theory) be more reliable.

It's a very fair point and it's always been the way, as an operation it has never really fitted! It's always been very convenient (and profitable) to run it as a unit. Which is why I have so many theories about what they would do if they leave the current premises.

Firstly, the only reason Hill Top was placed in the care of Tamworth is that Cannock had taken on the extra work for Stafford and were struggling for fitters and facilities, I would anticipate it going back eventually.

In terms of vehicle types, again it has never had the same mix as others. At one stage Tamworth was all deckers and DP's/coaches while everyone else was single deck buses.  They even tried to convert it to single deck at one stage with disastrous consequences resulting in me and my colleagues driving past endless bus stops full of passengers that we couldn't get on, a genius move at the same time as cancelling all the limited stop services! Now they are, quite rightly, back on deckers. They don't have Darts because they are too small and not robust enough. Tamworth is one of those places where you can be floating along with hardly anyone on one minute, and loaded to the gunnels the next. One thing they did get right was eventually realising that small buses don't work there (although it took years for the penny to drop) and they redesigned all the services so full size buses can be used everywhere, meaning they can now have a full allocation of full size.

The B6's they have there are even too small at times. The Citaros offer flexibility in that for the first time the depot will now have a fleet of fully interchangeable vehicles between Citaros, the Omnilinks and Geminis (bar a couple of B6's left over) everything can go everywhere (barring low bridges) and all of them will be Euro compliant for running into Birmingham. And as you point out, it will keep all the Mercs in one place. The B6's are 14 years old and needed replacing anyway. Buses get worked very, very hard at Tamworth. Darts need not apply!!

Tamworth has always made money so gets good buses hope hill top does not get put under the wing of Cannock as shitty buses will go there and the enviros will just be F***ed up and hill top will just die like most of the ex chase routes.  The B6s are welcome at Cannock as they are old knackered and more than likely overheat or break down as soon as a Cannock fitter touches them aprt from the odd new buses Bob hits the nail on the head with Cannocks fleet.  Stafford made money until it was downgraded really a propper garage which can house the 2 fleets like telford is needed and a decent fleet but it will never happen Cannock and Stafford will be the shit buses home just like PL use to be at NXWM until the network review it had and the new buses now look I see a lot more people on the buses and I bet they make a profit

[Bob]

i dont think the B6s are going to Cannock garage are they?

[Discodave]

it was mentioned stafford but being only an outstation of cannock if so would be more sense of sending them to delta way but most of there stuff is daf and dennis telford would be a better option they have b6's or burton they would be killed at cannock espically going up bradbury lane on the pye greens overheat alarms would be going off by the top

[andy]

it was mentioned stafford but being only an outstation of cannock if so would be more sense of sending them to delta way but most of there stuff is daf and dennis telford would be a better option they have b6's or burton they would be killed at cannock espically going up bradbury lane on the pye greens overheat alarms would be going off by the top

Correct, as I said in the B6 thread these buses are underpowered and frequently produce an overheat buzzer even when you've only been going an hour, they're notorious for it because the engine has to work so hard. My guess is they will go to Telford with the others and that will release DAF's for other depots.

And just to settle this 'outstation' argument, there is a job advert on the Arriva site which refers to 'Stafford outstation' so there endeth the debate!

It's quite sad really, Tamworth is now the only original Midland Red building left with Arriva. Stafford burned down, Wellington is now replaced, Shrewsbury has just been replaced, Swadlincote was closed, Coalville was closed, Wigston was amalgamated with Thurmaston on new premises. How much longer will it survive and do they have plans drawn up?

[arrifirststage]

When was Wigston closed/moved to new premises?
I must admit that I thought it was still being used as normal from the same place.

[Bob]

B6's are truly shite buses, Darts arent much better horrendously noisy pieces of crap

[andy]

When was Wigston closed/moved to new premises?
I must admit that I thought it was still being used as normal from the same place.

Yeah sorry I was talking about Southgates, not Wigston!

[woody38]

On the vosa website the following arriva gartages are to get more buses


ARRIVA MIDLANDS NORTH LTD T/A ARRIVA MIDLANDS
Director(s): Mark David James Yexley, Alfred Lloyd, ELIZABETH THORPE, ROBERT HIND, MICHAEL COOPER, JOHN BARLOW, M J EVANS, R A BOWLER.
THURMASTON GARAGE, 852 MELTON ROAD, THURMASTON LEICESTER LE4 8BT, GB
Increased authorisation at existing operating centre: CANNOCK GARAGE, DELTA WAY, LONGFORD ROAD CANNOCK WS11 0XB ()
New authorisation at this operating centre will be: 95 vehicle(s),
Increased authorisation at existing operating centre: TAMWORTH GARAGE, ALDERGATE , TAMWORTH B79 7DD ()
New authorisation at this operating centre will be: 50 vehicle(s),
Increased authorisation at existing operating centre: ARRIVA MIDLANDS NORTH LTD, UNIT 6, DORRINGTON DRIVE, DORRINGTON INDUSTRIAL PARK, STAFFORD ST16 3BF ()
New authorisation at this operating centre will be: 34 vehicle(s),

[Bob]

i wonder what extra work cannock will be doing, they wont be likely to extend their cannock network lol crap as it is

[Tony]

i wonder what extra work cannock will be doing, they wont be likely to extend their cannock network lol crap as it is

Cannock's current allocation is 61 vehicles; Tamworth's is 44; Stafford's is 26. So that allows for 48 extra vehicles between the three depots. That is far too many just to allow for normal service improvements etc. It does look like they are preparing have another operator's routes moved in