Stagecoach in Birmingham

[Tony]

A number of Stagecoach drivers are saying their management has informed them of 9 new services in the Birmingham area from October...

Lots of routes out to tender, I would imagine stagecoach have bid, but bids only had to be in this week so they will not have a clue if they have won them

[Stu]

A number of Stagecoach drivers are saying their management has informed them of 9 new services in the Birmingham area from October...

Interesting, maybe contract tender wins, but I would have thought it was too soon to have bid on and successfully won those contracts?

Also I would have thought that Stagecoach would have wanted to establish a depot/base in Birmingham before trying to take on any additional work here, unless something is very imminent?

[MW]

Lots of routes out to tender, I would imagine stagecoach have bid, but bids only had to be in this week so they will not have a clue if they have won them

The deadline was Friday 14th July.

TfWM tend to inform winners before it's officially announced, but once the bids are in that they are the "preferred bidder".

It may well be true.

[BK63 YWP]

Is there a way to see which routes are out for tender?

[MW]

Is there a way to see which routes are out for tender?

530 Wolverhampton
19 Walsall
88 Stourbridge
13 Halesowen
A10 Solihull
62 62A Wolverhampton
22 Walsall
23 Bloxwich
66 Stone Cross
74 Walsall
20 21 Bearwood
64 Wednesbury
23 Wednesbury
303 Bilston
223 Bilston
25 Castle Vale
60 Warwick Uni
96 BHX
45 Walsall
A7 A8 Solihull
703 Arena Retail Park
002 Weoley Castle

There isn't actually 9 Birmingham area services. Perhaps it's 9 tender wins, or perhaps it's bollocks.

Those are the services anyway.

[Coventrybususer95]

530 Wolverhampton
19 Walsall
88 Stourbridge
13 Halesowen
A10 Solihull
62 62A Wolverhampton
22 Walsall
23 Bloxwich
66 Stone Cross
74 Walsall
20 21 Bearwood
64 Wednesbury
23 Wednesbury
303 Bilston
223 Bilston
25 Castle Vale
60 Warwick Uni
96 BHX
45 Walsall
A7 A8 Solihull
703 Arena Retail Park
002 Weoley Castle

There isn't actually 9 Birmingham area services. Perhaps it's 9 tender wins, or perhaps it's bollocks.

Those are the services anyway.

I'll be surprised if any company other then stagecoach win the 2 Coventry routes

[ellspurs]

Just the 25 without including the 600? Or have they integrated the routes.

And imagine if Stagecoach win those routes on the other side of Walsall/Wolverhampton? They'll be needing to trundle up the a5 to get to them if they don't wish to take the motorway.

[Tony]

I'll be surprised if any company other then stagecoach win the 2 Coventry routes

Why not NXC?

[Westy]

530 Wolverhampton
19 Walsall
88 Stourbridge
13 Halesowen
A10 Solihull
62 62A Wolverhampton
22 Walsall
23 Bloxwich
66 Stone Cross
74 Walsall
20 21 Bearwood
64 Wednesbury
23 Wednesbury
303 Bilston
223 Bilston
25 Castle Vale
60 Warwick Uni
96 BHX
45 Walsall
A7 A8 Solihull
703 Arena Retail Park
002 Weoley Castle

There isn't actually 9 Birmingham area services. Perhaps it's 9 tender wins, or perhaps it's bollocks.

Those are the services anyway.

Is all the 19 tendered or just the Sunday service?

I know Nx had the one part after Igo, but can't remember the circumstances of them getting the other part.

[metrocity]

Just the 25 without including the 600? Or have they integrated the routes.

And imagine if Stagecoach win those routes on the other side of Walsall/Wolverhampton? They'll be needing to trundle up the a5 to get to them if they don't wish to take the motorway.

The 25 was being merged / butchered together with another South Birmingham route 

[Stu]

There isn't actually 9 Birmingham area services. Perhaps it's 9 tender wins, or perhaps it's bollocks.

For office people based elsewhere with no/little knowledge of the West Midlands region, all of those services listed would be considered 'Birmingham area'.

Realistically, they may have a chance at the 002, 25, 96 and the A7/A8/A10 Solihull services.

But seriously what are TfWM doing entertaining bids from bus operators who don't have an established operating centre in the area?

[D10]

Is all the 19 tendered or just the Sunday service?

I know Nx had the one part after Igo, but can't remember the circumstances of them getting the other part.

The 19 is two separate tenders, one for the Monday to Saturday service and the other for Sundays. Not sure which one(s) are up for tender in this round though.

[MW]

But seriously what are TfWM doing entertaining bids from bus operators who don't have an established operating centre in the area?

It's purely down to price. The cheapest bidder wins. Stagecoach are utilising heavily depreciated 10 year old Enviro 200s which have been upgraded to Euro 6 (don't quote me on it but my presumption is that they've been upgraded for the Manchester Clean Air Zone, but of course with franchising kicking in and a large amount of new vehicles due in that region, there must be a hell of a lot of surplus vehicles).

Anyway, my point being is that these vehicles don't owe Stagecoach much, so naturally on the fleet costing side, their tender bids are going to be lower than those operators who tend to commit to brand new/leased vehicles.

I would imagine that Stagecoach bids are tailored around the potential of having a local operating centre, with the excessive dead running costs being subsidised by their head office.

A bit of rough maths below for those interested:

At the moment, 90 minutes (and approx 30 miles) are given to travel from Rugby to Solihull on their running boards.

30 miles x 2 = 60 miles in dead runs per bus. That's around 22 litres of fuel. I can't remember the exact number of buses but let's say 10.

220 litres a day in dead fuel. Let's say £1 a litre. That's £220 a day.

Now let's talk drivers wages.

90 minutes x 2 = 180 dead minutes (3 hours).

3 hours x £19.75 (agency rate) = let's call it £60.

£60 x 10 buses is £600.

So that's around £820 in dead costs a day.

We're around 30 weeks since they won these services, which is 180 days (excluding Sundays).


£820 per day x 180 days = £147,600 in dead costs. Now surely even the more expensive storage yards locally for 10 vehicles aren't going to be nearly £150,000 for half a year.

[winston]

The deadline was Friday 14th July.

TfWM tend to inform winners before it's officially announced, but once the bids are in that they are the "preferred bidder".

It may well be true.

TfWM will inform the winning bidders a few weeks before they're due to start like normal...

Far too early for any Winning bidders to be notified. 

[2206]

The 25 was being merged / butchered together with another South Birmingham route

MW posted a route description in this thread. Serving Castle Vale, The Fort, Bromford, Ward End, Stechford, Heartlands and Small Heath.
https://wmbusphotos.com/forum/index.php?topic=6490.msg314570#msg314570
In part a return of the old 24/28A/93 route it seemed to.

Is the 600 being scrapped possibly?