West midlands bus franchising

[winston]

There was plenty after I realised I hadn't photographed a Scania after standing in Bury for 30 minutes I looked on Bustimes map to see what was happening and almost every bus on the route was heading Manchester to Bury with no buses between Bury & Middleton. Looking at the map now, there's no buses either direction between Middleton & Manchester!

The 471 seems as bad with buses all bunched up, that's also now operated by Heywood depot. If the services are like that at lunchtime, I dred to think what they'll be like at peak time.

[Tony]

The 471 seems as bad with buses all bunched up, that's also now operated by Heywood depot. If the services are like that at lunchtime, I dred to think what they'll be like at peak time.

The 471 I caught yesterday (12:36 from Bolton) was spot on time, but the realtime in Bolton was showing 12:36 on time; 12:48 on time but 12:12 expected 12:48. Greater Manchester is well behind West Midlands on Realtime with only major bus stations seeming to have it 

[Tony]

The 471 seems as bad with buses all bunched up, that's also now operated by Heywood depot. If the services are like that at lunchtime, I dred to think what they'll be like at peak time.

471 currently shows 9 buses heading between Rochdale & Bolton & 1 bus heading Bolton to Rochdale!

[ellspurs]

What's a bit ironic is the TfGM spec for vehicles was, apart from doors mostly TfL spec for CCTV  seats etc, yet they don't have any Go-Ahead London vehicles on hire. I photographed Go North East, Metrobus & Go South from both Swindon & Poole

If only they had sent up some of the open top buses I've seen operating on the m1 when I've been in Poole and Bournemouth. 

[2900]

They have one already...

Totally forgot about this livery, left a great impression on me then, will there be any return to partnership operated routes or is that all history now nbus dayticket rules over the west mids

[Coventrybususer95]

Totally forgot about this livery, left a great impression on me then, will there be any return to partnership operated routes or is that all history now nbus dayticket rules over the west mids

Wonder if we'll see a grey version of it

[Stu]

Totally forgot about this livery, left a great impression on me then, will there be any return to partnership operated routes or is that all history now nbus dayticket rules over the west mids

I would expect the partnership model is now effectively redundant now that nBus is the only ticket type available.

Franchising is now inevitable here it would seem.

[2206]

I would expect the partnership model is now effectively redundant now that nBus is the only ticket type available.

Franchising is now inevitable here it would seem.

The 16/A, 31, 32 etc still have intergrated timetables I think don't they?
On the 16 timetable from the Markets there is a gap 00, 20, 40 minutes past the hour when the 16A runs.

Wonder if there will be an intergrated timetable on other routes at some point the 50 and Wolverhampton 11?

[suavegarv]

I was sampling Manchester yesterday, there's a lot of hard work to do up there for them to succeed, huge gaps in services, drivers not trained on ticket machines so giving everyone free rides, buses looking like some of the worst independants are running them. The picture was running on the 163 route which should be TfGM spec doubles. The doubles on there were ex London Scanias, which although refurbished, & converted to single door and repainted yellow do not meet the spec that was in the tender documents I read. The best routes I saw were the Diamond ones although one solo was on the 74 with the service on A4 paper in the windscreen http://wmbusphotos.com/Rotala/20885.html

How long have the operators got to get services running as stated in their tenders before financial penalties are imposed?

Is franchising a good idea for the West Midlands?

[j789]

How long have the operators got to get services running as stated in their tenders before financial penalties are imposed?

Is franchising a good idea for the West Midlands?

If you've got a blank cheque and a clueless Labour mayor then yes Franchising is a good idea.

London is always held up as the pinnacle of a  great public service but once you start digging into the financial realities of how much subsidy the franchising model there requires, it is actually shocking that people still think it is worth replicating elsewhere. 

What we have in the West Midlands currently is no where near perfect either but it is still far superior to that offered in many other areas of the country, franchising will just continue to cost tax payers more for very little positive return compared to what we already have now.

[Tony]

And drivers, Go North West have at least 85 drivers on loan from other Go-Ahead subsidiaries.

This is what happens when one operator moves in to a depot & another out overnight, it's never going to work no matter how much pre-planning has been done.

I would hope there was some buses not tracking yesterday on the 8 otherwise the 16:11; 16:25; 16:39; 16:51; 17:03 & 17:15 journies from Bolton didn't run leaving a 90 minute gap in service.

Whenever I have been in Bolton or Manchester before franchising and Diamond ran the 8 it always seemed really good with one bus arriving in Shudehill as the other one left so there was nearly always a bus there.

[Rachvince53]

The 16/A, 31, 32 etc still have intergrated timetables I think don't they?
On the 16 timetable from the Markets there is a gap 00, 20, 40 minutes past the hour when the 16A runs.

Wonder if there will be an intergrated timetable on other routes at some point the 50 and Wolverhampton 11?

You are correct, the 31 and 32 are still integrated although there was a short period when Diamond withdrew from this arrangement (post-Covid I think). 

[Tony]

Yet another idiot councillor who thinks franchising will make fares cheaper.

It may improve many things, but one thing it won't do is reduce fares!

West Midlands bus system branded 'broken, unreliable and unaffordable (msn.com)

[joieman]

Yet another idiot councillor who thinks franchising will make fares cheaper.

It may improve many things, but one thing it won't do is reduce fares!

West Midlands bus system branded 'broken, unreliable and unaffordable (msn.com)

Agreed. I think franchising should be used as a last resort, because there are plenty of other strategies that should be tried first, in particular improved ticketing integration outside of urban areas, perhaps nationwide like the Deutschland ticket in Germany. Of course I'm aware that ticketing is rather well integrated in the West Midlands, but that sort of integration is lacking where I live outside metropolitan Leicester.

[winston]

Yet another idiot councillor who thinks franchising will make fares cheaper.

It may improve many things, but one thing it won't do is reduce fares!

West Midlands bus system branded 'broken, unreliable and unaffordable (msn.com)

The fares were cheap enough before Andy Street got replaced.