West midlands bus franchising

[Rachvince53]

Whilst few tears will be shed for the impending demise of NXWM, I am not sure the work-shy bureaucrats at Summer Drain have quite yet realised what they have signed up for...

But NXWM won't disappear. Although times, fares and routes will be set by WMCA the actual bus services will be operated by private companies including NXWM. 

Surely nationalising the buses is not new wasn't this the start of National Bus Company back in the mid/late 60's with parts of the BMMO brand become WMPTE buses.

Not quite. In the case of the NBC it was the full acquisition of all aspects of the bus companies whereas under franchising private bus companies (eg Metroline, NXWM etc) will continue to operate bus services. In the case of BMMO, it didn't sell its West Midlands routes until 1973, about 5 years after NBC came into being.

[BlackCountryBusSpotter]

They mentioned it on the local news last night and I was slightly disgusted at what was said. So the WMCA said by franchising Buses we reduce congestion, but provide better service either I am stupid or there is a massive lie and oxymoron here as otherwise how does changing the buses from NXWM to Stagecoach under a Franchise reduce congestion on the A41 through Bilston or the Willenhall Road it doesn't unless, 

You reduce the number of buses that are running so for example one woman said they used to be every 10 minutes but now 3 turn up I believe ironically on the day Parker was in Wolverhampton yesterday the 3 main services I saw the 79, 59 and 529 were each affected by different factors, one of which the Mayor wants to expand being the Metro the 79 had to do the heavy lifting as the Metro was down between Wolves and Edgbaston due to Overhead Wire issues so more traffic and more passengers getting onto the 79 which itself struggles at College and School times would have meant it stopped at every stop and got stuck in traffic. Meaning yes they will be Late. NX didn't know the Tram was going to be broken otherwise 79E's would have run to help the main route. 

The 529 is affected by two maybe three sets of Roadworks in Willenhall and eventhough they have improved J10 they still get affected if the motorway is busy, the 59 was affected due to a Police Incident in Wednesfield putting it on Diversion. 

But if Franchising reduces congestion then that can only mean that every 10 minute service that yes is in 3's but usually is always on time. And most Passengers think that a bus being 1 minute-2 minutes late is late that could just be caused by something stupid such as a Traffic Light or a load of passengers boarding but now it Won't be every 10 minutes which is 12 buses 6 in each direction it might now be every 20 minutes which means it's halved so yes there will be less congestion because there is 6 less buses sitting in traffic. But that isn't improving Passenger Service that's making it worse. 

For example If you reduce the Darlaston to Walsall corridor from every 6 minutes to every 15 Minutes, half of the passengers of a morning get of the 34/37/39 and head straight for the 51/X51 To get into Birmingham as trying to drive and park in Birmingham is a nightmare, some may get the train and some get off to work in Walsall, a bit later you get School and College Students who get off in Walsall or in Darlaston to connect to a bus to Wolverhampton or to go to College or School you also have the parents with pushchairs and hospital staff. If you reduce the bus Most of these people have access to a car so what will they do they will get in there cars and drive to Walsall to get the train or get a taxi, Or drive into Birmingham this causes more issues and buses that are now reduced become later which means Service is actually worse if the bus gets turned early. 

The school kids and college students will ask there parents or relatives for a lift and the parents with the pushchairs or Hospital Staff will do the same. If anything you reducing buses will make congestion worse this isn't like Manchester Birmingham and the Black Country is an area with a lot of people in fact the whole area is bigger than the Manchester area we have some of the busiest roads in the country going through us M6, M5, M42, M40, A41, A45, A47, A38, A5, A456, A457, A452 and if there not busy nationally they are locally as they connect a lot of areas to the Motorway or to major towns or cities, the Railway is trying to ease things, the Tram is unreliable especially of late, buses are taking the strain. You Reducing Congestion is basically admitting that buses sit in the traffic but if we reduce them less congestion, if anything it's putting more congestion there. 

Hopefully people cotton on that they are being had by a man who knows about as much as to how deal with Public Transport as I do about Rockets

[Mega Kickdown]

now that its offical im intrested in the liveries. NXWM are in the procedure of painting their buses grey but if its done like manchester and london they will all have to be repainted anyway againnand i dont think parker will be the one paying!

my question is will all repaints stop tenporarily till a solutuon is found? 

[Steve3229vp]

EDIT: Just wonder what the livery would be for TfWM, I wonder if the buses will be painted the same as the trams like this:You cannot view this attachment.

[BBS]

Just wonder what the livery would, I wonder if the buses will be painted the same as the trams like this:You cannot view this attachment.

Maybe the West Midlands bus livery will carry on, it's far better too

[ellspurs]

Isn't the bus "colour" red? Unless Mr Mayor decides to go on a rebranding exercise to celebrate it.

[Mega Kickdown]

Just wonder what the livery would, I wonder if the buses will be painted the same as the trams like this:You cannot view this attachment.

unless NXWM are forced to they wont implement this livery, heard tony say that the reason grey was implemented was due to cost otherwise we would still hv crimson

never knew u could post photos here :o

[Mega Kickdown]

Isn't the bus "colour" red? Unless Mr Mayor decides to go on a rebranding exercise to celebrate it.

tbf i can see it become red becoz half the bus stops in the west mids are red. same for london the bus stops are red the buses are red

hope its a good red not the horrible one trialled on the 97 with that trident. if its red a possible return to crimson maybe. imagine if a bus is painted in crimson -> grey -> crimson haha

[ellspurs]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_for_West_Midlands#/media/File:TfWM-Brand-Family.png

This was the only place I could find the multi-coloured logo thing. It'd be that red. The TfWM site is all purple, and most of it now links to the West Midlands Combined Authority, which is orange.

I can see him rebranding to something. What, I don't know (and they'll end up having to pay for it).

[Westy]

Is there likely to be a chance, if the colours have to change, the companies concerned would do a partial repaint, say paint the front of the bus in the new livery, as a stop gap, until the vehicle concerned goes in for a full repaint, or withdrawal, if NX are still working on ditching diesels by 2030?

Tyne & Wear PTE area back in the 80's had the NBC operator(Northern?) round there did something similar, I remember reading in 'Buses' back in the day.

[Steve3229vp]

unless NXWM are forced to they wont implement this livery, heard tony say that the reason grey was implemented was due to cost otherwise we would still hv crimson

never knew u could post photos here :o

The picture I put up was a future livey for TfWM nothing to do with NX

[Stu]

now that its offical im intrested in the liveries. NXWM are in the procedure of painting their buses grey but if its done like manchester and london they will all have to be repainted anyway againnand i dont think parker will be the one paying!

my question is will all repaints stop tenporarily till a solutuon is found?

Is there likely to be a chance, if the colours have to change, the companies concerned would do a partial repaint, say paint the front of the bus in the new livery, as a stop gap, until the vehicle concerned goes in for a full repaint, or withdrawal, if NX are still working on ditching diesels by 2030?

The intention is for the WMCA to own all the vehicles, therefore it would be their responsibility to pay for repaints.

Up until the point that franchising begins, operators can do what they like with their vehicles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_for_West_Midlands#/media/File:TfWM-Brand-Family.png

This was the only place I could find the multi-coloured logo thing. It'd be that red. The TfWM site is all purple, and most of it now links to the West Midlands Combined Authority, which is orange.

I can see him rebranding to something. What, I don't know (and they'll end up having to pay for it).

The 'West Midlands Bus' red livery was a 'trial', apart from some NX and Diamond vehicles, the only other operator that uses this is Walsall Community Transport. If TfWM already has such a livery design ready, it makes sense to use and adopt that.

But what you have to remember is that WMCA like to fritter public money away on consultants and agencies, so no doubt a new bus livery design will be sought.

If you look at the West Midlands Bus logo, it is red and dark grey.


Which are not too dissimilar to the colours used by National Express West Midlands.

[Steve3229vp]

The intention is for the WMCA to own all the vehicles, therefore it would be their responsibility to pay for repaints.

Up until the point that franchising begins, operators can do what they like with their vehicles.
The 'West Midlands Bus' red livery was a 'trial', apart from some NX and Diamond vehicles, the only other operator that uses this is Walsall Community Transport. If TfWM already has such a livery design ready, it makes sense to use and adopt that.

But what you have to remember is that WMCA like to fritter public money away on consultants and agencies, so no doubt a new bus livery design will be sought.

If you look at the West Midlands Bus logo, it is red and dark grey.


Which are not too dissimilar to the colours used by National Express West Midlands.

I accept most of what of you are saying but won't TfWM/Parker want the buses trans and trains to be the same livery similar to what happening in Manchester ?

[Stu]

I accept most of what of you are saying but won't TfWM/Parker want the buses trans and trains to be the same livery similar to what happening in Manchester ?

They probably will, and as I said earlier, I don't doubt that they would be happy to fritter away a few thousand pounds paying some marketing agency to design a 'whole new livery'.

On the other hand, maybe someone has been doing some 'forward-thinking' in order to save some money...

...if a majority of the vehicles that WMCA will be acquiring are already in a 'base-grey' paint finish, it would be more cost-effective to just reapply some new vinyls in a red colour, rather than incurring the cost of painting the vehicles red. Then it would just be the 'non-grey' vehicles that would need a full repaint.

[BBS]

The intention is for the WMCA to own all the vehicles, therefore it would be their responsibility to pay for repaints.

Up until the point that franchising begins, operators can do what they like with their vehicles.
The 'West Midlands Bus' red livery was a 'trial', apart from some NX and Diamond vehicles, the only other operator that uses this is Walsall Community Transport. If TfWM already has such a livery design ready, it makes sense to use and adopt that.

But what you have to remember is that WMCA like to fritter public money away on consultants and agencies, so no doubt a new bus livery design will be sought.

If you look at the West Midlands Bus logo, it is red and dark grey.


Which are not too dissimilar to the colours used by National Express West Midlands.

Recent new adverts of promoting buses have been West Midlands bus adverts, with some showing a enviro 200 cartooned picture of a West Midlands bus liveried one.