Pensnett Garage

[Stu]

Acocks Green currently only have one branded route (37), yet their Omnilinks branded for that service frequently appear on other routes.  ;)

[nitromatt1]

Acocks Green currently only have one branded route (37), yet their Omnilinks branded for that service frequently appear on other routes.  ;)

At Pensnett the X96-branded Mercs get everywhere, and the 222-branded E200s are starting to venture out as well

[Sh4318]

According to the NWM website, the 289 is being curtailed to operate between West Bromwich and Old Hill only, any truth in this?

If it's on the NWM website, it's the truth.  8)

The 297/A are being amended to cover part of the withdrawn section of the 289.

I'm quite shocked to be honest. That means there's no direct access to Merry Hill from Lion Farm, or Brickhouse Farm, I wonder the reason behind the change

Ive seen the 289 loadings, they were woefully poor at the Merry Hill end imo. Im not at all surprised the 289 is withdrawn at the Quarry Bank/Merry Hill End. The 297/A re routing will be much better for these areas I think.

I guess the 4M (former 404H) running to Merry Hill everyday has killed the 289 (former 238) off, between West Bromwich, Blackheath & Merry Hill, where in Old Hill will it terminate, possibly Old Hill Cross?

[s94]

Yes, it used to be just the 238 but then the 123 which became the 53 and extended to W Brom and a daily 4M, its slaughtered the 289 to be fair. But as ive said, the changes are for the best imo. :)

[Sh4318]

Yes, it used to be just the 238 but then the 123 which became the 53 and extended to W Brom and a daily 4M, its slaughtered the 289 to be fair. But as ive said, the changes are for the best imo. :)

I'm not so sure, it's definitely a wise decision - if a route isn't busy in an area, curtail it, but I'm sure residents of Lion Farm would disagree. The 208 is still an option to Merry Hill from Brickhouse Farm, but that's an hourly service, sad to see it curtailed

[s94]

I dont know the area there too well but surely the 4M isnt too far away? Im not sure of the 289 loadings up in the Sandwell area. They must be reasonable I suppose hence the service is still there. I can only comment on the Merry Hill side, and I think I posted some weeks before these changes were known how shocking the loadings were generally from what I saw and that i wouldnt be surprised to see it go there. Ive never seen a full 289 Merc. Tbh a midi bus would have sufficed!

[Ex pensnett driver]

When I have driven the 289 there seems to be a good amount loading from merry hill

[richie]

When I have driven the 289 there seems to be a good amount loading from merry hill

You probably went the wrong way

[Andrew1991]

Actually this is the full post referred to:

National Express North Birmingham, is National Express West Midlands new arm to Sutton Coldfield services. With 2 new garages in the Sutton Coldfield and Erdington area the operations team which includes Jordan Davies (Area Supervisor) Matthew Mckenzie (Assistant Operations Manager) Jack Jones (Senior Operation Assistant) will operate a fleet of 180 vehicles throughout the Sutton Coldfield, Kingstanding and Erdington areas.

The new arm was established from a sell out from Rotala who had purchased shares in Travel Your Bus which was the trading name for Smiths Coaches (Shenington) Ltd during early 90's. When National Express acquired the Your Bus operations, the Rotala stake in the North Birmingham garage remained in Rotalas operation until 2013, when it was finally sold to National Express in April. National Express will operate this as a separate arm of National Express West Midlands following the service review in North Birmingham area. NX North Birmingham (NXNB) will introduce links to to Walsall, Lichfield, Tamworth, Cannock and Headnesford from Sutton Coldfield, while acquiring some of the existing services operated by Perry Barr and Walsall Garages.

Matthew Mckenzie (Assistant Operations Manager) said "We welcome the change, we are not hear to take over from our partner companies in the West Midlands and Coventry. We will work to establish new contracts outside the West Midlands County" "We have undertaken a statistical study during the last 6months to ensure 97% of our services will meet commercially viable operations, reducing the risk of tendered contracts"

Jack Jones (Senior Operations Assistant) "We would like to take this opportunity to welcome bus travellers across the North Birmingham and surrounding areas. We have a direct and dedicated team for passengers to make comments and suggestions at National Express North Birmingham, as we strive to be the best in class"

Jordan Davies (Area Supervisor) will be cutting the ribbon on the new garages on Monday 3rd of June 2013. Jordan Davies said "We will be taking delivery of 20 new vehicles from the 20th of May and for painting in the new red, blue and yellow livery. Over the next 6 months a further 40 will be brought into operation at NXNB including 30 Electric Hybrid Vehicles. A brake down of this shows that North Birmingham Garages will receive:
10 Hybrid Volvo B5L (Wright Eclipse Gemini 2)
20 Hybrid Optare Solo
10 Slimline Optare Solo
20 'Citaro' Mercedes-Benz

What a load of toss. Clearly living in a fantasy world (surprised Reiss isn't head of network planning  :D), the lot of them.

Oh its that Matthew Reppin Mckenzie NXWM's chief route planner assisted by Reiss Belle-Ffrench...... Jordan Davies claims to be a bus driver working at Pensnett, his route suggestions are no better than Reiss's ???

Think they all live on another planet to the rest of us......

I have several rides on Pensnett routes every day as it's my local garage and I have never been driven by or seen anyone looking like him

for anyone wanting to go Jordan spotting tomorrow he's apparently 'Driving' the 222 tomorrow

If that's his picture he defiantly isn't employed at Pensnett let alone a driver.

escaped from bushy fields

Hes 'driving' the 289 6 -10:30 then the 141 15:00 - 20:00 according to his facebook

[winston]

Popped around to the garage just after 1pm,

Only 5 x Excels remain stored on site, 3 of which are 417, 422 & 684 - Most if not all of the ex Travel Dundee examples have also been removed i.e. 7202, 7203 & 7207which weren't on Tony's recent NXWM disposal list, so these must be in additional scrappers?

No less than 9 x Enviro 400's in the garage, 6 parked up in the yard & 3 on lifts in the engineering bays being worked on

[nitromatt1]

Popped around to the garage just after 1pm,

Only 5 x Excels remain stored on site, 3 of which are 417, 422 & 684 - Most if not all of the ex Travel Dundee examples have also been removed i.e. 7202, 7203 & 7207which weren't on Tony's recent NXWM disposal list, so these must be in additional scrappers?

No less than 9 x Enviro 400's in the garage, 6 parked up in the yard & 3 on lifts in the engineering bays being worked on

Saw 2080 on the 9 this morning

[karl724223]

2154 is back

[Stu]

Acocks Green currently only have one branded route (37), yet their Omnilinks branded for that service frequently appear on other routes.  ;)

At Pensnett the X96-branded Mercs get everywhere, and the 222-branded E200s are starting to venture out as well

Also worth noting that while Acocks Green acquired their Urban 2 B7RLEs primarily for the 71/72 services (though not branded for any service), I've pretty much travelled on all of them now I think, despite never actually setting foot on a 71 or 72!  8)  ;)

[karl724223]

Actually this is the full post referred to:

National Express North Birmingham, is National Express West Midlands new arm to Sutton Coldfield services. With 2 new garages in the Sutton Coldfield and Erdington area the operations team which includes Jordan Davies (Area Supervisor) Matthew Mckenzie (Assistant Operations Manager) Jack Jones (Senior Operation Assistant) will operate a fleet of 180 vehicles throughout the Sutton Coldfield, Kingstanding and Erdington areas.

The new arm was established from a sell out from Rotala who had purchased shares in Travel Your Bus which was the trading name for Smiths Coaches (Shenington) Ltd during early 90's. When National Express acquired the Your Bus operations, the Rotala stake in the North Birmingham garage remained in Rotalas operation until 2013, when it was finally sold to National Express in April. National Express will operate this as a separate arm of National Express West Midlands following the service review in North Birmingham area. NX North Birmingham (NXNB) will introduce links to to Walsall, Lichfield, Tamworth, Cannock and Headnesford from Sutton Coldfield, while acquiring some of the existing services operated by Perry Barr and Walsall Garages.

Matthew Mckenzie (Assistant Operations Manager) said "We welcome the change, we are not hear to take over from our partner companies in the West Midlands and Coventry. We will work to establish new contracts outside the West Midlands County" "We have undertaken a statistical study during the last 6months to ensure 97% of our services will meet commercially viable operations, reducing the risk of tendered contracts"

Jack Jones (Senior Operations Assistant) "We would like to take this opportunity to welcome bus travellers across the North Birmingham and surrounding areas. We have a direct and dedicated team for passengers to make comments and suggestions at National Express North Birmingham, as we strive to be the best in class"

Jordan Davies (Area Supervisor) will be cutting the ribbon on the new garages on Monday 3rd of June 2013. Jordan Davies said "We will be taking delivery of 20 new vehicles from the 20th of May and for painting in the new red, blue and yellow livery. Over the next 6 months a further 40 will be brought into operation at NXNB including 30 Electric Hybrid Vehicles. A brake down of this shows that North Birmingham Garages will receive:
10 Hybrid Volvo B5L (Wright Eclipse Gemini 2)
20 Hybrid Optare Solo
10 Slimline Optare Solo
20 'Citaro' Mercedes-Benz

What a load of toss. Clearly living in a fantasy world (surprised Reiss isn't head of network planning  :D), the lot of them.

Oh its that Matthew Reppin Mckenzie NXWM's chief route planner assisted by Reiss Belle-Ffrench...... Jordan Davies claims to be a bus driver working at Pensnett, his route suggestions are no better than Reiss's ???

Think they all live on another planet to the rest of us......

I have several rides on Pensnett routes every day as it's my local garage and I have never been driven by or seen anyone looking like him

for anyone wanting to go Jordan spotting tomorrow he's apparently 'Driving' the 222 tomorrow

If that's his picture he defiantly isn't employed at Pensnett let alone a driver.

escaped from bushy fields

Hes 'driving' the 289 6 -10:30 then the 141 15:00 - 20:00 according to his facebook

doubt it  no relief time at 1030 on a 289 or 53 and no relief time at 1500 on a 141

[Stu]

Basically then, do any of our Pensnett drivers here know anyone called 'Jordan Davies' who works at that garage?

(and based on what he has replied previously on my Facebook page, is 'Raj' the 'boss' there?)

I've already managed to get a confession off our 'Matthew McKenzie' that he doesn't actually work in 'Network Planning' but works at the 'call centre' and was given a 'folder of ideas' for the North Birmingham Review to 'work on' (and now claims the new 936 was his idea)

Compared to all this fakery, Reiss now comes across as actually being 'genuine' and I feel a little sorry for him, while there are people who post on Facebook pretending to be bus drivers and/or NXWM employees!  :o