Cannock Garage

[Ashley 60171]

One of those was working from Stafford last week? Are they permanently at Cannock or to be replaced with something else

They are just reserve vehicles so go where they're needed. One was at Telford last week too.

[ntw456]

3004 was on 74bs this morning and was then swapped for 3720

[Bob]

They are just reserve vehicles so go where they're needed. One was at Telford last week too.

yea thats what I mean if cannock now has a need for two more vehicles will they be replaced with two more permanent ones. Shocked they dont have two spares in the first place though tbf

[Bob]

On my way home saw a social 74 spd dart pretty full followed by 2736  arguably Cannocks shittest bus with about 4 passengers on a 74. Coming in the social MPD had around 15 on followed by an Arriva decker 74 completely EMPTY!!!

[Bob]

Weirdly followed by another decker displaying 74 a bit further down the road at wildwood.  With about 7 on. Are arriva losing badly? Imagine if another operator stepped in on the walsall corridor where Arriva have annoyed a lot of passengers!

[Bob]

Coming out of the leisure centre in Cannock and saw another 74 decker cannock bound completely passenger less! I'm pretty surprised to be fair

[Trident 4194]

Surely it's the first bus that turns up people go on?

[Bob]

If that's the case Arriva are losing badly. The almost empty cadet was actually a 74B

[Steveminor]

It's not down to which bus comes first. It seems a lot of passengers are voting with their feet & walking away from arriva buses. It was strange this evening counting how many buses arriva had on the 74 definitely more than there should have been but all of the carrying fresh air. What a waste of diesel.

[LG]

I disagree.  Its down to which bus comes first.

Until social travel changed their times in front of the 74b.  Passenger numbers must of dropped drastically as most social travel buses I saw only had 2 or 3 people on.  Now social travel are running in front of thr 74b they are carrying a few passengers so yes it is which bus comes first.

[Trident 4194]

As @Tony has told me. The quality of the bus does not matter unless you're a bus enthusiast you are not going to wait for another bus, you get on the first one to arrive.

[LG]

As @Tony has told me. The quality of the bus does not matter unless you're a bus enthusiast you are not going to wait for another bus, you get on the first one to arrive.

Exactly my point.  Its just pot luck.  The first bus to arrive takes passengers buses behind will run emptier cause people wont wait.  Sadly there is no commitment from passengers they just want to get from A to B

[Steveminor]

Figures were down yes but not drastically. The first 2 days well I can't hide the fact as was seen 95% caught the 74b as it came first. But towards the end of the week our passenger figures were almost as if the 74b wasn't there.
What we found was by Wednesday some passengers that were about to board the 74b spotted our bus coming behind then changed ttheir minds & caught our bus.
We even have a few passengers who have arriva annual passes that are happy to pay the extra £1 to catch our bus than catch the arriva bus that they've already paid for. You don't see that with nxwm so that tells a story in itself.

[Bob]

It would be interesting to see if competition from different  operators  on other Cannock interurban services had an effect on Arriva. ....

[LG]

Arriva have the power and money to flood the route with buses if necessary though, which sadly small companies cannot continue to compete with.  National express do this often on their routes as they can afford to as Arriva can.  It then leaves very little passengers for smaller operators and eventually results in withdrawal from the route