Cannock Garage

[Bob]

Isnt diamond a bit of a declining business  though?  Although nowhere near as bad as midland was

[winston]

Isnt diamond a bit of a declining business  though?  Although nowhere near as bad as midland was

It has shrunk in size quite a bit over the past couple of years, as they had chosen to withdraw from various commercial services when the going got tougher rather than putting up a fight. Diamond also lost quite a chunk of tendered work when Arriva first appeared on the scene in WM. Long Acre depot has seen the most cuts/losses and its fleet has been drastically reduced in size. Diamond still have some strong commercial services i.e. 002, 4/4H/4M, 56, 202, 301, 401E etc plus obviously the Redditch town network

[Bob]

I wouldnt class the 301 as that strong, or the 4 group. They both lise out to travel card holders and ive seen loads of 301s run empty.its ridiculous how frequent it runs

[winston]

I wouldnt class the 301 as that strong, or the 4 group. They both lise out to travel card holders and ive seen loads of 301s run empty.its ridiculous how frequent it runs

I thought Diamond carried good loads on all those services?

[Bob]

Never seen the 301 busy

[Westy]

Never seen the 301 busy

I'd catch it if they had a 50p with a WM Travelcard thing like they used to.

Don't get why they withdrew that offer.

Isn't it all about bums on seats?

[the trainbasher]

Cant really see arriva launching any competing routes against nx at least not with the current wednesfield fleet.

I think if Arriva ever managed to get their hands on Diamond it could change things, as it would give them scale in the West Midlands

It's funny you say that, as someone posted a rumour on my FB page that Arriva were interested in buying Diamond, from one of the Diamond drivers apparently (the rumour that is, not trying to buy Diamond off a driver!)

Those rumours are going round like wildfire...

[winston]

Cant really see arriva launching any competing routes against nx at least not with the current wednesfield fleet.

I think if Arriva ever managed to get their hands on Diamond it could change things, as it would give them scale in the West Midlands

It's funny you say that, as someone posted a rumour on my FB page that Arriva were interested in buying Diamond, from one of the Diamond drivers apparently (the rumour that is, not trying to buy Diamond off a driver!)

Those rumours are going round like wildfire...

To be fair, they've been going round ever since Arriva entered the WM bus scene & won a load of Centro tenders operated by Diamond

[andy]

Yea I thought arriva had registered most but not all of the journeys on evenings/sundays as commercial.  And the onesthey didnt were to be re tendered. I wonder if theyre now gonna lose money on these trips? If they were to withdraw them at a later date ( they normally do take off liss making routes think 72/12/X12, X31 etc ) they oughta be banned from bidding when theyre tendered again for ****ing the council about. Registering trips that you previously thought needed subsidising as commercial just to hang on to your crap service & monopoly talk about desperate lol!

That's what I thought, so only a handful of journeys were now going to be re-tendered again

Oh come on Bob. We all know how you feel about Arriva, but please.....these tactics go on up and down the country and have done for years. NX will have pulled the same trick at some stage somewhere I guarantee it.

In a perverse way, the council and the tax payer benefit for once from the system as they don't end up shelling out for these tenders. Remember, they tendered them in the first place, nobody made them! They could have deemed them unnecessary and bailed out? The savings on these, however short a period they end up being run, will completely eclipse the cost of another tender round for the remaining journeys. To talk of banning Arriva is way beyond the mark, and also impossible.

Why don't you put the shoe on the other foot? If NX were so desperate to run these services and stick it to Arriva, why not register them commercially themselves? I didn't see them rushing to VOSA with the paperwork did you??!!

There should only be any action against Arriva if they now fail to operate the advertised journeys, as can happen in this instances. Then the Traffic Commisioner can act and the council can justifiably go about banning folk. But until then, they are quids in!

They shouldnt really beallowed to abuse their monopoly,  although it might save the council a few quid, the underlying thing is thats what arriva have done

It really makes me laugh when you talk about Arriva's monopoly. Nobody has tried to enter Arriva's operating area on a commercial basis (other than Midland Classic in Burton) for years! Is that Arriva's fault??  And you laud NX, the holder of the most watertight monopoly of probably some of the most lucrative bus operating territory in the country.....state sponsored and bankrolled by Centro with their quality partnerships, network mapping around NX's services and failure to offer any viable or competitive alternative to the NX travelcard.

Maybe it will lead to that nx will know that arriva felt threatened

If Arriva ever do decide to introduce any commercial routes against NX in WM, Cannock will be one of the first places that you'll see NXWM appear, especially as WA garage is close enough to operate Cannock routes from. With the state of Cannock's current fleet it would certainly work in NXWM's favour......I'd quite like to see a spat between Arriva & NXWM in Cannock, I miss the days of bus wars..... it's a bit dull & boring these days, nothing very exciting ever happens

Theres apparently more mpd's due for cannock, so expect quality to decline even more. The B10BLE's are apparently leaving too. Theyre the only heavyweight buses there so I dont know what arriva will replace them with. Ive always thought if nx ran on the 1 with b7rles omnilinks or even old b10l's ( interior wise theyre better than arrivas sb200s and dont sound half as knackererd despite being much older) theyd quickly beat arriva (lower fares, 20 quid less for a monthly ticket) and end up the dominant operator again on the walsall cannock corridor, leaving arriva to run their knackered darts on the lightly loaded 2's lol

Yes, they could soon muster up a load of worn out and disgraceful Presidents and as delivered 13 year old ALX 400's to move Staffordshire's public transport up a gear couldn't they? But no, they still need those to operate flagship services in East Birmingham for a few more years...

And sorry to disappoint, but they could not offer monthly passes for 20 quid less as they would be too far away from Uncle Centro and his subsidies....sure, they could to start with, but as soon as they had the game to themselves......

I am not here to defend Arriva, I am fully aware of some of their shortcomings. But I am wholly sick of this 'if only NX operated every bus in the Midlands the world would be perfect' diatribe....

[Bob]

Erm they always have offered them for that much less for years?  Travelcards are valid on cannock bound services and were when they ran the 351 etc. Arriva's monthly ticket is around 20 per month more as I said...

[Bob]

And arent most presidents on their second refurb? I will agree with you on some of the alx400s though, but the interiors arent as bad (seat wise) as some of cannocks fleet.

[andy]

Erm they always have offered them for that much less for years?  Travelcards are valid on cannock bound services and were when they ran the 351 etc. Arriva's monthly ticket is around 20 per month more as I said...

Yes, and why do you think they ended up withdrawing almost all of their services?! It's not rocket science!

[Bob]

Whatever. At some point theyll come back and arriva will panic, just like they have recently. ...

[Bob]

Blimey the sept 1st changes to the 70 will leave chadsmoor without a bus service at all on sundays. Surprised at that

[Bob]

Why do they put darts on the pye greens? S629 khn has just gone past me on pye green Road with people standing all way to the front lol ( still got no working destination blind)