Cannock Garage

[andy]

Four or five breakdowns today again in cannock alone....

And how many NX have failed today?

Well if 4 out of 60 of Cannock's broke down that is the equivilent of over 100 of NX's 1500 breaking down! The day 10 broke down would be the equivilent of NX having 250 breakdowns.

Thanks for putting into perspective what ive been trying to say for months! Cannock should be an embarrassment to them... 6 token sb200s which theyve bought for pye greens is nowhere near whats needed. Nx would so wipe the floor with them if they attempted to compete tony..seriously

No they wouldn't. How many times do I have to point out that NX obviously can't make Cannock pay otherwise they wouldn't have retrenched. They are only interested in high frequency monopoly operations where there is a constant revenue stream from a local authority for subsidised fares and generous concessionary schemes. That certainly is not Staffordshire.

And I'm sorry Tony but to try to create a breakdown ration based on a ratchet system such as that is completely illogical. Apart from anything else I very much doubt anybody, even yourself, can have accurate numbers of breakdowns for an operation as large as that.

You cannot suggest that 4 Arriva buses are the equivalent of 100 NX ones, it simply doesn't work like that. Very often a bus will break down twice in a day following a break down and a running repair, so it is a completely unrealistic equation to try to make. It's like saying that an operator with only 2 vehicles that both break down will always be worse than NX because 1500 of their vehicles didn't break down.

[Bob]

Well arrivas cannock to walsall service definitely pays....whos to say people wouldnt rather have a travelcard price than a arriva midlands monthly saver. The cannock to walsall trunk route has always been profitable arriva ran chsse off the road with it. Nx were operating the less busy cheslyn hay route which arriva have continued at a half hourly frequency so are obviously satisfied with it

[andy]

Well arrivas cannock to walsall service definitely pays....whos to say people wouldnt rather have a travelcard price than a arriva midlands monthly saver. The cannock to walsall trunk route has always been profitable arriva ran chsse off the road with it. Nx were operating the less busy cheslyn hay route which arriva have continued at a half hourly frequency so are obviously satisfied with it

Yes it is a profitable corridor. But NX would not be able to operate it profitably with the Travelcard, because there isn't the concessionary scheme or fare subsidy to allow that. NX would have to charge similar fares to Arriva to make it pay, and that doesn't fit with their operational structure.

[Tony]

Four or five breakdowns today again in cannock alone....

And how many NX have failed today?

Well if 4 out of 60 of Cannock's broke down that is the equivilent of over 100 of NX's 1500 breaking down! The day 10 broke down would be the equivilent of NX having 250 breakdowns.

Thanks for putting into perspective what ive been trying to say for months! Cannock should be an embarrassment to them... 6 token sb200s which theyve bought for pye greens is nowhere near whats needed. Nx would so wipe the floor with them if they attempted to compete tony..seriously

No they wouldn't. How many times do I have to point out that NX obviously can't make Cannock pay otherwise they wouldn't have retrenched. They are only interested in high frequency monopoly operations where there is a constant revenue stream from a local authority for subsidised fares and generous concessionary schemes. That certainly is not Staffordshire.

And I'm sorry Tony but to try to create a breakdown ration based on a ratchet system such as that is completely illogical. Apart from anything else I very much doubt anybody, even yourself, can have accurate numbers of breakdowns for an operation as large as that.

You cannot suggest that 4 Arriva buses are the equivalent of 100 NX ones, it simply doesn't work like that. Very often a bus will break down twice in a day following a break down and a running repair, so it is a completely unrealistic equation to try to make. It's like saying that an operator with only 2 vehicles that both break down will always be worse than NX because 1500 of their vehicles didn't break down.

Doing percentage like that is not illogical, remember VOSA expect 95% compliance, so they work on percentages the same as I did. Vosa expect an operator with 2 vehicles to have contingency plans so the still run 95% of their mileage within required margins the same as the expect NX to. GRS have recently found that out. An operator that has one sixth of its fleet break down in one day, before poor timekeeping even comes into the figures is never going to achieve 95%

[andy]

Doing percentage like that is not illogical, remember VOSA expect 95% compliance, so they work on percentages the same as I did. Vosa expect an operator with 2 vehicles to have contingency plans so the still run 95% of their mileage within required margins the same as the expect NX to. GRS have recently found that out. An operator that has one sixth of its fleet break down in one day, before poor timekeeping even comes into the figures is never going to achieve 95%

Fine. So infact it is the ratio of lost mileage and late running across the Midland Red North operating licence which VOSA will monitor, and not the 4 out of 60 at Cannock on its own. That is if we are to continue with the NX 1500 vehicles analogy. Correct?

[Bob]

We're on 4 breakdowns already today lol

[Bob]

Add another two breakdowns to that according to the Facebook page.  On one hand its great they let you know but onthe oother arent they advertising how rubbish they are?

[arrivaaston]

NatEx are just as bad as Arriva when it comes to breakdowns, especialy in Wolverhampton, its NatEx that stop the Mansfield Group from going bankrupt

[Tony]

NatEx are just as bad as Arriva when it comes to breakdowns, especialy in Wolverhampton, its NatEx that stop the Mansfield Group from going bankrupt

Give us some figures of how many then if you know that

[arrivaaston]

Well can't give exact figures but just stating that people slag Arriva off for breakdowns, yes it is pour I agree but everytime I visit Wolverhampton I always see atleast 2 or 3 trident on the back of Mansfield trucks or the mercs........ Fact of the matter is every single bus operator out there suffers breakdowns so why is Arriva the only ones being slagged off when all companies are the same?

[winston]

Well can't give exact figures but just stating that people slag Arriva off for breakdowns, yes it is pour I agree but everytime I visit Wolverhampton I always see atleast 2 or 3 trident on the back of Mansfield trucks or the mercs........ Fact of the matter is every single bus operator out there suffers breakdowns so why is Arriva the only ones being slagged off when all companies are the same?

But your talking 2-3 Tridents out of a fleet of 201 buses.

i.e. 1.5% of the fleet based on 3 Tridents.

[Tony]

Well can't give exact figures but just stating that people slag Arriva off for breakdowns, yes it is pour I agree but everytime I visit Wolverhampton I always see atleast 2 or 3 trident on the back of Mansfield trucks or the mercs........ Fact of the matter is every single bus operator out there suffers breakdowns so why is Arriva the only ones being slagged off when all companies are the same?

But your talking 2-3 Tridents out of a fleet of 201 buses.

i.e. 1.5% of the fleet based on 3 Tridents.

And he doesn't see 2-3 tridents on the back of Mansfield Tow trucks every time he visits because it is very rare for that to happen, and as BN has Stated the Mercs at WN are also behaving at the moment. I cannot actually remember the last time I was working at any individual garage when 3 buses got towed in in the same day. Only breakdowns that get tows back are completely dead buses, accident victims or ones that are a risk if driven, which means steering or brake faults, fuel leaks or anything at risk of catching fire.

Most 'breakdowns' are fail to starts which are normally cured by an engineer with a battery pack, (as WBdriver suffered with 4114 yesterday) and I would imagine most of the Arriva ones Bob lists are the same, nothing mechanically wrong just poor battery health, poor alternator health, so not charging properly, or drivers leaving lots of electrics on without the engine running.

[andy]

Most 'breakdowns' are fail to starts which are normally cured by an engineer with a battery pack, (as WBdriver suffered with 4114 yesterday) and I would imagine most of the Arriva ones Bob lists are the same, nothing mechanically wrong just poor battery health, poor alternator health, so not charging properly, or drivers leaving lots of electrics on without the engine running.

Precisely. So why can this ridiculous tit for tat not be stopped and everybody accept that any operator with a large number of vehicles over 10 years old will always suffer a degree of breakdowns, particularly in the winter months.

[arrivaaston]

3 things I wanna correct you on, 1. I know what a trident looks like, 2. I know what a mansfield truck looks like and 3. I can count I'm not f*****g thick!!!!

[Tony]

3 things I wanna correct you on, 1. I know what a trident looks like, 2. I know what a mansfield truck looks like and 3. I can count I'm not f*****g thick!!!!

Maybe but this quote

'everytime I visit Wolverhampton I always see atleast 2 or 3 trident on the back of Mansfield trucks or the mercs'

Is just either an exaggeration, or just a complete lie, you cannot tell me that happens everytime you are in Wolverhampton, because the facts are it is extremely rare!