Sucess of Arriva in the West Midlands?

[bwsau cymru]

Well I certainly wouldnt invest in national express at any share price! And no yellow school buses I know are a big thing for them but stagecoach, first, go ahead all do it too! as ive said I hope arriva will be tue make or break of national express. And I hope that they respond well and the passenger benefits.

And onto levantes for the other comment look at why selywns purchased plaxton elites compared to other coaches. Levantes are cheap and they would of only won an award for its front access lift. Drivers hate the levantes and at £20.000 cheaper than an elites you can see why operators choose cheap! And if you go back to 2006 national express only partrnered up with cataeno because irizar wouldnt do a frojt entry lift on its pb model.....so even nx didnt want them !!

[winston]

Well I certainly wouldnt invest in national express at any share price! And no yellow school buses I know are a big thing for them but stagecoach, first, go ahead all do it too! as ive said I hope arriva will be tue make or break of national express. And I hope that they respond well and the passenger benefits.

And onto levantes for the other comment look at why selywns purchased plaxton elites compared to other coaches. Levantes are cheap and they would of only won an award for its front access lift. Drivers hate the levantes and at £20.000 cheaper than an elites you can see why operators choose cheap! And if you go back to 2006 national express only partrnered up with cataeno because irizar wouldnt do a frojt entry lift on its pb model.....so even nx didnt want them !!

Stagecoach aren't involved with school buses in the USA, they are in to coaches i.e. Coach USA / Megabus etc. First Group have a fleet of around 60,000 school buses with Greyhound & Bolt Bus coaches in addition, NX have a school bus fleet of around 20,000 while Go-Ahead group have a 50/50 joint venture with Cook, Illinois which currently only operates 120 school buses. I doubt Arriva will make the impact your expecting / hoping for, after all if there was potential to weaken NXWM dominance in the West Midlands, Stagecoach would have been here years ago, Go-Ahead tried briefly with Go West Midlands but lost a fortune in the process......

Ah but have you also noticed that Selwyn's have since reverted back to taking Levante's after receiving the initial 11 x Elites. The Levante was developed for NX incorporating the front door wheelchair lift from an existing Caetano coach body that was only available in continental Europe at the time; it was that model that the won awards not the Levante. Caetano won the NX business as they were willing to work with NX to develop a coach that could accommodate a wheelchair lift within the front entrance doors. Irizar as you say weren't prepared to re-design the PB body to accommodate this, but as result, have since lost out on supplying hundreds of coach bodies with deliveries each year ever since. I personally would love to have seen NX adopt the PB as its standard bodywork choice, I think its styling is far superior to even the Elite, but it wasn't to be

[BN]

Well I certainly wouldnt invest in national express at any share price! And no yellow school buses I know are a big thing for them but stagecoach, first, go ahead all do it too! as ive said I hope arriva will be tue make or break of national express. And I hope that they respond well and the passenger benefits.

And onto levantes for the other comment look at why selywns purchased plaxton elites compared to other coaches. Levantes are cheap and they would of only won an award for its front access lift. Drivers hate the levantes and at £20.000 cheaper than an elites you can see why operators choose cheap! And if you go back to 2006 national express only partrnered up with cataeno because irizar wouldnt do a frojt entry lift on its pb model.....so even nx didnt want them !!

at £280,000 I wouldnt call Levantes cheap.

[winston]

Well I certainly wouldnt invest in national express at any share price! And no yellow school buses I know are a big thing for them but stagecoach, first, go ahead all do it too! as ive said I hope arriva will be tue make or break of national express. And I hope that they respond well and the passenger benefits.

And onto levantes for the other comment look at why selywns purchased plaxton elites compared to other coaches. Levantes are cheap and they would of only won an award for its front access lift. Drivers hate the levantes and at £20.000 cheaper than an elites you can see why operators choose cheap! And if you go back to 2006 national express only partrnered up with cataeno because irizar wouldnt do a frojt entry lift on its pb model.....so even nx didnt want them !!

at £280,000 I wouldnt call Levantes cheap.

Rob, how did you find the Levante bodywork whilst you were working at Mike De Courcey's Birmingham Depot?

[Bob]

Ridiculous! Seriously as if Arriva are going to make any impact in the WM, theyve bought a two bit operator with a pants fleet who operate routes that dont even fill a bloody Solo or MPD!

[Discodave]

too true its chase mark 2 failure immanent

[Andrew1991]

I don't think I've ever seen one of arriva's "buses" (sheds on wheels) full and when people are waiting at bus stops for the 560 the sheds dont even stop and drive past. Don't they realise that they make money by picking passengers up ?

[winston]

Arriva also have had/have a bad reputation in Yorkshire over a number of years for service cuts, reliability issues and lack of investment, this may have now improved since investing heavily in new vehicles over the past 12 months

[PM]

I think we all agree that arriva are really not that great to put it politely and that there is not a chance in hell that they will beat NXWM in the West Midlands. It is easy to forget how big NXWM are but I think dannygill is totally wrong with all his points: arriva are crap, nxwm are good and really profitable.

[richie]

How many under performing bus companies have arriva bought and turned around compared to NX

[PM]

How many under performing bus companies have arriva bought and turned around compared to NX

Nonesense. They ruined clydeside, ruined colchester, destroyed midland red and midland fox-operate a lot less than in the past. They bought more companies to be fair-NX stuck to a smaller number of higher quality operations. They have also ruined the north east business-constantly making losses-in Durham when you see one of their darts next to a GNE brand then there's just no comparison.

[Tony]

How many under performing bus companies have arriva bought and turned around compared to NX

Nonesense. They ruined clydeside, ruined colchester, destroyed midland red and midland fox-operate a lot less than in the past. They bought more companies to be fair-NX stuck to a smaller number of higher quality operations. They have also ruined the north east business-constantly making losses-in Durham when you see one of their darts next to a GNE brand then there's just no comparison.

When TWM owned what is now Arriva North East it was one of the most profitable companies in the country!

[PM]

How many under performing bus companies have arriva bought and turned around compared to NX

Nonesense. They ruined clydeside, ruined colchester, destroyed midland red and midland fox-operate a lot less than in the past. They bought more companies to be fair-NX stuck to a smaller number of higher quality operations. They have also ruined the north east business-constantly making losses-in Durham when you see one of their darts next to a GNE brand then there's just no comparison.

When TWM owned what is now Arriva North East it was one of the most profitable companies in the country!

Agreed-now its a loss making wreck tho we must say there have been a few depot swaps since then. Now tho they should be more profitable as it is only now they have a complete network of town services in Darlington

[Bob]

Arriva went down hill when they started withdrawing decent full size buses and expecting customers to travel interurban distance services on bloody Darts!! The worst buses ever! They are only designed for shorter local services where passengers only have to put up with all the noise and rattling for short distances. The condition of the BU51 MPDs, and one of the 52 plate and some of the S reg ones ( spd) is frankly appalling they are not fit for long distance routes especially considering the expensive fares!

[winston]

When TWM owned what is now Arriva North East it was one of the most profitable companies in the country!
[/quote]

It's a pity NX decided to sell off United Auto's, I wish they have also retained Travel London and grown it, Abellio seen to have done a decent job with it.

Do you have any idea how County Bus & Coach fared with profitability? I never understood why they bought Highland Country Buses