West Midlands bus franchising

[Wyrleybart]

Just wondering how this is going to happen, and what the boundaries are likely to be. At present NXWM have quite an operation within the West Midlands county but also on routes outside into Staffordshire and Warwickshire, possibly also into Worcestershire. As NXWM is as commercial operation I guess it is profitable for the company to operate to places like Cannock, Lichfield,Bromsgrove, Leamington and Warwick.

Interested to know how the transition is likely to go, and are other city franchises a guide ? Obviously there are independents on the periphery of the county such as Chaserider, D&G, Stagecoach etc, but Chaserider do not operate on Sundays which would leave the X51 vulnerable were the West Midlands franchise "pull back" from the A34 corridor beyond Bloxwich.

Welcome any thoughts and information - assuming at least some of the existing NXWM fleet would be sold / transferred to the franchise, in the way I assume the Bee Network have in Manchester.

 

[Dwarfer1979]

Just wondering how this is going to happen, and what the boundaries are likely to be. At present NXWM have quite an operation within the West Midlands county but also on routes outside into Staffordshire and Warwickshire, possibly also into Worcestershire. As NXWM is as commercial operation I guess it is profitable for the company to operate to places like Cannock, Lichfield,Bromsgrove, Leamington and Warwick.

I'm not sure we yet know for sure. I have seen suggestions that TfWM are focussing on their own area but I'm not sure it is clear how much cross boundary stuff they are considering rolling in and how much they will leave out in terms of stuff that runs from West Midlands depot though I have seen a suggestion that the two NXWM services out of Coventry (Nuneaton & Leamington) may not be considered as their are commercial parallels running from outside the area to replace. Whether the calculation is different on things like the X51 to Cannock & bus up through Sutton Coldfield to Lichfield which are core parts of NXWM services remains to be seen (I suspect it will and TfWM will be more pragmatic than West Yorkshire are being reported as being).

Interested to know how the transition is likely to go, and are other city franchises a guide ? Obviously there are independents on the periphery of the county such as Chaserider, D&G, Stagecoach etc, but Chaserider do not operate on Sundays which would leave the X51 vulnerable were the West Midlands franchise "pull back" from the A34 corridor beyond Bloxwich.

ChaseRider do operate on Sundays, I think it may be funded in some way but they do have buses running on Sunday. The wider group has commercial services on Sunday so if there is something commercial they will run it and if someone offered them money to do so I'm sure they would consider it.

Welcome any thoughts and information - assuming at least some of the existing NXWM fleet would be sold / transferred to the franchise, in the way I assume the Bee Network have in Manchester.

That bit I think has been announced. There was a load of misunderstanding last year when National Express announced they were looking to monetise the NXWM operation and people thought that meant they were looking at selling it early but it was clearly about reassuring their shareholders that they had a plan to deal with the money tied up in the fleet with franchising coming up. I have seen reports that suggest that agreement has been reached between NXWM & TfWM around the latter purchasing a significant proportion of the formers fleet as part of the franchising roll out (not all as I'm sure a number of the older members that are approaching 20 years old may not be involved but it will spread the need to buy buses across a few years if they can secure a significant fleet short term).

 

[Wyrleybart]

ChaseRider do operate on Sundays, I think it may be funded in some way but they do have buses running on Sunday. The wider group has commercial services on Sunday so if there is something commercial they will run it and if someone offered them money to do so I'm sure they would consider it.

I must be wrong but whenever I have driven past the Chaserider nee Arriva depot in Cannock the gates have always been closed and buses all seem parked up. Am popping out later so will look.
Thanks.

 

[Trainman40083]

There does seem to be Chaserider buses tracking today. Routes 36 and 60, plus others.

 

[Dwarfer1979]

I must be wrong but whenever I have driven past the Chaserider nee Arriva depot in Cannock the gates have always been closed and buses all seem parked up. Am popping out later so will look.
Thanks.

Unless you have enough buses out to justify having someone on site all day then the gates will be locked even when buses are out - and each operator will have a different view on what that number would be, probably partly depending on how busy the routes involved are so how much income is involved. Drivers will have keys to the gate and will unlock to take a bus out and lock up again before going out in service, everything else is dealt with remotely with an engineer being on call and having the breakdown van at home in case of engineering issue and a manager or supervisor also on call in case of other emergencies. This is why operators favor sending their most reliable (often newest) buses out on Sundays to reduce the risk of actually having to deploy those on call resources.

 

[Wyrleybart]

Thanks very much "Trainman" and "Dwarfer". That is reassuring.

From a personal perspective I have lived in Great Wyrley for the last 30 years which is probably about 3 miles north of the West Midlands county boundary, and the same amount outside the NXWM boundary. There has always been a Walsall-Bloxwich-Cannock service which sometimes also extended to Stafford or Huntington or Hednesford. Back in the 1970s it was the Midland Red 865 then the WMPTE 301 then Arriva took the route and turned it into the 1 whilst NXWM ran the then new X51 Birmingham-Cannock. Arriva sold out to Chaserider who turned 1 around in Great Wyrley leaving the main route along the A34 between Great Wyrley and Bloxchwich exclusively to NXWM. and their X51.

The net result is that Great Wyrley from the county boundary is served by NXWM, hence my interest in how the franchising develops.

 

[Trainman40083]

Thanks very much "Trainman" and "Dwarfer". That is reassuring.

From a personal perspective I have lived in Great Wyrley for the last 30 years which is probably about 3 miles north of the West Midlands county boundary, and the same amount outside the NXWM boundary. There has always been a Walsall-Bloxwich-Cannock service which sometimes also extended to Stafford or Huntington or Hednesford. Back in the 1970s it was the Midland Red 865 then the WMPTE 301 then Arriva took the route and turned it into the 1 whilst NXWM ran the then new X51 Birmingham-Cannock. Arriva sold out to Chaserider who turned 1 around in Great Wyrley leaving the main route along the A34 between Great Wyrley and Bloxchwich exclusively to NXWM. and their X51.

The net result is that Great Wyrley from the county boundary is served by NXWM, hence my interest in how the franchising develops.

Last time I was in Great Wyrley, Green Bus were running. And I don't mean minibuses

 

[Wyrleybart]

Just read the article by Tim Deakin in Route one

Fleet strategy under bus franchising in West Midlands is pondered

Composition of the legacy and future bus fleets under franchising in the West Midlands has come under the WMCA microscope.

www.route-one.net

On the NXWM diesel fleet, the report observes how some examples are older than had been anticipated in the earlier full franchising assessment (FFA).

The FFA projected fleet renewal commencing in 2029 once franchising is fully rolled out. An older than expected legacy fleet could see that brought forward to 2027, which would still lead to diesel buses being replaced by 2036. Use of £77 million of Transport for City Regions funding to purchase the current fleet is advocated.

An expectation in the FFA was that only diesels aged 13 years or less would be purchased from NXWM. But if no new buses are bought for the start of franchising in 2027, it would result in some of the existing fleet needed to maintain services being up to 19 years of age, although the very oldest would be removed from ‘day one’ of franchising.

Purchase of those buses by WMCA “may not be appropriate,” and thus it could seek to bring forward acquisition of new buses or buy more than the planned 90 per year in the earlier stages of franchising. Should the shortfall be significant, it may also ask bidders to bring in “a small number” of existing vehicles.

A preferred option outlined in the report recommends purchasing diesel buses from NXWM that are up to 16 years of age. Also defined is a maximum age for diesel buses in the longer-term fleet under franchising of 15 years but with flex to 17 years pre-2036.

While all new buses purchased from now broadly need to be zero-emission to satisfy wider policy goals, factors such as depot readiness for electrification may result in WMCA buying “a limited number” of new diesel buses. A Fleet Programme Business Case is currently under development by Transport for West Midlands.

I am going to assume that possibly the oldest 15 plate Platinums might not make the cut, dependant on when the date / deadline is actually set, or has the clock started ticking already ? Perhaps also the newest single deckers.
Welcome other folks views on this topic