MidlandRed.net

Going around on facebook... glad everyone is ok.

The new chairman being a bit more “bussy” is going to have more of an impact on any divestment plans than the rail franchise. However, as the West Coast franchise will probably (my guess) get abandoned by DfT after the legal challenges, First might be in line for a multi-million compensation for los...

Looks like DRM are withdrawing most of their 420 journeys, if not all, between Worcester and Bromyard. The biggest surprise would be that they've lasted this long. Anecdotal experience over the last 30 years is that weekday daytimes are very lightly loaded (maybe 5 or so between Rushwick and Bromya...

Stagecoach and Virgin have been barred from making franchise bids on two counts. a) Failure to run the East Coast franchise at a profit mainly because of over enthusiastic predictions of increase in passenger numbers which never materialised, leading to heavy losses and inability to pay £2 Billion ...

If Worcester were to be cherry picked for advance sale - then in practice it would be to either Rotala or Stagecoach. Although geographically close by, it's not a natural fit to bolt on to NXWM, and then even with Stagecoach - it's either a distant output of United Counties, or Cheltenham & Gloucest...

I think there are some parallels between FirstGroup and Brexit(!) in so far as investors are now so fed up they just want an ending, and there really isn’t much confidence that the board will be able to deliver. Yesterday, votes against the board ranged from 15% to 45%, including the three largest i...

In terms of population Gloucester is about 30% bigger. Where Worcester struggles is the fact that all routes start end or pass through Crowngate which strangles the routes, 2 ways in, one way out and built for mini buses. The lay out of the approach roads doesn't help as they are narrow with tight ...

If we're going down the route of speculation, should be noted that there should be at least some Bristol Geminis getting freed up before the end of the year. The cynic in me thinks these better fit the age profile of recent transfers in! (Personally, I think the older B9s run better)

Maybe not weird. Could be that Midland Classic’s machines have similar or consecutive serial numbers and just been misassigned/mistyped on bustimes. Pretty sure that First, and Midland Classic, will know exactly where all their buses are! (And doubt they refer to bustimes for that information!)

With the proposed changes to the 24 and 31 would be expecting the council to see efficiencies and cut the 713 and 746 by the end of the year. But that all might change now Stagecoach have the whole network again...