Diamond Bus North West

[gilesbus1]

RE: Diamond Bus North West

(07/09/2019 18:41)AlexBus12 Wrote:  Was told by Giles Fearnley that the funding would be transferred to Rotala upon the purchase of Bolton. However things could have changed

You may be right, what I understood was that they had never been ordered and no money had been recieved for them and that the bid was based on them being jointly charged with Vantage vehicles on the basis that both sets would be garaged together, obviously that is no longer the case. I guess its a matter of wait and see what does happen. Suspect Mr Burnham may push for them to emerge as he lobbied for the funding for all the new electric buses that are due to Central Government. Although Rotala has no experience with Electric vehicles at this current point in time and hasn't ever announced anything for green vehicles since it had a block of Hybrid Volvo B5LH's at Preston and Optare Versa's but they where all on lease and the Optare Versa's have gone and I was also led to believe that the Volvo B5LH's at Preston would also be going off lease possibly this year! I think Rotala's policy is the buy MicroHybrids in future with some sort of supported funding source?

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Diamond Bus North West
Looks like some changes to Diamond Bus routes from 27th October:

The 13, 35 and 694 are cancelled

The EL1 has been registered by Preston Bus as of yesterday

An X8 has been registered from Bolton to Manchester

The 26 is re-numbered the 34

Also looks like most Bolton Depot routes are having some sort of timetable change.

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Diamond Bus North West

(17/09/2019 16:43)T42 PVM Wrote:  Looks like some changes to Diamond Bus routes from 27th October:

The 13, 35 and 694 are cancelled

The EL1 has been registered by Preston Bus as of yesterday

An X8 has been registered from Bolton to Manchester

The 26 is re-numbered the 34

Also looks like most Bolton Depot routes are having some sort of timetable change.

The X8 sounds interesting - fast/express variant of the 8 possibly. Also the renumbering of the 26 to 34 will now mean that there will be 3 34's in Leigh run by 3 different operators - complete madness!

[Atlanteanfan]

RE: Diamond Bus North West
Wonder if the X8 might be based on the old 9?

[SF07]

RE: Diamond Bus North West
X8 registration mentions Monday-Friday only, so suggests it'll be a peak-time express service only. Also mentions it runs via Farnworth and Pendlebury, so I would imagine it'll run limited stop along the existing 8 route and then miss out Irlams o'th' Heights and possibly Salford Shopping Centre.

The 34 is a TfGM change, where the evening service will replace the 26 and match Stagecoach's existing daytime route. So, it will still be two 34 routes in Leigh. The 35 being withdrawn by TfGM too.

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Diamond Bus North West

(17/09/2019 18:04)SF07 Wrote:  X8 registration mentions Monday-Friday only, so suggests it'll be a peak-time express service only. Also mentions it runs via Farnworth and Pendlebury, so I would imagine it'll run limited stop along the existing 8 route and then miss out Irlams o'th' Heights and possibly Salford Shopping Centre.

The 34 is a TfGM change, where the evening service will replace the 26 and match Stagecoach's existing daytime route. So, it will still be two 34 routes in Leigh. The 35 being withdrawn by TfGM too.

Thanks for the clarifications.

[gilesbus1]

RE: Diamond Bus North West

(17/09/2019 18:04)SF07 Wrote:  X8 registration mentions Monday-Friday only, so suggests it'll be a peak-time express service only. Also mentions it runs via Farnworth and Pendlebury, so I would imagine it'll run limited stop along the existing 8 route and then miss out Irlams o'th' Heights and possibly Salford Shopping Centre.

The 34 is a TfGM change, where the evening service will replace the 26 and match Stagecoach's existing daytime route. So, it will still be two 34 routes in Leigh. The 35 being withdrawn by TfGM too.

There is really little point in keeping a 35 in anycase when the V2 and the new Diamond 34 and 36/37 and 38 duplicate many stages on it, and no daytime service operates between Roe Green and and Swinton along Worsley Road in any case.

As for the 34 it makes perfect logic as there is no point running an evening and Sunday service where there is no Monday to Saturday daytime version. In fact TfGM's main aim should be to keep daytime services going not little used evening services, although I accept generally the evening service is poor generally, but it does my goat when there is no daytime version yet they keep funding an evening service despite the daytime route having been withdrawn.

[Mikeonthebuses]

RE: Diamond Bus North West
Can I ask where is this information coming from please. I'm just curious myself

[iMarkeh]

RE: Diamond Bus North West
From what I could gather from the GMCA documents, the 68 evening trips are being passed to Diamond to make up for the 35 being withdrawn from the same date.

https://www.gmcameetings.co.uk/meetings/..._committee

[M60lad]

RE: Diamond Bus North West
Are Diamond's evening 34s going to be running the same route as Stagecoach's 34s? Only I've seen something saying that the 34s are replacing the evening 26 service but that goes via Swinton whereas 34 goes nowhere near Swinton these days and instead runs via Monton and Salford Royal Hospital.