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Nottingham 'Bus War'

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nctx

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Trent Barton or rather Notts and derby used the unbranded Ex Swift Excels on Download Festival buses , The Paladins are based at Derby and Dove Hove Depot and to be honest work alot more than the Excels.

Trent Barton have also removed one of the Commuter Exprss coaches, it is used in Bingham to take Toothill school kids to school, a volvo or scania wright bus covers for it.

Im told Kinchbus 9 are know accepting Zigzags , I have been watching loads and you only see about 8 people on it and most of them are using the 10 trip for £8 ticket.

Somebody told me the Premiere Red x routes could use the Old Paul James Veolia "D" route contract ( D1,D2,D3,D4 AND D5) to get a bay in Victoria Centre bus station .
 
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trentside

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TrentBarton seem to have a new look on the horizon:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcbp/6215284878/in/photostream/

I'm not sure about this new look in all honesty. I don't know why but it looks 'cheaper' - the new stylised bow logo looks awful, but I like the font used for the company name. Just doesn't give the quality image that Trent have always strived hard to portray.

There are a few photos of the interior floating around. As so many operators have copied the 'coffee shop' look that Trent have been specifying for the past few years, they obviously wanted to do something different but the scheme they've chosen just doesn't work. Bright green head rests with turquoise livery and interior advertising? It looks horrible.
 

MCR247

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It made me laugh that Optare can show one of our (NCTs) solo SRs yet haven't managed to deliver ours on time. I mean they're only over a month late :roll:
 

bb21

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I'm not sure about this new look in all honesty.

It is an ugly bus and the font just looks wrong. The whole SR range is a joke and look far worse than their original counterparts.

I don't know why but it looks 'cheaper' - the new stylised bow logo looks awful,

Because they look like they are designed by an amateur.
eek.png


I don't get this thing with refreshing the brand every few years. Surely the most famous brand image sticks around for longer than merely a few years?

Just doesn't give the quality image that Trent have always strived hard to portray.

I guess they're trying to rebrand the whole rainbow routes range. Trouble is that this new livery and colour scheme only looks cluttered and uncomfortable. Why don't they keep the original Rainbow 4 colour?

Bright green head rests with turquoise livery and interior advertising? It looks horrible.

The head rests are a highlight. They look out of place with the rest of the interior.
 

trentside

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The latest news from Nottingham...

Red8 is apparently doing well between Hucknall Estates and Nottingham.

Premiere are increasing frequency on 'local17' to every 20 minutes between Nottingham and Staplford, but retaining an hourly frequency through Toton - despite the withdrawal of the Toton Connect earlier in the year.

Gills Travel are introducing a new shoppers service around Long Eaton, and from the date of it's introduction the Premiere 19 will no longer operate.
 

nctx

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looks like things are getting better for Premiere Travel in Nottingham . A member of staff was saying today that it looks like the PVR on Red 5 and Red 8 will both be increased in the new year.
 

ChrisCooper

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bb21 said:
I don't get this thing with refreshing the brand every few years. Surely the most famous brand image sticks around for longer than merely a few years?

The most iconic brand in terms of buses, one of the most iconic for transport as a whole, is London Buses. It's plain, dull, boring, drab, yet it's recognised world wide. Even at it's best it's been simple, with just a white or cream line, or the odd bit of operator specific branding. It's been around for years and has hardly changed. Same goes for the LT logo, again it's plain, simple, but it's instantly recognisable (the same can be said of the BR double arrows). Despite this London has the highest bus usage in the country and is usually seen as a model for sucess for the rest of the industry.

Look at the car industry, the main competator to buses, it's full of iconic brands that have not changed. A young person today would be able to easily tell the brand of many cars from nearly 100 years ago just from the badge, the same as someone from the early part of the last century could if transported to today. On the other hand dump someone from the 1990s into Nottingham and they would probably wonder what had happened to Bartons (and Nottingham City Transport). Actually, with the exception of London there can't be many places where someone from the 1990s would recognise the bus companies today, despite in many places them being little changed.
 

Deerfold

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The most iconic brand in terms of buses, one of the most iconic for transport as a whole, is London Buses. It's plain, dull, boring, drab, yet it's recognised world wide. Even at it's best it's been simple, with just a white or cream line, or the odd bit of operator specific branding. It's been around for years and has hardly changed. Same goes for the LT logo, again it's plain, simple, but it's instantly recognisable (the same can be said of the BR double arrows). Despite this London has the highest bus usage in the country and is usually seen as a model for sucess for the rest of the industry.

True, but I think there's other factors in usage - London has some of the cheapest bus fares in the country unless you're travelling a very short distance allied with the most comprehensive service. London buses were in decline in the 90s with usage declingin even faster than the mileage.
 
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ChrisCooper

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True, but I think there's other factors in usage - London has some of the cheapest bus fares in the country unless you're travelling a very short distance allied with the most comprehensive service. London buses were in decline in the 90s with usage declingin even faster than the mileage.

Perhaps one reason they can keep the fares so low is that they are not constantly spending money on re-branding, fancy new liveries and "coffee shop" interiors.
 

trentside

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You can't compare bus services in London with elsewhere, simply for the fact that it's a regulated area with fares managed and set by TfL.

The fares charged by TrentBarton (who I presume you're aiming your comments at) are comparable with those charged elsewhere.

It's worth baring in mind that, outside London, Nottingham is the city least dependent on the car. The extensive, frequent public transport network no doubt playing a big part in this.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/14/nottingham-named-least-car-dependent

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Just off on a slight tangent, it has been reported that Felix of Stanley have sold their bus operations to TrentBarton, the coach work passing to Swiftsure of Burton on Trent. Earlier in the month (for a week) Trent were running duplicates of Felix services, 5 minutes in front of the smaller operator they've co-operated with for a number of years. Since then, speculation has been rife that Felix were looking to sell - Premiere being mooted as a suitor, hence the reaction from Trent.
 
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Deerfold

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the spider maps are terrible

I'm not hugely keen on them myself but research shows that most people prefer them.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as terrible - they are quite clear in showing where a bus goes and you can pick up a free map or look on the website if you want to look at the bus network in a geographic way. That's better than a lot of operators.
 

WillPS

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Just off on a slight tangent, it has been reported that Felix of Stanley have sold their bus operations to TrentBarton, the coach work passing to Swiftsure of Burton on Trent. Earlier in the month (for a week) Trent were running duplicates of Felix services, 5 minutes in front of the smaller operator they've co-operated with for a number of years. Since then, speculation has been rife that Felix were looking to sell - Premiere being mooted as a suitor, hence the reaction from Trent.

There is something deeply odd about that whole thing. The boss of Wellglade even saw necessary to show up on a blog and reveal... well not much about the whole thing.
 

tbone

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/14/nottingham-named-least-car-dependent


Just off on a slight tangent, it has been reported that Felix of Stanley have sold their bus operations to TrentBarton, the coach work passing to Swiftsure of Burton on Trent. Earlier in the month (for a week) Trent were running duplicates of Felix services, 5 minutes in front of the smaller operator they've co-operated with for a number of years. Since then, speculation has been rife that Felix were looking to sell - Premiere being mooted as a suitor, hence the reaction from Trent.


This has been confirmed today
 

Statto

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I'm not hugely keen on them myself but research shows that most people prefer them.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as terrible - they are quite clear in showing where a bus goes and you can pick up a free map or look on the website if you want to look at the bus network in a geographic way. That's better than a lot of operators.

I'm not keen on spider maps myself, & much prefer the geographical maps, the GMPTE bus maps are my favorites as they have every bus stop location in the GMPTE area on the map. I do agree getting bus info in some areas is like trying to get files from MI5.
 

Deerfold

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I'm not keen on spider maps myself, & much prefer the geographical maps, the GMPTE bus maps are my favorites as they have every bus stop location in the GMPTE area on the map. I do agree getting bus info in some areas is like trying to get files from MI5.

And of course both TfGM and TfL maps have the advantage of having all operators on them.

I've seen First maps that are so operator-specific that they don't put other Frist subsidiaries on the map (so First Leeds didn't have the Leeds - Halifax service on it because it's run by First Halifax...)
 

trentside

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Some interesting news, TrentBarton have decided to commercially register the Nottingham Skylink service (with an altered route, serving Beeston and Long Eaton). This has forced the withdrawal of the council sponsored NCT service from 25th March 2012.

News from NCT;
http://www.nctx.co.uk/2012/changes-to-nottingham-skylink-from-march-2012/#more-4061

News from TB;
http://www.trentbarton.co.uk/news-and-media/our-news/article/sky

It's looking like TrentBarton are also making changes to the Indigo, withdrawing the service from the Airport and the Loughborough route, these being replaced by the Skylink. Not sure how this affects the 24hours Indigo journeys, but presumably these may also be withdrawn (as they terminated at the Airport).
 

Jordy

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Not pleased with that at all, I have used Skylink countless times at strange times of day to get to/from Nottingham/West Bridgford/Clifton, this will no longer be possible when I return next year.

Unfortunately through tickets from NCT routes will no longer be available, but some customers will be able to use trent barton services instead.

The cheek! "Unfortunately" indeed.
 

MCR247

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What I'm wondering is what they'll do with the extra bus per hour to Long Eaton, my bet would go with making indigo to Derby every 15 minutes, but that is awkward due to the AMAZING design of Derby bus station :roll:
 

trentside

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It appears that quite a lot of people in the Clifton area are very upset about this - just check the Nottingham City Transport page on Facebook. Poor NCT are having to take a lot of flaming from angry Skylink users blaming NCT for something totally out of their control.
 

tom1649

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I blame deregulation for all this nonsense. Everything has to be run for 'commercial reasons' rather than actually serving the people with what they want.

We must be the only country in Europe with deregulated local bus services, and you can see why.
 

trentside

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NCT have stated that they would not consider registering the current route via Clifton and the A453, simply because it wouldn't be commercially viable, even at a reduced frequency.

The route via Long Eaton will add around 10-15 minutes to the journey time on Skylink. :roll:
 

trentside

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Typical Trent Barton behaviour, all the more reason to dislike them.

I will confess that I've always been a big admirer of TrentBarton. They've developed many marketing strategies which have helped make bus services more attractive to passengers and they've taught the industry a great many lessons. Most of this was under the stewardship of the original management team.

There seems to be an emerging perception in their operating area that the company are not once they were. Admittedly, they've faced various attacks on their services by other operators but their actions in response have drawn criticism. The takeover of the tram consortium and the removal of the ability to use CityRider tickets hasn't helped them either.
 
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