MidlandRed.net

According to this link to Bus & Coach website, Arriva Cannock depot has been sold to D & G Bus which is part of the Centrebus concern.

https://www.busandcoachbuyer.com/arriva ... to-dg-bus/

TimBrown wrote: ↑

08:08 Friday 27th November 2020

According to this link to Bus & Coach website, Arriva Cannock depot has been sold to D & G Bus which is part of the Centrebus concern.

https://www.busandcoachbuyer.com/arriva ... to-dg-bus/

It is right Tim from what I have heard Arriva will pull out out in in early January.

Delta Way garage has been sold for a few years but leased back to Arriva and site is rumored to become part of Available Car.com Company.

Also Arriva have moved out all of the decent buses out of Cannock and replaced with pretty much end of life vehicles from what I have been told (sort of a similar situation in Worcester at present).

Also with the D&G take over they will need every bit of luck as pretty much of Cannocks Bus Routes have been running at a loss for least a few years apparently with no Sunday Services

Rich82 wrote: ↑

12:11 Friday 27th November 2020

TimBrown wrote: ↑

08:08 Friday 27th November 2020

According to this link to Bus & Coach website, Arriva Cannock depot has been sold to D & G Bus which is part of the Centrebus concern.

https://www.busandcoachbuyer.com/arriva ... to-dg-bus/

It is right Tim from what I have heard Arriva will pull out out in in early January.

Delta Way garage has been sold for a few years but leased back to Arriva and site is rumored to become part of Available Car.com Company.

Also Arriva have moved out all of the decent buses out of Cannock and replaced with pretty much end of life vehicles from what I have been told (sort of a similar situation in Worcester at present).

Also with the D&G take over they will need every bit of luck as pretty much of Cannocks Bus Routes have been running at a loss for least a few years apparently with no Sunday Services

Thanks for the confirmation, Arriva have been trying to sell up as their State owned parent company Deutsche Bahn in Germany have been in financial difficulty for some time. Public transport is suffering immensely with the Covid19 restrictions, and Rishi Sunak and Cabinet have seemingly just woken up to the fact that all the subsidies and furlough schemes have broken the bank; just what that means for bus and train companies when they have to stand on their own resources again doesn't need much imagination.

I wonder what the average age of Worcester's bus fleet is now compared with say three years ago? Quite a bit older I suspect, because we haven't received any new buses since 2016 and quite a large influx of elderly 02 registered Citaros, plus the fact that two Streetlite Max single deck have already gone to Leicester for their CAZ - possibly more to follow. Even the Trident replacements, the Volvo B7TLs, are the same age with 54 plates so no gain there.

Arriva have also confirmed the sale, along with a list of services transferring: -

https://www.arrivabus.co.uk/latest-news ... to-d&g-bus

I believe the sale has been on the cards for some time.

Cannock garage also runs Stafford area services, following the closure of Stafford garage a few years ago, but Arriva will still run on one Stafford town service as it is interworked with the Telford - Stafford service (which is operated from the Telford end).

D&G's website is now live for the Cannock area services it is taking on. Interestingly, it is bringing back the Chaserider name: -

https://www.dgbus.co.uk/chaserider.html ... xGtAZShSxk

I was wrong about one Stafford town service staying with Arriva. In fact all of them will pass to D&G. Arriva 5 Telford - Stafford will not interwork with any Stafford local services.

Bringing back the Chaserider name gives me a good feeling.
I am wondering where this leaves Tamworth. I love seeing the 110 number (even if the bus isn't red). It has its own little area of Sutton to serve and it actually competes with NXWM in a way I don't think the 144 can ever do. It is faster between central Birmingham and Sutton though the timetable may not always say it is.
Also Shrewsbury and Telford.

So does that leave just three depots, Shrewsbury, Telford and Tamworth. If so I would have thought that Tamworth, being well removed from the other two, could transfer to Leicester area administration. I also think that the two remaining depots are also under threat of sale.
The mighty Midland Red empire takes another blow.

Don't forget the mighty Oswestry!

bmmoboy wrote: ↑

16:21 Monday 30th November 2020

So does that leave just three depots, Shrewsbury, Telford and Tamworth. If so I would have thought that Tamworth, being well removed from the other two, could transfer to Leicester area administration. I also think that the two remaining depots are also under threat of sale.
The mighty Midland Red empire takes another blow.

I don't know about Telford Garage as not heard anything but there has been a small increase in bus usage in Telford prior to Covid and even after the restrictions earlier in the year the numbers went up again a bit I think but not 100% sure.

As for Shrewsbury garage there services are in decline a bit as there is no Sunday or Bank Holiday services and services finish at about 8pm. Also I have heard that the Shrewsbury P&R is the lynch pin of that operation because they reckoned a few years back when the P&R contract was up for renewal GHA Coaches tried to run they thought that be the end of the Shrewsbury Garage. Also Shrewsbury have not had new buses the last 10 years as most of there buses are 09's where as Telford last new buses were 64 plate ones

Reports on various forum's suggest the D&G will "inherit" around 40 of the buses allocated to Cannock Depot at the moment. And the general consensus of opinion to this statement appears to be "the best of luck" .