MidlandRed.net

It would be very interesting to learn how many extra passengers these smart vehicles could attract over, say, a 12 month period, IE - without changing the timetable, and without managing to improve the reliability.

As Birmingham is England's "second city", there's a massive number of local car journeys along the A38, so a small increase in "market share" for the 144 could prove very beneficial !

I see on First's website that the Birmingham zone, day ticket offers unlimited travel between Rubery and Brum, on the 144, for just £3 -
I think that's an incredible bargain !

- Is that being promoted and marketed adequately ?

Seen on Flickr today of 69435 WX59BYM at Bromsgrove

Another Green Volvo has arrived at Worcester depot.

AdamH wrote: ↑

13:22 Friday 10th November 2017

Another Green Volvo has arrived at Worcester depot.

Is it out and about yet ??

I don’t think so. It arrived with a suspension problem and was waiting for parts...

I am looking forward to seeing what the full livery and branding will look like. Hopefully won't take too long.

AdamH wrote: ↑

12:50 Wednesday 15th November 2017

I don’t think so. It arrived with a suspension problem and was waiting for parts...

In all the euphoria over the new green livery I have tended to overlook the fact that these Volvo single-deckers are eight years old and spent most of their operating career in the Bristol area working high density routes over hilly terrain. The point being that most have already had a hard life so teething troubles and defects are only to be expected upon delivery. I am sure they will be very reliable once sorted out by the capable Worcester engineering crew.

This is true. The first two that arrived started their life at Wells depot and are still in quite good condition. I have driven both now and they are very nice to drive with lovely smooth gear changes (unlike the Enviro300) and superb brakes that are very easy to judge (unlike the Volvo Plaxtons). They remind me of the KX04 group of Volvos B7RLE we had a few years ago... They are still my favourite buses I have ever driven.

The latest one to arrive started life at Lawrence Hill depot and probably had a much harder life, and from what the engineers have told me... It shows!

69449 arrived with a long list of faults that included steering, brakes and suspension. All have been fixed now except the suspension as they are waiting on a new rear air bag. The rest of the batch are all ex-LH vehicles so it will be interesting to see if they are the same.

I had 69435 last night and the mileage was reading over 435,000 miles. However I still got several comments on how nice my new bus was, so the passengers are impressed.

Hi all,
Are the Volvos working set diagrams on the 144 at the moment or are they just on anything. Hoping to photograph one tomorrow on the 144 so knowing what journeys they operate would be useful.
Thanks

Livery looks good, one of the better efforts from First.

Apologies for my recent absence, I've got a bit to catch up with here.