Salt Road buses de-branded?

[TimBrown]

Not sure if it was a one-off but, whilst driving my car the other day, I glimpsed a green Volvo 'Salt Road' bus without the 'Salt Road' branding on the off-side. Not sure if it was an accident repair or management policy. Can anyone please confirm one way or another what this means as I don't come into contact with First Bus vehicles very often these days since the company pulled the plug on my 37 City service.

[ANDREW]

I've not noticed any buses with partial de-branding but I will keep my eyes open.

[SEVERNLINK]

I only saw the one Salt Road bus today and it was still branded on the offside the side that I saw

[ANDREW]

I can confirm that 69451 has had the 'Along the Salt Road' wording , the black diamond shape and the 'warrior' with the funny hat removed from both sides. I have not been looking out for any buses treated this way but 69451 'looked different' this morning and after a minute or so I realised why . . . . . So are have any more had this treatment ?? ??

[TimBrown]

69449 passed by whilst I waited at a junction in Worcester this morning and it no longer carries the 'Salt Road' branding on the nearside lower panels, it still retains the lettering on the roof sides above the windows though. With rumours of 144 becoming a double-decker operation is there any possibility of the route returning to and connecting Worcester with the 'Second City', or will it never happen now West Midlands route 20 between Bromsgrove and the Q E hospital is firmly established on a nominal hourly frequency for most of the day?

[ANDREW]

69449 has been de-branded on both sides. It would be nice if the 144 returned to Birmingham , maybe hourly in between the 20 giving two buses an hour on the Bristol Road but are the '14' plate deckers new enough ??

[Reddibus]

There is no age limit on buses entering Birmingham City Centre they just need to meet the Euro VI emission standards. The NX 20 is subsidised between Rubery and Bromsgrove the contract for which was renewed fairly recently. Things could change if the West Midlands go forward with thee proposals to franchise the bus services within the TfWM area

[bmmoboy]

All these comments about returning to Birmingham on the 144, are becoming boring. There just is not the patronage to justify a return, in the last few months before the 144 was truncated, passenger levels were very low, with buses carrying only a handful. I had a not very helpful suggestion from a passenger, asking why it wasn’t possible to operate a couple of buses in the morning into Brum, and the same mid to late afternoon out of Brum. That’s all good in principle I replied, but what does the 2 drivers and 2 buses do for 6 hours?

[ANDREW]

I think that as I/we get older we tend to look back at times gone by and I do remember catching the last 144 of the day [ 23.00 ] ?? back from Birmingham and on reflection , I can remember , at times , there being only a few passengers traveling any distance though quite a few passengers did a short hop within the West Midlands boundary. And as mentioned a number of time , the improved train service to Bromsgrove has also taken passengers from bus services.

[TimBrown]

This boring old fart wishes to remind those who don't want First to go back into the SECOND CITY that the service was truncated whilst the Covid epidemic was still ongoing, and at risk of upsetting anyone I will reiterate that the then PM, Boris Johnson, was telling (ordering even) everyone to avoid the bus and use their cars, this order was never rescinded and the subsequent attempt to get people back on the buses by the £2 single incentive has been very feebly marketed by both HM Government and the local bus companies. Ask any car-driver friend " How much is a single bus ticket?" and I bet the majority have no idea that it is only £2, or that it has been in operation for twelve months or so.

Don't worry though, if First are about to turn the 144 into a solely double-decker route as hinted, then they'll not be allowed to go anywhere near Birmingham centre with the cascaded ADL 400's, as these are not to Euro 6 emission standard and this is of course why we are losing all our Streetdeck's to Weston-Super-Mare and Bristol for the latter city's CAZ; I note also that First operate a very frequent express service between the two centres. Worse still, it looks as though Worcester has to suffer dirty cascaded buses for a long time to come judging by recent pontifications and the stance of local councils, with 2029 a possible target if I read their paper correctly!

ANDREW mentioned the late evening 144 service from Birmingham around 23-00 PM back to Worcester years ago and I have driven it many times. We also did a very early morning run which left Worcester at 05-15 AM, or thereabouts, departing back from Birmingham around 06-35 AM. In addition to that we ran a late evening 145 from Birmingham via Cotteridge, Kings Norton, Man-on-the Moon, Rednal, Rose Hill and Bromsgrove which was driven on the last trip, I believe, by our very own bmmoboy in the days when Midland Red West provided a proper service. He may not remember, but for a time the 145 even ran to Birmingham from Worcester via Droitwich, Stoke Works, Bromsgrove, Barnt Green, Rednal, Kings Norton, Cotteridge & Pebble Mill Lane to the Bull Ring Bus station. We also worked X43/X44 Motorway Express to Birmingham, the X52 from Great Malvern to Stratford-Upon-Avon (being the last relic of the very long X91 service) and the 373 Gloucester services. Now of course all gone, and as reported elsewhere, Stagecoach soon to put electric buses on the Tewkesbury to Gloucester and Cheltenham services.

From my perspective, apart from the efforts made when Diamond attacked the Worcester City services in 2008, First have never seemed to fare very well against the competition and only seem to thrive in a monopoly situation; just look at all the long-established garages they've closed this century and you'll see what I mean. What Worcester has now is little more than a skeletal city service, no late evening buses and just four Sunday runs pushing would be passengers to walk, or find motorised means of transport to get to work and for evening pleasure, or use one of the 300 or so registered taxis which proliferate our streets - very, very sad.