National Express West Midlands
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 A National Express West Midlands Alexander ALX400 in Travel West Midlands Branding |
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| Founded | 26 Oct 1986 |
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| Headquarters | Birmingham |
| Locale | Birmingham |
| Service area |  |
| Service type | Urban and interurban bus services |
| Destinations | Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall |
| Operator | National Express Group |
| Web site | westmidlands |
National Express West Midlands is the current trading and brand name of West Midlands Travel Ltd (part of the National Express Group), a company which operates bus services from their depots in the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton, as well as the boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, and Walsall in the West Midlands region of England. The Birmingham depots also operate routes in the adjoining borough of Solihull. They are the largest bus operator in the West Midlands. West Midlands Travel Ltd also has one depot in the city of Coventry which currently trades under the name National Express Coventry. The company previously operated under the trading name of Travel West Midlands and prior to that as West Midlands Travel.
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[edit] History
- 26 October 1986: West Midlands Travel Ltd came into existence, and stems from the 1986 deregulation of the bus industry in England and Wales. It was previously the bus operations of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) which had originally been the separate operations of the Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, West Bromwich and Coventry Corporations.
- April 1995: the company was purchased by the National Express Group.
- September 1996: was re-branded to trade under the name Travel West Midlands.
- 9 December 2002: the Coventry depot was given a more local identity and changed to Travel Coventry.
- 4 February 2008: National Express West Midlands confirmed as the new name for Travel West Midlands[1]
[edit] Future - National Express Group re-branding
Within the next few months National Express West Midlands will be applying a temporary logo to several of its vehicles to highlight to those unaware the change from 'Travel West Midlands' into 'National Express West Midlands'.
The new livery will be applied to vehicles when they go in for routine maintenance.[2]
[edit] Fares and travelcards
The adult fare on National Express West Midlands routes (within the West Midlands county) is £1.10 for a short hop (up to 2 fare stages) and £1.50 for any distance beyond that, on certain sections of some routes the £1.50 fare is the only available (flat rate) single fare. Children aged 5 to 15 are eligible for half rate single fares (55p and 75p). Toddlers aged under 5 are entitled to free travel with a paying adult. National Express West Midlands and National Express Coventry also have a 'Standard Fare' scheme in force, issuing penalty fares of £10 - £20 to deter fraudulent travel.
An all day Daysaver ticket for all routes is £3.00 adult, £2.00 child, which includes National Express Coventry routes as well as routes running outside the West Midlands county where single fares are sometimes much higher than £1.50.
Season tickets include :
- Regional Travelcard
- Regional Travelcard with Metro add on
- Black Country Faresaver
- Birmingham & Black Country Faresaver
[edit] Concessionary
Senior citizens (aged 60 or over) and disabled persons who are resident in the seven metropolitan boroughs of the former West Midlands county are eligible for a free concessionary travel pass issued by Centro. This pass offers free multi-operator bus travel throughout England and free rail and tram travel within the West Midlands county with the exception of weekday journeys starting before 9:30am. However, a concessionary add-on season ticket can be purchased for weekday travel within the West Midlands county before 9:30am.
[edit] Garages and routes
National Express West Midlands have eleven garages in the area. Birmingham based ones are Acocks Green, Bordesley Green, Birmingham Central, Lea Hall, Perry Barr and Yardley Wood. Four garages are in the Black Country - Pensnett, Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton. The National Express Coventry garage provides services in Coventry and the surrounding area.[3]
As general rule, services operating in the Birmingham area are numbered 0-199, buses in the Dudley area are numbered 200's, Walsall area buses are numbered 300's, West Bromwich area buses 400's and Wolverhampton area buses 500's. 600's have no set area. 700's and 800's are school/work services and 900's are Express Services.
For a list of routes (and which garage operates what) see the List of National Express West Midlands Bus Routes.
[edit] Showcase bus routes
In partnership with Network West Midlands, National Express West Midlands has recently upgraded six of its bus routes to 'showcase' services. The routes involved in the scheme, which sees passengers getting a refund if their bus is more than 15 minutes late, is currently in force on services 1, 377, 451, 934, 993 & 997. Services 1 (Birmingham - Moseley), 377 (Walsall - Sutton Coldfield) and 451 (West Bromwich - Sutton Coldfield) are operated using recently refurbished buses. Services 934 (Birmingham - Foley Road West), 993 (Birmingham - Streetly) and 997 (Walsall - Birmingham) boast brand new, high backed leather seated buses, which are in the new 'National Express West Midlands' livery.
[edit] Dudley bus network
At the end of April 2008, in conjunction with other operators and Network West Midlands, National Express West Midlands has majorly revised its bus routes in the Dudley, Halesowen and Stourbridge areas. Almost every route in these areas have been rerouted, retimed or renumbered, with some routes being withdrawn and replaced by new services.[4]
[edit] Safer Travel
Safer Travel (formally known as Operation Safer Travel - OST) is a partnership between National Express West Midlands, National Express Coventry, Centro and West Midlands Police. Safer Travel aims to deter and detect crime, vandalism and graffiti on National Express West Midlands buses. It has been highly successful in doing this with various initiatives introduced over the past seven years - helping Safer Travel lead the bus industry in terms of delivery, ideas and innovation.
Stuart Henry, a young National Express manager, is credited with much of Safer Travel's success but Henry has now left the business and handed over the daily running of Safer Travel to a central unit within National Express. Henry, and his colleague Philip Bateman MBE (now retired but believed to be in business with Henry) often spoke well at industry events on the subject and have a widely respected knowledge on bus crime issues.
In order to help combat crime on National Express services, Safer Travel inspectors and officers conduct "Gateway" checks up and down the West Midlands, looking out for fare evaders, drugs via a special OST dog unit and people who are wanted for arrest within the West Midlands.
The Safer Travel team also have presentations for local schools through the award-winning 'SMART Schools project' educating children about how to respect their buses. Advertising campaigns such as the "Yes they do work", referring to the CCTV cameras fitted to many vehicles, as well as "Crystaleyes" TV sets on selected fleet, also help to spread the constant message.
The team is also located within National Express Dundee working in partnership with Tayside Police.
Safer Travel has recently expanded into its National Express London subsidiary with various Safer Travel 'code of conduct' contracts signed between the operator and various schools within the National Express London area.
[edit] Fleet
This is the official fleet list of National Express West Midlands Buses, including National Express Coventry vehicles but excluding driver trainers, withdrawn buses and those on loan, as at 31 May 2008.[3]
- 360 Dennis Trident 2 / Alexander ALX400
- 193 Mercedes-Benz O405N
- 184 MCW Metrobus
- 176 Volvo B6LE / Wright Crusader
- 140 Volvo B7TL / Wright Eclipse Gemini
- 100 Volvo B7TL / Plaxton President
- 90 Volvo B7TL / Alexander ALX400
- 81 Volvo B10L / Wright Liberator / Alexander Ultra
- 70 Volvo B10B / Wright Endurance / Alexander Strider
- 60 Alexander Dennis Enviro 400
- 60 Scania OmniLink K230
- 49 Optare Excel
- 44 Optare Solo
- 38 Volvo B7RLE / Wright Eclipse Urban
- 21 DAF DB250 / Optare Spectra
- 14 Dennis Dart / Alexander ALX200
- 11 Scania OmniCity CN94 articulated
- 10 Mercedes-Benz O405GN
- 10 Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro
- 6 Scania OmniCity double decker
- 3 Leyland Lynx
[edit] Low floor aim
By 2010, National Express West Midlands is aiming for the whole of their fleet to be low floor easy access buses.[5] This means that the remaining MCW Metrobus, Volvo B10B/Alexander Strider and Leyland Lynx will have to be withdrawn before this date. Altogether, 194 buses will have to be withdrawn by 2010. This means that on average just over ten buses will need to be withdrawn each month until then.
[edit] Other information
The MCW Metrobus is the oldest type of bus used by National Express West Midlands and therefore its joint eldest vehicles are Metrobuses 2529 based at the company's Yardley Wood depot, and 2530 & 2534 based at the company's Walsall Depot. These buses all entered service on September 11, 1982, at the company's Quinton Garage (which has since closed) to West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) - prior to deregulation and the change to West Midlands Travel.
[edit] Defunct subsidiary companies
These subsidiaries have merged into the main National Express West Midlands fleet.
[edit] References
- ^ TWM rebranding. travelwm.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-02-16.
- ^ New Look Buses Set to Hit Streets. expressandstar.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-18.
- ^ a b TWM Fleetlist & Depots. travelwm.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-09-24.
- ^ Dudley Bus Network. networkwestmidlands.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-03-18.
- ^ £69 million Bus & Coach Order. travelwm.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-03-03.
[edit] External links
- National Express West Midlands
- National Express Coventry
- Safer Travel
- West Midlands Buses (photography)
[edit] See also
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