Travel West Midlands
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Travel West Midlands (formerly known as West Midlands Travel) is a British bus operator. It operates in the West Midlands, including the cities of Birmingham, Coventry (trading as Travel Coventry) and Wolverhampton as well as the boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall.
Travel West Midlands is owned by the National Express Group which also owns sister operators Travel London and Travel Dundee. The company stems from the 1986 deregulation of the bus industry in England and Wales. The company evolved out of what was previously the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) and had originally been the separate operations of the Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, West Bromwich and Coventry Corporations.
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[edit] Routes
For a list of routes operated by TWM, see List of Travel West Midlands bus routes.
[edit] The fleet
Travel West Midlands operates around 1800 modern buses on 500+ routes in the Midlands with 11 garages. These being TWM Acocks Green, TWM Birmingham Central, TWM Bordesley (as a result of Hockley Garage closing in May 2005), TWM Lea Hall, TWM Park Lane (Wolverhampton), TWM Pensentt, TWM Perry Barr, TWM Walsall, TWM West Bromwich, TWM Coventry and TWM Yardley Wood.
[edit] Single deckers and bendi-buses
Leyland Lynx - A dying breed in the fleet, Travel West Midlands used to house the country's largest collection of Lynxs however they are being slowly replaced and there are now only 8 of the vehicles working in the TWM fleet. They can be seen on Yardley Wood services 2, 12, 18 and 35 however they are due to be fully replaced by the end of 2006.
Mercedes O405N - Mainly seen in Coventry, on Lea Hall and Bordesley routes, the Mercedes are seen as "Plastic" buses. This mainly due to the intensive rattling that can be heard when the vehicle is in operation from the heater doors. They are TWM's main single decker and can get up to speeds of 55 mph on some models.
Volvo B10L - This model was not popular with a lot of operators when it first launched, however Travel West Midland bought over 150 for use on its routes. They are mainly seen on Acocks Green and Perry Barr routes. Their design makes it awkward to use in peak times as you cannot fit a lot of people on them.
Other single deckers in the fleet include the Volvo B6LE, Optare Solo, Alexander ALX200-bodied Dennis Dart SLF and Optare Excel.
Bendi-buses in the fleet comprise of Mercedes O405GN artics (6001-6011) currently at Travel Coventry, Mercedes O530G artics (6012-6021) also based at Travel Coventry and Scania CN94 OmniCity artics (6022-6032) based at Travel West Midlands Perry Barr Garage on the 67 "bendi-bus" route.
[edit] Double deckers
Metrobus MKII/A/DP - A dying breed in the West Midlands as they are being slowly replaced by newer double deckers. These are the old step entrance buses.
DAF DB250LF / Optare Spectra - The first of the newer batch of double deckers. Spectras 4001-4022 are based at Birmingham Central Garage. 4002 was used at Travel Dundee before being brought down for operations in Birmingham. 4014 was destroyed by fire in Kings Heath in late 2001. Originally for route 50, they are now mainly used on the Harborne routes (21, 22, 23, 29, 103), but do stray onto other BC routes.
Volvo B7TL / Plaxton President - Plaxtons 4023-4124 based mainly at Acocks Green and Birmingham Central garages. These are the new "kneeling" buses which Travel West Midlands brought in 1999.
Dennis Trident 2 - The main double decker in the Travel West Midlands fleet used on the majority of routes. Many have "route branding" on them with prime examples being seen on the Bristol Road, Coventry Road and Pershore Road branding on the side of many Tridents.
Volvo B7TL / Wright Eclipse Gemini - This is Travel West Midlands preferred model over the Trident as many were brought in up to December 2004 to work on the routes where Metrobuses had been taken out of action. "Stylish" is a good word for these buses as they are modelled in very distinctive livery. 997 being the prime example. This model is also used to operate the Outer Circle bus route as well as other main services which include the 33, 34 and 37.
TWM also have demos of the new Scania OmniCity and Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 working on its routes as of January 2006.
[edit] Safer Travel
Safer Travel is the award-winning partnership between Travel West Midlands and West Midlands Police. Safer Travel aims to deter and detect crime, vandalism and graffiti on TWM's buses. It has been highly successful in doing this with over 211 joint 'gateway checks' carried out in 2005.
In order to help combat crime on TWM services, Safer Travel inspectors and officers conduct "Gateway" checks up and down the West Midlands. They look for people without tickets (fare evasion), people with out of date bus passes, drugs via a special OST dog unit and for people who are wanted for arrest in the West Midlands.
They also have presentations for local schools through the award-winning 'SMART Schools project' educating kids about how to respect their buses. Advertising campaigns such as the "Yes they do work" and the new SMS Text Number as well as "Crystaleyes" TV sets on selected fleet, also help to spread the constant message.
