TRAVEL WEST MIDLANDS

'Travel West Midlands' is the current trading name for all 'West Midlands Travel Ltd' bus services operating 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 Travel Coventry.

Contents

History

Fares

Routes

Safer Travel

Fleet

External links

History

'Travel West Midlands' and 'Travel Coventry' are the current trading names of 'West Midlands Travel Ltd' which is owned by the National Express Group, who also own 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 bus operations of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) and had originally been the separate operations of the Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, West Bromwich and Coventry Corporations.

Fares

The adult fare on Travel West Midlands routes (within the West Midlands county) is £1.00 for a ''short hop'' (up to about 2km) and £1.40 for any distance beyond that.
An all day adult ''Daysaver'' ticket for all routes is £3.00, this includes Travel Coventry routes as well as routes running outside the West Midlands county where single fares are sometimes much higher.

Routes

''For a list of routes operated by TWM, see List of Travel West Midlands bus routes.''

Safer Travel

Safer Travel (formally known as Operation Safer Travel - OST) is the award-winning partnership between Travel West Midlands, Travel Coventry, West Midlands Police and Centro. 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, 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 Travel Dundee working in partnership with Tayside Police.
Safer Travel has recently expanded into it's Travel London subsidiary with various Safer Travel 'code of conduct' contracts signed between the operator and various schools within the Travel London area.

Fleet

(This list includes Travel Coventry vehicles)

★ 360 Dennis Trident 2 Alexander ALX400

★ 333 MCW Metrobus

★ 314 Volvo B7TL Plaxton President/Alexander ALX400/Wright Eclipse Gemini

★ 193 Mercedes-Benz O405N

★ 176 Volvo B6LE Wright Crusader

★ 93 Volvo B10L Wright Liberator/Alexander Ultra

★ 72 Volvo B10B Wright Endurance/Alexander Strider

★ 63 Leyland Lynx

★ 51 Optare Solo

★ 49 Optare Excel

★ 21 DAF DB250 Optare Spectra

★ 14 Dennis Dart Alexander ALX200

★ 11 Alexander Dennis Enviro 400

★ 10 Mercedes-Benz O405GN

★ 10 Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro

★ 8 Mercedes-Benz Vario Alexander ALX100

★ 4 Volvo B6 Plaxton Pointer

★ 1 Scania OmniCity double decker

External links

★ Travel West Midlands

★ Travel Coventry

★ Safer Travel

★ West Midlands Buses