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In the old roller blind era, did any of these Birmingham City Centre short workings 'exist' & if so, how were they displayed?

Was a generic 'City Centre' displayed & the drivers told the passengers what's what?

Carolean Coaches (never heard of them) will take over the 19 from 11th February.

Some suspended journeys to be reinstated, and subject to further bouts of ASB, full timetable to be restored from 25th February:

https://www.tfwm.org.uk/plan-your-journey/ways-to-travel/buses-in-the-west-midlands/upcoming-bus-service-changes/

Just done a Google & it says they're based in Watery Lane Willenhall.

Old Midland Choice Travel premises?

@Wumpty ?

Do people have a problem with a simple queue these days?

Take the 529 in Walsall Bus Station for example.

You are supposed to queue along the glass fence, but you get people hanging around on the opposite site next to the main queue, in the hope of 'jumping in'.

I had to stop someone this morning from jumping in front of me.

'Excuse me. Queue!'

The same happens with the 31 & 32 stops as well!

As usual, details of which vehicles appearing won't be known until nearer next Sunday, but something of interest, according to Facebook, is the appearance of  an extra special visitor will be the National Express DRIVR bus simulator. Thus state of the art simulator, fitted into Scania bus 1837, gives users the opportunity to get the feel of driving a real bus and is used in recruitment of new drivers. It should be available to visitors on payment of a small donation to charity - so here's your chance to try your hand at bus driving!

Just looked at a few random timetables online, basically the Walsall area ones I have access to, and there seems to be updates from 22 Jan.

It's a bit early for half term isn't it?

The ones I looked at were X51 (no change to 31 / 32!), 9 (If you know my posting history, you know why I have to key an eye on the 9!) & the 11/11a.

Has anyone had issues trying to get any since they started publishing again?

Normally there is a load of them on the early services, but now there only seems to be a few per bus, based on the Diamonds between Bloxwich and Walsall & the 529's I catch.

Noticed various posters on various buses saying that special fares on certain services have been discontinued as of yesterday.

Services mentioned (I've seen!) include Wolves 10 & 11, Walsall 4, 34, 37, 39 & West Bromwich 40.

Bit short notice isn't it?

Nothing on the website either.

It's ok if you live near to a supposedly frequent route/corridor like the Bloxwich Road, then you won't really have to wait too long(see my recent posts!), but when you live on the outer reaches of the operating area like the Cannock X51, where the service is not as frequent, then I suppose Bob has a point.

Where should you put the priority?

At first glance, you'd say 'Put the priority into the routes that only run half hourly / hourly, then distribute the remaining drivers/buses amongst the remaining services which would have to probably have a service reduction to keep a fairly regular service!'

But, as our 'more learned' members, including Tony, would say, 'It's not as simple as that ', so perhaps we could have an insight into the likes of scheduling, for the benefit of those of us who don't understand these sort of things?

https://nxbus.co.uk/west-midlands/service-updates/timetable-changes-from-sunday-26th-june-2022

Affecting mainly Northern / Eastern Birmingham, plus into Staffordshire / Walsall as well!

The fire at Walsall has made this question spring to mind.

Until withdrawal, due to end of life etc, which batch of buses remained reasonably complete,  without the odd one having to be withdrawn due to fire damage etc?

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/shops-wont-open-boxing-day-24980346

Is this likely to have an impact on likely service level at Xmas, bearing in mind Nx & Diamond at least run Sunday service until teatime on Boxing Day?

https://www.facebook.com/165773083458277/posts/4154752047893674/?sfnsn=scwspmo

Stu might have some sympathy with this!

https://nxbus.co.uk/west-midlands/news/vintage-bus-parade?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic_social_hroc

Surprised this hasn't been picked up & mentioned already!

Question for Tony.

Where's the best place by Walsall depot to get shots?

As flagged in the Oddities thread,  but I've seen several examples while out & about over the years,  & I bet I'm not the only one.

Even though it's not 'uniform ' to the fleet,  which I agree with, should they be classed as an oddity ?

There must be a unofficial reason for it?

https://nxbus.co.uk/west-midlands/if-you-have-a-paper-travelcard-things-are-changing

Started seeing the notices on the buses this week just gone.

Anyone remember when they first bought a bus pass?

Mine would've been Summer 1987, when I left school & started initially at Walsall Itec, then getting a job at my employer through that.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/plymouth-man-furious-after-buying-21155082

Here's a point.

Does he go out every day on his pass?

I bet there's days some people do not go out, despite having the ticket to do so. (I know I've done so.)

(For the record, my NBus Black Country finished on the 20/12, I was only at work Monday & Tuesday & will go again Friday, then I have a week off. I won't bother renewing my pass until the end of next week. In the meantime, I'm having Walsall Nbus day tickets!)

Sunday, 24 November 2019 from 10:00-16:00 UTC

Transport Collectors' Fair  Aston Manor Road Transport Museum

https://www.facebook.com/events/971056609953201/

Having a look at the NX Historic Vehicle FB site(Don't worry Tony, I won't join, you've probably had enough of me on here already anyway!), seeing the various pics of the various vehicles undergoing restoration, I happened to notice someone had posted pictures of the old style timetable leaflets for the Brum services, which were different to the 'North Division' ones of the time.

Obviously these all vanished at the time of deregulation, in favour of the first design of WM Travel style leaflets, but why was 2 different styles of leaflet maintained all those years?

Surely design style should have been harmonised well before deregulation?

One thing I seem to remember the Walsall to Brum 51 service was available in 'Brum' & 'North Division' formats, but the Brum version listed the City to Scott Arms shorts, but the North version didn't!

Going away for a few days to Bristol in July.

Any idea where I start for local transport information? (The local equivalent of TfWM!)

Any recommendations for day tickets?

Now available at a Travelshop near you.

Heres a question.

The maps are dated June 2019.

Walsall's, despite being dated June, has not included the 29 April changes, so they are still refering to the 89 & X51 old routes.

However Wolverhampton, also dated June 2019, refers to the 60 instead.

So how long ago was Walsall's prepared then?

(I thought in the past, the maps were supposed to take account of changes up to a certain date, so Arriva's next set of changes end June havent been included, but surely in the past, they would have been?

@Simon@Arriva - I know you/Arriva only released the changes the other day to the public.

Would that have been the same day you informed TfWm?