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Saw this bus again today in Kings Heath. It's a small mini-bus, in blue livery. Any idea where its based?

ex ATG Solo now part of the training fleet

Strictly speaking the Transits were originally 7055-7064 in the main fleet numbering, with matching registrations. I'm not sure they actually carried these numbers, though.

No they entered service as M1-M10. I have seen a photo of the first one delivered as 7055 but it was not used in service with this number.

There's no apparently about it, they have been cancelled it was published in N&P dated 29th Nov, so were cancelled before that date:

Bottom page 11:

They have been cancelled effective 5th Jan 2020 according to N&P.

Not often have we seen alpha-numeric fleet identities (the old ex-Corporation fleets had a letter added to the end of their local fleet numbers) but I have a 1987 WMT fleet-list showing No's M1-M10, which were Ford Transit/Carlyle B55-64 AOP. I assume these became 555-564 though.

They were delivered to WMPTE as M1-M10 in 1985 and operated in Shuttlebus livery on a route from Kingstanding to Old Pheasey from the Central Coachways depot in Walsall. They were renumbered 555-564 (matching registration B55-64AOP) by WMT in late 1986.

Also the National Express press release announcing the 10 electric buses for Coventry has a photograph of a E200EV and does not mention that they will be double deck!

https://www.nationalexpressgroup.com/newsmedia/news-across-the-group/2019/coventry-to-get-new-fully-electric-buses-for-greener-cleaner-journeys/

Is that a similar sort of thing to what the old Bingo Hall is at Tower Hill (Walsall Road)?

As with may bingo halls the one at Tower Hill was built as a cinema for, and operated by, Sydney W. Clift's small independent Clifton Cinemas circuit. It was opened on 21st February 1938. It closed on 10th November 1979. It was converted into a bingo club, which continued as a Gala Bingo Club until closing in June 2008. It was converted into a Chinese restaurant, but this closed by 2011. Despite an arson attack in the early hours of 6th January 2012, it has been rebuilt as a banqueting hall which opened I believe in 2016.

Are these SN69XDA and SN69XDC? I saw them joining M40 from M42 Monday.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't there certain services where the buses concerned are owned by the local authority & the operator concerned 'borrows'(for want of a better word!) them?

So in other words, the Tracline vehicles could have been owned by WMPTE after deregulation & 'borrowed' by both WM Travel & Midland Red West/whoever operated the service!

(Or am I being too simplistic?)

Yes that does happen but usually when one operator runs a tendered service for one tender period and another for the next. In this case WMT was operating a commercial service Monday to Saturday and MRW operated the tendered service on Sundays.

The Scott Arms short workings operated by Midland Rd (119) transferred to BCT as the 51 on 4th May 1958 (The BCT 52 Beeches Rd Estate had already transferred from Midland Red 188 on 1st Sep 1957). The Midland Red route numebrs were not used after teh transfer to BCT. BCT reistated some pre-war Dailmler COG5 which were shared among garages to cover the increased vehicle requirement.

Apologies  in advance  if this is a repeat topic

WMPTE (CENTRO) in the 80's experimented with a guided bus on route 65 which was scraped after about a year.   

Did WMPTE/CENTRO learn anything from the errors of tracline65 before planning the sprint network.

Tracline 65 started operation at midday on 9th Oct 1984 and ran until ~Feb 1987.

From http://citytransport.info/Tracline65.htm

"The guided section of Tracline 65 was just a 600 metre strip at the very end of the route in an area where traffic congestion was not an issue; elsewhere new bus lanes were created, parking restrictions introduced / stiffened, more and better bus shelters erected and there was much media publicity. As far as guided operation was concerned the experiment was always meant to be of limited duration and closure came in 1987 when following bus deregulation a rival bus company won the contract for the Sunday service and with it not willing to spend money equipping vehicles with guide wheels the situation arose whereby there would have had to be different stops (on the parallel dual carriageway) for different days of the week.

Within the parameters set for it this experiment was proven successful. Bus patronage on route 65 rose by 29.3% compared to a more modest 4.2% within the West Midlands area as a whole. The guidance system proved both safe and reliable in operation, the initial fears that the protruding guide wheels might prove hazardous - especially to unwary pedestrians - were proven unfounded (although one did snap off when a bus that had been diverted away from its normal routing hit a kerb) and although little now remains of the Birmingham installation much valuable information was gained."

Thanks for this - very interesting! So trams from Brum will not run to Wolves station once the extension opens.

No the route is described as:-
Wolverhampton Station to Wolverhampton St George's via Brierley Hill and Edgebaston AND RETURN.

So at St George's trams will arrive from and depart to Edgebaston (then to Brierley Hill) and at Station trams will arrive from and depart to Brierley Hill (then Edgebaston)

Central Connect traded as a separate business to Diamond, eventually being rebranded Blue diamond in 2011. Ludlows was kept as a separate business for about a year after the deal before it was absorbed into the Diamond network in 2008/2009

Red and Black Diamond were introduced in 8/2008. Blue Diamond was introduced 11/2011.   
Ludlows was purchased by Rotala (Central Connect) 21/6/2007, the sale was finalized on 1/4/2008. By then Rotala had purchased Go Ahead West Midlands (Diamond). Ludlow's was merged with the Diamond operations at Tividale on 1/1/2009 and the Halesowen base closed. Central Connect (Blue Diamond) and Diamond were merged in Dec 2012.

The X55 started out as a joint Harper Brothers/ Walsall Corporation route 944 in 1965, by 1973 this was a joint WMPTE/ Midland Red route. In 1976 it became Midland Red only but as part of the Chaserider alterations in 1980 became the rush hour only X55 (WMPTE provided an off-peak 155 Birmingham to Boney Hay via Aldridge, cut back 198 to operate to Brownhills only). The X55 slowly lost journeys after 1986 until Midland Red North withdrew the service in 1992. Chase buses started running the services MRN had withdrawn until it ran the full peak hour service and continued to run it until the early 2000s. They even operated an off-peak service in the early 1990s.

A remaining tendered service continued being operated by a number of operators until Diamond registered it commercially as the X56. This did not last long (April 2010) and Staffordshire had to put it out to tender again at which point Midland Choice one it. It the passed to Arriva Midlands in Sep 2012. Later NXWM won the tender and rerouted it via Scott Arms. The X56 was withdrawn in July 2016 and replaced with a single journey on the 937 extended from Brownhills to Boney Hay.

The old West Bromwich livery without any doubt!

Here, here!

Does anyone know when Pensnett garage opened at its present site?