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Brighton & Hove is now showing the number of free seats and wheelchair seats if you click on any bus on a map.

For example:-
https://bustimes.org/services/2-rottingdean-woodingdean-brighton-hove-shoreham-s#map

2064 is not tracking on service 15 today.

According to a set of minutes on the West Midlands Combined Authority website, work will potentially start on site in February 2022 to align with Castle Hill returning to two way traffic following Metro works thus allowing for better access for Bus to the temporary site on Tower Street.

If you look at the site's home page, you will see that it was founded exactly 10 years ago today, on 10 March 2011.  Since then, it has been visited over 4.8 million times - that's nearly half a million per year.  I think we should congratulate Tony on this achievement and thank him for all the hard work he, and his administrators, have put in to develop this site.  Personally, although I could have happily throttled one or two of the members at times (one in particular), this site has been instrumental in keeping me up to date with news and opinion on the bus front.

I hope you will all join me in thanking Tony and celebrating this site's 10th anniversary.   

Suprised to see a First Bristol branded 1 Whiteladies Road E400MMC on the Aston Expressway working rail replacement in Birmingham. Could be a regular thing but just seemed unusual

First West of England Lawrence Hill based E400MMCs were in Birmingham over the weekend operating CrossCountry Rail Replacement services from New Street to Coleshill Parkway and New Street to Tamworth.  According to Bristol based chat groups, the following were among the buses that were in Birmingham for at least part of the weekend.
Service 1 branded (mustard front) - 33958, 33960, 33962, 33964
Service 2 branded (mustard front) - 33973
Service 48/48A/49 branded (sky blue front) - 33792, 33796, 33927

Alexander Dennis have announced a hydrogen bus which they hope to have on the road by the end of the year.
https://www.alexander-dennis.com/media/news/2021/february/adl-s-british-built-h20-next-generation-hydrogen-bus-to-deliver-up-to-300-zero-emission-mile-range/

TTC Diecast has commissioned 4 extra Rapido Fleetlines which are exclusive to them.  They are 6537 in WMPTE livery (9 Quinton), and three in 1977 Queen's Silver Jubilee livery - 6431 (service 501), 6432 (service 9) and 6433 (service 14).  Details are on their website in the Rapido section.

Work starts on 8 March to remove the road surface on Castle Hill to enable tracks to be laid.  Castle Hill will be one direction towards Castlegate Island.
https://www.networkwestmidlands.com/plan-your-journey/major-roadworks-and-events/dudley-regeneration/#:~:text=We%20are%20now%20pleased%20to,anticipated%20route%20closer%20to%20fruition.

The plans for Dudley Bus Station were shown at a meeting I attended early last year before Covid started.  The main building will occupy the site currently occupied by the Farmfoods supermarket.  There will definitely be layover bays on site away from the main departure bays.  Dudley Council have produced a fly-through video of new developments in the town centre.  The bus station is about 2 minutes into the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOwZHaOmudQ&ab_channel=dudleymbc

The footprint of the existing bus station prevents the Metro from getting up Birmingham Street.  Therefore the shape must change to accommodate the Metro and provide a tram stop alongside the new building.

In addition, at the start of 2020, 79% of all bus stations in the UK were drive in, reverse out.

Rapido has announced some of the fleet numbers/routes and liveries of their Fleetlines due in 2021.
https://rapidotrains.co.uk/fleetline/

It has also announced a new batch of Birmingham Standards for 2021 with new fleet numbers and routes.
https://rapidotrains.co.uk/birmingham-guy-arab-iv-bus/

Why are they not good buses? Passenger perspective they are far smoother than an mmc. Do first also have issues with theirs and arriva?

Both Brighton and Hove and First West of England have had issues with Streetdecks.  The first batch of B&H Streetdecks are allocated to route 12/12A/12X between Brighton and Eastbourne which has a number of steep hills.  The Omnidekkas previously allocated to the service were brilliant over the hills.  The Streetdecks are awful on hills - I have been on buses that have struggled to reach the top of relatively short climbs along the route.  In addition, because of reliability issues, B&H has two Streetdeck demonstrators on loan from Wrightbus to cover for buses off the road.  One of these two has been on permanent loan for over two years.

First West of England allocated a batch of 65-reg Streetdecks to Wells depot from new.  After many failures over the Mendip Hills, these have been swapped with older 12-reg E400s based at Hengrove depot in Bristol in order to maintain a reliable service.  Hengrove drivers have stated on on-line forums that they much prefer older B7TLs, B9TLs and E400s, and were very disappointed when some of their old B7TLs were transferred to First Kernow in exchange for more Streetdecks from First South Yorkshire.

Double decker operation has been restored on the 15 and 16.

Anyone got ideas of future routes you would like to see or other developments on the metro system.

I would like to see the following lines
1) Wednesbury to Sutton Coldfield via Walsall using the disused line from Walsall to Suton Coldfield.

I've just been looking at the planning application for the redevelopment of Perry Barr station and it includes the following paragraph.

Proposals to enhance the City's rail network will be supported, including:
• Reopening the Camp Hill and Sutton Park railway lines to passenger services.
• The delivery of the Camp Hill Chord scheme and the facilitation of services from the Camp Hill line and from Tamworth/Nuneaton to run into the new platforms at Moor Street station.
• The provision of new stations at Kings Heath, Hazelwell and Moseley on the Camp Hill route, Castle Vale, Walmley, Sutton Coldfield Town Centre and Sutton Park on the Sutton Park route and at the Fort and Castle Vale on the Tamworth route.
• Redevelopment of Snow Hill station and reinstatement of Platform 4.
• The expansion of park and ride sites including Kings Norton, Four Oaks and Lea Hall.

Thus, it appears that the current aspiration is to restore heavy rail services along the entire length of the Sutton Park line.

Wednesbury to Sutton Coldfield would encounter a few problems.  The trackbed from Wednesbury to the M6 is fine but the last 700 yards to Pleck is used as a headshunt by freight trains.  That, plus the fact that heavy rail lines from Darlaston and Bescot join the line from either side means that either grade separation or a different on-road route would be needed to get the line to Walsall. 

In addition, TfWM have aspirations to reopen Aldridge station and extend some Walsall terminators to Aldridge in the future.  A feasibility study has already found that this is viable and a business case is currently being prepared.  Finally, the Sutton Park line is not disused but is open as a freight route and is still used regularly.  In fact, it was also used by a steam special a couple of weeks ago.

One rail based reopening that is needed is from Brierley Hill or Harts Hill to Stourbridge, possibly including the Stourbridge Town branch.  An option for this corridor is being investigated by TfWM after the plan by West Midlands Railway to extend Stourbridge Junction terminators to Canal Street was discarded.  Personally, I think an extension of the Metro, either from Brierley Hill terminus or as a branch from Canal Street, would be the best option.