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Any clue why an 8 car unit came into London Euston for the 19.55 to Crewe and then decoupled? Left a 4 car unit with barely any standing room

Personally i hope the new franchise fails, Virgin hadn't done anything wrong, they have always, in my eyes, run a good service with very reasonable fares.

Personally I hope Richard Branson sets up in competition with First!

I agree - £32.50 for 3 adults and a child return from Wolverhampton to Euston in under 2 hours! First are facing difficulty over Southwestern and the Transpennine express, so I'm hoping the bid is thrown out by the court cases...

Really disappointed, we've seemed to be able to avoid First for the most part in the midlands until now! Hopefully the decision will be reversed like it was a few years ago - can't stand First!

Was really not impressed with TFW last Saturday!

I was travelling on holiday to Borth from Birmingham New Street, with my companions due to board the same train at Wolverhampton.

The departure displays were indicating that the train would be a four carriage unit, and that passengers for Borth and Aberystwyth should use the rear coaches C & D, while those going on to Barmouth and Pwllheli should use the front coaches A and B. This was based on my understanding that the train would seperate at Machynlleth. As a result, my sister and her partner had specifically reserved seats when booking their tickets.

So you can imagine my surprise as the train rolls in at New Street, and I'm counting the coaches, so I know which one to get into - I hadn't reserved a specific seat, but as I knew where my travelling companions had reservations it made sense to find a seat near them - and there are only two coaches! There was already a large crowd on the station platform - including a large group of 'football fans' - and as I asked one of the TFW staff "where's the rest of the train?" I just got a shrugged shoulders response.

So we have a short-formed train full of holidaymakers off to Aberystwyth, Barmouth, Borth and Pwllhelli, as well as a large group of Portsmouth fans heading to Shrewsbury for a football match, all trying to squeeze into two carriages rather than four. 

That wasn't the best start to this holiday. I had to stand all the way to Shrewsbury, while my sister and her partner had to stand from Wolverhampton. Luckily once all the footy yobs got off at Shrewsbury, we could all shuffle down the train and find some available seats. But all the time, the onboard announcements were showing that 'this train is for Aberystwyth', it was only after leaving Shrewsbury that we were told that passengers for Borth and Abersytwyth would have to change onto another train at Machynlleth - I guess that answered the question of "where's the rest of the train?" :D

A pretty fraught experience, and it didn't give me a very good opinion of Transport For Wales' service, though happily the return journey went to plan, with our two carriage train from Borth joining the train from Pwllheli at Machynlleth to form a four-car unit on to Shrewbsury and Birmingham.

Still, I think I got my moneys worth at £40 return. ;)

I've seen more 2 coach trains with TfW on the Wolverhampton routes than I ever did with ATW!!

Around 3 or 4 old TWM and WMT bus stops along Green Lanes in Bilston!

Anyone done the Coventry outer circle recently?

@Westy the TfWM website says:

"All Concessionary Travel Passes now have Swift Pay As You Go (PAYG) included.

This means you can load PAYG credit on to your Travel Pass to pay for journeys when your pass is not valid on the bus and tram, so there's no need to carry the correct change (not currently accepted on trains).

To activate your PAYG you will need to register your Travel Pass and load on some credit."

I assume that only newer passes have PAYG built in and that you'd have to contact TfWM to check if its available?

Not sure how recently this was but concessionary passes now have swift PAYG integrated into the card - is this paving the way for swift season passes to do the same?

Anyone know if Banga have bid for any new tenders?

4560 on a WN59E to Wednesfield just arrived

I've got mixed feelings over the new stops - they're definitely worse for most passengers and I agree with the point about vandalism but they will no doubt see till be vandalised! Couldn't they have simply made the shelters bigger if they really needed to be open? In Wednesfield there was an old style shelter that was larger than most of the other shelters which has been replaced with the new style shelters that constantly leave people exposed to the elements!

They are going in a new livery, but I cannot disclose  what it is or put a photo on the internet until the launch, A1001 is already in the new livery

When will the launch be?

Will the minibuses be in the crimson livery or west Midlands bus livery.

I doubt they'd be in either - I assumed they'd either retain the ring and ride livery/brand or have a new livery and branding if they market themselves as National Express Accessible Transport..

I've only ever done small sections of the route so not sure if many people used the route from Wolves through to Telford?

4927 was allocated last Sunday, but was swapped after half a trip for a 3/4 branded B7RLE. It was 4931 the Sunday before that, so i'd say that's the allocation for the Sunday 60 now.

Do you reckon they'll ever have a 59/60 branded set of buses like they used to with the 559/560?