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Just seen some of The Green Bus engineers cutting parts of 4230 off. So far part of the roof has gone.

Seems like my hunch was right then, about it being ripped apart for seatbelt certification.

There's one photo on Flickr of ZRG in Kev's livery - https://www.flickr.com/photos/185279134@N08/51319260047/.

I've got another one of GOA if you need another - https://www.flickr.com/photos/stourvalley/32966478378/.

Service suspended again today, after a reduced service yesterday. Who wants to take bets on the problem this time?  ::)

Interesting to hear about 4230, any more information on what these 'tests' are?

Likely tests for seatbelting them, as I believe you need to basically pull one apart as part of the test process, hence why there was half of an ex-London Gemini in their yard back in 2020.

Here we see a Portree-based Plaxton Panther making a visit to Birmingham - apparently its journey started in London so I suspect it's been thrown onto a Megabus duty

Nope, 54122 is currently parked in the depot at Portree. That's 50410, which is tracking as 54122 on Bustimes for some reason.

Omnilinks are not aging well, you will notice NX are not the only company choosing to park up Omnilinks and Omnicities  at the moment. Your dislike of B7RLES is because they are boring? That is exactly what a bus should be. It is bad journies that put people off buses, if they are instantly forgettable the bus is doing what it should.

I'll have to disagree with that statement, if the journey is forgettable, then the company is doing a bad job. Now, if customers remember the journey, perhaps for being quick, frequent, or having a nice vehicle such as a Platinum, or the staff being friendly and helpful, then it's doing what it should. Providing a good service that people will remember will keep customers returning, and hopefully attract new ones through word of mouth.

Current passenger numbers are still down compared to pre-Covid as far as I'm aware, and the industry as a whole needs to be doing more to attract people back to buses, both to keep the industry sustainable, and to play a part in reducing pollution and congestion.

Must admit I've never been a fan of the Omnilinks.

Along with the B6's, I found them a bit cramped.

Likewise, while the look and feel of them has held up remarkably well (slap a private plate on a 57 plate one and you could convince a lot of people that it's a lot newer!), the interiors do feel very cramped. I get both OmniLinks and B7RLEs on my local 11/11A, and I much prefer when one of the latter turns up.

Best news this year! I was afraid NatEx West Midlands would become just another anonymous Stagecoach subsidiary with exactly the same vehicles you see in Torquay, Dover, Manchester, Newcastle, etc....

National Express was the one taking over Stagecoach, not the other way around, and the two companies already operate similar fleets, with a large number of ADL vehicles making up the bulk of it.

diamond to regain the 36?

Nobody knows yet, as far as I'm aware, the TfWM tendered routes are out for tender. It's possible Diamond could retain some or all of them, or another operator will gain them.

He mentioned that the situation is just as bad in Willenhall and Tipton

I've lived in Tipton all my life, and naturally used the local routes too many times to count. I've never had any real issues with anti-social behavior. Sure, there's the odd few who might try and fare dodge, or play music on the bus, but nothing on the scale of what has been reported with the 29.

Thanks Tony, so it looks like it's still only going to be 2 trains per hour then.

More than likely, as I presume the limiting factor for increasing the amount of services would be paths in/out of New Street. The only thing I could think of is diverting some Cross City trains to Walsall rather than up to Four Oaks/Lichfield for the duration of the games, if extra capacity is needed.

Are WM buses compatible with Apple Pay and Android Pay? If so you could add your bank card to your smart phone wallet (if you have one of course) and pay that way?

They are, you can either use it like a contactless card on NX, where you just tap it and it charges you, or you can use it on other operators that use Ticketer to buy paper tickets.

Tracking is down again, this time for all operators in the West Midlands. The only vehicles tracking are NX coaches.

I believe the only other tram route number that is still in use, although more of a coincidence perhaps, is the 50.  In tramway days it ran City - Trafalgar Road (Moseley) via Bradford Street.  It was a short working - the full route (to Alcester Lanes End) was the 42.  Almost every short working on the Birmingham Corporation tramway and trolleybus systems had its own number.

Two other tram route numbers to last into the West Midlands Travel era were the 44 to Acocks Green via Warwick Road, and the 75 to Wednesbury via West Bromwich.

The 75 was only around for a fairly short while in recent years. The creation of WMPTE enabled the 79 to run from Wolverhampton to Birmingham, replacing the 75. It was brought back after the 79 was cut back to West Bromwich, but later axed again, replaced by the 74 shorts to West Bromwich.

There has been issues all week, I've been up in Newcastle, and both Go North East and Gateshead Central Taxis were either updating very infrequently, or dropping off the tracker altogether.

Stagecoach seemed to be less affected up there, possibly due to them not using Ticketer.