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A couple of years back Diamonsd also operated on the following routes not previously mentioned:

126 (Wolves to Dudley only)/406/449/450 and there may have been others too.

These routes just lasted a few months though and were soon withdrawn.

I wouldnt think all of the presidents will leave WB as theres too many to replace im sure some will be kept for the 451 and other routes that work around the West Brom area to replace some of the mercs in service on routes like the 448/9

It would be nice to see 448/A/B/449 to be DD operated

Not sure if there is a reason why DD' don't seem to operate the 448 now especially since the extension from the Hospital to Bartley Green. Certainly DD's can still operate on the the 447 including this Saturday just gone, so the route is still OK to Bearwood.

Saw a toothpaste liveried omnilink coming out of Knowle today (Sunday) Was showing not in service so don't know if it was a private charter or even route training but to my knowledge NXWM don't operate in Knowle its only Blue Diamond so doubt it would be route training! Any ideas on what it was doing?

It was on rail replacement duties, as there were no trains operating between Birmingham Snow Hill and Dorridge today until 12pm.

Thanks Stu, Perry Barr seem to run a lot of rail replacement duties, so it must have been one of theirs.

Has anyone got a photo of these gemini in the current livery-I also think they look smart here. Do they have high backed seating?

Yes this batch of Geminis for the 997 were delivered with higher back seats.

Or maybe an X87 would be better? Running from Birmingham and serving main stops at: City Hospital-Cape Hill-Smethwick-Galton Bridge Station-Oldbury-Tividale-Burnt Tree-Dudley.

Definitely some potential there I am sure.

Dead Mileage is any mileage that is run when the vehicle is not in passenger service. I.e. running to the garage to take up it's first trip, and then the run back to the gaarge afterwards.

The 451 branded Presidents are 4044, 4047, 4049, 4054, 4055,  4083, 4087 and 4114.

Havent some lost the 451 branding & left with the stripes as i saw one on the 74 or are they seperate buses

I don't think they all had the 451 branding put on after repainting and refurbing. Some were left unbranded in case they needed to be used on other routes at WB.

Imagine all the dead mileage if the 451 transferred to PB...

Presumably this is why the 451 was transferred back to WB garage, cos I can certainly remember the 451 being run from PB back in the early 1990's.

well, 4320 is still in the same state as the photo, and was seen heading uptowards wolverhampton this morning

Sadly this just demonstrates that fleet appearance is not important to NXWM. I really hope that culture changes soon.

If Optare Tempo 572 is now branded for the X6 to Leicester, what is happening to the Double Deckers that were previously branded for this service?

I guess there must be something in the staff contracts that say they will run a normal service on Bank Hols. Otherwise they could save a fortune by running a more realistic service especially as we are always hearing about the costs of running the railways these days.

Only 2 weeks to go to this event, really looking forward to it:

http://www.transport-museum.com/modules/events/event.aspx?id=96&learning=

It will be great to see Sandy Lane garage as I was only a kid when it closed.Also I haven't been to Cov since the new Enviro400s entered service or since the Network Review.

Certainly would. I saw on Centro on a pdf about last April tenders, and there were 14 for the S2 and S3! Although blue Diamond won of course.

Not surprised there were so many bids for this. It is a good contract to win as it is several PVR and is for at least 12 hours a day 6 days a week. Even more if the Eves and Sunday service is included too.

666 was finally withdrawn after a tragic accident when a car crashed straight into it, sadly the driver of the car died. It appears the car driver was ovetaking another car and went staight into the front of 666. 666 driver could not do anything to prevent the accident.

A terrible incident, I was working at WB garage at the time and we were all stunned and saddened.

Presumably this will eventually all fit in with the readers on the buses too and one Smartcard will cover all modes of Public Transport, at least within the West Mids County.