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Read elsewhere that Select now have an Optare Solo M850 MX54KYF. Can anyone confirm this.

Saw this Optare Solo in full Select livery (with fleetnames) today in Walsall on rail replacement duties.

[prior to deregulation]

Was only hourly if I recall when TWM ran the 991 so never really been a high frequency anyway, 1 per hour seems more than adequate plus the 35B round the villages. Looking at the times from 3rd Feb when Central start running all the 35/35A journeys the timetable is broadly similar to the existing Arriva 35/35A.

Service 901 was a reintroduction of a fast direct service between Lichfield and Walsall prior to deregulation - pre-deregulation the frequency was every 2 hours.   I expect that this reintroduction was prompted by a perceived risk of other operators doing something similar.

At deregulation the frequency was increased to every 30 minutes and extended, via Lichfield estates (omitting Lichfield bus station) to Birmingham via Sutton Coldfield.   
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/5412015574/

The 381 (via the villages) service became a regular hourly frequency in 1986, so 381/901 provided a combined 3 buses per hour end to end:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/5666650796/in/photolist-YodXM2-LpPjRe-mj4Tv6-dTyRGb-bQzxoZ-bxpnVm-br621K-bn7Bkt-ej2J8Q-a8bQR6-9CK4RN-9no9tm-9feZFm-8tYw4u-8g4SNT-88MAk6-869qqJ-869qqy-85jYaL-7ZRMug-7ZCpvS-9vkTek-7Zz2pz-bv94Fs-bv94Fm

Various cutbacks followed culminating in WMT quitting the 901/ 991 altogether in November 2007, but not before an interlude of Petes Travel competing with WMT for while.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/4843252000/

Can full size singles even get around Alumwell?

I once photographed a Leyland Lynx on 336...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/4846257374/

In tonight's express and star  the old metro trams are up for sale by tfwm and RBS

Here is a link to information about the auction:

http://email.intelligenttransport.com/q/17K8rDegTdyHnpmD0wDrwm/wv

" 
This email has been sent by Intelligent Transport on behalf of the West Midlands Combined Authority

Dear David,

The West Midlands Combined Authority/Transport for West Midlands (WMCA) is delighted to announce an exciting one-time opportunity to own not only a piece of transport history, but also a fleet of 15 type T-69 light rail vehicles.

Originally purchased from Italian manufacturer Ansaldo Trasporti and in operation between 1998-2014, the former standard bearers of the Line One route between Wolverhampton and Birmingham city centres are currently in storage at Long Marston Airfield.


The e-Auction will take place on 29th January 2018 at 10am and will be hosted by BravoSolution.

The trams are currently owned by a subsidiary of The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS). Each sale will be subject to satisfactory completion of any "know your customer" requirements which RBS may specify. Each winning bidder will be required to enter into a sale agreement in a form specified by RBS (which will be available on the BravoSolution e-Auction platform) and collect the trams from Long Marston Airfield within a specified time after the auction.

To register your interest in this unique opportunity, contact Chris Robinson, Metro Procurement Lead Officer, at: chris.robinson@wmca.org.uk  "

Yes, I believe that was true. Think I first saw it many years ago in Malcolm Keeley's book on WMPTE. Coventry fleetnumbers had 1000 added to their ex Coventry number. For example 123Y became 1123.

I believe that the origin of 1000 being added to Coventry fleet numbers was a computer issue at South Division (Birmingham) where at the time it was said that the computer said "no" to Y suffices - so ex Coventry buses at AG carried numbers 1211 etc rather than 211Y etc.  In fact 720N when transferred from Wolverhampton to PB that got renumbered 1720, so any letter suffix was presumably a problem at South division at one time.  However by 1977 it was able to cope with H suffix ex West Bromwich buses.

Passenger Transport (edition 17 November 2017) at page 19 reports that National Express West Midlands has provided an amount of funding and will operate the 22 buses.
Figures quoted are:
Scheme cost £13.4 m
£1.5m OLEV grant
£4.0m Fuel Cells + Hydrogen Joint Undertaking funding
£2.2m GreaterBrirmingham and Solhull PEP funding
and "The remainder of the funding will come from National Express West Midlands".
Refuelling site at Tyseley Energy Park to open in September 2018.

Looking at the old timetables, the 394 would have been Walsall to Lichfield as early as 1980(the Chaserider revisions!) & ceased at some point before October 1985, as that Wmpte North Division timetable book shows it running Walsall to Burntwood by then.

Prior to 1980, the 394 was running Walsall to Hednesford via Brownhills, Chase Terrace & Heath Hayes.(according to Wmpte area map of December 1974, it had started as the 294, being renumbered to 394 around the time of the Walsall area timetable  dated 6th Feb 1977. I don't have anything for 1976 sorry!)

Fares list dated 1 May 1975 shows
285 (Walsall -Brownhills-Chasetown-BoneyHay) hourly
294 (Walsall -Brownhills-Chasetown-Burntwood-Hednesford) hourly
Burntwood & Boney Hay to Lichfield were service numbers 44 + 47 at this time

Map dated November 1976 shows:
385 (Walsall -Brownhills-Chasetown-BoneyHay)
394 (Walsall -Brownhills-Chasetown-Burntwood-Hednesford)
Burntwood & Boney Hay to Lichfield were service numbers 390/1/8/9 at this time

August 1980 saw the transfer of services to Arriva, a last day photo being:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/4590284006/in/photolist-H8AM9T-bz8AYs-aAfkjj-aAfkj5-9TNWB1-9ARdR2-9ARdRc-94fiXP-8dLnWc-85U1LZ-85vDhD-7ZCpvG-7Zz2px

Think you find the combined Arriva 861 & Chase 94 became Arriva 61.

Will have to check my old timetables, but while the 394 to Lichfield was cut back prederegulation, I thought that and its predecessors always ran to Lichfield, unless I'm confusing it with the Walsall /early Wmpte version of the later Midland Red (now Arriva) Cannock to Lichfield service.

It was Zaks that ran the 95 service, but who knew about it? My elder brother & sis in law lived in the Pelsall / Brownhills area at the area(Sis in law worked in Lichfield at the time!) & bro knew nothing of the route,  when I asked him about it, as he thought he could have caught it to meet the sis in law for lunch! The only routes known about would have been the 61 & the 991!

AGREED re 61 (rather than 861).

The WMPTE 394 extension from Burntwood to Lichield was prederegulation and shortlived (at the time I got the impression that it was introduced as part of a negotiating ploy in connection with other services that were overlapped by MRN / WMPTE).
Burntwood to Lichfield was once WMPTE (WCT) territory but provided by 390 (47) from Cannock and 398 (44) from Boney Hay, both services passing to MRN in 1980 under WMPTE's retreat from Staffordshire policy.

Regarding the potential for a Lichfield - Brownhills link this has been tried on several occasions and found to be non-viable, some examples from memory being:

In the 1960's WCT service number 62 (Brownhills-Lichfield) peak hours only
In the 1960's WCT service number 960 [Beeching rail relacement] (Lichfield - Brownhills - Wolverhampton) peak hours only

In the pre deregulation era MRN 813 (Brownhills-Lichield) market day service

Around 1985 or 1986 short-lived exension of WMPTE Walsall - Burntwood service 394 to Lichfield

In more recent years Arriva, around 2007, combining Chase 94 with their own 861 to provide an extended service 861 (Walsall - Burntwood - Lichfield)

In the wake of WMT withdrawing from 991, a service 95 was introduced by a company that either already was or soon became part of Rotala (Zaks?)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/12999825374/

So history shows a lack of commercial success for bus links between Brownhills and Lichfield.

So this leaves the options of subsidy (unlikely as it looks like Staffordshire currently would like to stop subsidising bus services) or commercial sponsorship (again unlikely - in the good old days of Brownhills Market the Spook company would have been a likely candidate - they sponsored a Bloxwich service for a while).

Now, if WMT (NXWM) were to cutback service 10 to Brownhills (ie. abandon the outside Walsall MBC section of the route) then perhaps some opportunity might arise.

Are bus lanes in Perry Barr effectively policed nowadays?
10 years ago some were not:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/29865218534/

I presume promoters are confident they will get dispensation for overlength vehicles.

"Passenger Transport" dated 22 September 2017 at page 10 carries an article regarding the Sprint plans. 
This articles starts off saying "Transport for the West Midlands appears to be stepping away from earlier plans to seek a derogation that would allow it to introduce 24-metre long bi-articulated vehicles on its plant Sprint bus rapid transt network"

This decision in London is a good one and I hope that it is replicated nationwide.

Uber's business model is one of finding fares for private hire taxi drivers and many of those fares are most likely removed from the pockets of black cab drivers.

Black cab drivers are more highly regulated that private hire firms and have more stringent checks and training.  They therefore deserve some element of protection from cowboys.

What Uber has done is give private hire drivers (in fact any car driver who signs up to Uber?) access to fares that rightly belong to black cabs, by effectively alowing Uber cabs to ply for hire by electronic booking means.

I recently saw a news report where an Uber taxi picked up a fare and the vehicle appeared to have no obvious identification that it was a licenced private hire vehicle.    I thought that legitimate private hire vehicles prominently displayed logos and 'phone numbers for their operator.   

There are then employment rights, Uber drivers have been treated as self employed as a means of avoiding taxes, national insurance, employment rights and VAT.      I know that the employment rights issue has been to Court and won on the drivers behalf but it looks like Uber are not going to accept the Court decision.   Regarding VAT it is the case that Uber is holding itself out as supplying taxi services but not paying VAT on the fares, a legal case is understood to be in progress in this respect.   

I believe that the Solo is owned by Wolverhampton Science Park (in which the University have a financial connection) and itappears to be used generally as a stand in for one of the regular buses if unavailable.
I have seen the Solo in use about a month ago.

At one time service 51N was operated by Midland Red West:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/5532796949/in/photolist-r1Ytv8-dng1XQ-UngUGC-qmq7es-9qV2LR

There was proposed, in 1986, to operate Summer 1987 onwards, an all night service on 966 via Walsall to Wolverhampton.
In the event the proposed Summer time all night journeys were deleted before actually operated.

Some years prior to deregulation some night services for Walsall were once proposed, applcation was made to the Traffic Commissioners, but the application withdrawn following Taxi driver objections.

Most famous as one of the Golden Jubliee liveried vehicles!

Also received a service 997 "stand in" livery which I think was unique to this bus, here are some pictures showing most of the liveries that it once carried:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=31762625%40N06&sort=date-taken-desc&text=4128&view_all=1