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If cross city routes worked, we would have them. They try them periodically and they always get split up again.
It's bad enough that there was/is talk of reintroducing various cross city routes including the such absolute nonsense as a combined 50/87.

take a ride on any bus out of birmingham city centre and there is your evidence

You can easily spot a master driver by their uniform, providing they wish to wear it in full. And I've seen plenty on my local routes out of Birmingham.

Anyway, this topic is for bus destination displays.

I think it was 6824 I saw a couple of nights ago on the 61/63. Scrolling display inbound and alternating display outbound

why not, they were the first garage to gain electrics, it makes sense to finish one before you start another, i think you they should complete CV then complete YW before moving on again, probably WN & WA ??

It's not Coventry getting buses or the order in which garages are done. It's the timeline involved. Some of these BYDs at YW and PB were sat around in storage for months because of the time it took to install and turn on charging units.

Coventry has to go electric fully by this year

You honestly think that's going to happen?

Just seen 2125 on the 934, should be 936 of course. The bus stop on Albert Street hasn't been changed either.

Oh that's nothing it's only Monday. We were still getting 55s on the 95 route for a couple of months! The flags were changed on time though!

more likely the fare increase is in anticipation of franchising, the politicians wont want to have the increase just after they take charge

We've been getting two increases a year, by the time franchising starts, it'll be higher again, and they'll probably put it up again themselves to pay for it. And then freeze it for a year to show how good they are.

5507 on the 14 this afternoon.
Little boy in front of me proudly telling his bus that this was a different bus, a new bus!

You're living in the past, route numbering doesn't work like that any more!

Besides, it has been proven that passengers don't get as confused with route numbers as some people think they do.

Yet the reason for changing them in the first place was because apparently people can't remember three numbers.
So either passengers actually do get confused or someone's lying.

Just read the petition page. I'm a bit suspicious really as to whether this has been started by someone who genuinely uses buses there.

Why call the operator 'Travel West Midlands'? They haven't gone by that name for many years.

That's very normal. And a lot depends on the age of the person involved. I know people who still say Travel West Midlands or even West Midlands Travel.
Back in the early 2000s my grandmother would still refer to TWM services as corporation buses and the blue Arriva 110 as the Midland Red

If I recall wasn't 2993 previously branded as the 1000th Metrobus for WMT?

Yes. It carried fleetnumber 1000 for a short while and special lettering saying it was the thousandth Metrobus for WMT.

Overheard a comment from a passerby yesterday 'oh, are Emirates doing the buses now?'. So they're definitely being noticed, even if it's for the 'wrong' reason!

i doubt that it would make them unviable though, the 45/47 have always been strong at 10-12 minutes each, and when i'm on them, they get quite full.

i also hope to god they update the bus stops in longbridge after 8 months to reflect the fact that the 182/3 actually exist

One extra bus can make all the difference between a profit and a loss

A decade before - in Coventry we had for a few years, 1xxx numbered double deckers and single decks (the 68xx Leyland Nationals from 1978 for starters - although Coventry did eventually get a few 1974 examples, not sure if any of those arrived before the 1985 renumbering though). A few ex-Coventry Transport East Lancs bodied Fleetlines survived long enough to make it to Deregulation, meaning a few operated from the then new Wheatley Street garage.

WMPTE renumbered all remaining ex-CT Fleetlines (and most of the earlier Leyland Atlanteans dating from 1964/5) into the 1xxx series from November 1979. By that point all front-engined Daimler CVG6's had gone and a fair few of the 1966 batch of Fleetlines (No's 1-22) meaning that 1001-1142 inclusive never happened - but a good percentage of ex-Coventry rear engined buses were still very much around in 1979/80.

And speaking of Coventry, the half cabs transferred to AG also were renumbered 1*** because apparently ***Y was mistaken for ***7 by admin staff.

There have been some nuances over the years with Leyland Nationals being numbered 6XXX then reverting to the 1XXX series. Weren't 9XXX saved for training buses at one time?

The nationals were in the original WMPTE series where all buses were just in the same numerical order regardless of type. These just carried on from ex BCT vehicles. So depending on delivery, they were in 44**/45**/47**/68** and 70** series. (All were renumbered in the 1*** series in 1985).
You may have also noticed the large jump from 47** to 63** in PTE buses. This was because of the acquisition of Midland Red vehicles who had many vehicles in the 48** to 62** sequence, so it avoided duplication.