The West Midlands Bus Guide & Fleet List

[Ian Hardy]

Visions International have published a new book: "The West Midlands Bus Guide & Fleet List" dated Sept 2015 which is similar to a London book that has been around for a few years, it includes chapters on:

Network Overview - including the best places to see buses in the West Midlands
The Operators - giving garages, routes and vehicle types
The Buses - with photos of the different types, who operates them and on which routes
The Garages - listing locations and routes operated from that location
The Routes - listing frequency, operator, vehicle types used and garage (the London edition also gives the PVR for each route)
Fleet List - giving fleet no, reg, type and garage

The book is 146 pages with lots of colour photos in it.

The price is £15.95 but the Yardley Wood Bus Club were selling for £15.00 at Showbus on Sunday.

<http://www.visionsinternational.biz/html/bus_books.html>

It looks a good product but what do locals think (I am from West London so do not have detailed local knowledge)?

Many thanks

Ian Hardy

[Westy]

Does National Express still produce its own little fleet list book?

Havent seen one since the Wmpte ones of the late 80's!

[JoNi]

Book provides comprehensive set of photographs of bus operations in the West Midlands of all operators.
Indeed no mention is made of NX investment programme or cascades taking place. Somebody visiting the West Midlands would be brought down to earth with vehicle presentation standards alluded to in text but not shown.
Numeric route list certainly emphasises how many routes exist in different areas with same number.

Perhaps the biggest lost opportunity is this could have been a fleet list certainly for NX at a set date in time. Indeed most Walsall Enviros being transferred to Coventry are missing and NXs tatty Mercs have been airbrushed out of existence!

[Bryan]

Has anyone else read the newly published 'The West Midlands Bus Guide & Fleet List'?

At first glance it seemed disjointed, with operator information separated from fleet lists, vehicle types and route information etc. Then having looked through it I decided I quite liked it, as it provided lots of useful information for the area.

The data which is said to be correct as at 1 September 2015 has a few minor errors that I noticed, but considering the vast amount of information in it, and as it's a first edition, that's no surprise.

The only criticism I do have is in the fleet lists section, which can be vague for the chassis and bodybuilder of some vehicles. Having said that, I'm pleased I bought it.

@Bryan - There's already another thread refering to it, I've merged the two so you can see the comments above, Winston

[Dylanbusboy45]

I have one @Bryan. I am very pleased with it as the fleet lists are very up to date even though it's more than a month out of date! There hasn't been any good West Midlands area books for a while but that his got to be the best for the amount of information in it.