Dead Mileage

[lynx1103]

In a similar vein, why were certain services in the late 80's / early 90's transferred to Metrowest, but some others wasn't?

(The one's I'm thinking of, for example, that wasn't transferred, were the old 247 & 248 which were operated by WB I believe)

Was Metrowest owned by TWM at that point?

You had all those long routes operated mainly by Wolverhampton & West Bromwich, plus Walsall's Dudley routes that extended to Stourbridge & Merry Hill.

Why didn't TWM open a new Dudley area depot sooner rather than later?

What was the story with Metrowest ownership anyway?

Remember when Hartshill/Dudley closure the

247/248/294/295/296/297

Passed to Quinton then to West Bromwich June 1997 when Quinton closed

And later to pensnett July 2000

[fleetline6477]

In a similar vein, why were certain services in the late 80's / early 90's transferred to Metrowest, but some others wasn't?

(The one's I'm thinking of, for example, that wasn't transferred, were the old 247 & 248 which were operated by WB I believe)

Was Metrowest owned by TWM at that point?

You had all those long routes operated mainly by Wolverhampton & West Bromwich, plus Walsall's Dudley routes that extended to Stourbridge & Merry Hill.

Why didn't TWM open a new Dudley area depot sooner rather than later?

What was the story with Metrowest ownership anyway?

Remember when Hartshill/Dudley closure the

247/248/294/295/296/297

Passed to Quinton then to West Bromwich June 1997 when Quinton closed

And later to pensnett July 2000

The 136/7, 242 and peak 298/299 also passed to Quinton

Metrowest was set up as an independent and was acquired by TWM, eventually really becoming Travel merry Hill

[busfan2847]

In a similar vein, why were certain services in the late 80's / early 90's transferred to Metrowest, but some others wasn't?

(The one's I'm thinking of, for example, that wasn't transferred, were the old 247 & 248 which were operated by WB I believe)

Was Metrowest owned by TWM at that point?

You had all those long routes operated mainly by Wolverhampton & West Bromwich, plus Walsall's Dudley routes that extended to Stourbridge & Merry Hill.

Why didn't TWM open a new Dudley area depot sooner rather than later?

What was the story with Metrowest ownership anyway?

Metrowest commenced operation in November 1987 when the proprieter purchased a Ford from Harris of Wombourne.  Certain local services in Wolverhampton were won on tender in May 1989 and a competing service was started with WM Travel  between Wolverhampton and Dudley.  Some local services in Dudley were operated.  The fleet started with the Ford and grew with Bristol REs being favoured for some time.  The fleet finally settled down to nearly all National with one Ailsa and a couple of Seddon RUs.

West Midlands Travel acquired Metrowest on 13th July, 1993 and instead of disbanding the operation it was expanded following the closure of Dudley and Hartshill depots to cover a good proportion of the Black Country route network as Black Country Buses (from 18th September, 1993).  Nationals both from the main fleet and from the ex Tame Valley fleet were used to increase the fleet.  WM Travel rethought the operation of separate subsidiaries in it’s area and all services were suspended from 6th August, 1994.  Replacement services (some with Metrowest vehicles for a time) being operated by Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Hockley and Quinton garages.

Vehicles were garaged at Building 61, Steetley Industrial Estate, Bean Rd, Coseley. When Black Country Buses was set up a subsidiary depot at Pensnett (Lenches Bridge) opened but was soon closed and replaced with a larger depot at the Delph, Brierley Hill.

While Travel Merry Hill may appear to be the offspring of Metrowest it was not, it was a reincarnation of Merry Hill Minibuses. With the building of the Merry Hill shopping centre, the intention was to develop a fleet of 100 minibuses running all over the area to the Centre.  Services started, on 27th May 1988, with 20 Freight Rover Sherpas with Carlyle bodies.  The operation was jointly owned by Carlyle Works, Richardsons and West Midlands Travel.  Travel WM took total control on March 19, 1997 and renamed the operation Travel Merry Hill.  Many big bus services have been transferred to this operator in a similar way Metrowest was used in 1994, however with more success!  From 27th January 2002 TMH was merged with TWM however operations from Pensnett garage continue.

Vehicles were garaged at Merry Hill until 1999 when the current Pensnett Garage opened.

[winston]

In a similar vein, why were certain services in the late 80's / early 90's transferred to Metrowest, but some others wasn't?

(The one's I'm thinking of, for example, that wasn't transferred, were the old 247 & 248 which were operated by WB I believe)

Was Metrowest owned by TWM at that point?

You had all those long routes operated mainly by Wolverhampton & West Bromwich, plus Walsall's Dudley routes that extended to Stourbridge & Merry Hill.

Why didn't TWM open a new Dudley area depot sooner rather than later?

What was the story with Metrowest ownership anyway?

Metrowest commenced operation in November 1987 when the proprieter purchased a Ford from Harris of Wombourne.  Certain local services in Wolverhampton were won on tender in May 1989 and a competing service was started with WM Travel  between Wolverhampton and Dudley.  Some local services in Dudley were operated.  The fleet started with the Ford and grew with Bristol REs being favoured for some time.  The fleet finally settled down to nearly all National with one Ailsa and a couple of Seddon RUs.

West Midlands Travel acquired Metrowest on 13th July, 1993 and instead of disbanding the operation it was expanded following the closure of Dudley and Hartshill depots to cover a good proportion of the Black Country route network as Black Country Buses (from 18th September, 1993).  Nationals both from the main fleet and from the ex Tame Valley fleet were used to increase the fleet.  WM Travel rethought the operation of separate subsidiaries in it's area and all services were suspended from 6th August, 1994.  Replacement services (some with Metrowest vehicles for a time) being operated by Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Hockley and Quinton garages.

Vehicles were garaged at Building 61, Steetley Industrial Estate, Bean Rd, Coseley. When Black Country Buses was set up a subsidiary depot at Pensnett (Lenches Bridge) opened but was soon closed and replaced with a larger depot at the Delph, Brierley Hill.

While Travel Merry Hill may appear to be the offspring of Metrowest it was not, it was a reincarnation of Merry Hill Minibuses. With the building of the Merry Hill shopping centre, the intention was to develop a fleet of 100 minibuses running all over the area to the Centre.  Services started, on 27th May 1988, with 20 Freight Rover Sherpas with Carlyle bodies.  The operation was jointly owned by Carlyle Works, Richardsons and West Midlands Travel.  Travel WM took total control on March 19, 1997 and renamed the operation Travel Merry Hill.  Many big bus services have been transferred to this operator in a similar way Metrowest was used in 1994, however with more success!  From 27th January 2002 TMH was merged with TWM however operations from Pensnett garage continue.

Vehicles were garaged at Merry Hill until 1999 when the current Pensnett Garage opened.

Black Country Buses ta Metrowest became WMT's low cost operation, as well as operating National 1's & 2's from the main WMT fleet they also operated a smaller fleet of ex WMT Metroriders from Delph garage mainly on ex HL minibus routes i.e. 210, 212 etc

[YWDriver]

Wow, that latter board has a lot of dead mileage. There's also the morning board on a weekday morning with the 76E and 863. The bus (usually a trident although the odd Enviro turns up) runs dead from YW to Solihull Station to pick the 07:27 76E departure from Solihull Station. It then runs through to Kings Heath Vicarage Road. After that it runs dead to the garage and then becomes the 863 to Light Hall School. I don't know what happens then; but possibly it runs dead back to the garage or takes up service on another route.

It does pick up another service but for the life of me I can't remember it at the moment, the bus is back at garage at 0955 in any case.

Just to clear it up the bus then runs a round trip on the two but starts at Warstock on the inbound trip.

[Liberator9]

[/quote]
Just to clear it up the bus then runs a round trip on the two but starts at Warstock on the inbound trip.
[/quote]

Thanks for checking that for me; much appreciated.