30 Years of West Midlands Travel

[Tony]

Ok the farewell day was very nice. But they don't care that much. Why not paint a bus like first did to their e300?

The Pensnett open day?

Naming buses after enthusiasts?

Allowing buses to attend enthusiast events like Showbus?

And you're only presuming for some reason that they are not going to mark their 30th birthday. Why's that?

[Liberator9]

Another positive comment Liberator9, well pointed out.

Far too many contributors to this forum are so negative it often gets hard work to read through them.

@Bryan

Thank you, and good to see you're contributing positive ideas as well.

NX do care Trident 4194; the farewell days for the Spectras etc, the Metrobuses back in 2010, the various garage open days (YW, AG, PE, WN) the fact they have kept a heritage bus going in the form of 3225, the Walsall paintshop visit; sure there's other events I've missed.

Looking back it is rather clear to see that NX do value the heritage and the importance of the fleet to the enthusiasts - and I'm sure that will continue. At the end of the day they are a commercial business that has the principal task of providing a bus service to the West Midlands; it is not centered around catering to the needs of bus enthusiasts. The fact that employees there (such as Tony) do take the time to organise events and take an interest clearly indicate they are doing much more than they are required to do as a business.

So let's appreciate what they do and not start complaining about the lack of announcements about an event that has not even yet come to pass.

[Dom]

Naming buses after enthusiasts?

Plural? Who are the others?

[Westy]

Needs a book though.

Is Malcolm Keeley still in circulation?

[Tony]

Plural? Who are the others?

4817; 4884

[fleetline6477]

Maybe all those negative people who feel that something should happen to mark this 30th anniversary but that nothing is going to be done should stop complaining and make some positive suggestions to NXWM managers. A big event towards the end of October would be ideal, enthusiasts joining forces with management could enable something significant to happen.

[filbus1]

Needs a book though.

Is Malcolm Keeley still in circulation?

Very much so, he is always at Wythall Bus Museum during the summer, among other things.

[karl724223]

Would be nice to see a bus or two painted up bet PENSNETT wouldn't get one if they did 

[Stevo]

Needs a book though.

Is Malcolm Keeley still in circulation?

He was at Wythall on Wednesday, very much in circulation. Now there's an opportunity, especially as the 1931 Birmingham Regent should be back next year. An E400 in Birmingham colours alongside it - that would be classy!

[DavieDD2]

There maybe the opportunity to get a bus repainted into heritage livery if it could be done in association with Wythall or one of the other transport museums down there, Dundee's 7001 was repainted into Dundee Corporation livery with the support of Dundee Museum of Transport.

[Squiz1971]

A similar thing to what TWM did in the 90's by painting 15 buses in the old pre WMPTE days liveries for the 5 areas of the West Midlands, please feel free to correct the quantity of Heritage buses. Be nice for the 10 garages to each have a bus painted in Metrobus Blue & Cream for the DD & Lynx style Silver & Blue livery for the SD. But we still have 10 months yet before the 30 year anniversary of the deregulation of WMPTE to WMT. So we will just have to wait and see what will happens wont we guys & gals.

As has already been mentioned NX have done a lot of special events/open days for us enthusiasts so we may be surprised at what NX may do

[PM]

A similar thing to what TWM did in the 90's by painting 15 buses in the old pre WMPTE days liveries for the 5 areas of the West Midlands, please feel free to correct the quantity of Heritage buses. Be nice for the 10 garages to each have a bus painted in Metrobus Blue & Cream for the DD & Lynx style Silver & Blue livery for the SD. But we still have 10 months yet before the 30 year anniversary of the deregulation of WMPTE to WMT. So we will just have to wait and see what will happens wont we guys & gals.

As has already been mentioned NX have done a lot of special events/open days for us enthusiasts so we may be surprised at what NX may do

Wasn't the principal reason for that commercial, just ensuring no competing operator could use or claim the historic identities, after Burman City Transport abbreviated to BCT?

[don]

A similar thing to what TWM did in the 90's by painting 15 buses in the old pre WMPTE days liveries for the 5 areas of the West Midlands, please feel free to correct the quantity of Heritage buses. Be nice for the 10 garages to each have a bus painted in Metrobus Blue & Cream for the DD & Lynx style Silver & Blue livery for the SD. But we still have 10 months yet before the 30 year anniversary of the deregulation of WMPTE to WMT. So we will just have to wait and see what will happens wont we guys & gals.

As has already been mentioned NX have done a lot of special events/open days for us enthusiasts so we may be surprised at what NX may do

Not sure about WMPTE metrobus blue and cream - much as I'd like to see a modern vehicle in this livery, I'd prefer the silver/blue original TWM livery on a double decker - not sure people would want to celebrate 30 years of the demise of WMPTE - now maybe the 50th anniversary of its creation in 2019.

The one glaring omission in the heritage liveries was the lack of a Midland Red liveried vehicle to represent the 5 garages taken over from them (+ Moseley Road taking the local Digbeth based routes, and Adderley Street yard) in 1973 - a Metrobus in Midland Red heritage livery would have been great.

[Westy]

Who has the 'rights' for want of a better word, to the Midland Red name & livery?

Would NX just be able to repaint into Midland Red colours or is there a potential legal issue?

I suspect as the direct descendants of the local authority bus operations, besides Wmpte, Wmt & Twm, NX had the legal right over those liveries anyway.

The irony is at that point in time more or less, National Express would have been a trading name of Midland Red anyway!

[don]

The remainder of Midland Red was broken up into regional subsidiaries of NBC in 1981 and sold off to Arriva, Stagecoach and First, who presumably bought the companies and names - the buses would have been in poppy red or variants of - perhaps with some other variations immediately pre sale.

I doubt there would have been an issue with a couple of buses in Midland Red heritage livery (say late 50s/early 60s with the MidlanD fleetname - after all there are quite a few buses preserved in this livery and driving around the Midlands. At 413 vehicles (although at least one was accident damaged and never ran) WMPTE operated more Midland Red vehicles than any other constituent except Birmingham. Midland Red buses were always a big presence in Birmingham, present in all the other major towns/cities in the territory and almost exclusive in the Dudley/Brierley Hill, Stourbridge and Sutton areas.

Thus the red based Crimson livery is not as out of place (lacking blue) than some would have you believe ;-)