National Express West Midlands Fleet

National Express West Midlands (formerly West Midlands Travel) is the largest bus operator in the West Midlands area. It operates over 80% of the county's bus services on a commercial basis, as well as operating various school and subsidised services. Buses from its Coventry depot run under the name of National Express Coventry. Previously, the companies were called Travel West Midlands and Travel Coventry and most vehicles still show these logos.

The company operates 1595 buses in normal passenger use and 21 driver training vehicles.

NXWM Fleet List

Fleet
This is the official fleet list of National Express West Midlands Buses, including National Express Coventry vehicles. Driver trainer vehicles are not included, but are listed at the bottom of this page. Buses that are in the reserve fleet/withdrawn are shown in brackets next to the number in service.

Codes
National Express West Midlands runs 11 normal garages. 10 of these actually trade as National Express West Midlands and over half of these are located in Birmingham, with the other 4 being located in the Black Country. The other garage is the National Express Coventry garage, in Coventry. For easy and quick recognition, each garage has its own unique code, which is listed below.

Dennis Trident 2/ALX400 & TransBus Trident 2/ALX400
National Express West Midlands operates 360 Tridents, which were purchased between 2001 and 2005. They are the company's most common type of bus. Each bus has a seating capacity of 73 or 71, depending on whether it has Alexander ALX400 or TransBus ALX400 bodywork. These two bodyworks are virtually identical, with Tridents prior to 4425 having Alexander bodywork with those above having TransBus. The only major difference in the bodywork is the Alexander examples having an extra small window downstairs behind the stairs, which the Transbus examples only have one small window.

Earlier Tridents have Voith Gearboxes, whilst 4405 upwards are instead fitted with ZF ones.

Current operations
Currently, National Express West Midlands operates Tridents out of five of its garages across the Midlands.

It is not uncommon to see Tridents on most routes operated by Wolverhampton, Birmingham Central, Yardley Wood and Coventry Garages. Some buses at Wolverhampton are branded for services 79, 126 (both Wolverhampton - Birmingham) and 559 (Wolverhampton - Ashmore Park), whilst some at Birmingham are branded for the Pershore Road services.

At Walsall Tridents are used mainly on services 6 (Walsall - Sutton Coldfield), 51 (Walsall - Birmingham) for which some buses are branded, 340 & 341 (Walsall - Willenhall) and services 529 & 908 (Walsall - Wolverhampton).

At Birmingham Central Tridents are used on most routes including services 45/47 (Birmingham - West Heath/Cofton Hackett), 14 (Birmingham - Chelmsley Wood) & 97/97A (Birmingham - Chelmsley Wood)

At Yardley Wood Tridents are used on routes 2 (Birmingham - Maypole/Warstock), 3/3A (Birmingham - Solihull/Acocks Green), 18 (Yardley Wood - Bartley Green), 35 (Birmingham - Hawkesley) & 49 (Solihull - Weoley Castle)

History
The first batch of Tridents arrived with National Express West Midlands, at the time Travel West Midlands, in April 2001. These 17 buses started service at Walsall Garage, where they replaced four year old Volvo B10Ls on the 529 (Walsall - Wolverhampton) route, for which most were branded for.

These were promptly followed by a batch of 20 to Yardley Wood Garage and 18 to Wolverhampton for the 559 and 560 (Wolverhampton - Ashmore Park/Bloxwich) services, which most of this group were branded for. Lea Hall then received 23 Tridents in July 2001 for the 96 and 97 (Birmingham - Chelmsley Wood) routes, again for which buses were branded for.

Travel Coventry then received its first Tridents when 22 arrived in August 2001, completing the first batch of 100 Tridents. These were delivered in the Travel West Midlands livery and then repainted when Travel Coventry was formed 2 years later.

In February 2002 the second batch began arriving, starting with an additional five Tridents for Walsall. These were immediately followed by 21 for Wolverhampton garage, of which some were branded and used on the 79 service (Birmingham - Wolverhampton). These Tridents were intended originally to go to West Bromwich Garage and to be branded for the 74 (Birmingham - Dudley), and Mercedes 0405N's to be used on the 79. Tridents were delivered to West Bromwich and drivers there were type training on the type before the decision was made at very short notice for the Tridents to go to Wolverhampton instead. This was so that Wolverhampton would not have to introduce another vehicle type to the garage, as they already operated Tridents and did not have Mercedes 0405N's at the time.

In May, 24 more Tridents arrived for Yardley Wood (4331-54), 4354 was fitted with a tachograph and was the Yardley Wood showbus for many years, followed in August - October 2002 by a batch of 41 for Birmingham Central, which were used and branded for The Bristol Road group of routes. All of this batch transferred to Yardley Wood in 2007 along with the 50 route, where they gained the new service 50 (Birmingham - Druids Heath) branding. To finish off the batch of 110 vehicles, Coventry received a further 19 Tridents in October/November 2002, now in the Travel Coventry blue.

May 2003 saw the start of the delivery of the third batch of Tridents, now made by TransBus. Numbered from 4425, the first delivery saw 30 enter service at Birmingham Central, some being branded for the 900 service (Birmingham - Coventry) and the Coventry Road group of services, with the 20 remaining out of the batch entering service at Lea Hall, with some being branded for service 94 (Birmingham - Chelmsley Wood).

The final 100 Tridents started arriving in December 2003, with a huge influx of 75 entering service over the next 12 months at Wolverhampton, replacing a lot of older MCW Metrobuses at the garage. Some of this batch were branded for the 126 (Wolverhampton - Birmingham) service, but not from new. The final 25 entered service from November 2004 at Birmingham Central Garage, where some were branded for the Pershore Road services. These 25 also replaced all of Birmingham Central's MCW Metrobuses, making it at the time, the only 100% completely low floor easy access bus garage.

Since their introduction there have been few minor movements of Tridents, with most movements being of small quantities due to route alterations, and also to allow other vehicle movements to garages which did not operate Tridents.

But there was a major movement of Trident's between 2005 and early 2007 as 4355-4395 were all transferred from Birmingham Central to Yardley Wood. Some transferred with the transfer of route 50.

However, in March 2010 major changes began occurring to the arrangement of Tridents at National Express West Midlands. To coincide with the introduction of Scania OmniLinks at Yardley Wood Garage, and also the re-conversion of the 97/A services to Double Deck, Yardley Wood transferred in excess of 30 Tridents to Lea Hall. The reason why the 97/A had been converted back to Trident operation soon became clear because in April, it was announced that Lea Hall was closing and the 97/A was transferring to Birmingham Central, who did not operate single deck vehicles at the time.

From 17 July 2010, movements began in advance for the 25 July changes, with 3 Tridents transferring to Birmingham Central from Walsall, as part of a three way swop, involving ALX B7s going to Perry Barr, and Walsall then receiving three Geminis from Perry Barr, to prevent any garage operating buses it didn't previously.

During the weekend of 25 July 2010, in which Lea Hall shut the vast majority of Tridents transferred to Birmingham Central, along with the majority of Lea Hall's routes. Birmingham Central gained the most as to prevent Tridents transferring to Perry Barr because they have never operated this vehicle type, so that Perry Barr could then operate the 94 using all of Birmingham Central's remaining ALX400's instead. Walsall gained 4 (4365, 4370, 4371, 4374), Wolverhampton gained 2 (4384 & 4385) and Yardley Wood regained 1 (4375).

In early April 2011, Birmingham Central operated 4336 was completly destoryed by an engine fire while operating route 900 on the A45 returning from Coventry, and will not be returning to normal service. This will be the first Trident to be scrapped.

Allocations
Withdrawn (1) 4336

Mercedes-Benz O405N
National Express West Midlands operates 193 of these buses, which were purchased from early 1998 until early 2000. Each bus seats 43 passengers. They are the second most common type of vehicle operated by National Express West Midlands, in addition to being the only Mercedes-Benz vehicles operated in normal passenger service.

Current operations
Currently, O405Ns are operated out of six National Express West Midlands garages throughout the region, where they can be seen to be operating on most services operated by those garages.

At West Bromwich they are used on routes 89, 127/128, 238, 448/A, 449 & 450. Meanwhile at Bordesley, some buses are branded for the 8A/C Birmingham Inner Circle, and used on the 13, 17, 26 and.

Pensnett use their examples on routes 120 (Birmingham - Dudley), 140/141 (Birmingham - Dudley / Merry Hill) as well as most pensnett routes 241, 246 and 276.

History
When new, between 1998 and 2001, most O405Ns were used on routes for which they were branded. At Birmingham Central garage they were branded for Network Harborne services, at West Bromwich they were branded for the 404 (Walsall - Blackheath), 451 (West Bromwich - Sutton Coldfield), 74 (Dudley - Birmingham) and 79 (Wolverhampton - Birmingham) services.

At the now closed Hockley Garage, buses were branded for the 8A/C Birmingham Inner Circle services and also the 65 (Birmingham - Perry Common), 68A/C North Birmingham Circular and 66/A (Ladywood - Erdington/Sutton Coldfield) services.

At Lea Hall, meanwhile buses were branded for the 94 (Birmingham - Chelmsley Wood) service, whilst at Coventry buses were branded for the Primeline Group of services which run up the Foleshill Road.

Since their introduction, Birmingham Central has lost all of its original allocation, whilst when Hockley Garage closed in 2005, Bordesley Green, West Bromwich and Lea Hall gained Hockley Garage's allocation of Mercedes O405N's.

After the Lea Hall closure in July 2010, West Bromwich, Pensnett and Bordesley all gained extra allocations. Whereas Birmingham Central and Wolverhampton are new garages to operate these buses, Birmingham Central have operated these buses in the past. They replaced some of the B10B's at Wolverhampton Garage. Wolverhampton also gained 6 0405N's from Coventry on this date. 3 were repainted into the NXWM livery because 1545 and 1549 were already in the NXC livery, but the remaining 3 were only partly repainted into the old TWM livery but with NXWM fleetnames. On these examples, the old Foleshill Road branding was still visible on Wolverhampton based 1543, 1544 and 1547, until 1543 received a repaint into NXWM livery and 1544 and 1547 were tidied up.

After the March 2011 service changes, all of the 0405N's at Birmingham Central were transferred to Bordseley Green, with two extra coming back from Wolverhampton.

In April 2011, Birmingham Central regained some Mercedes 0405Ns, but this still happened even though none of their Scania Omnilinks were transferred to Bordesley garage.These are now operating on the 58 service, and is the first time these buses are operating in Solihull since Lea Hall garage closed last year (apart from some workings on the 82, when operated by Coventry garage), and 13 have transferred to Wolverhampton in Transfer for Volvo B10L's that went to Perry Barr, allowing Scania Omnilink's to transfer to Bordesley garage.

Withdrawals
Only one O405N has been withdrawn since their introduction, this was 1623 which was badly damaged during the West Bromwich Garage fire in December 2001. This was replaced by ex-demonstrator 1743.

Scania K230UB/Scania OmniLink
National Express West Midlands operates 165 OmniLinks, out of most of the companies garages. They began entering service in 2007, with the newest vehicles entering service in May 2010. Most OmniLinks seat 43 passengers. Four OmniLinks contain high-backed 'Coach Style' seating. These are based at Perry Barr.

Current operations
Currently 7 of National Express West Midlands garages operate OmniLinks.

At West Bromwich they are used mainly on the 404/A/H Walsall - Blackheath/Cradley Heath/Merry Hill services for which some buses are branded. It is also quite common for one to be operating on the 451 (West Bromwich - Sutton Coldfield) service.

At Walsall, OmniLinks are used on the 29 (Walsall - Bloxwich), the 301 (Walsall - Mossley) service and the 311/313 Walsall to Dudley services.

Yardley Wood uses its OmniLinks on the 6 (Birmingham - Solihull),

Birmingham Central use theirs on the 29/A (Birmingham - Northfield/Shenley Fields) and X62/X64 (Birmingham - Rubery) services.

Perry Barr's allocation see service on most routes including 16 (Hamstead - Birmingham), 907 Sutton Coldfield - Birmingham and the high-backed coach style seating examples being used on the 952 (Perry Beeches - Birmingham).

Coventry uses its buses on the PrimeLines services 20, 30A/C, 40, 50 and 60, for which buses are branded

Acocks Green's Omnilinks are used primarily on the 37 (Birmingham - Solihull) service, but occasionally appear on other services.

History
In October 2007, the first group of Scania OmniLinks began arriving at Lea Hall Garage. The batch of 33 buses were used mainly on the 97 and 97A services (Birmingham - Chelmsley Wood), for which some buses branded were branded for.

These were followed by 27 OmniLinks for Perry Barr. The 23 normal examples were used on a variety of routes, including the 16/A (Birmingham - Hamstead/Great Barr), for which a couple of buses were branded for. The four high-backed coach style seating buses were originally used on the 934 service between Birmingham and Streetly as part of a Centro partnership. After amendments to these routes, the buses transferred to the 52 (now 952) service, which they remain on to this day.

The second batch began entering service in January 2009, with 15 buses going to West Bromwich for use on the 404 service, for which buses were branded for. These were followed by fifteen for Coventry, which gained branding for the PrimeLines services.

In May 2009 West Bromwich received five more OmniLinks for the 404, whilst in June 2009 Walsall gained 25 for use on the 301 and 311 & 313 services, but buses did not receive branding.

In January 2010, Walsall gained 6 Scania OmniLinks from West Bromwich garage, as 6 running boards on the 404 transferred to Walsall. During the same month, the final batch of OmniLinks began arriving with the company.

The final batch started entering service in March 2010 at Yardley Wood Garage, when the first of 22 OmniLinks started service on the 6 between Birmingham and Solihull. At around the same time, 9 OmniLinks also transferred from Lea Hall Garage to Yardley Wood.

In April 2010, 5 more Lea Hall OmniLinks left, but this time to Perry Barr, where the 907 (Birmingham - Sutton Coldfield) service was converted to mainly single-deck operation.

The final 23 OmniLinks of the batch started entering service at Acocks Green from April, finishing in June 2010 where they were mainly used on the 37 (Birmingham - Solihull) service.

At the end of May 2010, Walsall transferred the 6 OmniLinks it had gained from West Bromwich back, along with the relevant duties on the 404 service.

With the closure of Lea Hall Garage on 25 July 2010, the remaining OmniLinks based there transferred to Birmingham Central, where they became the main allocation on the 29, 29A, X62 and X64 services. These were joined by the ex-Lea Hall examples that had transferred to Yardley Wood and Perry Barr, earlier in the year.

In addition to these, Perry Barr gained 10 OmniLinks from Walsall garage. This meant that the Urban's at Walsall were reinstated back onto the 311/313 leaving the remaining Scania's on the 29 and 301 services.

At the August service changes in 2010, Walsall then gained back 7 of the 10 OmniLinks transferred to Perry Barr a month earlier, meaning the 311/313 is converted back to Omnilink operation.

In April 2011, 13 OmniLink's from Perry Barr transferred to Bordseley Green, in transfer for 0405N's transferring to Wolverhampton, and Volvo B10L's transferring to Perry Barr.

Future
Birmingham Central were due to transfer some OmniLink's to Bordesley Green, in transfer for Mercedes 0405N's, but so far, this transfer has not occured, even though 3 0405N's have being spotted at Birmingham Central. It is unknown if this transfer will stil hapen.

Volvo B7TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini
National Express West Midlands owns 140 of these buses, which were purchased from 2003 to 2006. The majority of these buses were purchased to replace older MCW Metrobuses on key routes throughout Birmingham and Coventry.

Current operations
Perry Barrs Geminis are used on a variety of routes, including 'Line 33' (Birmingham - Pheasey), of which 12 are branded for and can also usually be seen on the 7 (Birmingham - Perry Common), 101 (Birmingham - Handsworth) and 'The Sutton Lines' (Birmingham - Sutton Coldfield via Erdington) services as well as regularly filling in on the 16 (Birmingham - Hamstead), 65 Birmingham - Perry Common, 67 (Birmingham - Castle Vale) and the 94 (Birmingham - Chelmsley Wood).

Acocks Green use their Geminis on the famous Birmingham Outer Circle bus service, the 11, as well as the 5 (Birmingham - Solihull), 31 (Birmingham - Shirley), 73 (Birmingham - Solihull) and 966 (Solihull - Erdington) services, and some peak time workings of the 1 (Town Hall - Acocks Green) and 37 (Birmingham - Solihull) services.

Those allocated to Walsall usually work on the X51 (Birmingham - Walsall Limited stop), 77 (Walsall - Sutton Coldfield), 529 (Wolverhampton - Walsall) and 935 (Birmingham - Walsall) services, whilst it is not uncommon to see one or two operating on the 340/341 services between Walsall and Willenhall. One of these remain in the Premier 997 livery, albeit without the 'Premier 997' wording (the others are in National Express West Midlands livery). Seven of Walsall's eight Geminis contain coach-style high-backed seating from their previous lives on the 'Premier 997' service.

Coventrys Geminis are used on the 13 service which links Willenhall with Prologis Park, of which the majority of buses are branded for, but they sometimes sneak onto other routes, such as the 27 (Coventry Rail Station - Walsgrave Hospital), and many other Coventry routes.

West Bromwich's Gemini allocation are the main type of bus used on the Dudley Road services 82 and 87, but they also make appearances on other routes, such as the 74 (Birmingham - Dudley), 80 (Birmingham - West Bromwich), 89E (Birmingham - Smethwick) ,127/128 (Birmingham - Blackheath) and the 451 (West Bromwich - Sutton Coldfield). None of the West Bromwich buses are branded for any routes as the Dudley Road branding was lost in 2010 when branded buses 4700-4710 received repaints into the NXWM livery.

History
The first four Geminis were delivered to Travel West Midlands entered service at Perry Barr garage in May 2003 on the 33 (Birmingham - Pheasey) service, taking over from the Volvo B10Ls allocated to this route. In total, 13 were delivered branded for the service, these being 4475 - 4487, by July 2003. These were joined by several more at the garage, with the last Perry Barr Gemini entering service in December 2003.

Geminis from 4506 upwards were equipped with monitors in the upstairs front window and in the downstairs luggage rack.

The Acocks Green vehicles began entering service in January 2004, and entered service on the 31 (Birmingham - Gospel Oak), 41 (Birmingham - Solihull (Now withdrawn)), 72 (Solihull - Chelmsley Wood). None were branded for any services.

Then in October 2004, the first new Gemini's started to arrive to upgrade the Outer Circle from Metrobus operation. At the time the Clockwise route was ran by Perry Barr garage and the Anti-Clockwise route was ran by Acocks Green. The first 2 buses at both garages (4635 & 4636 at Acocks Green, and 4658 & 4659 at Perry Barr), had special branding for the route with a big Circle on the sides showing the main places that the 11 serves. The rest were branded with a smaller circle above the drivers window and the doors also showing the main places served by the route. The last Acocks Green buses entered service in November 2004 with the last ones at Perry Barr entering service in December 2004. There were noticeable changes in these newer buses from the older Geminis and these being the opening window upstairs by the seats above the cab, and the loss of the side rear indicator light. These also had a LCD display at the front rather than Dot Matrix on previous examples.

Walsall was the next garage to gain Geminis in January 2005. These were to be used on the Walsall - Birmingham 997 service upgraded to a Premier service. These 7 buses all wore a distinctive 'Premier 997' Livery, complete with branding for the route. They also had high back seating in a special seat pattern only seen on these Premier buses.

A major transfer of Geminis occurred between July and October 2005. This was due to the 11C being transferred from Perry Barr to Acocks Green. 4658-4661 left for Acocks Green in July. 4662-4668 then made the same move in September, with the remaining 11 (4669-4679) leaving Perry Barr in October 2005. After this point, Acocks Green then solely operated all 11 journeys in both directions.

A further 10 buses then entered service while these movements were occurring in August 2005, this time in Coventry to take over Metrobuses on the 13 service (Willenhall - Prologis Park via City Centre). 6 out of the 10 are branded for this route. These buses are the only ones in the whole fleet with '05' number plates.

In December 2005, 4518-4527 at Acocks Green were prepared for new route branding, with the Travel West Midlands logo's being removed. They then received branding for the 37 service (Birmingham - Solihull, replacing Volvo B7TL/Plaxton Presidents on the route, and started to operate the route from January 2006.

West Bromwich's Geminis were new between July and August 2006. The first 8 (4700-4707) were branded for the Dudley Road services 82 and 87 showing a map on both sides for the routes. 4708-4710 were also branded for the Dudley Road, but 4708's special branding read 'Investing in Sandwell', 4709 read 'Investing in The Black Country' and 4710 was 'Investing in Dudley'. These buses also replaced MCW Metrobuses off the 82 and 87, cutting the number operated by West Bromwich.

December 2006 then saw the Geminis branded for the 37 being de-branded and used on other Acocks Green services due to the Wright Eclipse Urbans replacing them on the 37. This then meant that the Volvo B7TL/Plaxton Presidents at Acocks Green could transfer to Birmingham Central, with the Geminis replacing them on other Acocks Green routes, and also onto the 192/194 Solihull - Coventry routes (now withdrawn).

No more Geminis were then ordered, but in January 2007, 4517 transferred to Perry Barr from Acocks Green, due to the Geminis being replaced on the 37 by Wright Eclipse Urbans. 4517 then spent a year at Perry Barr until it returned to Acocks Green with extra transfers 4511-4514 in January 2008.

The allocation of Geminis then remained the same until April 2010 when 4503-4507 were transferred to West Bromwich from Perry Barr. This was because Perry Barr had received 5 Scania Omnilink's from Lea Hall to convert the 907 to single deck operation. These 5 went into service on the 82 and 87 services, but also work on the 74, 80 and 451. Also, in April, 4525 and 4528 transferred to Walsall from Acocks Green. Then in May 2010, 4523, 4524, 4527 and 4531 also transferred to Walsall because of the changes made by the North Walsall Review, making a total of 6 transferring.

Walsall then received 3 Perry Barr Gemini's 4488-4490 on the 17th July, in preparation for the 25 July changes. These were the only Travel West Midlands liveried Geminis operating out of Walsall. This was part of a three way transfer, with Walsall transferring Tridents 4317, 4326 & 4366 to Birmingham Central. Birmingham Central then transferred ALX400s 4241, 4251 & 4263. These then replaced the Gemini's so they could replace the Tridents at Walsall.

Then at the next service changes at the end of August 2010, all but 1 of the ex-Acocks Green Gemini's at Walsall were transferred to Perry Barr to allow the 5 leather seated Enviro's there transfer to Walsall so that the 997 can be completely operated by Walsall again. Also transferred to Perry Barr were Gemini's 4488-4490, which only spent a month at Walsall. The main reason for swapping the Omnilinks for Gemini's was so that service 65 (Birmingham - Perry Common) could be converted back to Double Decker operation, even though single deckers are still common on this route.

Volvo B6LE
National Express West Midlands currently operates 117 of these buses in normal passenger service, with Wright Crusader bodywork. 183 buses were purchased new between 1996 and 1999, but five have transferred to National Express Dundee and three have been withdrawn due to fire damage. A further 57 are in the reserve fleet.

Most buses seat 37 passengers, with the exception of the ex-Hotel Hoppa examples which seat 29.

Current operations
At present, National Express West Midlands operates B6s out of five garages, Walsall, Pensnett, West Bromwich, Coventry and Acocks Green.

At Walsall & West Bromwich they are used on most services, whilst at Coventry they most commonly appear on the 801 (University Hospital Coventry - University of Warwick), for which buses are branded for, and at Acocks Green they now only appear occasionally alongside B10Ls on single-deck operated routes.

At Pensnett they are used on routes 222/E (Dudley - Merry Hill - Halesowen), 243, 244 (Dudley - Merry Hill/Hasbury) & 297/297A (Dudley - Merry Hill)

History
Between September 1996 and February 1999, Travel West Midlands received its Wright Crusader bodied B6 buses. Buses were delivered new to West Bromwich, Yardley Wood, Acocks Green, Pensnett (Travel Merry Hill), Walsall and Coventry, whilst others went to other divisions prior to entering service in the Midlands, such as Travel London, Smiths/Your Bus and SpeedLink.

Following transfers, B6s have also spent time at Perry Barr, Birmingham Central and Wolverhampton Garages.

Over the years Volvo B6LEs have been branded for 'The Link' (Sutton Coldfield Routes), The Beechdale (Routes 370 & 370A),Travel Coventry's Park and Ride North & South Services (Now ran by Central Connect & Travel DeCourcey) and 406H (West Bromwich - Great Barr).

In September 2008, another B6LE, 229, entered service. This was used solely on Rail Replacement and a Walsall College football shuttle service. It sat 29 passengers and was not equipped with a cab-door or ticket machine, having been transferred from the Hotel Hoppa division. It was sent to the reserve fleet in June 2010.

This was followed by as many as fifteen other ex-Hotel Hoppa examples, which had various seating configurations. All of these were sold on, apart from one which had its luggage rack replaced by 6 seats, repainted and entered service at Walsall in September 2010. It is unlike 229 because it has a cab door, ticket machine and a Smart Pass reader.

Plaxton Pointer B6
In 2004, Travel West Midlands obtained a batch of 4 Plaxton Pointer Volvo B6 buses from sister company Travel Dundee.

These were placed in use, initially, on the 205 by Pensnett depot which had been introduced from a curtailment on the 88. These Volvo B6s did not, unlike their Wright Crusader bodied counterparts, have low floor and so therefore were non-standard in the Pensnett fleet.

In April 2008, after the Dudley Network Review occurred, these were withdrawn and transferred to store at NXWM Miller Street.

Wright Crusader B6
Since 1998, 8 Volvo B6LEs have left service with National Express West Midlands, prior to the introduction of the main withdrawal programme.

505 (P505 EJW), 532 (P532 EJW) and 637 (S637 VOA), which were allocated to Pensnett, West Bromwich and Walsall garages, were scrapped after all three suffered severe fire damage in January 2006, ??? and December 2008 respectively.

Meanwhile 521 (P521 EJW), 522 (P522 EJW), 523 (P523 EJW), 527 (P527 EJW) & 531 (P531 EJW) all have left to go to National Express Dundee. These buses left from a variety of garages to head North in mid-2005.

From September 2009, many B6s started being withdrawn to the reserve fleet. Some buses only temporary entered for refurbishment, whilst others were surplus to requirements.

Future
A small number of B6's are withdrawn and also reinstated to various garages every month, sometimes not to the same garage where the bus was withdrawn from, after refurbishment and repaint.

Acocks Green's two remaining B6LEs are expected to soon be withdrawn, as this type of bus is no longer needed there.

In April 2011, West Bromwich atransferred a small number of B6LE's to Birmingham Central for the 636, they replaced the Dennis Darts that returned to West Bromwich.

Volvo B7TL/Plaxton President
National Express West Midlands operates 99 of these buses, having originally operated 102, which were delivered between 1999 and 2000. Each bus seats 74 passengers.

Current operations
Currently, Plaxton President bodied B7TLs operate out of just three National Express West Midlands garages.

At Birmingham Central they appear on most routes operated by the garage.

At Acocks Green, they are used on the 1 (Town Hall - Acocks Green) service, for which some buses are branded, as well as on other double-deck services, alongside the Wright Gemini B7TLs, such as the 5 (Birmingham - Solihull), 31 (Birmingham - Shirley) and the 966 (Solihull - Erdington).

At West Bromwich, they are used only on the 451 (West Bromwich - Sutton Coldfield) service, for which most buses are branded, but also appear on other double-deck services.

History
Between October and December 1999, the first 19 buses entered service at Birmingham Central Garage. These buses were used on a variety of services, including the Hagley Road Corridor, for which a number carried branding for.

These were followed by 15 for Walsall Garage, which began entering service at the beginning of the new Millennium. These buses were branded for the 51 (Walsall - Birmingham) service for which they became the main allocation on, whilst a further 15 entered service at Acocks Green on the 37 service (Solihull - Birmingham) service, again for which buses were branded for.

The now closed Hockley Garage then became the fourth garage to receive Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TLs, when they received 11 examples, with Perry Barr being next in line, when they took receipt of four in February 2000.

Yardley Wood garage took receipt of 21 (4087-4107) in February, whilst Birmingham Central then received two more (4108-9), before Perry Barr gained 10 more, these being branded for the Sutton Lines group of services, linking Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield.

4120-4123 were all to Smiths Coaches of Shennington, where they were used on the Airbus service, serving Birmingham International Airport. These quickly entered normal service at Travel West Midlands soon afterwards. The final example, 4124 was new to Perry Barr Garage.

In May 2002, the allocation of the Presidents at Yardley Wood mostly transferred to West Bromwich garage, due to new Tridents at Yardley Wood. A smaller number also transferred to Hockley (4104-4107).

In May 2005, all of the earlier Presidents transferred between Yardley Wood and West Bromwich then transferred again to Birmingham Central Garage. Following the closure of Hockley Garage, Birmingham Central took 4072 - 4082, 4102, 4103, 4121 and 4123. 4120 and 4122 transferred to Perry Barr.

In March 2007, 4033 was the first bus in the fleet to be repainted into the then new toothpaste livery and refurbished inside, but in the old seat patterns. This was the only toothpaste liveried bus to operate from Birmingham Central.

In the summer of 2007, following an agreement with Centro, the B7TLs were centralised to operate from just three garages. Walsall and Perry Barr all lost their allocations, whilst West Bromwich gained 14 and Acocks Green gained 11. These buses were completely refurbished and used on 'The One' and 451 services from November 2007 for which some buses were branded for. Birmingham Central then received the remainder, which all started a programme of refurbishment which continued well into 2008.

In January 2009, 4080 was transferred to Acocks Green, making 4080 the first President to operate from another garage rather than Birmingham Central in the NXWM livery.

4080 was later joined at Acocks Green by 4033, repainted from toothpaste livery into the NXWM livery.

Following the closure of Lea Hall, fifteen B7TLs moved from Birmingham Central to Acocks Green. Most replaced B6LEs and the final three Metrobuses, whilst the rest were for route 966 (Solihull to Erdington) which transferred from Lea Hall.

West Bromwich then lost 4085 to a severe fire on the 14th September 2010. Details are still mostly unknown. It is rumoured that the engine out of 4085 will be used in 4030 and 4030 is to be repaired and reinstated. (Damage to 4085)

Also in September, 4031/2/4 have appeared with the new style green branding for the Pershore Road services, along with some Tridents, including the already Pershore Road branded buses.

In March 2011, for an unknown reason, West Bromwich and Birmingham Central swopped 4079 and 4086 between garages, and also 4110 has been noted operating from West Bromwich, more than likley for a replacement for 4108, also fire damaged.

4029 has also transfereed to West Bromwich, and may be the reason for ALX400 4226 transferring to Perry Barr from West Bromwich.

Withdrawals
Between March and April 2008, four B7TLs were withdrawn due to fire damage. All four were based at Birmingham Central garage and were buses 4028, 4030, 4035 & 4088.

4035 is the only one to have so far re-entered service. It is still unclear if the remaining three are likely to enter service again.

West Bromwich based 4085 has suffered severe fire damage on the 14th September 2010 and is withdrawn from service. It is currently away getting repaired, using the roof from 4030, which will then more than likely go for scrap.

In December 2010, Acocks Green's 4115 was involved in an accident while working the 11C in Cotteridge, and was withdrawn with severe front-end damage.

West Bromwich based bus 4108 is also withdrawn due to an arson attack and this will be scrapped, as the damage is too bad and parts from 4108 are gonig to repair 4028.

Allocations
4028, 4030, 4085 and 4088 are all currently withdrawn due to fire damage, and 4115 withdrawn due to severe front-end damage. It is currently unclear if these withdrawals are permanent or for repairs.

Alexander Dennis Enviro400
National Express West Midlands operates 90 Alexander Dennis Enviro400 buses, which mostly arrived at the company in 2008 and 2009. Most buses seat 77 passengers, however former-demonstrator 4698 seats 78 and the high-backed coach-style seating examples at Walsall only seat 76.

Current operations
Currently Enviro400s are operated out of four National Express West Midlands depots.

At Yardley Wood they are used mostly on the 50 service, which links Birmingham with Druids Heath but it is not rare for these to appear on the 2, 3/3A,18, 35, 49 & 76.

Pensnett uses its examples on the 9 service linking Birmingham with Stourbridge and alongside O405Ns on the 246 Stourbridge - Dudley service.

Perry Barr's buses with normal seating are often found on virtually every service serving Sutton Coldfield (the 115, 902, 904, 905, 907 (Sundays & peak times), 914 & 915), and also the 934/A (Birmingham - Asda Queslett) service. They also make appearances on services 7 (Birmingham - Perry Common), 16 (Birmingham - Hamstead) and the 94 (Birmingham - Chelmsley Wood).

Walsall's Enviro400s are used on the 997/E (Birmingham -Pheasey/Walsall) routes. These buses contain high-backed coach-style seating, with a leather finish. There are usually a couple of these vehicles operating with Gemini's on the express X51 service.

History
At the beginning of 2006, Alexander Dennis sent an Enviro400 demonstrator to National Express West Midlands, at the time Travel West Midlands. This was based at Perry Barr Garage, where it operated on the Sutton Lines services, linking Sutton Coldfield with Birmingham.

Following the successful trial period, National Express ordered several more Enviros, the first of which arrived between July and December 2007 when a further 20 entered service at Perry Barr, fully converting the Sutton Lines.

The final bus of these 20, 4737, was the first bus to be delivered in National Express West Midlands livery.

25 more than entered service at Yardley Wood Garage between January and February 2008 for the frequent 50 service between Birmingham and Druids Heath, for which some buses were branded. Quite interestingly, several actually first entered service on loan at Walsall Garage for one or two days prior to starting work at Yardley Wood, where amongst other services, one operated the 405E service between Walsall and The Yew Tree Estate.

Also during January 2008, Perry Barrs five coach-style seating examples entered service on the 993 service between Birmingham and Streetly and Walsalls examples also entered service on the 997/E (Walsall/Aldridge - Birmingham). The reason for the non-standard seating was an agreement with Centro about showcasing the routes.

The only change occurring between these buses arriving, and the next batch entering service in June 2009, was the change of routes in which the coach-seated Perry Barr buses were used on. They had now changed to operate the 992/993/994 Birmingham - Streetly services, and also the 934/A/B (Birmingham - Queslett/Pheasey) services.

The 30 buses entering service at Birmingham Central were for use on the 9 and 99 services between Birmingham and Stourbridge/Merry Hill Centre, for which many examples were branded for.

In Spring 2010, the 99 was withdrawn and replaced by the similar 141 service, which became Enviro operated, whilst in April, the 997E was withdrawn and new service 997A was introduced between Birmingham and Kingstanding Circle. To coincide with this, the 992/993/994 services were replaced by a new Walsall service 935. This then enabled Walsall to primarily use its Enviros on the 997 and peak 997A journeys, with Perry Barr using its coach-seated examples on mostly the 997A and peak workings on the 997, and the 934 service (Birmingham - Asda Queslett), but also sneak onto other routes at peak times.

In June 2010, Yardley Wood loaned 4739 to Pensnett to enable the drivers to type train on Enviro 400's before the transfer of routes 9 and 141 at the closure of Lea Hall.

On 25th July 2010, the entire allocation of Enviro 400's at Birmingham Central Transferred to Pensnett as routes 9 and 141 also transferred there. However on the same date 4739 was returned to Yardley Wood

At the end of August 2010, the 997A was withdrawn. These were replaced by the 997E to Pheasey and all journeys now oeprated by Walsall. This meant that the Leather Seated Enviro 400's at Perry Barr were all transferred to Walsall.

Future
In March 2011, National Express West Midlands announced it will be purchasing 120 new buses to improve the current fleet. Of these, 50 will be Enviro 400s, as well as 9 Enviro 400H hybrid-electric versions, and introduced to various garages, from September 2011.

Volvo B7TL/ALX400
National Express West Midlands owns 90 of these buses, purchased between 2001 - 2002. These buses are often confused with the Dennis Trident 2 buses with the same bodywork, but can be differentiated by having two rows of seats between the top of the stairs and the front of the bus on the upper deck and also that the downstairs rear window has curved edges rather than squared on the Dennis versions. The sizes of some of the windows on both decks are also different between the two, most noticeable the window on the fire door and opposite.

Current operations
At present National Express West Midlands operates these buses out of just three garages. The small allocation at Coventry appear on most of the routes operated by the Garage.

Perry Barr use their large allocation on most of their routes, including the 7 (Birmingham - Perry Common), 16 (Birmingham - Hamstead), 65 (Birmingham - Perry Common), 94 (Birmingham - Chelmsley Wood), 101 (Birmingham - Handsworth), 115 (Birmingham - Sutton Coldfield via Lichfield Road) and the 904/914 (Birmingham - Sutton Coldfield). They also appear in some peak workings of the 67 service and also on Sundays, when no Bendi-buses are used.

West Bromwich mainly use their ALX400s on the 74 (Birmingham - Dudley), 80 (Birmingham - West Bromwich), 127/128 (Birmingham - Blackheath )and the 451 (West Bromwich - Sutton Coldfield), although it is not rare to see ALX400s also appear on routes 82/87 (Birmingham - Bearwood/Dudley) as cover for Gemini's that usually operate these routes.

History
In September 2001, the first nine B7TL/ALX400s entered service branded for the 65 (Birmingham - Perry Common) service from Perry Barr garage. This coincided with the route transferring from Hockley Garage, who operated the route using Mercedes O405Ns.

A month later, Birmingham Central gained the first of their large allocation, starting with 4234, with their allocation slowly entering service until January 2002. A total of 15 (4250-4264) were branded for service 50 (Birmingham - Druids Heath).

The next garage to operate these buses was the now closed Hockley, which in total, had 13 for the 16 service (Birmingham - Hamstead), of which 8 were branded. 4277 & 4278 from Hockley were also fitted with tachographs so that they could be used for private hire.

In January 2002, Perry Barr were set to receive 26 (4279 - 4304) more of these buses for use on the 'Sutton Lines' services, for which they contained branding for, replacing Volvo B7TL/Plaxton Presidents, which were only two years old at the time. Too many had been ordered however, so 10 of the buses were quickly debranded, whilst a further five (4300 - 4304) were re-registered with 'ST02' plates and sent to Travel Dundee.

Then in December 2002, Coventry received their allocation of ALX400s and were some of the first new buses delivered in the then new Travel Coventry livery. To this day, they have operated on many of the routes operated by Coventry Garage.

There was no movements of ALX400s until November 2004 when 4300-4304 transferred back from Travel Dundee. They were debranded from Dundee routes 22/C and were allocated to Birmingham Central, after being planned originally to enter service at Coventry.

A major transfer of the ALX400s then occurred in May 2005 when Hockley Garage closed. All of their allocation (4265-4272, 4274-4278, 4290-4299) transferred to West Bromwich, along with route 16.

September 2006 saw the 16 service and the buses 4264-4273 and 4275-4278 transfer to Perry Barr.

All remained the same until the end of 2007 when Perry Barr received an allocation of Scania OmniLinks, replacing ALX400s on the 16 and the 65. This meant that a large number of ALX400s transferred to Birmingham Central in order for the Volvo B7TL/Plaxton Presidents to get full refurbishments and repaints, and also to West Bromwich. 8 transferred to Birmingham Central, whilst another 12 went straight to West Bromwich.

On January 31, 2009, Birmingham Central based bus 4253 suffered major roof damage after travelling into a Low Bridge in the Cradley Heath area whilst on route 139 (now withdrawn).

Between January and August 2009, 4253 was repaired, repainted and re-entered service in mid August 2009.

8 B7TLs then left Birmingham Central Garage for Perry Barr Garage in November 2009, to enable MCW Metrobuses to be withdrawn, and these were 4238, 4243, 4245-4247, 4254, 4256 & 4258. 4248 also Transferred to West Bromwich.

In January a further 2 also transferred from Birmingham Central to Perry Barr. These were 4234 & 4240.

Then a week before the Lea Hall closure, 4241, 4251 & 4263 then transferred to Perry Barr Garage from Birmingham Central due to 3 Gemini's transferring to Walsall as part of a three way transfer. Birmingham Central gained three Trident's from Walsall.

On the 25 July 2010, following Lea Halls closure, 23 of the 24 vehicles at Birmingham Central transferred across to Perry Barr Garage, with one each transferring from West Bromwich and Birmingham Central to the reserve fleet.

At the August service changes, 4225 in reserve was reinstated to Perry Barr, and 4269, also in reserve was reinstated to Birmingham Central and is the only one of its type at the garage, having lost all of its allocation a month earlier.

4269 was then transferred to Perry Barr in September 2010.

On 31st March 2011, 4226 with it's incomplete branding was spotted on the 16A. Along with 4225, both had transferred to Perry Barr, 4225 not long leaving Perry Barr returning to West Bromwich.

Volvo B10L
National Express West Midlands currently operates 81 of these buses in normal service, 75 with Wright Liberator bodywork and the rest with Alexander Ultra.

A further 16 are currently in the reserve fleet, 2 of these have Alexander Ultra bodywork and initially ran on Compressed Natural Gas, with the remaining 12 having Wright Liberator. Of these 12, five have recently entered the reserve fleet after coming out of service with National Express Dundee, whilst the others have come from Walsall.

Each bus seats 43 passengers. No B10Ls carry branding for any routes.

Current operations
Acocks Green currently use their allocation of B10Ls on the S1 (Solihull - Damsonwood circular), 71 (Solihull - Sutton Coldfield), 72 (Solihull - Birmingham) as well as some peak workings of the 37 (Birmingham - Solihull).

The Perry Barr B10Ls are used on a variety of routes including the 28/A (Scott Arms/Great Barr - Heartlands Hospital), 46 (Birmingham - Perry Barr), 65 (Birmingham - Perry Common) and the 68A/C North Birmingham Circular Services.

Yardley Wood have their B10Ls mainly on the 2, (Birmingham - Maypole), 3/A (Birmingham - Solihull/Acocks Green), 27 (Hawkesley - Alcester Lanes End), but they also make appearances on routes 6, 18 and 35.

Wolverhampton's B10Ls also appear on a variety of services.

History
The first Wright Liberator B10Ls began arriving from September 1996 to multiple garages and continued to do so until late 1997. The first branded batch were for Perry Barr service Line 33, which starting operating in November 1996 in an all over blue livery and continued to operate the service until the arrival of the Geminis, some 6 years later. It is worth noting they were repainted into the Low floor livery with Line 33 branding and next stop displays.

Whilst the second branded batch, wearing a similar livery, were for the Walsall route, the 301, which continued on the route until October 2007. These buses, along with a few unbranded ones from other garages, then all had a complete interior and exterior refurbishment and were used on a new Centro partnership route the 377 (Walsall - Sutton Coldfield). The 377 has now being renumbered and has had it allocation replaced with Wright Eclipse Urbans, and sometimes Dennis Trident/ALX400s and Wright Eclipse Geminis.

The Volvo B10Ls have being branded for a lot of routes as well as those mentioned above, these include Route 34, Hagley Road, Network Harbourne, Route 301 as well as routes 50Y and 97Y when some were allocated to Travel Your Bus.

In June 1997 14 Alexander Ultra gas-powered buses entered service on the 529, complete with branding, making it the first 100% gas powered route in the whole of the United Kingdom. However, just months afterwards all fourteen were taken off the road for checks after an issue was found with similar buses at a bus company in Nottingham. The NXWM buses were however safe and soon returned back to normal service and continued operating the 529 until the arrival of the Dennis Trident 2s in early 2000. From thereon they operated on most services in Walsall. In 2007, 7 were converted to run on diesel and were converted into driver trainers and used in the driver training fleet. The remaining 7 in service were converted to run on conventional diesel by March 2008. In February 2010 however, 1502, was converted back into a passenger service vehicle, repainted and was reinstated back at Walsall after 3 years as a trainer but has since entered the reserve fleet along with the vast majority of these buses. 1512 and 1509 are also currently in the process of being converted back.

Previously, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Pensnett and Birmingham Central have also operated B10Ls.

One B10L, 1466, transferred to Travel Dundee from Perry Barr in 2003. It returned in 2010 and was placed in the reserve fleet, but with its Dundee fleet number, 7115.

Perry Barr also temporally lost all of their allocation in January 2009, with their B10L's transferring to Acocks Green and Pensnett, but 7 months later, began regaining an allocation from Pensnett, Yardley Wood, Acocks Green and all of Walsall's allocation of Wright bodied examples.

On 3 July 2009, 1410 became the first B10L to get the proper NXWM logo.

In March 2010, Wolverhampton received another small allocation of B10Ls, to replace the step floor Volvo B10Ls at the garage. B10Ls have operated from Wolverhampton in 1999 for a brief period, when the Hagley Road branded B10Ls were replaced by Volvo B7TL/Plaxton Presidents, but were soon reallocated to other garages.

By the end of May 2010, all of the Wright Liberator examples and all but 2 of the Alexander Ultra examples were withdrawn from Walsall. Within a week of June the final two examples were withdrawn. Walsall had operated both types of B10L since their introduction in 1996/97.

In May and June 2010, several ex-Travel Dundee B10Ls transferred down to the West Midlands, including former 1466, where they are set to re-enter service in the near future. These buses can be distinguished by their fleet numbers being in the 7000 series.

In July 2010, the first Alexander Ultra bodied B10L was reinstated to Yardley Wood. 1506 was also followed by 7 others Alexander Ultra's.

Other changes during the end of July, due to the closure of Lea Hall, saw three Wright Liberator examples out of the reserve fleet transfer to Acocks Green Garage. Wolverhampton's allocation all transferred to Perry Barr, whereas Pensnett's allocation was transferred to Yardley Wood. The only exception to this was 1451, which had been on loan from Pensnett to Yardley Wood but was transferred to Perry Barr instead.

However, just days afterwards, Wolverhampton regained all of its allocation from Perry Barr, plus a number of others from Perry Barr Garage.

At the August service changes, 1444 transferred to Yardley Wood from Perry Barr Garage, and also one each left Yardley Wood and Acocks Green for the reserve fleet, both in the NXWM livery.

In November 2010, 1415 and 1467 were repainted into an all-over blue livery with the intention of replacing Acocks Green's two Blythe Valley branded B6LEs on the S9 route. However, as the S9 Centro-tendered contract was awarded to Silverline in January 2011, it is currently unclear what will happen with these two uniquely painted buses, but for now they remain in active service appearing on several of Acocks Green's routes.

The new year saw 1461 and 1471 reinstated to Wolverhampton from the reserve fleet. Also 1405 and 1422, from Acocks Green were spotted on Perry Barr routes, but they were only on loan for an unknown reason.

In April 2011, three of the ex-Dundee B10L Liberators (7127-7129) have entered service at Acocks Green garage, having been fully refurbished into the new livery and with LED destination displays. Also, due to Scnaia OmniLink's transferring from Perry Barr to Bordseley Green, 12 B10L's have transferred from Wolverhampton to Perry Barr, replaced by ex Bordseley Green 0405N's.

Future
Within the next week, most of the B10L's at Wolverhampton are transferring to Perry Barr, to allow Scania OmniLinks to transfer to Bordseley Green.

Allocations
Withdrawn (1) 1506 (This is now reinstated at YW.)

Bold Font represents buses with Alexander Ultra bodywork, compared to the standard Wright Liberator.

Optare Excel
National Express West Midlands operates 56 of these buses all from its Wolverhampton garage. There are two lengths - one with a seating capacity of 32, 33 or 34 and the other of 38. Despite being low-floor easy access buses, the smaller length vehicles lack a suitable space for buggies and wheelchairs.

Current operations
Currently Optare Excels are operated out of just one National Express West Midlands Garage, Wolverhampton, where they can be found operating most single-deck services.

History
Between December 1998 and March 1999, Wolverhampton Garage took delivery of a batch of 35 Optare Excels. These buses were all bigger length examples and were able to seat 38 passengers. These buses were mainly used on the Pendeford Circular services, 504 - 507, for which many were branded, as well as the now withdrawn Dudley - Wolverhampton service 261, again for which some buses had branding for.

In late 2002, Travel West Midlands took receipt of a further 14 Optare Excels. These buses were new to sister company Travel London in 1998, and were converted to single door before entering service in the West Midlands. The earlier examples could sit 34 passengers, whilst the later ones 32.

The first of these entered service at Birmingham Central Garage in Summer 2003, when as many as five came into use on the 44 service. The remainder of the batch entered service at Wolverhampton Garage, where some received branding for the 526 (Wolverhampton - Stowlawn) service, and the 500 (Free City Centre shuttle bus) service. By the end of 2003, Birmingham Centrals examples had moved to The Black Country.

The Excels remained pretty much untouched until a further seven arrived from sister company Travel Dundee in December 2008. Despite being numbered in the 7*** series, these buses were initially new to Travel London and are from the same batch that entered service with Travel West Midlands in 2003. By the middle of 2009, all seven of these buses had entered service.

Volvo B7RLE/Wright Eclipse
National Express West Midlands currently operates 39 of these buses, 38 with Wright Eclipse Urban bodywork and one demonstrator with Wright Eclipse 2 bodywork. Each bus with Wright Eclipse Urban bodywork seats 42 passengers and entered service between November 2006 and February 2007. The one bus with Wright Eclipse 2 bodywork seats 44 passengers, and after first coming into use in December 2009, entered service with National Express West Midlands in June 2010.

Current operations
Currently, just two garages operate B7RLEs. At Acocks Green the sole demonstrator with Wright Eclipse 2 bodywork works mainly on the 37 (Birmingham - Solihull) service.

At Walsall, the B7RLEs are known to appear on most routes from time to time, but can most commonly be found operating the 10/A (Walsall - Burntwood/Brownhills West), 77 (Walsall - Sutton Coldfield), 302 (Walsall - Lower Farm), 333/E (Walsall - Darlaston/Wolverhampton), 405 (Walsall - West Bromwich) and 935/A/E (Birmingham - Kingstanding/Walsall/Rushall) services.

History
In November 2006, the first of 38 new full length single deck B7RLEs began entering service at National Express West Midlands, the first for five years.

The first half of this batch entered service at Walsall garage, replacing Volvo B10Bs on the 311 and 313 services, which at the time ran between Walsall and Stourbridge/Dudley. Most of the batch received branding for these services.

The second half began entering service at Acocks Green garage between January and February 2007. These buses replaced Volvo B7TL double deck buses on the 37 service between Birmingham and Solihull.

Everything remained the same with the B7RLEs until June 2009. National Express West Midlands replaced B7RLEs on the 311/313 services with brand new Scania OmniLinks. As such, three transferred to Acocks Green garage to cover a recent frequency and therefore PVR increase on the 37 service, whilst the 333 (Walsall - Wolverhampton), 329/A/E (Walsall - Bloxwich) and 302 (Walsall - Bloxwich) services at Walsall started being operated by B7RLEs, with other routes regularly seeing them in action.

In October following the shortening of the 311 route to terminate at Dudley, the spare Scania OmniLinks replaced B7RLEs on the 329 route, allowing the 366 (Walsall - Sutton Coldfield) service to become operated by Volvo B7RLEs.

Again everything remained constant until May 2010, when once again Scania OmniLinks replaced Volvo B7RLEs, this time on the 37 service. This allowed all of the B7RLEs to transfer to Walsall, in order for Walsall to withdraw B6LEs.

Also in May 2010, demonstrator 1908 arrived with National Express West Midlands. Carrying the newer Wright Eclipse 2 bodywork, this bus entered service in June at Pensnett Garage on the 246 (Dudley - Stourbridge) service, and was expected to visit a different garage every three months during its one year stay with the company, but remained at Pensnett garage.

After 10 Omnilink's transferred from Walsall to Perry Barr in July 2010, the B7LRE's began to appear on the 311/313 again, replacing the Omnilink's.

The 311 and 313 changed back to Omnilink operation a month later when 7 out of the 10 Omnilink's transferred back to Walsall from Perry Barr.

March 2011 saw the Wright Eclipse Urban 2 demonstator 1908 transferring to Acocks Green and is currently operating on route 37. 1908 on the 37 23/3/11

Future
In March 2011, National Express confirmed its intention to improve the current fleet, with the purchase of 120 new buses. Of these, 52 will be B7RLEs, with the Wright Eclipse Urban 2 bodywork. These will be introduced at various garages, from September 2011. 50 of these will be brand new, and the other two will be 1908, which will be bought, and another demonstrator will also be bought, most possibily BG59 FYB.

Allocations
Fleet numbers with no formatting are the original Eclipse bodywork whereas bold fleetnumbers are of the Eclipse 2 style bodywork.

Optare Solo
National Express West Midlands currently operates 21 of these buses. Some have seating capacities of 27, whilst others have 28 or 29. A large number of ex-West Midlands Solos are now with National Express Dundee, also a number have being sold to other bus companies in August 2010.

Current operations
At present, four garages operate Solos. These are Coventry, Perry Barr, West Bromwich & Wolverhampton.

At Wolverhampton they can often be seen on the 641/A (Wolverhampton - Goldthorn Park) and 682/A (Wolverhampton - Finchfield/Compton) services, whilst regularly filling in on the 598/698 (Wolverhampton - Bushbury) and 526 (Wolverhampton - Stowlawn) services.

At Perry Barr they are used on the 651 (Pheasey - Hamstead Village) and 654/A (Perry Barr (One Stop) - Hamstead Village) services, whilst regularly filling in on the 65 (Birmingham - Perry Common).

Coventry uses its Solos on services 11 (Coventry - Stonehouse Lane) and 42 (Coundon - Cannon Park).

At West Bromwich, they appear alongside Dennis Dart operated services, including the 688 (West Bromwich - Dudley).

History
During their time at National Express West Midlands, Solos have been based at Wolverhampton, Pensnett, Coventry, Perry Barr, Acocks Green & Walsall garages.

Following the Solihull Review in 2009, Acocks Green withdrew their allocation of Solos, as they were no longer required.

West Bromwich garage took 3 Solos from Perry Barr in July 2010, after several of its Dennis Darts were transferred to Bordesley garage with the 636 route.

A Small number have also been sold in the Lea Hall Auction in August 2010.

Future
No further changes are known at present.

Withdrawals & Transfers
A large quantity of Optare Solos have transferred between National Express West Midlands and its sister company, National Express Dundee. These are listed below:

Optare Spectra
Current operations The Optare Spectras appear on most of Wolverhampton's local routes, mostly the 501 (Wolverhampton - Tettenhall Wood), The Pendeford Cliculars 504-507, 598 (Wolverhampton - Bushbury Hill) and the 698 (Wolverhampton - Wobaston). They also appear on the longer 256 (Wolverhampton - Stourbridge) service.

But they have also made rare appearances on both the 79 and 126 Birmingham to Wolverhampton routes.

History
The first Optare Spectra to enter service with Travel West Midlands was in January 1998, when 4001 was branded as 'Britain's first Low Floor, Low Emissions, Easy Access double decker', with fleet number 1. A second was new on this day to Travel Dundee as Scotland's first Low Floor double decker, with fleet number 2.

The next 20 Optare Spectras to enter service with Travel West Midlands was in January 1999 were new to Birmingham Central garage, most were branded for the 50 service, with the last one entering service at the end of April 1999.

Then in August 1999, 2 was transferred from Dundee and both 1 and 2 were renumbered 4001 and 4002. This now meant that 22 were now operated by Travel West Midlands.

In 2001, 4014 was withdrawn due to severe fire damage while operating on route 50 in Druids Heath. It was then later scrapped, bringing the number of Spectras back down to 21.

They were then replaced on the 50 in November 2001 with new Volvo B7TL/ALX400s. The Spectras then got debranded and then operated on every other Birmingham Central route.

4006 received fire damage to the lower deck in February 2008 and was withdrawn, while a decision was made about its fate.

In December 2008, 4006 was reinstated back to Birmingham Central Garage after receiving repairs to the earlier fire damage. This was the first Optare Spectra to receive the NXWM livery, and the only one to get repainted while still allocated to Birmingham Central.

In the summer of 2009, Birmingham Central received new Enviro 400s for the Hagley Road routes, which have since transferred to Pensnet., so the Optare Spectras then all transferred to Wolverhampton where they replaced the last of Wolverhampton's allocation of MCW Metrobuses. But the Spectras and the Metrobuses did run side by side at Wolverhampton for a short time while the Spectras were being repainted. They had all transferred by October 2009.

In October 2009, as the future of National Express's bus operations were uncertain, a number of Spectras were repainted into an all-over white livery. A total of 4 were painted into this livery and they were 4005, 4015, 4018 and 4020.

Then in April 2010, the first of the Spectras, 4006 was fitted with a digital display. This followed by the rest of the Spectra's.

June 2010 saw the final Spectra repainted into the NXWM livery, with the final one being 4009. This also includes the small number repainted into all-over white livery. 4009 was also the only Spectra to operate in the old Travel West Midlands livery with a digital display.

Dennis Dart
National Express West Midlands currently operates 16 Dennis Darts, 14 with Alexander ALX200 bodywork. Each bus is 8.8m in length and seats 28 passengers.

The other two are Wright Crusader bodied and seat 36. These are now in service at West Bromwich. There is also one more of these buses not currently in use but is in the reserve fleet.

Current operations
National Express West Midlands operates Darts at West Bromwich garage. They are used mainly on service 414 (West Bromwich - Friar Park) and 688 (West Bromwich - Dudley).

History
Previously, National Express West Midlands have operated Darts in the early - mid 1990s, these examples having Wright Handybus bodies, and being based at Walsall and Wolverhampton Garages.

In the early 2000s meanwhile, they also operated one bus with ALX200 bodywork, which was used on the Wolverhampton City Circular service 500. This bus is now with Midland.

After a period of a few years were no Darts were operated by Travel West Midlands, a batch of 14 were sent up from sister company Travel London, which had inherited them from their takeover with Connex in June 2000. These arrived between May and August 2005 and went straight into service at West Bromwich Garage.

In January 2009, following the withdrawal of three of the already small quantity of routes the Darts operated on at West Bromwich, it was anticipated that the buses were going to transfer to Walsall Garage. In the event this did not happen, as West Bromwich inherited two minibus routes from Perry Barr, seeing Walsall gain Optare Solos instead.

In July 2009, two Darts transferred to Acocks Green Garage on a temporary three month loan to cover a shuttle bus route, required due to a diversion on the Outer Circle Bus Route. This route was paid for by Severn Trent who were conducting the roadworks. It is worth noting that they also sneaked onto other routes, most notably operating a duplicate service on route 1 during the Ashes 2009 tournament, and working the 36C service on another occasion. The two buses returned to West Bromwich in September 2009.

In July 2010, following the transfer of the 636 to Bordesley Garage, nine Darts moved out of West Bromwich, leaving just five in service there.

A further transfer of the 636 to Birmingham Central saw the Darts transfer again to Birmingham Central.

In April 2011, Birmingham Central's Darts transferred back to West Bromwich, as Birmingham Central gained Volvo B6LEs to operate the 636.

Scania CN94 Omnicity Artic
National Express West Midlands operates 11 of these articulated buses, the newest 'Bendy buses' with the company. Each bus seats 58 passengers and entered service in 2004.

Current operations
Currently, all 11 OmniCity Artics are operated out of Perry Barr garage and used solely on the 67, Birmingham - Castle Vale service.

History
In September 2004, all eleven OmniCity Artics entered service at Perry Barr garage on the 67 service. Every single bus was branded for the service, where they replaced older Mercedes O405GN bendy-buses.

Initially, most buses were registered with '04' numberplates, but were reregistered to '54' plates before entering service.

Bus number 6022 meanwhile inherited its registration plate from former PB bendy-bus 6001 as this was the first ever bendy bus ordered by Travel West Midlands for route 67.

To this day, these buses remain on the 67 service.

From the end of 2009, into the beginning of 2010, all of these buses underwent refurbishment and a repaint into National Express West Midlands livery, therefore losing their 67 route branding.

Mercedes-Benz O405GN Artic
National Express West Midlands operates 10 of these articulated buses. Each bus seats 59 passengers.

Current operations
Currently, all ten of these articulated buses operate out of Coventry Garage. They are used on PrimeLines service 21 (Wood End - Willenhall), but occasionally appear on another PrimeLines route, the 27.

History
In March 1999, Travel West Midlands took receipt of its first ever Bendy-Buses, when eleven Mercedes-Benz O405GN Artic, entered service at Perry Barr garage for route 67 (Birmingham - Castle Vale), for which they carried special branding for. The initial plan was for them to go to Walsall and be used on the 51 (Birmingham - Walsall) service, however, this fell by the wayside.

At some point between 2000 and 2003, 6010 suffered horrific fire damage after an electrical fault and was therefore scrapped.

In 2004, following the arrival of new Scania bendy-buses for the 67 service, the remaining ten buses were refurbished, repainted and transferred across to Coventry, where they remain on the same route to this day.

Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530G Artic
National Express West Midlands operates 10 of these articulated buses, each with a seating capacity of 56 passengers.

Current operations
Currently National Express West Midlands operates all 10 of these buses from its Coventry Garage, where they are used on the 27 PrimeLines service, for which most carry special branding.

History
Upon arrival in 2003, nine buses went straight into service at Coventry Garage, whilst the other entered service at Perry Barr Garage, where it replaced scrapped Mercedes-Benz 0405GN 6010, scrapped due to severe fire damage.

When Perry Barr's bendy-bus fleet was replaced in 2004, 6021 joined the rest of the batch at Coventry.

Currently, two if these ten buses are now in the National Express Coventry livery.

Scania OmniCity
&nbsp National Express West Midlands currently operate 6 of these double deckers, which each have a seating capacity of 76, or in the case of former-demonstrator 4697, 72.

Current operations
Currently, all six buses operate out of Perry Barr Garage. They appear on a variety of routes, but most commonly can be found on the Sutton Lines Group of services and 16 (Birmingham - Hamstead)

History
Travel West Midlands received its first Scania OmniCity in November 2005, when a Demonstrator was delivered to the company. This was based at Perry Barr Garage, where it was joined by an order of five others between February and March 2008.

Despite the most recent arrivals being delivered with '57' plates, two of the five were converted to '08' plates. The first change happened in March 2008 when 4780 was re-registered, having previously carried the registration BV57 XLB, the second occurred in October 2008 when 4781 was also re-registered having previously carried the registration BV57 XLC.

Volvo B10B
National Express West Midlands currently has 53 of these buses in the Reserve Fleet. Some carry Wright Endurance bodywork, whilst only one carries Alexander Strider.

The seating capacity of the buses with Alexander Strider bodywork is 51. The same applies to the first two buses with Wright Endurance bodywork, which were demonstrators. The other buses with Wright Endurance bodywork seat 48.

History
In September 1994, West Midlands Travel introduced 6 ex-dealer stock Volvo B10B buses into the fleet. These buses all contained Alexander Strider bodywork and were based at Wolverhampton Garage.

In the Summer of 1995, West Midlands Travel then took receipt of its first Wright Endurance examples, the first being two demonstrators, which again were based at Wolverhampton. These were followed in December 1995, by the first batch of 15 buses ordered new by the company (1329 - 1343), which were all based at Wolverhampton.

In March 1996, Walsall became the second garage to receive B10Bs, when 12 (1344-1356) were delivered for use on the 529 service between Walsall and Wolverhampton. Buses were branded for these routes. Acocks Green then took receipt of 21 B10Bs (1357-1377) for use on the 37 (Birmingham - Solihull) service, again for which buses were branded.

Wolverhampton received six more examples in June 1996 (1378-1383) branded for service 260 (Wolverhampton - Merry Hill Centre),

The final 10 entered service at Walsall in July 1996 branded for the 311/312/313 services between Walsall and Stourbridge. These were numbered 1384-1393.

In 2000, the B10Bs were replaced on the 37 service by Volvo B7TL double deck vehicles at Acocks Green, causing the allocation here to transfer to both Yardley Wood and Pensnett Garages.

October 2002 saw Acocks Green B10B's 1357-1371 and 1375 transfer to Yardley Wood, and 1372-1374 and 1376 & 1377 transfer to Pensnett.

In January 2003 Wolverhampton based 1378 was transferred to Walsall.

Towards the end of 2006, Walsall received brand new Volvo B7RLE single decks, to replace the B10Bs on the 311/313 services. All of the B10B's there were transferred to Wolverhampton.

In January 2007, most of the B10B's transferred between Walsall and Wolverhampton were transferred to the reserve fleet.

In February 2007, the 28 service at Perry Barr was re-routed to go underneath a low bridge in the Erdington area. As a result, all of Walsall B10B's in the reserve fleet transferred to Perry Barr Garage. These were 1344-1356, 1378, 1384-1386 and 1388.

Between February and April 2008, Yardley Wood transferred all of its vehicles to Pensnett.

June 2009 saw the majority of Pensnett's allocation of B10B's transferred to Wolverhampton Garage with the exception (1373 & 1375) which instead, transferred to Perry Barr Garage, only 1372 & 1376 remained in service at Pensnett.

Pensnett Last operated B10B's in September 2009. Walsall briefly gained their last two (1372 & 1376) to cover for vehicles on a rail replacement service, however these were quickly withdrawn a month later.

Towards the end of 2009, the main withdrawals of B10Bs commenced, with the whole fleet set to be withdrawn by the end of 2010. Perry Barr and Wolverhampton began gradually withdrawing them out of service to the reserve fleet, where a small quantity where then converted into driver trainer vehicles.

Perry Barr and Wolverhamptons remaining allocations were officially withdrawn in July 2010, but remained in service at Wolverhampton into August.

Withdrawals
Prior to the start of the main withdrawal programme in 2009, six B10Bs had been withdrawn from service and scrapped.

The first was Wolverhampton based Alexander Strider bodied 1321 (M321 LJW), which suffered horrific fire damage in 1997. The second and third were Wright Endurance bodied examples 1371 (N371 WOH) and 1374 (N374 WOH). 1371 was involved in a fatal accident in Bunns Lane, Dudley, in May 2007, in which the driver lost control and careered into a house causing an explosion, killing a pedestrian on its way. 1374 was withdrawn following an engine fire, in April 2007. Both of these buses were based at Pensnett.

Two more Wolverhampton B10Bs were withdrawn in June 2009 with accident damage following a fatal collision between the two at the old Wolverhampton Bus Station. One involved in the accident, 1332 (N332 WOH), was scrapped almost immediately. , The other bus involved in this accident, 1358 (N358 WOH) is withdrawn and has had parts removed in Miller Street.

Another bus, 1343 (N343 WOH), which was also involved in a crash at Wolverhampton Garage was scrapped in January 2010.

The main programme of withdrawals of Volvo B10Bs started from July 2009 when Pensnett lost its allocation. It finished exactly a year later, when Wolverhampton and Perry Barr withdrew their allocations

Allocations
No garages now officially operate B10Bs, but as the 18th October 2010, at least 3 are still in service at Wolverhampton and these are 1337, 1387 and 1389. The Reserve Fleet houses the remainder. Only one (1328) was now sold off in the Lea Hall auction.


 * Bold - Alexander Strider bodywork
 * Not Bold - Wright Endurance bodywork

Scania L113CRL
In July 2010, 7064 and 7065 were transferred from National Express Dundee. These buses, which have Wright Pathfinder bodywork was both new to Travel West Midlands in 1996 with the fleet numbers of 1398 and 1399. These last operated out of Walsall Garage.

These will more that likely not enter service in the West Midlands again, more likely sold off, even though they were already offered for sale in the Lea Hall auction, but did not sell.

7065 was then sold after the Auction.

Enviro300
Between March and December 2009, National Express West Midlands operated a single Alexander Dennis Enviro300 demonstrator.

The bus (SN09 CGX), which was first shown in the November 2008 Bus & Coach Show at the NEC, Birmingham had a seating capacity of 39 and was given fleet number 1908.

The bus started service at Pensnett Garage on route 246. It then went on to occasionally appear on the 294 and 295 Circular services.

On 9 September 2009, 1908 then transferred to Perry Barr Garage, where it mainly operated on route 52 (now 952), but also made appearances on services 65, 28A and 934.

From early December 2009 it was reported the vehicle was on loan to Minsterley Motors in Shrewsbury, where it had been seen operating on service 553 (Shrewsbury - Bishops Castle). The vehicle then quietly stayed there, with its fleet number of 1908 then given to a new demonstrator, a Volvo B7RLE with Wright Eclipse 2 bodywork. No intentions of NXWM made public with regards to purchasing any of the vehicles.

MCW Metrobus
National Express West Midlands finished it operations of MCW Metrobuses on 24 July 2010, when the final three were withdrawn from Acocks Green.

In total over 1,100 Metrobuses were bought, each with a seating capacity of 73.

Almost every one of National Express West Midlands' current garages has, at some point, operated Metrobuses, as have the majority of garages that have closed down since the 1980s. The only exception to this rule is Bordesley Green garage, which only opened in 2005.

During 2008, 69 Metrobuses were withdrawn, much fewer than the anticipated amount due to failure of delivery on the 121 new buses due, delaying the inevitable by a few months.

During 2009, at least 153 Metrobuses were withdrawn, leaving just 14 to start 2010 in service.

The End
National Express West Midlands made it clear their intention was that by the end of Summer 2010, all non-kneeling step-entrance vehicles would be withdrawn from the company. This included the MCW Metrobuses, which had been running with the company since 1978.

At the beginning of 2008 just under 250 MCW Metrobuses were still with Travel West Midlands making it the companies second most popular vehicle. The numbers of these buses operated by the company had plummeted over the previous ten years due to the arrival of over 500 new low-floor double decks.

Walsall and Wolverhampton were operating just under 50 Metrobuses each, Yardley Wood had close to 30, Lea Hall 25 whilst Perry Barr and West Bromwich garages floated around the 20 mark. Acocks Green and Coventry both had approximately 15 Metrobuses each. The only three garages not operating Metrobuses were Birmingham Central, which had become 100% low floor in 2005, Bordesley Green, which had only ever operated Mercedes-Benz O405N buses and Pensnett which had withdrew its MCW Metrobuses upon the withdrawal of the former 264E/265E.

By the end of the year, in which just under 70 Metrobuses were withdrawn, the quantities at each garage had significantly fallen but each garage that operated Metrobuses at the start of the previous year still continued to do so. Wolverhampton had lost around 15 buses, Walsall, West Bromwich and Yardley Wood had all lost around 10 buses each, whilst every other garage had lost one or two.

In January 2009, due to the arrival of new Scania OmniLinks to West Bromwich Garage, all but one of there Metrobuses (2878) was withdrawn, whilst 6 had transferred between Walsall and Perry Barr, in a change related to the Solihull Network Review.

West Bromwich's final Metrobus crept out of service in February, whilst Acocks Green, Coventry and Yardley Woods totals all fell to just 10 Metrobuses each during March and April

In May 2009, due to several allocation alterations, many of Wolverhamptons Metrobuses were replaced by Volvo B10Bs from Pensnett and Optare Excels from Travel Dundee, leaving just 20 in service, whilst a further couple had gone from Acocks Green, Coventry and Yardley Wood.

In June Walsall's brand new Scania OmniLinks entered service, withdrawing 20 Metrobuses over night and leaving just 12 still in service at the garage.

On 4 July 2009 the final 6 Metrobuses were withdrawn from Coventry, these having held on from the arrival of Scania OmniLinks at the depot in January with several other allocation alterations boosting Coventry's fleet strength. This day was marked with one of the buses operating on several routes, followed by a 'pull-in', of the vehicle into the garage, organised by the management team at Coventry.

During the rest of July, Wolverhampton, Yardley Wood, Acocks Green, Lea Hall and Perry Barr all lost around 5 Metrobuses each as a result of fleet movements and route changes.

Yardley Wood was due to lose all of its buses after the end of V Festival shuttle bus duties in August, however, it only lost two, with Lea Hall also losing a similar quantity. Wolverhampton meanwhile lost another 5, again due to Volvo B10B and Optare Excels coming into the garage.

By the end of September under 50 Metrobuses were still in service these being at Perry Barr (19), Walsall (12), Wolverhampton (6), Acocks Green (5) and Yardley Wood (4). During the month Lea Hall had lost all of its Metrobuses.

During October however, Yardley Woods and Wolverhamptons final few Metrobuses were quietly withdrawn, with Wolverhampton's being replaced by Optare Spectras from Birmingham Central Garage due to the arrival of new Enviro 400s for routes 9/99. Three of the four from Yardley Wood and one of the four from Wolverhampton went straight into use at Lea Hall. During the final two weeks of the month, Walsall withdrew half of its remaining twelve due to PVR reductions.

On 28 November 2009, Walsalls final Metrobuses were withdrawn, following a special commerative day attended by hundreds of bus enthuisasts. Only five of the six remaining were deemed fit for service (2865 remained in the garage). Three buses spent the first half of the day on the 305, Walsall - Yew Tree Estate circular service, with 2819 and 2887 operating the 340 and 341 interworked services to Willenhall. 2819 was displaying some artwork stating the end of thirty years Metrobus use in Walsall.

At 4pm, one Metrobus off the 305 was used as a change bus covering one return journey on the 394A to Brownhills West, whilst at 4.20pm a pre-arranged duplicate working by two Metrobuses occurred on the X51 express service to Birmingham.

The final Walsall service was the 6.10pm 341E journey to New Invention, operated by 2887 (which had spent all of its 24 years of life at Walsall) and duplicated by 2819.

Preserved MCW Metrobus prototype, 6832, also joined in the celebrations at Walsall, despite never being allocated there, including following the X51 and 341E workings. It is also worth noting that despite the backing of Walsall's management, the whole day was organised and run by Walsall based driver Glenn Lockley and Inspector Tony Hunter.

Also during November, Lea Hall lost two of its Metrobuses, bringing its total back down to just 2, whilst Perry Barr also lost two.

In the first two weeks of December 2009, Perry Barr lost another eight Metrobuses, with two of these, 2988 & 3022, transferring to Acocks Green where they will operate services 220/1, which did the same transfer in October. On the final day of the month, Lea Halls final two Metrobuses, 2721 and 3080, were withdrawn.

2010 started with just 14 Metrobuses in service - split equally between Perry Barr (2654, 2668, 2729, 2769, 3032, 3034 and 3070) and Acocks Green (2832, 2835, 2849, 2871, 2905, 2988 and 3022). Mid-way through January 2668 was withdrawn from Perry Barr, reducing the quantity further to just 13, whilst the following week 3034 and 3070 also left.

On Tuesday 26 January 2010, 2729 left Perry Barr, reducing their tally to just 3 buses.

To end the month of January, 2905 left Acocks Green, 3032 left Perry Barr and 2769 transferred from Perry Barr to Acocks Green Garage.

On the 9 February 2010, 2769 was withdrawn from Acocks Green, whilst details were revealed about the last day of service for 2654 on 14 February.

2654 then left Perry Barr after a special love-themed day in service on the 7 route between Birmingham and Perry Common. Between 11.30am and 2pm, the bus duplicated a normal service bus on the route, being driven by driver Romeo Phillips. Passengers on the final journey were given a special heart shaped commerative ticket, prior to the bus then travelling to Love Lane, Aston, for a final photo opportunity. The day was advertised, and shown in the media, including a piece on BBC Midlands Today, as the last day of Metrobuses in normal passenger use in the Midlands, with those remaining at Acocks Green, supposedly being only for school and private hire usage. This was dissproved the very next day, when two Metrobuses were on the 72 and another on the 5, but this was half term when no school contract services operated.

The Metrobuses then commonly operated just School run-based duties, with workings on Saturdays become less and less frequent. On 22 March 2010, 3022 was withdrawn, reducing the number to just five left in service.

On 9 April 2010, West Bromwich Garage loaned three Metrobuses from Acocks Green (who had them free due to it being the school holidays). 2871 was used on the 80 (West Bromwich - Birmingham) service, 2835 was out on the 127 and 128 (Birmingham - Blackheath) services and 2988 was used on the 449 (West Bromwich - Brandhall) service. West Bromwich, which had to loan other buses from Lea Hall and Yardley Wood garages due to an 'engineering problem', had not operated Metrobuses since they were withdrawn from the garage in February 2009.

On 18 April 2010, it was revealed that 2849 had been withdrawn from Acocks Green because of an engine failure, and was replaced by Ex-Walsall Metrobus 2903 reinstated from Miller Street. 2871 was also quietly withdrawn from service during the month, leaving just four to operate the final three months.

In June 2010, 2835's engine died and this bus was withdrawn from service, leaving just three to see out the remaining weeks.

On Saturday, July 24 2010 a special running day was held to mark the end of operation. Acocks Green hosted an open day with numerous visiting buses, whilst 2988 operated two round trips on the 11A (Birmingham Outer Circle), 2832 operated on the 31, 37 and 72 services and 2903 operated on 'the One' (Birmingham - Acocks Green). It was 2903 that carried out the last journey, with a full standing load being carried on the 1446 service departing Birmingham. This was greeted upon its return to Acocks Green Garage by hundreds of staff, enthuisasts and well-wishers.

Leyland Lynx
National Express West Midlands no longer operates these buses, having at one point operated over 200. The Lynxes each sat 49 passengers with a standing capacity in the 20s.

When the final seven Lynxes all transferred to Walsall in 2007 they were used in conjunction with MCW Metrobuses on the 377 (Walsall - Sutton Coldfield) and 351 (Walsall - Cannock). In November of the same year, the 377 started being operated using Volvo B10L low-floor single-deck buses following a partnership with Centro, meaning the Lynxes were used solely on the 351, which was now interlinked with the 350 shuttle service (Walsall - Manor Hospital). In December 2007 four Lynxes were withdrawn after rot was found leaving just three in service. However, in January 2009 National Express West Midlands decided to convert the 350/1 into Optare Solo minibus operation (meaning the seats on these services were reduced by between 44% and 63%). It was then revealed that the Lynxes would be almost exclusively used on school routes, meaning they would very rarely see normal passenger use again.

On 6 March 2009 the final three Lynxes were withdrawn. This meant the end of a relationship between National Express West Midlands and Leyland Lynx in passenger usage after more than 20 years in service. A quantity remained in the driver training fleet until March 2010.

Allocations
There are now no Lynxes allocated to the passenger fleet, nor the driver training fleet.

Driver training fleet
This part of the fleet has no set home (although are often at the training centres at Miller Street and Walsall & Wolverhampton garages), and are used to train new drivers. The fleet is made up of a Volvo B10B (1), Volvo B10Ls (4), MCW Metrobuses (5), Scania N113CRB (1), a Scania K93CRB coach (1) and a Mercedes 814D minibus (1). There are also two Ford Transit minibuses to test applicants' driving ability before they learn to drive a bus. There are no longer any Mercedes 814Ds in the passenger fleet. The Scania N94s came from National Express Dundee, whilst all the coach style vehicles have come from parent company, National Express. There are still over 70 B10Ls, 40 B10Bs and 5 Metrobuses in normal passenger use. The Ford Transits were purchased solely for use in the driver training fleet and are unsuited for normal passenger use.

Information
For easy recognition, all buses in the training fleet have a fleet number beginning with 9***. However, the more recent additions have not yet had their numbers changed.

Acocks Green
Address: Fox Hollies Road, Acocks Green, Birmingham, West Midlands, B27 7TZ.
 * Code = AG
 * Acocks Green operates Europe's longest urban bus route, the famous Outer Circle route 11.
 * The garage operates 155 buses on 18 bus routes (including School Services).
 * The garage operates 5 different types of bus, all of which are low floor easy access.
 * AG does not operate any of NXWM's two most common buses, Dennis/TransBus Trident ALX400 or Mercedes-Benz O405N.
 * AG operates the companies newest buses.

Birmingham Central
Address: Liverpool Street, Bordesley, Birmingham, West Midlands, B9 4DS
 * Code = BC
 * All of the 181 vehicles the garage operates are low floor easy access.
 * BC operates 29 bus routes (including school services), using 4 different types of bus.

Bordesley Green
Address: Bordesley Green, Birmingham, West Midlands, B9 4BZ
 * Code = BY
 * Bordesley Green is the smallest garage which operates just 2 type of bus.
 * The entire allocation is low floor easy access single deck.
 * The garage is also the smallest, operating only 48 buses on 4 routes.

Pensnett
Address: 2nd Avenue, Pensnett Trading Estate, Kingswinford, West Midlands, DY6 7NA
 * Code = PE (Prev MH)
 * The garage previously operated as Travel Merry Hill.
 * The garage operates 105 buses.
 * Pensnett depot operates 16 bus routes.
 * The garage operates 4 different types of bus, all of which are low floor easy access.
 * PE has a complete low floor fleet in service.

Perry Barr
Address: Wellhead Lane, Perry Barr, Birmingham, West Midlands, B42 2SY
 * Code = PB
 * The garage operates 179 buses on 40 different bus routes, including school services.
 * The garage operates 8 different types of bus, of which all are low floor easy access.
 * PB is the only Birmingham/Black Country based garage that operates 'bendy-buses'.

Walsall
Address: Carl Street, Birchills, Walsall, West Midlands, WS2 7BE
 * Code = WA
 * The garage operates 175 buses on 49 routes, including school services.
 * WA operates 7 different types of bus.
 * WA has a complete low floor fleet in service.

West Bromwich
Address: Oak Lane, West Bromwich, West Midlands, B70 8PP
 * Code = WB
 * The garage operates 151 buses, on 27 bus routes, plus one school service.
 * WB operates 7 different types of bus.
 * WB has a complete low floor fleet in service.

Wolverhampton
Address: Park Lane, Fallings Park, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, WV10 9QG
 * Code = WN
 * The garage operates 205 buses, making it the biggest garage.
 * WN operates 6 different types of bus on 50 bus routes, including school services.

Yardley Wood
Address: Yardley Wood Road, Yardley Wood, Birmingham, West Midlands, B14 4BN
 * Code = YW
 * YW operates 133 buses on 16 bus services (including School runs).
 * The garage operates 4 different types of bus.
 * The entire allocation is low floor easy access.

Hockley

 * Code = HY
 * Closed in May 2005

Lea Hall
Address: Crossfields Road, Lea Hall, Birmingham, West Midlands, B33 8HP A view inside Lea Hall garage
 * Code = LH
 * The garage operated 136 buses.
 * It operated three different types of buses on 23 different routes, including school services.
 * Lea Hall garage closed on 25th July 2010.
 * LH had a complete low floor fleet in service upon closure.

National Express Coventry
Address: 2 Ford Street, Coventry, West Midlands, CV1 5AD
 * Code = CV (Previously WT)
 * The garage operates 164 buses on 54 different bus routes, including school services.
 * CV operates 9 different types of bus.
 * The entire allocation is low floor easy access.
 * CV is the only depot does not run services into the Birmingham/Black Country areas

Miller Street
Address:
 * Code = XS
 * Miller Street garage operates no routes.
 * It is used for maintenance of buses as well as for storage of vehicles not currently in use and of withdrawn vehicles, before they are sold on or scrapped.