Travel Your Bus was a bus operator in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. It was a subsidiary of

West Midlands Travel National Express West Midlands (NXWM) is a bus operator in the West Midlands that operates services in Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton, and Solihull, as well as limited routes outside of the general area of Birmingham, s ...

History

The Your Bus network of bus services started on 30 November 1987 when route 50Y was introduced by Smiths Coaches. This ran every 20 minutes in competition with West Midlands Travel's

route 50 The following highways are numbered 50: International * European route E50 Brazil * BR-050 Canada * Alberta Highway 50 * Manitoba Highway 50 * Newfoundland and Labrador Route 50 * Ontario Highway 50 (Also referred to as Peel Regional Road 50 ...

between

Druids Heath Druids Heath is a large housing estate in southern Birmingham, England covering the south-west quadrant of the B14 postcode (west of the Maypole). Primarily known for the large council estate in the Brandwood ward of south Birmingham. The estate ...

and

Birmingham City Centre Birmingham City Centre, also known as Central Birmingham and often known locally as town, is the central business district of Birmingham, England. Following the removal of the Inner Ring Road, the city centre is now defined as being the area wi ...

via Alcester Road using second-hand

Daimler Fleetline The Daimler Fleetline (known as the Leyland Fleetline from circa 1975) is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was built between 1960 and 1983. It was the second of three bus models to have a marque name as well as an alphanumeric i ...

double deck buses purchased from Greater Manchester Buses. The company adopted the orange, brown and white livery these vehicles arrived in as their fleet colours for the bus operation and uniquely added a Y to the end of all its bus service numbers. To get buses to and from the West Midlands and Alcester the company introduced placing journeys, initially just at peak times, which ran the most direct way via the

A435 List of A roads in Great Britain, A roads in List of A roads zones in Great Britain, zone 4 in Great Britain starting north of the A4 road (Great Britain), A4 and south/west of the A5 road (Great Britain), A5 (roads beginning with 4). __TOC__ ...

thus bypassing

Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...

. On 3 September 1988, a peak hour route 51Y of three journeys each way was introduced that diverted via Redditch New Town when it ran between Alcester and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. This service was withdrawn on 13 January 1992. The company also introduced route 47Y on 31 October 1988, which was also a way of getting buses to and from the West Midlands, running via Redditch New Town, West Heath and the Pershore Road into Birmingham. This service was renumbered 45Y on 28 October 1989 and was withdrawn on 13 January 1992, bringing to an end the brief operation of Your Bus in Redditch. Your Bus continued to develop services in south Birmingham and

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...

over the next few years and invested heavily in new single deck vehicles. By 1990, it operated 40 buses.Smith is challenged
''

Commercial Motor ''Commercial Motor'' is a weekly magazine serving the road transport industry in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1905 by Edmund Dangerfield, it is notable for having been "the first journal to be devoted exclusively to the commercial vehicle eng ...

'' 11 October 1990

West Midlands Travel Takeover

During 1993, Your Bus was taken over by

who continued to run it as a separate subsidiary, adopting the branding ''Travel Your Bus'' in September 1996. The operating centre was soon moved to Miller Street in Birmingham where the coaching interests of West Midlands Travel under the Central Coachways trading name were absorbed. In 1995, West Midlands Travel was taken over itself by

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

Rebranded Travel West Midlands

On 4 February 2001, following a group restructuring the Travel Your Bus services were absorbed into the main company's West Midlands bus operation which by this time was trading as Travel West Midlands (and now trades as National Express West Midlands), ending the Your Bus operation. The Central Coachways name and some contract work was sold to Flights Coaches.

Photos

Your Bus service 50YYour Bus (WMT) service 2YTravel Your Bus service 53Y

References

{{Defunct British Bus Companies Former bus operators in England National Express companies Transport in Birmingham, West Midlands