History
On 26 October 1986, West Midlands Travel Ltd came into existence as part of the deregulation of the bus industry in England and Wales. It was previously the bus operations of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE).
West Midlands Travel remained in public ownership under the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority until December 1991, when it was sold to its management and employees.
In April 1995, the company was purchased by the National Express Group, and rebranded as Travel West Midlands in September 1996. On 9 December 2002, the Coventry services were rebranded Travel Coventry.
The former Travel Your Bus and Travel Merry Hill subsidiaries have been merged into the main fleet.
4 February 2008 saw the latest rebranding, to National Express West Midlands. The Coventry service was rebranded as National Express Coventry.
The current red and white is the sixth livery to be used by the company.
National Express Group, the parent company, was the subject of takeover interest in 2009, and for a time there was speculation about future ownership of its local bus operations.
Previously, the company and its predecessors have operated garages in Stourbridge, Dudley, Merry Hill (Part of Travel Merry Hill), Harts Hill, Sutton Coldfield, Hockley, Cotteridge, Selly Oak, Washwood Heath and Quinton.
The Dudley garage closed on 28 August 1993 to make way for the Dudley Southern By-Pass (which opened in 1999) and was replaced, along with the former Travel Merry Hill depot, by the depot at Pensnett.
In July 2010, NXWM closed its Lea Hall depot. This was a reversal of the previous decision NXWM made, this being to close its newest depot, Bordesley Green, and move the associated offices to the new Birmingham Coach Station as announced in a January 2010 edition of Coach & Bus Week (CBW)
National Express West Midlands aimed for the whole fleet to be low floor by March 2010. This was achieved in July 2010, with the withdrawal of the final MCW Metrobuses in operation at Acocks Green garage.
Read more about this topic: National Express West Midlands
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