National Express Coventry
Encyclopedia
National Express Group
National Express Group plc is a British transport group headquartered in Birmingham that operates bus, coach, rail and tram services in the UK, the US and Canada, Spain, Portugal and Morocco and long-distance coach routes across Europe...
), a company which operates bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
services from its depot in the city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
of Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
in the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
region of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. All of West Midlands Travel Ltd other bus depots in the West Midlands
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
operate under the name National Express West Midlands
National Express West Midlands
National Express West Midlands , formerly known as Travel West Midlands , is the trade name of West Midlands Travel Ltd , a company which operates bus services from depots in the cities of Birmingham, and Wolverhampton, as well as the boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall in the West...
. National Express Coventry previously operated under the trading names of Travel Coventry, Travel West Midlands and West Midlands Travel. The majority of the vehicle fleet is still in Travel Coventry livery.
History
In 26 October 1986 West Midlands Travel Ltd came into existence, and stems from the 1986 deregulationBus deregulation
Bus deregulation in Great Britain came into force on 26 October 1986, as part of the Transport Act 1985.The 'Buses' White Paper was the basis of the Transport Act 1985, which provided for the deregulation of local bus services in the whole of the United Kingdom except for Northern Ireland and...
of the bus industry in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. It was previously the bus operations of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive
West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive
The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive , sometimes known as Centro, is a local government organisation responsible for certain transport services in the West Midlands county in England....
(WMPTE) which had originally been the separate operations of the Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
, Walsall
Walsall
Walsall is a large industrial town in the West Midlands of England. It is located northwest of Birmingham and east of Wolverhampton. Historically a part of Staffordshire, Walsall is a component area of the West Midlands conurbation and part of the Black Country.Walsall is the administrative...
, West Bromwich
West Bromwich
West Bromwich is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands, England. It is north west of Birmingham lying on the A41 London-to-Birkenhead road. West Bromwich is part of the Black Country...
and Coventry Corporations. Then from April 1995 the company was purchased by the National Express Group
National Express Group
National Express Group plc is a British transport group headquartered in Birmingham that operates bus, coach, rail and tram services in the UK, the US and Canada, Spain, Portugal and Morocco and long-distance coach routes across Europe...
and in September 1996 was re-branded to trade under the name Travel West Midlands. On 9 December 2002 the Coventry depot attained a more local identity and began trading as Travel Coventry and from 4 February 2008 National Express Coventry confirmed as the new name for Travel Coventry.
National Express Group re-branding
Within the next few months National Express Coventry will be applying a temporary logo to several of its vehicles to highlight to those unaware the change from 'Travel Coventry' into 'National Express Coventry'.The new livery will be applied to vehicles when they go in for maintenance. It is believed that National Express aim to have over half of its vehicles in the livery by February 2009.
Reliability
National Express Coventry have been subject to many complaints over the reliability of some of their bus services. Complaints are frequently heard from students who claim that buses routinely just do not turn up when they are expected to.A network review took place in the first quarter of 2006 which resulted in many routes being revised, removed or introduced from 2 April 2006, then after two months of extensive service monitoring, reliability checks and public feedback thereafter National Express Coventry tweaked some services to further improve the quality of service to their customers.
Vehicle types
The following table is a summary of the current passenger service fleet which totals 160 vehicles :| Chassis | |Bodywork | |Quantity | Seating | Other Info | Typical routes | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Optare Solo Optare Solo The Optare Solo is a low-floor midibus manufactured by Optare in Leeds, UK since 1997. The name "Solo" is a play on the low-floor status of the bus, the manufacturer believing its vehicle having an entrance that is "so low" from the floor, namely 200 mm with kneeling suspension.The innovative... |
Optare Optare Optare plc is a bus manufacturer and importer based in Leeds and Blackburn, UK. The company operates from three main business units, Bus Manufacturing, Coach Sales and Unitec.... |
4 | 27/29 | "Mini" single deck bus | 11 14 |  |
| Volvo B6LE | Wright Crusader Wright Crusader The Wright Crusader is a single-decker bus body built by Wright on Dennis Dart SLF and Volvo B6LE chassis. The Wright Crusader 2 was built on the B6LE's successor, the Volvo B6BLE.... |
7 | 37 | "Midi" compact single deck bus | 42 801 | |
| Mercedes-Benz O405 Mercedes-Benz O405 The Mercedes-Benz O 405 was a highly successful single-decker bus chassis built by Mercedes-Benz from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s. It was the replacement for the Mercedes-Benz O305 chassis and was widely used in Europe, Australia and Singapore.... N |
Mercedes-Benz | 39 | 43 | Full sized single deck bus | 1 2 5 7 10 15 19 19W 19X 23 23C 34 75 81 81E 81W |  |
| Scania OmniLink Scania OmniLink The Scania OmniLink is an integrally-constructed rear longitudinal-engined citybus available on the European market. It is a complete product built by Scania AB, a company based in Sweden.... K230UB |
Scania | 15 | 43 | Full sized single deck bus | 20 30A 30C 40 50 60 | |
| Dennis Trident 2 Dennis Trident 2 Dennis Trident 2 is a 2-axle low-floor double-decker bus chassis originally built by Dennis in the United Kingdom, which was unveiled in 1997 and replaced the Dennis Arrow... * |
Alexander ALX400 Alexander ALX400 The Alexander ALX400 is a 2-axle double-decker bus body built by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders... or TransBus ALX400 |
47 | 75 | Double deck bus - 23 of these have bodywork under the Alexander brand and 24 of these have bodywork under the TransBus brand (different only in name) |
3 3A 4 4A 12 32 32C 33 36 |  |
| Volvo B7TL Volvo B7TL Volvo B7TL is a low-floor double-decker bus which was launched in 1999 and replaced the 2-axle version of Volvo Olympian... ** |
TransBus ALX400 Alexander ALX400 The Alexander ALX400 is a 2-axle double-decker bus body built by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders... |
10 | 74 | Double deck bus |  |
|
| Volvo B7TL | Wright Eclipse Gemini Wright Eclipse Gemini The Wright Eclipse Gemini is a type of double-decker bus body built for Volvo B7TL and later Volvo B9TL and Volvo B5L Hybrid for use in the United Kingdom.... |
10 | 72 | Double deck bus | 13 13A |  |
| Alexander Dennis Alexander Dennis Alexander Dennis Limited is the largest bus builder in the United Kingdom. It incorporated the three last surviving bus manufacturers which started bus production before World War II: Dennis, Alexander and Plaxton.- History :Alexander Dennis was formed as TransBus on 1 January 2001, after the... |
Enviro400 | 13 | 77 | Double deck bus | 21 21C 21W | |
| Mercedes-Benz O405 Mercedes-Benz O405 The Mercedes-Benz O 405 was a highly successful single-decker bus chassis built by Mercedes-Benz from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s. It was the replacement for the Mercedes-Benz O305 chassis and was widely used in Europe, Australia and Singapore.... GN |
Mercedes-Benz | 5 | 59 | Articulated single deck bus Articulated bus An articulated bus is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is usually a single-deck design, and comprises two rigid sections linked by a pivoting joint... (also called a "bendy bus" or "bendibus") |
21 21C 21W |  |
| Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro The Mercedes-Benz Citaro is the current Mercedes-Benz/EvoBus mainstream single-decker bus intended for public transport, introduced in 1997 and replaced the Mercedes-Benz O405/O405N series... |
Mercedes-Benz | 10 | 56 | Articulated single deck bus (also called a "bendy bus" or "bendibus") | 27 |  |
Table footnotes:
As of July, 2009 all of National Express Coventry's buses are of easy access type.
Therefore, a variety of bus types are used within National Express Coventry, including double-decks, single-decks, articulated 'bendy' buses, and mini-buses.