Opinions, thoughts and commentary
Editor’s Note: Richard is a former TfWM Bus Passenger Champion and former advisor to the West Midlands Mayor Andy Street The TfWM COMMUNITY FORUM is an interesting concept. It is designed to be a forum for bus, train & Metro users in the West Midlands. However you can only contribute if you are invited to … Read more
Having caught a brief glimpse of Broad Street a few weeks ago from the top deck of the 12, I decided to go back today to have a good look round. I started off at what will be the new terminus on Hagley Road. Still looks some way off being finished at this point, but … Read more
A number of bus service changes took place across the West Midlands on Sunday 29th August 2021, and here at West Midlands Bus Users we are keen to understand passenger opinions and feelings as well as finding how well informed they felt about the changes. A concise online survey was conducted to gauge the sentiments … Read more
A number of bus service changes took place on Sunday 29th August 2021, and here at WMBU we’re keen to understand passengers opinions and feelings as well as finding out how well informed West Midlands bus passengers are when it comes to such changes. We have created a short simple survey to gather information, which … Read more
Through the course of the previous lockdown, bus operators received grant funding from the UK Government in order to keep services running while passenger numbers were down. Fewer passengers were making journeys, as they were either working from home, unable to work, or unable to travel to see friends/family or shop at ‘non-essential’ retail stores … Read more
I understand that there are going to be a number of service changes taking place from Sunday August 29th 2021, across Birmingham, the Black Country and Coventry, as well as services reverting to pre-summer holiday timetables. While no details have yet been officially announced, eagle-eyed enthusiasts at the WM Buses In Photos forum have already … Read more
In July 2020, I had a bold vision to repurpose this WMBU website into something more community-driven, as I felt that bus passengers were not seeing their voices and opinions being heard through the usual ‘consultation processes’ being utilised by both the local transport authority and local bus operators. I know that 2020 and much … Read more
Last week, I received an email from Transport For West Midlands (TfWM) inviting me to join their new ‘online community forum’. Â An online community is a forum where participants can share their views on different topics. At TfWM we want to use this community to make sure that changes made to the transport network in … Read more
With more and more people returning to some semblance of normality, more people are returning to public transport, so it seemed a perfect time to relaunch and revitalise my West Midlands Bus Users (WMBU) website. Rather than just be a typical ‘blog’ site, for some time I have wanted to expand the scope of this … Read more
Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) this week launched its new “Swift Go” fare-capped payment service which can be used immediately on the Midland Metro tram service. It means that customers will just tap their card every time they get on a tram, or eventually a bus or train, without having to work out what fare … Read more