Go West Midlands

Infobox Defunct Company
company_name = Go West Midlamds
company_
slogan =
fate = Sold (due to bad financial results)
successor = Central Connect
foundation = 2006
defunct = 03/03/2008
location = West Midlands
industry = Bus transport

:"This company has been sold, for more recent developments, see Central Connect."

Go West Midlands was a bus company based in Birmingham in the United Kingdom. It was owned by Go-Ahead Group and was formed through Go-Ahead buying Probus Management Limited (trading as People's Express, and before that Pete's Travel) and Birmingham Coach Company (trading as Diamond Bus) and merging the two. Bus services were operated throughout the West Midlands under the Diamond name.

Go West Midlands was seen as the second biggest operator in the West Midlands with National Express West Midlands (Travel West Midlands at the time) being the biggest.

In 2006 Diamond relaunched their image, by increasing its frequency on route 16, which basically matches that of Travel West Midlands and increasing its frequencies on the 17, 63, 64, 74 and 87.

However, in November 2007, Diamond withdrew its services on the 17 and 63 and majorly altered its operations on services 74 and 87 (cutting parts of the route off completely).

Diamond also lost many Centro and Staffordshire County contracts to other operators since Go-Ahead took over and stopped many of their school services.

On 3rd March 2008 Go-Ahead announced that it had sold Go West Midlands to Rotala Group subsidiary Central Connect. [ [http://www.go-ahead.com/Main.php?sFileName=NewsRelease.php&iNewsId=265 Go-Ahead - "Disposal of Go West Midlands"] Accessed 3rd March 2008] . To make significant cost savings, Rotala plans to integrate the Diamond branding into its existing business. Currently, buses are losing their "we're part of the Go-Ahead Group" branding on the Diamond livery.

Fares

Before the sale, Diamond operated a fare system that was similar to its competitors within the West Midlands Metropolitan area. The fares and fare structure was similar to that of Travel West Midlands - £1.10 for a 'short hop' and £1.50 for an unlimited single journey ticket. Diamond differed by offering cheaper day tickets on a much more limited network of buses. A Diamond 'freedom' day ticket cost £2, whereas a child was £1. The ticket was also valid on the Friday and Saturday night services that Diamond ran across Birmingham (it was not, however, valid on the 5N and 58N as they are Central Connect Centro subsidised services). Week tickets were £7 for adults, child were £3.50 and a monthly pass was £25 for adults, £12.50 for children.

On journeys that go outside the West Midlands boundary (Service 64 and 146 for example) fares increased at various rates.

Diamond, unlike Travel West Midlands, did give change.

Redditch

From 31st August 2008, Diamond Bus stepped up there operation of commercial and non-commercial services in Redditch significantly, to the point where they now operate more buses in Redditch than main rival First.

Services 55A/56A are introduced in competition with the 55/56 routes, however will divert via Batchley. The frequency of the this route is every 15 minutes, which is actually more frequent than the First Midland Red service.

They will also introduce a ten minute frequency on route 51 through to Batchley.

They also take over the 50,61, 64 and 178 routes.

Diamond routes

Before the takeover, Diamond ran the following routes:

ee also

*Transport in Birmingham

References

External links

* [http://www.birmingham-coach.co.uk/ Official website]