All aboard! £8m luxury 'Platinum' buses take to streets of the Black Country..complete with free 4G Wifi and USB charging
A new £8 million fleet of luxurious buses with free 4G WiFi and extra leg room has arrived in the Black Country.
The new 'Platinum' National Express West Midlands buses also boast of comfier seats, and USB points to charge your mobile phone or electronic device as you travel.
Forty-six of the new buses will be introduced throughout this year with the stylish new vehicles already running on the 529 service between Wolverhampton and Walsall.
They will be introduced to the 126 service between Wolverhampton and Birmingham and the X10 service between Merry Hill and Birmingham later in the autumn.
Passengers will also be able to pay using contactless cards when the new technology is is rolled out by National Express next year.
Managing director Peter Coates said: "When the roll-out is finished, these luxurious new buses will be carrying passengers in every district in the Black Country.
"These beautiful buses are our pledge as part of the West Midlands Bus Alliance – to increase the amount of people taking the bus, to keep our customers happy and to keep the air clean across the West Midlands.
"I would say it is one of the most significant steps forward for us, I think it does clearly put us ahead of our competitors.
"We're always looking forward and adapting, with technology too – we'll also be rolling out contactless payment next year to go on all our buses."
The buses also have crystal clear CCTV for passenger safety, bright LED interior lighting, improved sound proofing and audio next stop announcements. Built in Britain by Alexander Dennis Ltd (ADL), Platinums are lighter and more fuel efficient than conventional buses and their Euro 6 engines are among the cleanest in the world.
They have a curved design and have been painted in a smart two tone grey livery.
The new fleet was launched at Wolverhampton Racecourse this week by Signal 107 DJ Dicky Dodd.
The buses are not just more comfortable for passengers, but better for drivers too.
They include a special seat cushion to improve posture and comfort as well as a simpler adjustment mechanism which allows drivers to note their preferred settings and dial them straight in.
Platinums also have automatic headlights and saloon lights as well as alloy wheels.
Drivers have been given extra training and wear a special Platinum uniform. Each of the new fleet has also been named after female relatives of National Express staff.
Wolverhampton driver Nigel Matthews has been driving a Platinum bus named in memory of his late mother-in-law Carol Ann Gretton who died of cancer.
He said: "It is a nice tribute to her. It was my daughter's idea. She uses the 529 to go to school and she thought it would be a cool thing to do and she is proud of it.
"The buses are really nice. I was really pleased with the way it drove – and the way it looked. They are a lot more comfortable and a lot smoother. Many of my passengers made positive comments and Carol Ann definitely turned a few heads. I can't wait until we get them all running. It has got to be good for passengers."
The first Platinum buses were unveiled last summer at Walsall, Birmingham, Solihull, and Coventry at a cost of £34 million. A survey found that passengers are hugely impressed with the new vehicles with overall satisfaction across all the Platinum routes was 94 per cent. And 98 per cent of passengers were satisfied with the comfort they experienced on the bus while 96 per cent said they were happy with the standard of driving. Meanwhile 81 per cent of those questioned found the services good value for money.
The X51 service from Birmingham to Walsall which had a Platinum buses introduced last year has seen a 25 per cent increase in the number of passengers using the route.
The vehicles are all low carbon certified which dramatically reduces local air pollution as well as cutting carbon emissions by a third, compared to the old Trident model they are displacing.
To achieve this, the new buses all have stop-start technology that reduce the power drain from the engine and the vehicles' weight.
National Express West Midlands has worked with councils to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds to deliver road improvements that will ensure buses on Platinum routes will compete with the car for journey times. Some of the road improvements have led to journeys being up to six minutes quicker, the company said.
Bob Sleigh, vice chairman of the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority, said: "This new fleet of Platinum buses is exactly the type of high quality service the ITA is keen to see more of.
"We believe premium services such as these, using well equipped, low emission buses can play a key role in encouraging more people to make the switch from car to bus and in doing so help cut pollution and the congestion costing our regional economy more than £2 billion a year."s
