Fleet of buses is just the ticket

Bus passengers were today given a glimpse of the most luxurious buses ever seen in the West Midlands.

The fleet of 18 new vehicles, boasting high-back, soft leather seats, tinted windows, air chill sys-tems and the latest digital CCTV, are the centrepiece of a £1.4 mil-lion of improvements by transport authority Centro and Travel West Midlands.

A further £2.6 million is also being ploughed into new bus shelters and providing real-time digital information for passengers.

Transport Minister Rosie Winterton MP today officially launched the luxury buses outside the House of Fraser department store in Temple Row, Birmingham.

It is hoped they will attract an extra 100,000 passengers in the first year alone. New buses are set to operate from March on three busy routes between Walsall and Birmingham - the 934 to Pheasey, the 993 to Streetly and the 997 to Walsall.

All three routes are being transformed to offer better shelters and up-to-the-minute information.

Passengers will also be able to get travel vouchers as refunds if buses are more than 15 minutes late and if they are more than an hour late passengers can write off for the cost of a taxi fare.

Bosses insisted today that the new-look buses would be cleaned regularly and inspected three times a day in a bid to deter vandals intent on wrecking them.

Richard Bowker, chief executive of National Express which owns TWM, said: "The whole object is to give passengers more reason to use bus travel by giving them a very high quality product.

"We aim to increase us use on these routes by 10 per cent in the first year."

On Thursday the Express & Star revealed how the plans will see the name Travel West Midlands disappear from buses in favour of the National Express logo.