The story
Deregulation
In August 1986, prior to the deregulation of bus services, West Midlands Travel (WMT) was formed out the bus operations of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive. The PTE ceased to be a bus operator as a result of the Transport Act 1985, but both the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority and successor organisation Transport for West Midlands retain a co-ordinating role, tendering bus services and funding concessionary fares and infrastructure such as bus stations.
West Midlands Travel faced its first major deregulation challenge in March 1987 when London Regional Transport (LRT) pulled out of its 'London Liner' London to Birmingham express coach service. Operated jointly by both LRT's London Coaches subsidiary and WMT's Central Coachways subsidiary using a fleet of MCW Metroliner coaches, following London Coaches' withdrawal, Central Coachways continued to run the service as its sole operator from the end of March.
The company invested in a heavy rebranding campaign in 1988 that saw the introduction of a new silver, blue and red livery to the bus fleet, new uniforms, and the purchase of 150 new MCW Metrobus double-decker buses. After 18 months of deregulation, WMT announced in October 1988 that it had made a profit of over £17.6 million (equivalent to £48,998,000 in 2025), retained 97% of its pre-deregulation bus network and had recorded a 5% drop in passengers compared to before deregulation; the latter, however, increased to a drop of 10% by 1989, resulting in fare rises and cutbacks in its bus network.
Employee ownership
Despite pressure from the central government, including both a threat to be split under Section 61 of the Transport Act 1985 to force its sale and government funding for the Midland Metro tram project being lost if the company was not sold, West Midlands Travel remained in public ownership under the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority. Plans for a management buyout through an Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) were first submitted to the WMPTA in June 1989 by WMT's management and employees in response to the splitting threat, which were approved by the PTA and submitted to Minister of State for Transport Michael Portillo in early 1990; after a competing bid by Stagecoach Group owner Brian Souter to buy WMT for £85 million (equivalent to £195,496,000 in 2025) was rejected by the PTA, the ESOP offer was finally approved in December 1991, with WMT sold to its management and employees for £70 million (equivalent to £160,997,000 in 2025).
In November 1992, West Midlands Travel was ordered to have its entire fleet of over 1,800 buses given MOT tests by July 1993 after 108 fleet vehicles were found by the Vehicle Inspectorate to be poorly maintained, with faults including faulty brakes, broken lights and bell pushes, oil leaks, and damaged passenger seating. In an examination of 343 WMT fleet vehicles, inspectors immediately prohibited 66 from running services and marked 42 as being in need of repair; twelve WMT buses found to have faults so serious that they were classified as "neglected" by the examiners.
West Midlands Travel also made a number of acquisitions during its employee ownership. In 1990, WMT partly owned minibus operator Merry Hill Motors, and that same year, WMT purchased a fleet of new Alexander bodied Scania N113 double-decker buses to compete with Your Bus of Alcester; Your Bus was later acquired by WMT in 1993. Retained as subsidiary companies of WMT, these operators were later rebranded to Travel Merry Hill and Travel Your Bus respectively before being absorbed into the main Travel West Midlands operation by 2001. A further competitor purchased by WMT in August 1993 was Metrowest Omnibus of Dudley, which was also retained as a separate subsidiary of WMT after founding director Keith Danks left the company a month prior.
In April 1994, West Midlands Travel made its first out-of-area acquisition by purchasing former London Buses subsidiary Westlink from its employee owners, followed in October by the purchase two Essex-based companies from the Lynton Group: County Bus & Coach, a bus operator formed from the split of London Country North East that consisted of over 240 vehicles, as well as Sampson Coaches. Westlink was sold by WMT to fellow former London Buses subsidiary London United a year later, while County Bus & Coach was later sold to the Cowie Group.
West Midlands Travel underwent another rebrand during 1994. Buses had their West Midlands Travel fleetnames replaced with "WM Buses" and the corresponding name of the depot the bus was based from, forming combinations such as WM Buses Acocks Green, amid moves by senior management to use the West Midlands Travel name as a holding company ahead of a possible floatation of WMT on the London Stock Exchange.
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National Express/Mobico ownership
In March 1995, the National Express Group purchased West Midlands Travel from employee ownership for £85 million (equivalent to £501,642,000 in 2025), with over 5,000 employee shareholders of WMT receiving windfall gains averaging £30,000 (equivalent to £62,000 in 2025). Operations were subsequently merged into the National Express Group in April. In September 1996, WMT was rebranded to Travel West Midlands. This was followed in November 1997 with the sale of TWM's Central Coachways arm to the Flights Travel Group.
In November 2002, Travel West Midlands' Coventry services were separated from the main TWM operation and rebranded to Travel Coventry.
In February 2008, as part of a rebranding of all National Express subsidiaries, Travel West Midlands was renamed National Express West Midlands, with the adopted red and white livery being the sixth livery to be used by the company. The Travel Coventry operation was also rebranded as National Express Coventry.
Having overbid for the National Express East Coast rail franchise, on 3 September 2009, the National Express Group's largest shareholder, Spain's Cosmen family, and private equity company CVC Capital Partners made a takeover offer of £765 million (equivalent to £1.220693×109 in 2025) for the group's coaching and North American school bus businesses, with the Stagecoach Group agreeing to acquire the National Express Group's UK bus and rail operations, including National Express West Midlands, as part of the sale. In preparation for the potential sale, a handful of NXWM buses were painted white, while Stagecoach considered selling its Stagecoach Midlands division in order to satisfy anti-monopoly requirements. After the CVC-Cosmen deal collapsed in October, Stagecoach made a £1.7 billion (equivalent to £2.712651×109 in 2025) merger offer to National Express, however this bid was called off amid fears it could not be completed by the end of the year.
National Express West Midlands aimed for their whole fleet to be low-floor by March 2010, a goal that was achieved in July of that year with the withdrawal of the final MCW Metrobuses in public service at Acocks Green garage.
West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) ownership
On 18 August 2026, Mobico Group announced its sale of National Express West Midlands to the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), with the sale expected to complete on 1st December, 2026. The sale includes £102 million in assets, offset by £78 million in pension and electric vehicle contract liabilities, leaving a net £24 million in upfront payment, and a further deferred payment of £5.5 million. This comes as Mobico Group seeks to de-risk its operations ahead of WMCA's franchising programme, with WMCA issuing the first invitation to tender on 17 August 2026.
WMCA will create a holding company called West Midlands Bus Limited (WMBL) that will operate as an arms length subsidiary to facilitate the transition to franchising, while not bidding for any routes itself. WMBL will take over NXWM's operations on 1st November 2026, ahead of the sale on 1st December 2026.
From Wikipedia’s article on National Express West Midlands, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3