The Big Three and a fourth.

For todays trip we decided to do a day on Arriva Midlands services in North and East Midlands. To start with we needed to use the usual 07:08 Stagecoach 26 service from Studley to Redditch. (The service originated in Stratford Upon Avon) This is operated by Stratford Upon Avon garage using tour bus drivers and a 28 branded vehicle, however, on this occasion Leamington's 17059, T659KPU showed up on loan to Stratford Garage.

17059 is seen in Redditch Bus Station
before taking up the return trip to
Stratford Upon Avon.

The 26 service is due to arrive into Redditch at 07:25 however usually arrives before this as the last timing point is Headless Cross and it allows too much time to get between these two points, however 17059 arrived into Redditch at 07:27 just in time to see the London Midland service to departing Redditch train station ... oops. The next move was to buy tickets and wait for the 07:57 service, so we decided to take a 5 minute walk to the Red Diamond depot on Church Lane.

20533 is seen waiting to take up the
days duties outside Red Diamond's
Depot. X372CUY is ex First Midland
Red who Red Diamond compete with.

The 07:57 was formed of 323209 which goes forward to Lichfield Trent Valley however we left at Birmingham New Street to get some breakfast and also to use the Arriva service to Tamworth. The Class 323's have been used on the Redditch line since they were brand new and are used on a range of services across Birmingham.

Arriva run 3 main services into Birmingham, the 110, 112 and 116 however also operate some services under there recently acquired Midland operation, after meeting with Adam Priseman and Tom Brant in Birmingham we headed for the 116 stop which is operated using a range of vehicles from there Tamworth depot. 3004 was the bus that showed up for this service and we used this to Tamworth.

3004 is seen in Tamworth before
returning to Birmingham on the 116
service.

While in Tamworth we decided to take some photos of the local bus scenery which includes Scania Omnilinks, Volvo B6LE's, Mercedes Citaros and Volvo B9TL's which are used on a mix of local and express services.

Tamworth's 4202 is seen on local service
7 although carries branding for City Linx.

From Tamworth we moved on to Lichfield to do this we used the 785 service which runs from Nuneaton to Lichfield via Tamworth, this is usually home to the Scania Omnilinks for which we were presented with 3810.

3810 is seen loading in Tamworth on
our 785 service to Lichfield.

We stayed in Lichfield for around half an hour to look at the local bus scene with services run by Midland (Arriva), Blue Diamond, Midland Classic and Arriva.

Blue Diamond 21009 is seen leaving
Lichfield Bus Station on a local service.

Midland Classic operate a direct service to Burton as the X12 using a range of Volvo B7RLE vehicles acquired from a dealer after Arriva handed them back after a spell on loan, after buying a Midland Classic Plus day we used the X12 service to Burton which was formed of 81, JB08MCL which was new as MX08NNU to Arriva Yorkshire.

Midland Classic's 82, AE57FXW on
an X12 service to Burton.

Burton offers a range of operators including Trent Barton, Midland Classic and Arriva on a wide range of services to such locations as Derby and Swadlincote. Midland Classic's 4 service offers the fastest link between Burton and Swadlincote and on this occasion it was formed of an East Lancs bodied MAN and a Dennis Falcon that was acquired from Arriva.

12, K212UHA is seen in Burton.

Swadlincote has a small bus network with routes provided by Midland Classic and Arriva with a range of vehicles from Dennis Tridents to Scania Omnicity's.

Arriva's Scania Omnicity 3574, YT09ZBW
seen in Swadlincote on a 61 service from Derby.

After catching the Dennis Falcon to Swanlincote we decided to use it back to Burton however upon arrival at the Midland Classic depot we were asked to change bus to one of there recently acquired Optare Solo's number 32, FG52WUC which had arrived from local operator Felix. While in the depot we took a few photos from the Optare Solo while the driver prepared the bus.

One of two former Ludlows and Red Diamond
Scania/Wright is 72, S372SET which was
brought from Red Diamond.

From Burton we decided to head towards Derby on the X38 service which runs direct between the two towns as a joint service between Trent Barton and Arriva using a mix of Optare Tempo's and Optare Versa's. We were given Arriva's 2958 on service X38 covering for one of the branded Versa's.

2958 is seen in Derby on the X38 service.

Derby has a very varied bus scene which offers a very wide variety of bus types in a range of liveries from corporate brands to special route brands. Also running on this occasion was a football stadium shuttle using a former Travel West Midlands Metrobus.

Former TWM 2646, ROX 646Y is seen
in central Derby on a football service.

After spending some time in Derby photoing the local bus scene we decided it was time to head back to Burton on the X38 service which turned out to be the same bus as earlier 2958.

Trent Barton's Red Arrow branded 65,
FN04BRZ is seen leaving Derby Bus Station.

From Burton we decided to head back to Redditch directly so took a limited amount of photos on the way from Burton we used the Midland Classic X12 once again to get back to Lichfield which was again 81 same as earlier.

Trent Bartons 307, YJ07VSA seen dropping
off in Burton on the X38 service.

After a stop in the pub in Lichfield and Burton we headed for the 765 back to Tamworth which turned out to be Tamworth's 2615 one of the few Volvo B6BLE's remaining at Tamworth garage. V215KDA has been refurbished to a high standard like the other B6's that have been replaced recently by Mercedes Citaro's.

Arriva's 3809 is seen at Lichfield with a
785 service for Tamworth.

From Tamworth we got a 110 service back to Birmingham which was formed of Scania Omnilink 3809 as the Volvo B9TL's usually don't see use on the evening services to Birmingham. From Birmingham we got 323207 back to Longbridge and then 323213 to Redditch instead of a 30 minute wait in Birmingham. Upon arrival into Redditch we had 67633 back to Washford for the walk to Studley.