Coventry Buses - past and present

Hi all Over the course of this week, many of the bus stops that were moved prior to months of road works in Coventry city centre, are returning back to normal.

Hi all I have just completed an evening escort service by bus to Walsgrave Hospital. I am delighted by the recently installed fully covered bus stop walkways, very handy on a wet weather-day like today. Normal evening hospital visiting times finish at 8pm, so the last 360 circle bus services in both directions are currently timed to give adequate time to board after eight. Other services are still available into the city centre.

Centro have announced this morning that the 360 bus route is to end as too few people are using it. They intend to replace it with three, shorter routes.

Hi all, hi Tony, It's the Eastern Green section that is hardly ever used. On the few occasions that I have gone to the crem' using the 360, I have been the only passenger on that section. The popular parts, including the Ricoh Arena & Walsgave Hospital carry 13,000 passengers annually. I did use the service to reach Tile Hill station & then on to B'ham, but the new train service from the Ricoh is so much quicker. Sadly, the very people who could benefit from the current 360 route just don't know where it goes. I have contacts in the Eastern Green area, who haven't a clue how to use the service. It's a pity that the folk from the licenced trade had not got together with Centro (the rules of Centro sponsored or subsidized routes prohibit commercial advertising) & promoted the fact that the current route passes so many good eating pubs, where there are no worries about drink-driving. The man at the front of the bus takes care of getting you home. Folk who have little or no experience of using public transport during their working lives are out of their comfort zone when it comes to trying to read bus maps & timetables. My 78 year old sister-in-law, for example, had never travelled on a bus since becoming a car owner in 1966. An elderly friend of hers was admitted to Walsgrave Hospital a few weeks ago & so Pam & I showed her how convenient the 360 service was to visit her. She now drives & parks on my drive, then gets the 360 from the Ricoh to the hospital. She cannot believe how easy and simple it is. Like so many, she cannot read maps or timetables, so asks me. One of my elderly (age 74) friends who joins us on our Wednesday bacon butty treat at the Belgrade, had never used public transport until two years ago. Following a few bus & train trips locally with us, he has more than halved his car mileage, so he can now afford a few more bacon butties. His wife comes with him now too.

Unfortunately nowadays it's often a question of use it or lose it due to financial considerations. I travelled into work on the 360C a few times after 9.30 when I was unable to cycle earlier this year and I was often like you Philip the only person on it, occasionally there were a couple of others. Travelling home on the 360A at peak time it was often quite busy but never anything approaching full.

Hi all Telegraph comments Occasionally, I have had to stand using this service, particularly during a Ricoh Arena event, but that does not pay for the bus route 52 weeks a year. If any operator could make it work, I am sure De Courcey would have, as Mr De Courcey is passionate for his bus services. Centro are key to this & I just wonder if their remoteness to Coventry has any bearing on its failure. The NHS have some responsibility on this too, as they gave cast iron assurances that bus services would receive "whatever support they needed", when the decision was made to close Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital in our city centre, so as to relocate to Walsgrave (out in the sticks). I attended the meetings that were chaired by the old CWR local radio station, where the subject of patients & visitors reaching the proposed new Walsgrave Hospital was a very hot & highly vocalised topic. So many of the comments made in the Telegraph are about the difficulties of reaching the hospital.

...... and for the kids who depend on this service to get to the Westwood Academy, my granddaughter included??? Most journeys from Whoberley involve standing on the single decker provided. Will it mean another car on a school run????

There have been two petitions set up in the last 24 hours against this. I don't have links but shouldn't be too difficult to find

The best petition I can think of is for more people to use the buses.

Having viewing the redevelopment around Friargate and the station on my travels from Leamington, I always look at the buses waiting there. As I have had an interest in Coventry transport since before the war, I thought if only the present Coventry buses were in the old maroon and cream livery. This would make Coventry look Coventry. I remember the trams being maroon and cream and they always looked so smart. The present livery doesn't do justice to our city as in my opinion they look too bland.

Hello Colcov, Just on a personal note, I too do prefer the original maroon & cream. Why not, when B'ham, who forced their colour on us in Coventry, have gone two-tone red?

Yes, I also remember those colours and how smart the buses looked. So "Coventry" if you follow me.

Since 2012 there has been one bus specially painted in the old colours, though unfortunately the later lighter red rather than the familiar earlier maroon.

This bus was at the Battlefield Railway's Vintage Transport Event at Market Bosworth Station yesterday. It is the very last double decker bus to be delivered to Coventry City Transport before the amalgamation with West Midlands in April 1974. It was sold by West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) in about 1986 and spent time with a bus operator in Wales before passing into private ownership and preservation some years ago. This information was gleaned from an information sheet displayed on the bus.

Thanks for the picture Not Local