Diamond Bus Ltd., trading as Diamond West Midlands, is a bus operator in the West Midlands. It is a subsidiary of Rotala.

History

Birmingham Coach Company & Diamond Bus

In 1984, Geoff Howle commenced a coach operation trading as the Birmingham Coach Company. Following deregulation of the bus industry in 1986, Howle applied to operate route 16 between Hamstead and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

in competition with West Midlands Travel. Other services subsequently operated included service 120 (now service 12) between Dudley and Birmingham and service 50 between Birmingham and Druids Heath. Service 16 and 50 are still operated by successor Diamond Bus. Buses used were predominately Leyland Nationals. In 2000, the Birmingham Coach Company changed its name to Diamond Bus to replace many of their existing

Leyland National The Leyland National is an integrally constructed British step-floor single-decker bus manufactured in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries – the National Bus Com ...

s, expanding their network in Birmingham and the Black Country. By 2003, Diamond Bus had become a

National Express Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...

contractor and opened a depot in

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

Go West Midlands

In December 2005, the

Go-Ahead Group Go-Ahead Group Limited is a Multinational corporation, multi-national transport group based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. While the majority of its operations are within Great Britain, it also operates services in Ireland, Australia, Singapo ...

purchased Diamond Bus, followed with the purchase of the 100-vehicle Probus Management in February 2006. Go-Ahead merged the two companies to form Go West Midlands.

Rotala Group

In March 2008, Go West Midlands was sold to Rotala, who also owned Central Connect and North Birmingham Busways. Rotala originally kept the Diamond business separate from Central Connect and Ludlows (purchased later), instead switching a number of routes between the three operators. From November 2011, Central Connect was re-branded as Blue Diamond.

Red Diamond & Black Diamond

In July 2008, new buses were put into service in

Redditch Redditch is a town and non-metropolitan district with borough status in Worcestershire, England. It is located south of Birmingham, east of Bromsgrove, north-west of Alcester and north-east of Worcester. In 2021, the town had a population of ...

on routes 57 and 58, branded as Red Diamond. Since then, a number of routes in North Worcestershire were re-branded as Red Diamond, alongside the launch of new routes in competition with

First Midland Red First Midland Red Buses,Companies House extract company no 1556327< ...

in Redditch. At the same time, new buses were allocated to a number of Black Country routes, branded as Black Diamond. First Midland Red subsequently sold both its Redditch and Kidderminster depots to Diamond Bus.

Diamond Staffordshire

The Diamond Staffordshire brand was introduced in late 2012 for the company's services around the Lichfield area. Following the purchase of Central Buses, Diamond took on operations in Lichfield such as 35 to Walsall. This service was subsequently taken over by Arriva Midlands and operated from their Wednesfield depot, acquired with the purchase of Liyell Limited (t/a Midland), until operations from there were sold to Diamond Bus, which brought Diamond back on to the 35 route. The 35B service through Stonnall was scrapped in 2019 and replaced by the 36, operated by Select Bus Services until 2023. Services 35A/36 are now operated by

Chaserider Chaserider is the brand name for bus services operated around Cannock and Staffordshire by D&G Bus, a local bus operator owned by Centrebus who are based in Adderley Green, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. History The Chaserider brand name, wh ...

Diamond West Midlands

In late 2012, Blue Diamond, Black Diamond and Signature became Diamond West Midlands, operating services across the West Midlands.

Black Diamond

In 2008, upon takeover by Rotala, Diamond started to "localise" their operations. In the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

, this meant that the brand became Black Diamond with 20 new

Plaxton Centro The Plaxton Centro was a low entry single-decker bus bodywork designed by Bluebird Vehicles and manufactured by Plaxton.Wessex Bus due to service cuts). These were new for routes 401, 402, 404, 404E and 404H. In 2009, Diamond launched eight more Plaxton Centro buses on route 9, these using Royale Black Diamond branding. Route 202 Halesowen - Bromsgrove and 4H Hayley Green - West Bromwich used Royale Black Diamond buses. Most of the routes these buses were new for have since either had new buses (404E), withdrawn (404/H) or had older stock transferred to them (401/2). In October 2010, Diamond bus branded 10

MCV Evolution The MCV Evolution (stylised as ''eVolution''; internal designation: MCV C102) is a low floor and low entry single-decker bus body built by Manufacturing Commercial Vehicles. It was unveiled in 2003 as the successor to the MCV Stirling. The M ...

bodied

MAN A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

14.240s for the 404 Walsall – West Bromwich service under the branding Black Country Connection, the service operates every 6 to 8 minutes. These buses displaced the Black Diamond branded buses of which 2 were transferred to Wessex Bus and the rest have been cascaded to other routes. On 23 April 2017 the

Wednesfield Wednesfield () is a town and historic village in the City of Wolverhampton, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England; it was historically within the county of Staffordshire. It is east-north-east of Wolverhampton cit ...

operations of Arriva Midlands were purchased with nine vehicles. On 28 July 2017, the business of Hanson's Local Buses, which operated services in

Stourbridge Stourbridge () is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Situated on the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour, the town lies around west of Birmingham, at the southwester ...

Dudley Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...

and surrounding areas, was purchased. Hanson's Local Buses was formed in the 1980s by Margaret Hanson as a coach operator. Following deregulation of the bus industry in 1986, Hansons diversified into operating bus services.

Blue Diamond

Blue Diamond was formed from the merger of

Zak's Buses Diamond Bus Ltd., trading as Diamond West Midlands, is a bus operator in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands. It is a subsidiary of Rotala. History Birmingham Coach Company & Diamond Bus In 1984, Geoff Howle commenced a coach operation ...

, North Birmingham Busways and Birmingham Motor Traction. In January 2008 Ludlows,

Halesowen Halesowen ( ) is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically an exclave of Shropshire and, from 1844, in Worcestershire, ...

was purchased. Originally branded Central Connect, in November 2011 it was rebranded as Blue Diamond. Blue Diamond, Red Diamond and Black Diamond branding have since been replaced by the simpler Diamond fleetname.

Signature

On 7 June 2010, Central Connect launched the Signature brand with two

Solihull Solihull ( ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe in the Arden, Warwickshire, Forest of Arden ar ...

routes that were taken over from

National Express West Midlands National Express West Midlands (NXWM) is bus operator in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. It is a subsidiary of Mobico Group (formerly National Express Group) and is the largest bus operator in the region, as well as one of ...

, the S2 (S2/S2A/S2C) and S3 were operated with

Optare Solo SR The Switch Solo (formerly sold as the Optare Solo) is a low-floor minibus/midibus with one or two doors manufactured by Switch Mobility in the United Kingdom since 1998. The Solo name is a play on its low-floor status, the manufacturer marketin ...

s with leather seating and on-board WiFi. On 26 July 2010, the Signature brand took over route 82 from National Express Coventry but following a more direct route between

and

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

using

Mercedes-Benz Citaro The Mercedes-Benz Citaro is a single-decker, rigid or articulated bus manufactured by Mercedes-Benz/ EvoBus. Introduced in 1997, the Citaro is available in a range of configurations, and is in widespread use throughout Europe and parts of Asia, ...

s and service S4 (taken over from Grosvenor) using

s, again both feature leather seating and free on-board WiFi. In 2019, service 82 was lost to Johnson's of Henley-in-Arden who subsequently linked the service to their existing service X20 providing a direct service between

and

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...

. On 27 March 2011, the Signature brand expanded again with the addition of route 30

Acocks Green Acocks Green is a suburban area and ward of southeast Birmingham, England. It is named after the Acock family, who built a large house there in 1370. It is occasionally spelled "Acock's Green". It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual p ...

which was withdrawn by

. This route is now operated by LandFlight as the A12. When Central Connect was rebranded as 'Blue Diamond' in late 2011, the Solihull Signature brand was retained. Following loss of many contracts and reorganisation of bus routes in the Solihull area, the Signature brand was dropped in 2019.

Diamond Worcestershire

Red Diamond bus 406 in Broad Street - geograph

In early 2013, Red Diamond was rebranded as Diamond Worcestershire. As part of a working partnership with

Worcestershire County Council Worcestershire County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Worcestershire in England. Its headquarters are at County Hall in Worcester, the county town. The council consists of 57 councillors and there is no over ...

, a new fleet of Red Diamond bus services were introduced to operate in

. These buses are mainly Diamond-owned Wright Eclipse bodied

Volvo B7RLE The Volvo B7RLE is a low-entry single-deck bus chassis manufactured by Volvo. It was superseded by the Volvo B8RLE in 2013, with production of the B7RLE continuing until 2018. Specifications The Volvo B7RLE is similar to its predecessor, the ...

s but there have been several repainted

Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a Rear-engine design, rear-engined single-decker bus, single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles, Dennis of Guildford, England, in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a ...

s in operation. From 22 January 2007, Diamond were forced to withdraw their evening services on routes 57 and 58 in

, which were under contract to Worcestershire County Council, due to persistent vandalism and violence on the routes. The company told the council that they would no longer risk operating in the evenings. A month later on 25 February 2007, Diamond also withdrew the evening services on route 246 between Redditch and

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, England, Worceste ...

due to low passenger numbers. On 8 June 2008, the company introduced 57A and 58A journeys alongside their existing 57 and 58 routes, the new journeys would serve the Alexandra Hospital, after

First Midland Red First Midland Red Buses,Companies House extract company no 1556327< ...

withdrew links to the hospital. The operations in Redditch were rebranded as Red Diamond in July 2008 to coincide with the launch of six new buses, with a livery designed to be similar to what was used on

Midland Red Midland Red was a bus company that operated in the Midlands of England from 1905 until 1981. It was one of the largest English bus companies, operating over a large area between Gloucester in the south and Derbyshire in the north, and from Nort ...

buses. By September 2008, a further six new buses were in operation, along with 10 older buses in the new livery. From 31 August 2008, Diamond Bus stepped up their operation of commercial and non-commercial services in Redditch significantly, to the point where they operated more buses in Redditch than main rival First Midland Red. In February 2009, Red Diamond won Worcestershire County Council contracts to operate a number of services around Droitwich and Redditch starting in April 2009. Droitwich residents were unhappy about the changes, showing concern about losing the known and respected drivers from the local routes, however, Diamond Bus entered into an agreement with the former operator of the routes, allowing them to continue operating with the same drivers, while Diamond Bus provide the buses and uniforms. In 2010, amid much criticism of the poor performance of the existing buses from Worcestershire County Council and passengers, Diamond brought nine

s for services 362, 363 and 382. In January 2013 Red Diamond purchased First Midlands's

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a market town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester, England, Worcester. Located north of the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour and east of the River Severn, in th ...

and Redditch depots and re-branded the operations as Diamond Worcestershire.

Acquisitions

After Rotala purchased Diamond Bus in 2008, the Diamond Bus operation was expanded to include the operations of four companies operating in the same region which were already owned by Rotala. It took many of the Arriva Midland routes such as 36 Walsall to Alumwell and 28E from Wolverhampton to Willenhall in April 2017.

Birmingham Motor Traction

Birmingham Motor Traction operated a number of services in

with a varied fleet of buses, mostly

s in a dark blue and white livery, although many buses ran in dealer all-white. They operated a number of services under contract to the

West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) was the Passenger transport executive, public body responsible for public transport in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands metropolitan county in the United Kingdom from 1969 until 2 ...

. It was purchased by Rotala in 2007.

Central Buses

Central Buses was a bus company based in

, England. In February 2018, Central Buses was purchased by Rotala, with its 23 services and 31 buses merged into Diamond. Operations of Central Buses ceased at the conclusion of services on 24 February 2018.

Hanson's

Hanson's was a family-owned bus company operating services in the West Midlands and

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

. Hanson's Local Buses was formed in the 1980s by Margaret Hanson as a coach operator. Following deregulation of the bus industry in 1986, Hanson's diversified into operating bus services. In July 2017, Hanson's was purchased by Rotala.

Ludlows

Ludlows operated a number of services in

. It operated a varied fleet of around 20 white buses, all of which were low-floor. Ludlows was purchased by Rotala in 2007. In January 2009, Diamond announced that the Ludlows operation was to be integrated with the Diamond operations, with all routes and vehicles moving to the Tividale depot and running under the Diamond brand.

North Birmingham Busways

North Birmingham Busways was a small bus operator established in the mid-1990s, and based near

Erdington Erdington is a suburb and ward of Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Warwickshire, it is located northeast of central Birmingham, bordering Sutt ...

. Its services operated throughout North Birmingham, using, in the main, a distinctive livery of green and cream. In addition to bus services, the company also offered PCV training. On 18 June 2007, North Birmingham Busways was purchased by Rotala. On 20 August 2007, the bus services and vehicles were transferred to Rotala's Central Connect subsidiary.

Zak's

Zak's Bus and Coach Services was founded in

Great Barr Great Barr is a large and loosely defined area to the north-west of Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The area was historically in Staffordshire, and the parts now in Birmingham were once known as ...

by Kevin Fazakarley in 1978. In October 2006, the business was purchased by Rotala subsidiary Flights Hallmark, and although the original plan was to transfer the assets and operations to Flights Hallmark, contract issues necessitated the continuation of the Zak's legal entity, the company being renamed Central Connect Limited in April 2007. Rotala relocated the operation to Flights Hallmark's

Aston Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Located immediately to the north-west of Birmingham city centre, Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a wards of the United Kingdom, war ...

depot, merging with an existing West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive contracted service previously awarded to Flights. The Aston depot has since closed with all operations being moved to other Diamond Bus depots across the West Midlands.

Claribel Coaches

In January 2022, the purchase of Claribel Coaches of Birmingham was announced, allowing the current owners to focus on the associated Birmingham International Coaches business. Diamond confirmed that the Claribels name would not be retained and all services and buses would be operated under the Diamond Bus name from April 2022. A number of routes, however, were transferred to

due to the expiration of the tenders operated on behalf of TfWM.

Johnsons Excelbus

In April 2022, the bus operations of Johnsons Coaches, which operates under the Excelbus brand, were purchased. All bus operations will operate under the Diamond Bus brand from 29 May 2022 and will be operated from Redditch depot. The private hire and coach operations are not included in the deal and will continue to trade as Johnsons Coaches. Some Johnsons routes were started early "to assist Johnsons with some of their current operational difficulties". Following loss of contracts in September 2022, a number of services operated by Johnsons were lost to other operators, chiefly Stagecoach.

References

External links

*
Company website
{{Rotala Bus operators in the West Midlands (county) Bus operators in Worcestershire Rotala