Full of commuters, single moms, shoppers and weed smoking kids…read more Also the odd bus. Connecting to birmingham, Dudley and Stourbridge among other local spots the Merry Hill Bus Station serves only to transport people in with money and out again with less money. The navigation is easy with 2 rows of stops all with a letter corresponding to what bus goes to it. Because the local areas and the nature of chain stores and malls in general you can get the odd rough encounter here, though because the place is so public nothing much can really happen.

New bus station. Haven't been to Wolverhampton station in a long time but the revamp looks amazing…read moreand very easy to get to your stops even if in a rush. Looking better and better every time I go there with the train station next to be revamped.

What a horrid, unsafe place to catch a bus! I try to use the next stop in town instead of going…read morehere. A crime hotspot.

Sunny Travel is a small, independent bus company about which information is hard to come by. From…read morewhat I can gather the company is registered out in Willenhall but their garage is in Smethwick and they own a handful of small buses. My own experience with them is their 120 service which runs from Birmingham Corporation Street to Oldbury (the same route as the National Express 120E) and I have always been very pleased. For a start, their fare is a lot cheaper - from Bearwood to mine would usually cost £1.70 on an NWM bus but is a mere quid on these buses. Okay, the buses are smaller and less modern but they're no less comfortable or bumpy than a usual bus. The drivers are always friendly and, on one occasion, the driver asked everyone if they were okay if he took a shortcut because he was running behind which meant we all got to our destination a lot quicker! I rather wish this company ran more bus routes more frequently (I know round here they also run a 128 service), because this 120 is a damn sight better than the main one.

What a refreshing change from the rickety Magic Buses with miserable drivers!…read more I recently had to get to Poynton (where?) for an interview and after consulting the GMPTE website, decided that it would be best to take a Baker Bus from Stockport. I didn't really know what I was looking for, but found a brand new yellow and blue bus complete with friendly driver. The driver chatted to many of the passengers and after my A to Z let me down, he helped me find where I had to get off. This bus service (391,392,393) runs from Stockport to Macclesfield and stops in many little places in between. Bakerbus also runs services around Crewe and Stoke. The only problem was that I had to catch the train back, as the next bus wasn't for 2 hours!

Today at roughly 11:30-11:40 I was at my bus stop in kings heath and the bus driver clearly saw me…read moreand decided to drive right past me when I had places to be and there was no sign to say the bus stop was suspended so he should have stopped and I thought it was extremely rude and it made extremely late to my destination where I was meant to be there at 1 and I got there at 1:40 ! Whoever this was needs to be sacked!

This bus route has to be one of the most annoying journeys that you can make on public transport…read more In terms of distance, to be honest it does cover a fair few stops, and the whole journey from start to finish takes a couple of hours, in both directions. If you need to get around within Birmingham's outer circle, sooner or later you'll come across one of the buses en-route. I find it annoying because if you have to use the service on your way to work during rush hour, or returning in the evening, then the bus resembles what I can only describe as a cattle market. Generally full of rubbish, no seats and some of the standing areas even smell of urine. Considering the amount of people who make use of this service, Travel West Midlands should put more of an effort in keeping this service clean and well maintained. Although a regular and reliable service, you'll not stay a fan for long if they don't tidy up their act.

D and g's is cheap. They don't do prices for how many people in the coaches they have fixed rates…read more I have used the bus service to take and pick me and my friends up from the airport. The staff are really friendly and the booking process is very quick. They are always on time most of the time half an hour early. When we were coming back off holiday they asked us for our flight number so they could check if we were going to be late and not for us to worry about having no transport. A really good service. The buses are clean and they will play what ever music you like. They drive safely which is the main thing. Recommended.

I used to catch Diamond buses all the time, mainly because they were a much cheaper option to get…read moreto and from town when compared to West Midlands travel. But now, for 10p dearer, and the option to buy a day saver, West Midlands travel beats Diamond's (£1.80* single) service hands down; Unless you're only making one journey that is. If this bus service was more regular, I would probably use it more often, and buy a return/day saver. But at the moment, it's likely that you'll be waiting quite sometime for a return bus with Diamond, so it makes more sense to purchase a day saver ticket (£3.80*) with the consistent and reliable West Midlands service. However, particularly regarding the 17 route, there does seem to be an increase in this service, so maybe I will switch over to using them if they become more constant in other areas (such as the 50 route). Nevertheless, the only truly great fact about Diamond is the super fast time it takes to get to the city centre (mainly because nobody really catches it, so it doesn't stop very often!)

My first impressions of the Diamond buses were completely positive. I mean, eliminate flooring,…read moreleather seats, what's not to like. It's only been since I've began to buy a day-saver with the Travel West Midland buses, that Diamond have started to arrive at the completely wrong time, becoming more and more frustrating due to the fact that I'd have to spend another £1.80 just to use the bus. If all Birmingham based buses were tied to the same company this would not be an issue, but sadly, it is. These specific buses aren't as regular as Travel West Midland, so based on that fact and their ability to arrive at the worst possible points; I'm not a fan.

The bus is never ontime I'm sick of it I can get all across the west midlands ontime but when I…read morehave to get the 17 I'm stood waiting and waiting omg how hard is it there suppost to run every 6 minuets in the morning something needs to be done you do a 12 hour night shift get ajohnstones bus from reddich ontime then your stood in birmingham till you eventually give in and jump on the x1 aaarrrgghh!!!

I know the 17 bus route off by heart I've used it that much; and unfortunately, it's not a pleasant…read moreroute to know so well. It's one of the very very few buses that I can actually catch to town, and out of that few, it's the most reliable (and that's saying something, seriously!) If you need to get somewhere quickly, I honestly suggest planning your journey an hour in advance, because it's more than likely that this bus service will unpredictably be delayed severely. I don't think it has ever got me into town on time, and if it says '5mins' on the screen, don't build your hopes up, because it'll probably shoot up to a 10 minute wait, and the a 20, and who knows, maybe even a 30! The service is meant to be roughly every 8 minutes during the day, and then after 6pm, the bus turns up ever half an hour. I don't know who decided this schedule, but if they see the amount of people that use the single decker 17 everyday, they'd have a shock. And of course, as soon as the bus is full, it'll miss stops out, making pedestrians even angrier. But to be honest, you don't want to be squashed on this bus, which always gets gridlocked in Small Heath and Digbeth; Then you have to wait for them to swap bus drivers just before you get into the city! I'd avoid this bus route if you can afford to, it might be better to get a bus to Acocks Green and get the 37; there's tonnes of those, you'll be in the city centre before you know it!

Rude driver at 11am the morning of Tue 26th October heading towards Walsall from cannock bue…read moreStation. The driver wouldn't accept my husbands card payment for us both, and made us pay once for him and go back to cash point then pay again! What a rip off. He was extremely rude and I will not recommend nor use this service again. Never heard of such a thing. Go with another bus service one where you get treated with respect. Not recommended at all.

The 51 is a major bus route and for those who travel from Walsall to Birmingham and vice versa via…read morePerry Barr and BCU campus, this is your main route ... unless of course you travel by train. The 51 is the standard daily option including on Sundays, which offers regular services throughout the day. At peak hours, one can come every 5-7 minutes, typically taking 35-40 minutes traffic depending. The 51 runs during weekdays between 4:30am and midnight and is a usually efficient service providing no crimes or misdemeanours take place on the bus. It is definitely a bus of cultural experiences - weed smokers, preachers, drunks, smelly people - and for those who love that, go for it! ;). In all seriousness, the X51 is the faster cousin of the 51, often with higher more comfortable seating, quicker - cutting out the side routes around Birchfield and Perry Barr stopping less and being a more efficient option. The X51 runs Monday to Saturday from around 7am and the last bus leaves usually Walsall and Brum shortly after 7pm. If you live in Walsall, you are not spoilt by choice and options of getting to Brum and I would like to see a nightbus return to the 51 such as the 51N which did run once, to allow people to return home to Walsall throughout the night, especially Thursday through Saturday. The need for nightbuses is an issue though for many of the major bus routes into Brum.

If you don't fancy catching the train, then you have the option of getting on a coach. Birmingham…read moreCoach Station is just a five-minute walk from the City Centre and is easily accessible by car and public transport. I have been here whenever I have travelled to Leicester and London. The coaches are regularly on time and I have not had any issues with this place. If you are waiting for your coach, you can always grab a coffee at Starbucks or you can even go to WHS Smith to buy a newspaper/magazine or even some sweets. The one downer is the fact you have to pay to use the toilets. I just find that ridiculous. But there is a toilet on the coach if that is any consolation. From here you can get on coaches that will take you to cities across England, Scotland and Wales. National Express, Ulsterbus and Eurolines are the three operators that operate at this coach station. And I have also found it is a lot cheaper to travel by coach than train. It is not that expensive to travel by coach. The staff here are very friendly and they will answer any questions/queries you have. An excellent station in my view and one I will continue to visit.

The sign that greets you says 'a hundred thousand welcomes'* and on the other side of the coach…read morestation is probably my favourite bit of public art EVER - a big graffiti style mural that reads 'welcome to Digbeth bab'. This is in marked contrast to the welcome you used to receive at Birmingham Coach Station which generally consisted of stumbling around in a dimly lit car-park, narrowly missing being run over by a bus, hassled for money by men who smelt a bit funny and stepping over the pools of vomit outside the Dubliner. I've known loads of people who when they've heard I'm from Birmingham get a funny look in their eye simply because of their experiences of arriving by coach. Anyway it's all changed - the old building was torn down in 2007 and the new building officially reopened in 2009 by (bizarrely) Fabio Capello. It's a different beast all together - the space is light and airy and the signs actually make sense. You can hear the announcements. The toilets are okay. And there's a Starbucks. * In Irish this is "C'ead Mile Failte" so the sign is obviously a nod to the Irish history of the region. Step into any of the pubs round Digbeth and you're likely to see these words over the bar.