Berkswell TTrain station is located on the west coast mainline between Birmingham internation and…read moreCoventry. The station serves the small towns around th station, with berkswell being the closest to the station. London midland run the station, and serve the station with 2 to 3 services an hour to Coventry, and Birmingham Stations. They are served with electric trains, and stop at most ofhe local stations between birmingham new street and coventry. All other services on the west coast mainline from cross country trains and virgin pendilino do not stop here, and pass through at high speed. Berkswell station as with some other local stations have seen there platform increased in size to cope with parger trains if nessesary, as there are plans for london midland to enhance rail services. london midland offer connections to other stations in the west midlands at birmingham new street, and coventry to the london area.

Marston Green Railway station is located on the West Coast Mainline, and is run by London Midland,…read morewhich also operates services to Birmingham New Street, Coventry, Northampton, and London Euston stations. There are 2 to 3 services to Birmingham New Street every hour and around 2 to 3 services to Birmingham International every hour, with less frequent services further down the West Coast Mainline. Marston Green station is located on the end of Birmingham International airports runway, which offers great views of arriving and departing aircraft, and there are several bus connections to places surrounding the Marston green area. As the station is located on the west coast mainline, many services pass through at high speed.

Rinkway Autocentre is situated just out of Swadlincote town centre, as part of the Rinkway Business…read morePark which features a variety of businesses including a printers and lithographers. A very popular place at all times of the week, Rinkway Autocentre fit tyres and exhausts. They also perform services and MOTs. I have always found Rinkway to be a very professional business, they give an honest appraisal of any problems with your car, and will not recommend an unnecessary work. Prices are transparent, you are told exactly how much the work will cost. Also, the staff, although permanently busy, take the time to explain exactly what has been done. Prices are reasonable and they ring you when the work is complete. Great customer service, I would recommend Rinkway to anyone.

The new West Bromwich Bus Station is ten times better than the old station. The old station was…read morepretty embarrassing and was one of the worst bus stations I have ever seen. The station was run down and it was obvious it needed improving. Now West Bromwich Bus Station is a vast improvement from the old one. The new station has an information centre where you can get information on the different bus routes that operate within the Black Country and the West Midlands area. You can also get information on travelcards and fares. The buses that stop at West Bromwich Bus Station travel to various towns and cities in the West Midlands. There are buses that go to Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley etc. The Bus Station is also opposite the West Bromwich Central Tram Station. National Express and Diamond buses operate at West Bromwich Bus Station. Waiting for buses can be a real nightmare and I have experienced times where I have waited half an hour for a bus during the daytime when they should be coming at least every ten minutes.

As a public transport user many stations are super cold and drafty despite new builds (see Walsall…read morebus station for a concrete nightmare). West Brom bus station is perfectly located with the central tram stop across the road and it's accessibility and connection to the central shopping area through Kings Square indoor shopping centre. For a change it s a station with great signage, an information centre and really usable display boards for all the buses. With buses to Walsall running regularly and it only taking 20/30mins it is one of the better transport connections. At least with all the glass corridor designs it is much warmer and weather resistant than more open plan stations and much easier to navigate between the stops even if you are down the one end as it's such an accessible bus station. If you find your self stuck here then there could be much worse places to end up.

National Express West Midlands is the main bus company serving the West Midlands region, including…read morethe city of Birmingham - having daily troubles with my buses back home in Greater Manchester with our two main operators of Go North West and mainly First Manchester, I hoped National Express who have a reputation on more inter-city coach trips rather than regional bus journeys would be better - and in a few factors they were. I found the buses to be much nicer and more modern inside than most I'm used to in the likes of Manchester and London - they still had the feature of announcing the stops which I like as this helps disabled people travel independently who might struggle with their sight, and it also helps tourists and people who might not know the area like me travel well, without relying on the drivers to offer help getting somewhere - and with the drivers seeming unhelpful and rude this was surely needed. The buses did seem to run on time based on timetables on the three or so times I used the bus services. Some routes didn't seem to work in general - from my Hilton Garden Inn hotel to Colmore Row, the bus seemed to go a longer route, where it'd go out of the way before going back which made no sense - I understand they have to pick passengers up but surely going back on themselves don't make any sense, which meant using the bus was no quicker than walking around 3/4 of a mile to where I wanted to go. I also didn't like how the buses going into the city centre just stated "Birmingham" like come on, it's a big place where are you going? The railway station? Bullring? Colmore Row? Overall, clean buses which seem modern and to run on time are rare so, despite the problems I experienced with the overall route and route planning and drivers I feel a three-star rating is in order, National Express have impressed me after a dire experience on one of their coach experiences to the point I have not used the branch since (until now) on a route from Manchester to London.

The UK's Southeastern Railway operates one of the busiest networks in the country, running the…read moretrain service between London and Kent and parts of East Sussex.. Gayle and I recently were on their system for a round trip (St. Pancras to Faversham and Canterbury West back to Charring Cross). We sat regular class on slower "local" trains both ways, which were basically commuter runs. The price was right, we had lots of room to spread out as there were few fellow passengers, the ride was comfortable, and the scenery out the window was interesting enough. I'm not sure I'd want to commute like this every day, but that's the bargain that a lot of folks make to live in a nice area that's not the big city.

Southeastern Railway is currently owned by London & South Eastern Railway Limited, it operates…read moreroutes on the Integrated Kent franchise by Govia, who in turn is owned by two rather big players in the UK transportation game including Go-Ahead (largest bus operator in London, Manchester and offering services in other cities) and Keolis (A truly worldwide company who operate buses in Sweden, trains in Boston, the Metro in Shanghai as well as services closer to home such as Manchester's Metrolink, the DLR in London and TFW Rail services.) While the interior of my train wasn't overly impressive or modern, it was comfortable for a short journey of 10 minutes between Charring Cros and London Bridge which also goes via Waterloo East, this is a zone where you can use your Oyster meaning it can work out pretty cheap to travel in comparison to a normal ticket. This journey only came to £2.40, with a daily cap of £7.20 for all zone 1 and 2 services in the cap which includes national rail, tube, DLR and buses. Trains seemed to operate efficiently and quickly with services every two minutes between these destinations and the train staff seemed friendly enough at both stations, although I didn't see a train staff member on board which could be down to it being a short journey. The website is easy to use and explains the ticketing system including Oyster well. Southeastern has 73 stations in the Oyster PAYG area (the price varies between zones obviously between 1 and 9), which is one of the highest of any railway operating company and I presume is second after TFL Rail. I would recommend going along their central London route between London Bridge and Charing Cross via Waterloo East just for the view, with trains every 2-3 minutes during the day (which didn't get busy outside of rush hour) and a journey lasting just under 8 minutes, it is worth it for some great views on the bridge crossing including Parliament, Big Ben and the London Eye. 3*

There are three petrol stations very close to each other in this section of Shirley. Driving from…read moreShirley towards Sears Retail Park, first you come to the BP one, then the Shell one is on the other side of the road and there is a Salisbury's one just opposite. They are all usually the same price, but I do always look to the Shell and Sainsbury's ones as the BP one can sometimes be a penny more a litre. The Shell one is a bit smaller than the Salisbury's one and I usually avoid it when it is busy and go to Salisbury's as it is just that bit bigger so you are out quicker. Always worth looking at the price of those 2, if not all 3 before you fill up!

This petrol station is opposite the Sainsburys station but it is worth looking at this one because…read moreit is usually the same price and is not as busy as the Sainsburys.

Willington Train station is located between buron upon trent, and derby of the north east to…read morebirmingham railway line. Willingtonton is poorley served by crosscountry trains with limited services stopping at the station, therefore its highly advisable to check with crosscountry trains website to ensure there are trains for the time of day you are traveling. the station is operated by ivanhoe, which is a train operator in the uk and does not feature a ticket office, but tickets can be purchused penalty free from the train conductor on board the train. Crosscountry trains run to Nottingham via derby, Birmingham New Street, and Cardiff Central. There are limited services mainly at Peak times in the morning and evening.