Centro

The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE), better known as Centro, is the public body (Passenger Transport Executive) responsible for promoting and co-ordinating public transport services throughout the West Midlands county in England.

Centro is the operating arm of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority (WMPTA) which sets policies and budgets for the executive. The WMPTA is a joint-authority, made up of 27 councillors appointed from the seven West Midlands metropolitan district councils of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton. The authority has ten councillors from Birmingham, three councillors each from Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, and Wolverhampton, and two from Solihull.

Functions
Centro and the WMPTA do not actually run passenger services, which are run by private companies, but are responsible for:


 * Subsidising some bus, train and metro services which are considered socially necessary but would not otherwise be commercially viable.
 * Providing bus stops, shelters, timetables and passenger information services.
 * Operating twelve major bus stations throughout the West Midlands.
 * Managing the funding and administration of concessionary fares for the elderly and disabled etc. Centro also subsidises the Ring-and-Ride door to door service for the elderly and disabled which is operated by West Midlands Special Needs Transport.
 * Control of local train services operating in the county, and specifying fares and service levels - the services are operated on Centro/Network West Midlands's behalf by London Midland under a franchise agreement.
 * Operating multi-modal ticketing schemes.
 * Developing public transport facilities across the county, such as new stations, transport interchanges and the Midland Metro.
 * Helping to partly fund the Centro Hotline (also known as Traveline West Midlands) via WMTIS (West Midlands Transport and Information Services Ltd) giving out timetable information and fares within the Centro region.



History
The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive was created in 1969, following the 1968 Transport Act, and was established to operate and co-ordinate public transport across the West Midlands conurbation. The PTE initially acquired the vehicles, holdings and operations of the municipal fleets in Birmingham, Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton. The former Birmingham City Transport was by far the largest constituent part of the new fleet, as a consequence of which a modified version of that operator's blue and cream livery was adopted by the PTE.

Operations initially covered the Birmingham/Black Country area and some surrounding towns such as Redditch and Bromsgrove. In 1973 the PTE consolidated its control when it acquired from the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company (commonly known as "Midland Red")those operations which lay within the conurbation. The transfer included all the staff and vehicles within the area, with the exception of Bearwood Garage and Digbeth Coach Station, which were retained by BMMO. BMMO officially changed its name to the Midland Red Omnibus Company the following year, dropping the reference to Birmingham.

The 1972 Local Government Act led to the creation, on 1 April 1974, of the West Midlands metropolitan county. The WMPTE's operating area was adjusted to be coterminous with the new county, which resulted in the takeover from that date of Coventry's municipal fleet and operations.

Between 1969 and 1974 the WMPTE was administered by a Passenger Transport Authority under the joint control of the local county boroughs. In 1974 the role of the PTA was assumed by the new West Midlands County Council. When the metropolitan county council was abolished in 1986, joint control of the WMPTA passed to the metropolitan district councils.

As a result of the 1985 Transport Act, bus services across the UK were deregulated and privatised. This brought about the creation of a private company, West Midlands Travel Ltd, which took over the vehicles and passenger carrying operations of the WMPTE on 26 October 1986. From that date WMPTE assumed its new role coordinating the services of all local operators, and adopted the trading name of Centro shortly thereafter, to better distinguish itself from its previous role as an operator.

Ticketing
Centro brought in several discount rail passes as a way of stimulating passenger use in the 1990s.

Whilst individual bus fares are set and collected by the bus operators, train fares are set by Centro. There are also a range of day and season tickets provided by Centro:

Network West Midlands
For More information about Network West Midlands see seperate article

Fictional Representation
Network West Midlands is also the name of a fictional set of routes written for the freeware cab-view rail simulator BVE (Bose View Express), whilst being heavily based upon the real life network. The routes are created by the Trainsimcentral team.